Armchair Cinema
Armchair Cinema is a British television drama anthology series of one-off plays that ran on the ITV network 1974–1975. It was produced by Euston Films in conjunction with Thames Television. The series was a spin-off from the long running anthology series Armchair Theatre. A total of six episodes were produced over the course of one series.
Background
In 1971, Euston Films was established as a production company by three Thames executives Lloyd Shirley, George Taylor and Brian Tesler. It operated as a subsidiary of Thames Television until is dissolution in 1994. At the time, television drama was primarily a mix of studio based videotape and exteriors shot on 16mm film or outside broadcast videotape. They acknowledged that productions could be shot quicker and more economically by filming them entirely on 16mm film stock. The inspiration for Euston Films came from writer Trevor Preston, along with directors Jim Goddard and Tim Green whom were working at ABC Television, when in 1965 they detailed a proposal for a specialist production unit that would shoot dramas entirely on film. Following the establishment of Thames Television in 1968, this style of production was trialed with two one-off dramas "Suspect" and "Rumour" which were promoted under the ITV Playhouse strand, along with the children's series The Tyrant King. This subsequently led to the initiation of Euston Films as a production unit for Thames.At the time Armchair Theatre, was increasingly being criticized as being an archaic reminder of television's theatrical roots. Following the success Thames had with their initial Euston Films project Special Branch which moved over to being shot entirely on film in 1973. Jeremy Issacs who was then Director of Programmes at Thames, was favourable about Euston Films work on the series and decided to commission them to revive the then ailing Armchair Theatre. The new series was pressed into production later that year.