BBC PHOTO ARCHIVE | Rediscover, Reimagine

Welcome to the BBC’s Photo Sales website where you can explore BBC copyright images that are available to licence for editorial use in print and digital media globally.

New Curated Collection

The Wednesday Play 60th Anniversary

On October 28th 1964 the BBC showed the first drama in a new anthology series called The Wednesday Play, consisting mainly of new, original works written for television. The series quickly gained a reputation for showing contemporary social dramas, featuring controversial issues not usually seen on TV at this time.

To celebrate this anniversary, the BBC Photo Archive has delved into its Set Design pictures and created a new collection of unseen images taken during rehearsals of a selection of these plays.

The collection includes new images from Ken Loach’s drama Up The Junction, Dennis Potter’s ‘Nigel Barton’ plays and John Hopkin’s Fable. It features many well-known British actors such as Michael Hordern, Thomas Baptiste, Eileen Atkins, Nora Nicholson, Keith Barron and Patrick Troughton.

The Wednesday Play ran for six series until 1970 when it was superseded by popular drama series Play for Today.

The Collection |  Discover a vast and unrivalled collection of images spanning the life of the corporation. Icons, British programmes, technology  and broadcasting milestones throughout the decades at your fingertips.

The Archive | More than 6 million images are held in the Photo Archive on formats ranging from glass plates, negatives, transparencies, and prints to digital files. We ensure that high resolution scanning of photographic material takes place to both protect the material and make it accessible.

The Team | Photographic material is curated by our experienced team of Archivists who are here to help with research or collaborate with you to find rich and surprising photos.

Contact us

 Monday-Friday 9:30 - 18:30 GMT

 archivesphotolibrary@bbc.co.uk

Copyright © 2023 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.

Loading...

Your download will start shortly, please do not navigate away from this page until the download prompt has appeared. Doing so may cause your download to be interrupted.