Uncle Vanya, BBC Four, 10pm, 30.12.20

[Nick Armstrong]

This looks promising, with Toby Jones, Roger Allam et al. - a production stopped in its tracks after opening early this year and reworked for the small screen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qplz

Will certainly be recording and giving it a watch.

[eighthobstruction]

This looks promising, with Toby Jones, Roger Allam et al. - a production stopped in its tracks after opening early this year and reworked for the small screen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qplz

Will certainly be recording and giving it a watch.

....any chance this might be a bit like Fawlty Towers....

[Bryn]

This looks promising, with Toby Jones, Roger Allam et al. - a production stopped in its tracks after opening early this year and reworked for the small screen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qplz

Will certainly be recording and giving it a watch.

Hmm. Must catch that on the iPlayer.

[gurnemanz]

Coincidentally, just set recorder but will probably watch real time. Really missing live theatre. Seen a few Vanyas over the years. Latest one only last summer in Bath with the very watchable Rupert Everett as Vanya , also directing in David Hare's new translation. Katherine Parkinson excellent as Sonya. .

[Leinster Lass]

This looks promising, with Toby Jones, Roger Allam et al. - a production stopped in its tracks after opening early this year and reworked for the small screen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qplz

Will certainly be recording and giving it a watch.

Toby Jones AND Roger Allam - riches indeed!
(If you're a Roger Allam fan, you might be interested in my latest post on the 'Speech Radio' thread)

[ostuni]

We saw this in the theatre in March: the last play before lockdown. Highly recommended: superb performances, and a particularly atmospheric set design.

[Leinster Lass]

We saw this in the theatre in March: the last play before lockdown. Highly recommended: superb performances, and a particularly atmospheric set design.

Now Toby Jones OBE!

[eighthobstruction]

....ah the ubiquitous Toby....made it half way through this time (further than usual)....I was pulling for Sonya, I hope it all goes well for her in the end....best staged and acted I have ever seen....the last I watched with Johnathon Price was done on a veranda....this one very good -a warmth to it rather than the verbous snappy despair i have seen before....it was like Fawlty Towers - a lot of waving arms about with Toby playing Manuel.....Richard Armitage held the thing together....

[smittims]

'Uncle Vanya' is one of my favourite plays; I read it often and imagine a staging. I was deeply disappointed by this film. If someone had wanted to put people off Chekhov this was the way to do it. Several of the chracters seemed miscast to me, Sonya for instance, played as a vulgar bumpkin.

[DracoM]

Apparently, no longer available on iPlayer...................alas!

[gurnemanz]

I generally like Roger Allam but in this case I would have liked to see Ciaran Hinds as the Professor. He took the role in the original stage version but wasn't available for the film.

[french frank]

In 2004, R3 did a "Radio 3" type production called Uncle Varick, set in the north-east of Scotland. Sometimes, one just wants …

[smittims]

Ohhh! don't get me started. My bete-noire is these productions where 'we've re-located it to Sarajevo to make it more relevant'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Apparently, no longer available on iPlayer...................alas!

Yes it’s untimely removal is , in itself , a Chekhovian moment of bitter regret enhanced by imperfect memory.

[french frank]

Ohhh! don't get me started. My bete-noire is these productions where 'we've re-located it to Sarajevo to make it more relevant'.

I think in the case of Radio 3 it's killing two birds with one stone: the new production is a new commission - part of the station remit - and also a 'classic' work. If any other part of the BBC were regularly broadcasting theatre, there might be a place for R3's quirky take on classic drama. But theatre on television has virtually disappeared, and radio 'drama' most often means modern 'written for radio' work.