SciFi A-Z #TV play

The first ever piece of television science fiction was a 35 minute extract from Karel Čapek's 'R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)' broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1938.

A complete adaptation of Karel Čapek's 'R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)' was broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1948.

A adaptation of H G Wells' novella 'The Time Machine' was broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1949.

J B Priestley's stage play 'Summer Day's Dream' was performed by the original cast on the BBC Television Service in 1949.

A short play about a man who dies and is brought back to life with a dose of adrenalin, but he now lives five seconds ahead of anyone else. Broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1953.

Nigel Kneale's adaptation of George Orwell's 1949 dystopian political novel featured Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence. First broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1954.

ITV's first piece of television science fiction was based on a novel by David Karp and starred Donald Pleasence. A man who believes himself to be an active supporter of the "benevolent State" is found guilty of "heresy" and receives the State's routine treatment for his allegedly deviant behaviour. Broadcast in London and the Midlands.

A play about the residents of a small island who are joined by survivors of a nuclear war was broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1956.

An intense and thought-provoking play written for television by J B Priestley in which Tom Dyson has a dream about a nuclear war and having to shoot his horrifically injured wife and daughter. Broadcast in London, the Midlands, the North of England, Wales and West of England, and Central Scotland.

A play about a British family living on a farm in an isolated valley in the aftermath of a nuclear war finds their idyll is shattered when a detachment of American troops arrive. Broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1959.

A comic opera about a scientist and his assistant who are visited by an alien. Broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1960.