Theatre Royal. The name summons up something of grandeur and eloquence. And it had been. Hosted by Laurence Olivier, these big-name productions also included the creme de la creme of acting abilities from John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Orson Welles to Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave and Olivier himself. These were based on works by the worlds’ leading authors, included in this Charles Dickens, Henry Adam, Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov. They are but some of whose business we shall end up being keeping even as we raise the curtain on our initial instalment of theatrical background.