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. They were based on works by the worlds’ leading authors, included in this Charles Dickens, Henry Adam, Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov. They are but a few of whose company we shall become keeping even as we raise the drape on our first instalment of theatrical history.