Farce / Characters: 8 males, 4 females

Scenery: Interior

The famous hypochondriac in this classic farce not only complains of a million imaginary ills, but also of his astronomical medical bills. If he marries his daughter to a doctor, he reasons, he will have free medical care. He chooses a double-Latin talking numbskull without consulting the daughter who is already smitten by another. The inventive maid exposes the doctyor and his father as charlatans and demonstrates to the master that his second wife loves his money, not him. Thus are truth and love triumphant and all troubles, real and imaginary, relieved by laughter.

When the seemingly perfect Tartuffe ingratiates himself with the wealthy Orgon and his mother Madame Pernelle, he is soon welcomed into their home and into their lives. His combination of charm, respectability and religious authority proves so irresistible that he is eventually promised the hand of Orgon's daughter in marriage. But the rest of Orgon's family have grave doubts.

One of the funniest plays in dramatic literature, this modern version abounds with laughter. Th e son and daughter of the miser fall in love and are about to declare their intentions when the miser announces his own wedding plans: he, to the girl with whom his son is in love, and his wealthy friend, to his daughter. Aft er a few rollicking laps around the block in which the miser's hidden treasure figures, it is revealed that the rich friend is the long lost father of the boy who loves the miser's daughter and of the girl who is loved by the miser's son.3 women, 11 men

A nouveau riche bourgeois gentleman makes a jackass of himself by trying to impress everyone with his importance and wealth. He will not permit his daughter to marry anyone who is not a nobleman and is quite willing to suffer an indignity providing it comes from a person of quality. He will lend money, with no hope of recovery, to anyone who claims to be on speaking terms with the king. His attempts to dress in a style suitable to his new station are ludicrous. Finally he is made the butt of a practical joke, takes part unwittingly in the marriage of his daughter to a man of her choice, and is properly initiated into the nobility by a sham ceremony that only emphasises the servility of those that pretend to greatness.-6 women, 16 men

I declare I cannot rest anywhere; my mind is troubled by a thousand cares, thinking how to contrive, both indoors and out, so as to frustrate the attempts of this coxcomb. With what assurance the traitress stood the sight of me She is not a whit moved by all that she has done, and though she has brought me within an inch of the grave, one could swear, to look at her, that she had no hand in it.

Wartime spy thriller. Richard Greene stars as war correspondent Bob Randall, who returns from Dunkirk to report on Nazi atrocities committed during the Blitzkrieg, and to deliver a stark warning about the traitors who aided the Germans in their conquest of Europe. He is outraged to discover that the 'People for Peace Society' in England are campaigning to appease the Germans, and tries to expose them for the fools they are - only to have his newspaper stories censored by Home Security. As the Blitz rages in London, Randall and fellow journalist Carol Bennett (Valerie Hobson) uncover an even more sinister side to the Society. Do they have advance knowledge of German bombing raids? And who is really controlling them?

World War Two propaganda drama combining dramatised scenes with real newsreel footage. Father and son newsreel reporters Will and Steve Ferguson (Will Fyffe and Anthony Hulme) go in separate directions when Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia brings the threat of war ever closer. Will takes the 'shadow over Europe' angle, while Steve covers the sinking of the German battleship Graf Spee by British ships at the Battle of the River Plate.

Eccentric Sidney Stratton (Alec Guiness) is a laboratory cleaner in a textile factory, who invents a material that will neither wear out nor become dirty. Initially hailed as a great discovery, Sidney's astonishing invention is suffocated by the management when they realise that if it never wears out, people will only ever have to purchase one suit of clothing.

A collection of five classic Ealing comedies. 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1949) is a period comedy set in the early 20th century. Young Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) vows to take revenge on his family, the D'Ascoynes, when he learns how they disinherited his mother. Working his way into their trust, Louis begins to bump off his distant relatives (all played by Alec Guinness) one by one, but complications set in when Edith D'Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson), the widow of his first victim, falls in love with him. In 'The Ladykillers' (1955), eccentric landlady Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) believes her new lodger Professor Marcus (Guinness) and his associates the Major (Cecil Parker), Louis (Herbert Lom), Harry (Peter Sellers) and One-Round (Danny Green) to be amateur musicians. They are in fact, however, the perpetrators of a bank heist, looking to whisk their ill-gotten gains out of London. All goes well until Mrs Wilberforce is persuaded by Marcus to claim his 'trunk' from the station; it is only then that the criminal genius's carefully laid plans begin to go awry. In 'The Man in The White Suit' (1951), Sidney Stratton (Guiness) is a laboratory cleaner in a textile factory who invents a material that will neither wear out nor become dirty. Initially hailed as a great discovery, Sidney's astonishing invention is suffocated by the management when they realise that if it never wears out, people will only ever have to purchase one suit of clothing. In 'Passport to Pimlico' (1949), an unexploded bomb goes off in Pimlico, uncovering documents which reveal that this part of London in fact belongs to Burgundy in France. An automonous state is set up in a spirit of optimism, but the petty squabbles of everyday life soon shatter the Utopian vision of a non-restrictive nation. Finally, in 'The Lavender Hill Mob' (1951), nobody would ever suspect gold bullion delivery man Henry Holland (Guinness) of anything other than total devotion to his job. However, with the aid of fellow lodger Pendlebury (Stanley Holloway), he gathers together a gang to carry out a heist, intending to smuggle the gold out of the country by melting it down into miniature models of the Eiffel Tower. All goes well until the consignment of models becomes muddled up with another, non-golden batch. Watch out for an early cameo by Audrey Hepburn.