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