National Theatre Live: London Assurance

Jun 24, 2010

2h 40m

★ 7.0

Overview

Grace has agreed to marry Sir Harcourt in return for his financial support of her family. At a house party in her father's place, Harcourt's son Charles also falls in love with Grace. When his father appears on the scene, he has to convince him that there is a case of mistaken identity and he is somebody else. Then Lady Gay Spanker, a married woman also visiting at the house, is persuaded by Charles to seduce his father and thus divert his attention from Grace. Much confusion and scheming ensues. One of the first five episodes also released on terrestrial TV on a 2009 BBC TV series titled "National Theatre Live".

Genres

Comedy

Production Companies

National Theatre

National Theatre Live: London Assurance Trailers

Cast

Charles Courtly

Paul Ready

Sir Harcourt Courtly

Simon Russell Beale

Grace Harkaway

Michelle Terry

Squire Max Harkaway

Mark Addy

Lady Gay Spanker

Fiona Shaw

Richard Dazzle

Matt Cross

Mr. Adolphus Spanker

Richard Briers

Mr. Solomon Isaacs

Junix Inocian

Servant

Prasanna Puwanarajah

Cool

Nick Sampson

Martin

Richard Frame

Pert

Maggie Service

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7.0

We Want You To Win

Jul 16, 1997

A Kuwaiti comedy play starring Dawood Hussain & Intesar Al Sharrah.

8.0

Back to Back

Nov 2, 1959

These dueling one-act comedies highlight the work of playwright John Mortimer. In "The Dock Brief," an ill-prepared attorney is put to the test when his client confesses to killing his wife. In "What Shall We Tell Caroline?" a father with good intentions tries to protect his wife and daughter from the bad things in life.

7.0

Lånta fjädrar

Sep 13, 2008

1927. The place is Kalmar and the Grossman family home. A hungover manufacturer Julius Grossman and his wife Solveig are waiting at home for their daughter Betty to arrive by train from the capital. To their great surprise, she arrives in a car with her suitor Greger in tow. What's more, she seems to be full of contemporary trends and modern ideas about marriage, among other things. Her father Julius would rather see her marry his business partner Hilding and thus retain control of the company. Hilding is a dull, somewhat dreary, and slightly overage bachelor who suddenly becomes every woman's dream prince when a rumor begins to circulate that he had a relationship with the famous movie star Rita Ray in his youth.

8.0

National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art

Apr 22, 2010

National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art, with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings, and Frances de la Tour, returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for 25 years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art. One of the first five episodes also released on terrestrial TV on a 2009 BBC TV series titled "National Theatre Live".

0.0

National Theatre Live: Collaborators

Dec 1, 2011

John Hodge's Collaborators centers on an imaginary encounter between Joseph Stalin and the playwright Mikhail Bulgakov.

0.0

National Theatre Live: The Kitchen

Oct 6, 2011

The Kitchen, Arnold Wesker’s "extraordinary black comedy," is directed by Bijan Sheibani and features an ensemble cast of 29 actors. The production is set in a restaurant in 1950s London.

0.0

National Theatre Live: A Disappearing Number

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The innovative interweaving of romance and math was conceived. The 2008 Olivier Award winner for Best New Play, it has toured the world and was recently performed in New York as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

5.2

Tricicle: Manicomic

Dec 14, 1987

Tricicle brings together in a single theatrical show their best gags, created during their first three years of life.

5.0

BLACKland

Jan 1, 2006

The film is a stage play hybrid showcasing dark and absurd sketches based on contemporary Hungarian news of the 2000's with campy, senseless musical interludes in-between. Highly experimental in nature that - like Marmite - will split its' crowd into ones that'll love it and others that'll loathe it. There's no middle grounds here. The topics included are: The Hungarian Olympians' doping scandal, political terrorism, the national elections... and more.

0.0

National Theatre: My Fair Lady

Aug 11, 2005

Eliza Doolittle is a young flower seller with an unmistakable Cockney accent which keeps her in the lower rungs of Edwardian society. When Professor Henry Higgins tries to teach her how to speak like a proper lady, an unlikely friendship begins to flourish.

No Image

6.2

Aladdin's Lantern

Sep 17, 1938

Spanky and Alfalfa want to do a show based on the "Aladdin's Lamp" story with Darla in the cast, but Darla doesn't want to participate.

7.0

Cinema Twain

Jun 30, 2016

Val Kilmer, master of reinvention, becomes Mark Twain, in a funny, moving, contemporary and reflective performance, based on the life of the man who was Samuel Clemens and on his writings as Mark Twain: his thoughts on politics, his family, his faith and God… Twain shows the greatness of his incomparable wit.

0.0

National Theatre Live: The Brightening Air

Oct 14, 2025

The family home is more than merely a building. It can be a destination of pilgrimage, an inherited investment, a repository of memory or even magic. And, for brother and sister Stephen and Billie, home is all they have. Mucking along in their decaying farmhouse, they're doing just fine. That is, until the arrival of an ex-clergyman uncle with an unscrupulous plan, a sister-in-law seeking a miracle, and a prodigal brother hell-bent on trouble.

7.3

Cats

Oct 5, 1998

"Jellicle" cats join for a Jellicle ball where they rejoice with their leader, Old Deuteronomy. One cat will be chosen to go to the "Heavyside Layer" and be reborn.