The signals have been there for a while – it probably started with the National 
firing a warning shot off the bows with last year’s summer production of After the Dance at the National. Following that was Anne-Marie Duff’s barnstorming performance in Cause Celebre at the Old Vic; suddenly a star-filled, Trevor Nunn-fuelled Flare Path opens at the Haymarket and before you know it you’re in the middle of a full-blown set of centenary celebrations for one of the understated, and somewhat underrated, greats of 20th playwriting, Terence Rattigan.
A most enigmatic of figures who, like Noel Coward, was sidelined by the explosion in writing after Osborne’s Look Back In Anger blew away all the traditional conventions. However unlike Coward, Rattigan continued to write masterpieces in the form of Man and Boy and Cause Celebre.
BBC4 are shining the light on Rattigan, in which should be a fascinating look at a rather forgotten figure. Even better, current actor of the moment, Benedict Cumberbatch has been roped into host (naturally he must ‘go on a journey’, in this case visiting his own school, Harrow, where – surprise surprise – Rattigan was also a pupil)
Details: Thursday, 21:00 BBC4
Civilian Theatre 