In 1973, the BBC commissioned six writers, six directors and an exceptional cast of actors to undertake the Wessex Tales of Dorset author Thomas Hardy. These included writers such as Dennis Potter and William Trevor; directors like Mike Newell and actors like Billie Whitelaw, John Hurt, Claire Bloom and Ben Kingsley. These tales — of witchery, revenge, thwarted passion, costly ambition, buried desire, madness and betrayal —find their participants entrapped repeatedly by fate — always at liberty to make choices, but inevitably confronted by their destiny.

• THE WITHERED ARM
• FELLOW TOWNSMEN
• A TRAGEDY OF TWO AMBITIONS
• AN IMAGINATIVE WOMAN
• THE MELANCHOLY HUSSAR
• BARBARA OF THE HOUSE OF GREBE