Uncle Vanya

Original version

BBC Four HD

BBC Four

Toby Jones

Aimee Lou Wood

Richard Armitage

Roger Allam

Anna Calder-Marshall

Rosalind Eleazar

Dearbhla Molloy

Peter Wight

Conor McPherson

Ian Rickson

Performances & Events

Drama

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

BBC Four - Uncle Vanya

Anton Chekhov’s tender exploration of human frailty, filmed during 2020's lockdown.

Drama filmed in London's Harold Pinter Theatre. Secret loves and long-held resentments threaten to tear a family apart in Anton Chekhov’s classic play, a tender exploration of human frailty.

Sonya and her Uncle Vanya throw their lives into maintaining the crumbling family estate, only visited occasionally by the radical and inspiring local doctor, Astrov. However, when Sonya’s father, Professor Serebryakov, suddenly returns with his restless, alluring new wife Yelena, long-hidden truths start to emerge.

As the fractured family are forced to confront their longing, loneliness and each other, can the beauty of life help them find new hope? Following its critically acclaimed opening in London in early 2020, Sonia Friedman Productions’ stunning, five-star Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov's masterpiece, was abruptly halted as the world went into lockdown. 

As the majority of theatres across the world remained in darkness, Uncle Vanya’s ensemble cast overcame the considerable challenges of working in a global pandemic, returning to the Harold Pinter Theatre to film an exciting new hybrid of film and theatre.

Full of tumultuous frustration and hidden passions, but brimming with hope and optimism for the future, Uncle Vanya is a must-see event for our times.

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