Broadcast: March 29-April 26, 1987. During his 50-year career Noel Coward excelled as a playwright, author, composer and actor. He won fame with elegant, mischievous comedies through the 1920s. During the late 1940s and into the 1950s, the works of Noel Coward fell into temporary disfavor. The mischievous stage comedies that made him a favorite were considered old hat, too glib for a grim post-World War II world. Unwilling to stop writing, Coward began to concentrate on short stories, something he had begun as a way to relax between his plays and songs during the 1930s. Viewers get a close-up look at Coward's genius when adaptations of five stories air under the umbrella title "Star Quality." The stories, with impressive casts, reflect a sensitivity and insight into the human spirit not always present in his brilliant but often brittle stage comedies. A BBC Television production in association with Quintet Films and Arts and Entertainment. See Dial magazine/program guide, March 1987, for related story. Source: Press kit, GBH Archives, barcode 383914.
