Chekhov Comedy Shorts

1 season | 3 episodes

These star-studded adaptations of some of Chekhov's finest short works, commissioned to coincide with the 150th anniversary of his birth, feature some of the most acclaimed and celebrated actors from British stage and screen comedy.

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Season 1

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Episode 1

Reluctant Tragic Hero - Chekhov Comedy Shorts

Tolkachov, a frustrated and exasperated family man, exhausted from running countless errands for friends and family, visits his good friend Murashkin for some much needed sympathy. But his rant leaves him with more problems than he started with.

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Episode 2

The Bear - Chekhov Comedy Shorts

Rude and boorish landowner Smirnoff calls on the recently widowed Popova to collect a debt owed to him by her late husband. When the grieving widow is unable to pay him, Smirnoff simply refuses to leave – and in the passionate, fiery altercation which follows, they agree to fight a duel to the death with a pair of pistols.

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Episode 3

The Dangers of Tobacco & The Proposal - Chekhov Comedy Shorts

In “The Dangers of Tobacco”, Nyukhin, a brow-beaten husband of a domineering wife, delivers, at her command, a lecture on the harmful effects of smoking tobacco. However, as he struggles to stick to the subject matter, we learn of his regrets, his yearnings and his miserable life ‘under the thumb’. Then, in “The Proposal”, nervous hypochondriac Lomov visits his neighbor Natasha to ask for her hand in marriage. But his romantic endeavors are scuppered when the couple, and also her father, find themselves in a circle of petty arguments, disagreements and an unstoppable bout of one-upmanship.

Credits

Director: Christine Gernon
Producer: Henry Normal, Lindsay Hughes, Ted Dowd
Actor: Julian Barratt, Steve Coogan, Mackenzie Crook, Mathew Horne, Julia Davis, Philip Jackson, Sheridan Smith, Johnny Vegas, Reece Shearsmith
Writer: Anton Chekhov