Sapphire Films Ltd. was a British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

production company, active in the 1950s. Amongst their best-known series are ''

The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de H ...

,'' ''

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot ''The Adventures of Sir Lancelot'' is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network. The series starred William Russell as the eponymous Sir Lancelot, a ...

'', '' The Buccaneers'', and '' The Four Just Men'' produced for

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...

and screened on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

in the UK, as well as being syndicated in the United States. Sapphire Films was founded by producer

Hannah Weinstein Hannah Weinstein ( Dorner; June 23, 1911 – March 9, 1984) was an American journalist, publicist and left-wing political activist who moved to Britain and became a television producer. She is best remembered for having produced ''The Adventure ...

with initial funds from the Hollywood branch of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. Weinstein hired nearly two-dozen blacklisted American writers to script ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (and later '' The Four Just Men'') under pseudonyms, and instituted elaborate security measures to ensure that the writers' true identities remained secret. Sapphire Films ceased to function in late 1961 owing to financial problems caused by Weinstein's then husband, Jonthan Fisher.

Television Productions

''This list may not be complete''

References

American communists British communists Hollywood blacklist Television production companies of the United Kingdom {{tv-production-company-stub