Friedrich Dürrenmatt

A police chief, about to retire, pledges to help a woman find her daughter's killer.

A now-rich woman returns to her poor desert hometown to propose a deal to the populace: her fortune, in exchange for the death of the man who years earlier abandoned her and left her with his child.

In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emerges is not a crime story, but a harrowing venture through the darkness of the human soul.

Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

Hans Baerlach is a Swiss police detective who has dedicated much of his career to pursuing powerful and allegedly murderous businessman Richard Gastmann. Though Baerlach's partner meets his demise while investigating Gastmann, his replacement, Walter Tschanz, is undaunted. Meanwhile, the lovely Anna Crawley becomes involved in the case, which proceeds to take many twists and turns.

An enormously wealthy older woman returns to her former hometown with a dreadful bargain: she wants the townspeople to kill the man who got her pregnant, then jilted her. In exchange, she will provide enough money to revitalize the decrepit town.

A troubled detective befriends a single woman and her daughter with the intention of using them as bait for a serial killer.

In a dystopian future, two superpowers have shared the Earth, and both try to conquer the Solar System. The penal colony of Venus becomes the missile base of one of the two superpowers, but the deportees oppose the project.

A reputable employee of a large firm has his car break down on the road. A repair team has been called in, but it won't get there soon. It is necessary to pass the time somehow. Not far from the highway there is a house, and in it there are several old men. They suggest we play a game. The traveler will be accused of murder, and the owners will play the roles of judge, lawyer and even executioner.

As a young woman, Klara left her hometown in disgrace. Now she is old and unimaginably rich, as for the first time she returns. The town is nearly bankrupt and in urgent need of money. Everybody hopes Clara will come to the rescue. And she will. However, there is a condition: somebody must kill the man who was her lover all those years ago.

In her teens, Mme. Zachanassian had to flee her home town in disgrace. Now she's old and rich and the town is facing bankruptcy. But she returns with news that she wants to help - as long as the townsfolk kill someone for her.

The last months of Police Commissioner Berlach's life are devoted to tracking down the war criminal, Nazi doctor-examiner Emenberger. Hiding under a false identity, he continues to carry out cruel experiments on human beings even in peaceful days. The terminally ill Berlach manages to expose the criminal and break him, forcing him to confess to what he has done

Florestan Mississippi, a public prosecutor by profession, visits a lady named Anastasia and, while drinking coffee with her, convicts her of poisoning her husband. At the same time, he asks for her hand in marriage, as he too has killed his wife with poison; the marriage is to be the "atonement" of the two poisoners. The four allegorical personifications in this comedy are, in addition to the loveless, absolute justice in the form of the prosecutor Mississippi, perfect equality, represented by the world revolutionary Saint-Claude, Christian love, embodied in the down-and-out, alcoholic tropical doctor Count Uebelohe-Zabernsee, and finally the "Frau Welt" of the old mystery play – Anastasia, who falls for everyone and betrays everyone, loves nothing but the moment, and dies with an invoked untruth on her lips.

Several young girls were killed in a rural area. Thus Inspector Matthaei has to travel to the region where it happened and has to search for the killer. When all the people suspect a roamer to be the killer he gets lynched and everybody thinks that the crimes will stop now but not Matthaei who searches for a blond girl that looks just like the ones that were murdered. He finds one and stays with her and her mother, attracting the murderer with the girl trying to catch him this way.

A political and social satire on middle-class society's hypocrisy. A group of teachers plan to stage a play in a village. When a cast-member does not show up, a local stagehand is asked to replace him. An improvised, free-flowing 'rehearsal' is arranged and a mock trial is staged to help the novice understand court procedures. A (mock) charge of infanticide is levelled against Miss Benare, another cast-member. Suddenly the pretend-play turns into an accusatory game when it emerges from the trial that Miss Benare is carrying an out-of-wedlock child from her failed illicit relationship with Professor Damle, the missing cast-member.

A private psychiatric clinic: three physicists are staying here. Two of them claim to be Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, respectively. The third is named Johann Wilhelm Möbius. The scientist has discovered the world formula, which poses a great danger: whoever possesses it holds the key to the destruction of all humanity. By presenting a false story, Möbius has managed to take refuge in the asylum, but he could not have known that two agents posing as Einstein and Newton are there with him, intent on stealing the formula from him...

A successful businessman's destiny leads him to a secluded Swiss chalet where his life is put on trial by a group of retired law professionals. The men assemble to analyse his rise to power and his increasingly immoral behavior as he attained success, and the warped perceptions of right and wrong he has adopted to remain successful.

Senator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and is sentenced to twenty years. Kohler then gets his daughter Helene to pay the reluctant Spat to reinvestigate the case, on the assumption that Kohler is innocent. The newspapers pick up on this and begin to question whether Kohler was wrongly convicted.

Mahmoud son of Jaber abandons the owner of one of the factories for Hind daughter of Juma the chief worker in the factory, after he promised her to marry, Juma is injured work injury, and loses his arm and work, Jaber refuses to compensate him, and orders his son Mahmoud to stay away from Hind, and when Juma tries to claim his right and the right of his fellow workers, Jaber manages a crime to get rid of him.

An extravagant comedy with Heinz Rühmann.

In her teens, Mme. Zachanassian had to flee her home town in disgrace. Now she's old and rich and the town is facing bankruptcy. But she returns with news that she wants to help - as long as the townsfolk kill someone for her.

A remote village has not had a previous boom for years. Residents have either been forced to migrate or are in poverty and misery, but the village has a new guest. But the village has a new...

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.