Before the BBC started using telerecordings, all the repeat performances of plays in television drama series such as "Sunday Night Theatre" were re-stagings of the first performance and also transmitted live; therefore each production, the first and its repeat or repeats, was an original performance. This fact has not been understood nor acknowledged by television drama historians so the actual number of separate play performances broadcast on BBC television has been underestimated.
A repeat performance of "The Life and Death of King John/I" that was broadcast four days earlier, on Sunday, 20 January 1952. Because the BBC did not then record "Sunday Night Theatre" plays for rebroadcast, the repeat was a restaged one, again transmitted live from the Lime Grove studios, as the first performance had been. It is therefore a separate television version of "King John", albeit almost identical to the 20 January broadcast, the principal difference being in its length with possible minor technical variations and one or two cast changes in the non-speaking roles.