 After he directed Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson in a television version of "Twelfth Night" (1969), he was asked by Laurence Olivier to direct the National Theatre Company in the film of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" (1970) with Olivier, Joan Plowright and Alan Bates.He subsequently directed Olivier in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (1973), again from a National Theatre Company production.This was remounted for CBC in Canada in 1976 with a Canadian cast which included A. E. Holland as Shylock, Allan Grey, Micki Maunsell, Jack Rigg and Barney O'Sullivan.