"saturday night theatre" was noted as the major drama of the week on bbc radio 4, until it was scrapped as a programme strand in 1996. shorter plays continued to be broadcast on radio 4 on saturday evenings from 1996 until the relaunch of the channel's schedule in april 1998 by james boyle, when single dramas were removed from the saturday evening schedule. since 1998, the main weekly play on the station has been "the saturday play", a daytime programme that runs for 60–90 minutes.