

Le Grand Échiquier is a French variety television program created and presented by Jacques Chancel. It aired at 8:30 pm on the first channel of the ORTF from January 12, 1972 to July 12, 1972, then on the second color channel of the ORTF from September 1972 to December 1974, and finally on Antenne 2 from January 1975 to December 21, 1989. The program returned to France 2 on December 20, 2018 and is hosted by Anne-Sophie Lapix.





A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.

A ballet producer returns to his native town and schemes to avenge himself on the family who tried to murder him 20 years before.

Pseudonym Dr. Falke follows his wife through disguises and deceptions in postwar Vienna.

In the Basque Country, two friends, José and François, live a cheerful life. The two sly foxes use their wit to boost the business of an innkeeper they have a connection with. José is in love with Angélica, the innkeeper"s daughter, while François courts petite Annette. José also happens to have a beautiful voice and one day a night club manager hears him and wants to hire him. He will have to choose between Angelica, the inn, his roots... and a singing career in Paris.

A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.

A man dreams he is in a wax museum after it is closed for the night.The statues come to life and behave in mysterious ways.

Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire.

Renaud, a young student who is camping alone at the moment, has a dream one night, in which the woman of his dreams appears. When he wakes up the next morning, he cannot believe his eyes: the creature of the dream is there by the side of the road, in the flesh! The woman accepts to drive Renaud to Montargis but it is only after she has dropped him off there that he realizes that what he experienced for her was love at first sight. He then decides not to return to Paris but to try and find the wonderful stranger in Montargis. He discovers that the woman's name is Clara and that she is the member of a drama company.

Jean-Louis, Danielle's fiancé, a nurse, becomes blind following an explosion in the mine where he works. Coming from Lyon, Doctor Coudray, whose natural son Gilbert - who loves Danielle - dies while helping his father threatened by the person responsible for Jean-Louis' accident, will work to restore his sight.