Play for Today
Series 11
198027 episodes
Episode 1
Pasmore
Oct 21, 19801h 15m
Colin Pasmore tests his strength against his family ties but finds them stronger than he ever imagined.
Episode 2
C2H5OH
Oct 28, 19801h 15m
"In heaven there is no drama - drama depends on failure and conflict. My trade is a scrutiny of hell. For any proud dramatist his style is his prejudice."
Episode 3
The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
Nov 4, 19801h 15m
Writer-director John McGrath deliberately shies away from naturalism in an experiment that mixes blue screen, songs, and characters realising they're acting within a play. This first of two parts sees Frank travel to a hostile London.
Episode 4
The Adventures of Frank: Seeds of Ice
Nov 11, 19801h 15m
Episode 5
Minor Complications
Nov 18, 19801h 15m
Kay Gilbert goes into hospital for a minor operation which goes badly wrong. This play tells the story of her fight for compensation.
Episode 6
Number on End
Nov 25, 19801h 15m
What could Steve Jackson's documentary film expose that must be concealed from the African leaders meeting in Brussels? Steve Jackson is on the run and the wrong decision could prove fatal.
Episode 7
Jude
Dec 2, 19801h 15m
Twelve-year-old Jude has never met Dick, his father. One Sunday afternoon Dick impulsively engineers a meeting, which has distressing consequences.
Episode 8
The Flipside of Dominick Hide
Dec 9, 19801h 15m
Dominick Hide, a time traveller from London in the year 2130, is studying the city's transport system of 1980. Breaking the rules, he lands his craft to seek out his great-grandfather. Compared to his anaesthetised home, 80s London is filthy and polluted...and yet...it exudes an excitement that soon draws him in.
Episode 9
Name for the Day
Dec 16, 19801h 15m
Clive admits himself to a psychiatric hospital after undergoing a breakdown. His wife wants him back home, but in order for Clive to be released, he has to want to be cured.
Episode 10
Jessie
Dec 23, 19801h 15m
In Victorian times, a nanny cares for a mute boy, who becomes overly attached to her.
Episode 11
Beyond the Pale
Jan 6, 19811h 15m
A vacation at a seaside hotel in Ireland changes the lives of four friends.
Episode 12
The Muscle Market
Jan 13, 19811h 15m
The problems of an owner of a building contractor company in Liverpool
Episode 13
A Brush with Mr. Porter on the Road to El Dorado
Jan 20, 19811h 15m
"They're nice affable gobblers and we're in the nice affable gobbling business." Tom and Gwen soon find that their gastronomical retreat from the rat race is anything but an escape when the Porters come to dine.
Episode 14
Dear Brutus
Jan 27, 19811h 15m
"They say that in the wood you get what nearly everybody here is longing for - a second chance." J. M. Barrie's fantasy play, depicting alternative realities for its characters and their eventual return to real life.
Episode 15
The Cause
Feb 3, 19811h 15m
A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.
Episode 16
Beloved Enemy
Feb 10, 19811h 15m
The head of a multinational corporation wants to do business with the Soviets
Episode 17
The Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner
Feb 17, 19811h 15m
A group of men hold a reunion dinner in Tokyo
Episode 18
The Union
Feb 24, 19811h 15m
You know the nuts and bolts of our policy? To penetrate the unions. To use all sorts of stratagems, manoeuvres, illegal measures, evasions, subterfuges, to carry on Communist activities inside them at all cost.
Episode 19
Sorry
Mar 3, 19811h 15m
Two very different women share an office, a common enemy, and a sense of humour.
Episode 20
Shai Mãlã Khani: The Garland
Mar 10, 19811h 15m
When her 17-year-old son Roy falls in love with a Muslim girl, and a Bangladeshi butcher seeks help from her husband Raji, Leela realizes that the tears and romance of Indian cinema are closer to her own life than she has ever imagined.
Episode 21
The Sin Bin
Mar 17, 19811h 15m
Six lifers living in an experimental self-rehabilitation unit attached to an ordinary prison participate in a group therapy session. All of them have spent many years in prison and have little chance of ever getting out.
Episode 22
Before Water Lillies
Mar 24, 19811h 15m
An evening with the Parent-Teacher Association gets out of hand.
Episode 23
Bavarian Night
Mar 31, 19811h 15m
When the dynamic young head-master of St Peter's Primary School decides to liven up a parents' fund-raising social by hiring a Bavarian band, he little suspects the hidden passions that are about to be unleashed.
Episode 24
The Good Time Girls
Apr 7, 19811h 15m
Nancy and Ella are two bored housewives starved of affection when their husbands are away on the oil rigs. The rules are simple: have some fun, just make sure nobody finds out, and you don't get emotionally involved.
Episode 25
Baby Talk
Apr 14, 19811h 15m
It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help - or are the emotions around a new baby more complex than anyone had expected?
Episode 26
A Turn for the Worse
Apr 28, 19811h 15m
Soldiers are subjected to a brutal and sadistic kind of psychological training exercise
Episode 27
Psy-Warriors
May 12, 19811h 15m
Soldiers are captured and interrogated by terrorists: but is it real or only a sadistic form of psychological training exercise?