Play for Today
Series 8
197718 episodes
Episode 1
Stronger than the Sun
Oct 18, 19771h 15m
A worker discovers a radioactive leak at the nuclear power plant where she works and tries to make it public knowledge.
Episode 2
Come the Revolution
Oct 25, 19771h 15m
Mike and his commune have a performance of their musical theatre "Diver" at the local pub, and ITV's Beth Bailey is coming along to see it. But will Beth's visions for the play as an incitement to revolution please everyone?
Episode 3
Abigail's Party
Nov 1, 19771h 15m
Comedy of manners focusing on the bourgeois affectation and sexual frustration of a young married couple. Abigail's mother Sue is invited to take refuge from her teenage daughter's party with a neighbouring couple, Beverly and Laurence. They have also invited Angela and Tony, new arrivals in the street. Beverly plies her guests with alcohol as Sue becomes increasingly withdrawn and embarrassed by the pretentious goings-on. Slowly, marital tensions emerge and the evening is breaking up in disarray.
Episode 4
Oy Vay Maria
Nov 8, 19771h 15m
The story of the romance between a Jewish boy and an Irish Catholic girl
Episode 5
Nipper
Nov 15, 19771h 15m
Teenager Jimmy's life begins to unravel after the death of his father. With his mother promiscuous and his new stepfather and stepbrother difficult to get along with, he begins to fall into a cycle of petty crime and self harm.
Episode 6
One Day at a Time
Nov 22, 19771h 15m
"People coming to their first AA meeting, prosperous people, sometimes, accustomed to the best. They look round the places where we meet, and you can see them thinking: what am I doing here? I owe my life to these rooms!"
Episode 7
The Mayor's Charity
Nov 29, 19771h 15m
Olive Major is determined that her year of office as Mayor will be a happy and successful one. But her appointment of Ex-Warrant Officer Higham as Attendant and Mace-bearer causes the storm-clouds to gather over Medburgh Town Hall.
Episode 8
Catchpenny Twist
Dec 6, 19771h 15m
Three schoolteachers in Belfast give up teaching to become singers/songwriters.
Episode 9
Charades
Dec 13, 19771h 15m
"We've just got to get it right. It'll be our little secret. When all the other servants have gone out, we'll play this little game to amuse ourselves. A sort of private charade."
Episode 10
The Thin End of the Wedge
Dec 20, 19771h 15m
"Five days of darkness then. Unless you get it together we will have five days of darkness. And on the sixth day you will say, let there be light, and no doubt it'll be such an effort that on the seventh day you'll have to rest!"
Episode 11
Scully's New Year's Eve
Jan 3, 19781h 15m
A Liverpool teenager has a hectic night out on New Year's Eve.
Episode 12
Licking Hitler
Jan 10, 19781h 15m
During World War II, a young woman joins the propaganda department and makes radio broadcasts to Germany from a British country house.
Episode 13
Red Shift
Jan 17, 19781h 15m
A stone axehead links three couples living at different times in the same place in Wales.
Episode 14
The Spongers
Jan 24, 19781h 15m
The story of a single mother of four living on welfare
Episode 15
Destiny
Jan 31, 19781h 15m
A story dealing with racial tensions and fascism during a by-election in a West Midlands town
Episode 16
Our Day Out
Feb 7, 19781h 15m
When a teacher takes a group of troubled school children on a school trip to Conwy in Wales, the children understand life outside of Liverpool.
Episode 17
The After-Dinner Joke
Feb 14, 19781h 15m
The story of a well-meaning charity worker
Episode 18
The Legion Hall Bombing
Aug 22, 19781h 15m
The story of the trial of Willie Gallagher, convicted of bombing the Strabane British Legion Hall in 1976.