Play for Today
Series 9
197821 episodes
Episode 1
Nina
Oct 17, 19781h 15m
The story of two Soviet dissidents living in London and slowly coming apart under the strain of his drinking and her enforced separation from her child
Episode 2
Victims of Apartheid
Oct 24, 19781h 15m
George, a black South African, finds it hard to settle down in London after his experiences in South Africa.
Episode 3
A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts
Oct 31, 19781h 15m
A young man is declared a hero when he catches a burglar until it's discovered that the burglar is a dwarf.
Episode 4
Dinner at the Sporting Club
Nov 7, 19781h 15m
A story about young boxers whose fighting provides entertainment for diners at a sporting club
Episode 5
Donal and Sally
Nov 14, 19781h 15m
Adolescent love can be difficult at the best of times, but Donal and Sally have special problems - problems which alarm their families and the instructors at Strathvale Centre.
Episode 6
Sorry
Nov 21, 19781h 15m
Consists of two plays ""Audience"" and ""Private View"" about a brewery worker and writer who incurs the wrath of the autocratic government
Episode 7
Butterflies Don't Count
Nov 28, 19781h 15m
"Whether priest or thespian, never once let yourself doubt that the role you're playing is real. Lead your little flock from childhood to the grave via God's sweet sacraments and let no doubts intrude - ever."
Episode 8
Soldiers Talking Cleanly
Dec 5, 19781h 15m
A freelance TV presenter has been hired by the BBC to film a documentary about the British army stationed in Germany. Unfortunately the budget is so low he is only allowed to film soldiers talking, and all bad language must be censored.
Episode 9
One Bummer Newsday
Dec 12, 19781h 15m
What happens to provincial journalists when there's nothing in the news and they have a paper to fill?
Episode 10
The Out of Town Boys
Jan 2, 19791h 15m
"This could be a bit special, Maggie. This could be the first case of an office block falling down during the topping-out party."
Episode 11
Vampires
Jan 9, 19791h 15m
Three boys watch horror films on late night TV and see a man in a local cemetery whom they believe to be a vampire.
Episode 12
The Chief Mourner
Jan 16, 19791h 15m
For a successful man with public responsibilities Alan Berry is strangely reluctant to help the police when his wife is murdered.
Episode 13
Waterloo Sunset
Jan 23, 19791h 15m
A young man and an old woman try to fit in when their neighborhood goes West Indian
Episode 14
Blue Remembered Hills
Jan 30, 19791h 15m
The play activities of seven children living in the countryside during the summer of 1943 end in tragedy; the children were played by adults in childrens clothing. The title is taken from A.E. Housman's 1896 poem: "Into my heart an air that kills; From yon far country blows; What are those blue remembered hills..." It's 1943 on a summer's afternoon and 7 children play in the fields & woods of old England. The children's roles are all played by adults to act as "A magnifying glass to show what it's like to be a child." "When we dream of childhood," said Dennis Potter, "we take our present selves with us. It is not the adult world writ small; childhood is the adult world writ large." Since Potter viewed childhood as "adult society without all the conventions and the polite forms which overlay it," he repeated the device he had introduced 14 years earlier (in "Stand Up, Nigel Barton"); children's roles were cast with adult actors in this naturalistic memory drama of a "golden day" that turns to tragedy. On a sunny, summer afternoon in bucolic England of 1943, seven West Country children (two girls, five boys) play in the Forest of Dean. Their games and spontaneous actions (continuous and in real time) reflect their awareness of WWII, but no adults are present to intrude. As the group moves through the woods and back to the grassy hills, their words and actions illustrate how "childhood is not transparent with innocence." When the two girls push a pram into a barn to play house, the casting concept is heightened, doubling back on itself in a remarkable moment: adults are suddenly seen to be acting as children who are pretending to be adults, and lines from Housman echo across the years: "That is the land of lost content/I see it shining plain/The happy highways where I went/And cannot come again."
Episode 15
Who's Who
Feb 6, 19791h 15m
Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife April, who raises cats; youthful and pretentious friends Nigel, Giles, and Anthony, who gather for a wine-soaked dinner party with the chatty and risque Samantha and the mousy Caroline; the plummy Lord and Lady Crouchurst, in a spot of bother needing the help of Francis, a senior partner, to assist with the family's cash flow. Alan comes home from work to find Mr. Shakespeare doing a photo shoot of one of April's cats and a wealthy stranger, Miss Hunt, waiting to purchase one. His instincts for sycophantic palaver kick in.
Episode 16
The Last Window Cleaner
Feb 13, 19791h 15m
The Irish troubles as seen by residents of a boarding house called ""The Crumlin View""
Episode 17
Ploughman's Share
Feb 27, 19791h 15m
"Ploughman. Nobody calls you that. You're a has-been. Your head and heart went into a museum wi' that lot you keep in there. Face it: you're redundant."
Episode 18
Degree of Uncertainty
Mar 6, 19791h 15m
"I'm 37 years old, remember? I'm not a dead-pan, genned-up, discreetly nymphomaniac ex-head-girl like the majority of your female students. I'm an innocent. I'm vulnerable."
Episode 19
Light
Mar 13, 19791h 15m
A village in Cheshire. A deserted cinema. A poet murdered by Stalin. A blown fuse. Victor Silvester. Pickets on trial. Trimmers and fishwires.
Episode 20
Coming Out
Apr 10, 19791h 15m
A closeted homosexual writer is content to lead a double life
Episode 21
Don't Be Silly
Jul 24, 19791h 15m
A young wife tries to cope with her abusive husband.