A man tries to break the world's record for nonstop piano playing
A couple look for the proper school, not for their children but for themselves.
""The Lie"" refers to the 8-year marriage of a couple who are constantly hurting each other.
A man claiming to be an angel enters the household of a bored housewife and teaches the family a few lessons
A man is made redundant but can't bring himself to let anyone know, plunging into a web of deceit as he keeps up the charade he is still in work.
A man has a mid-life crisis in his brother's pub where sees life as a game show
A boy's hero-worship of his distinguished father is threatened by the intrusion of echoes from the hero's wartime past.
A TV host and his architect brother attend their father's funeral
Norah Palmer (Anna Cropper) is a television script editor who temporarily moves to a remote English country village to rebuild her life. At first, she finds that the villagers are friendly, if a little eccentric. When she becomes pregnant to the handsome villager Rob, she begins to suspect the locals of conspiring against her, preventing her from leaving the village for her home in London. With its combination of unsettling folk rituals and insular regional communities, Robin Redbreast is considered to be an influence and precursor to The Wicker Man (1973), and has built up a cult following over the years since its original broadcast. Made during the golden age of British TV drama, and originally shown in the Play for Today strand, this provocative and unsettling drama was directed by the renowned producer / director James McTaggart from a script by John Bowen.
A petty thief and social misfit finagles his way into a church congregation
A civil servant working abroad revisits his old school
A play by a student about a student, and his unexpected reactions to the pressure or vacuum of student life. Something, too, of what the rest of us look like from that young point of view.
The adopted child is useful; the grown-up boy a problem. But it isn't so easy to drop a person.
An old couple refuse to move when they find out that they can't take their piano with them
Billy is his own boss. But Darkly has plans for him...
A man who attempted suicide by jumping out a window is saved only to live in a coma, in which he has fantasies about his relatives and nightmare creatures.
Charges that the Rev 'Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation.
An odd menage a trois results when a woman and her lover are visited by her long-lost husband
When an injured baby arrives at the hospital, a social worker looks for the parents
A trilogy of plays--A Time to Keep, The Whaler's Return, and Celia--exploring the life of the islanders in the past and present
The story of the Pilkington glass workers strike of 1970
A succesful novelist Edith lives with her husband and his friend, but she decides to ask the friend to leave.
The story of a disintegrating marriage told through family photos
A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists
An elderly woman refuses help out of a predicament
Frank is 40 and worried about his age, which he says is 35. His girlfriend keeps him young, but who are her friends?
The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students
A man gets revenge on a pub owner
There's nothing like working for a big American company, who really look after their staff. Nothing.
White Luke and Black Norman would be natural enemies. But circumstances force them into an unholy alliance and a growing friendship.
Len Shelton retires from a lifetime in the coal mines and finds that his pigeons become a symbol of hope.
A story about four elderly "loonies" living in a rest home
In Cornwall, just before World War I, a striking miner befriends a cop
The path of righteousness is a stony one. And Lo! for Daniel it is stonier than most.
A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica
A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course
A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa
A country family stream out of their house after a social worker has an accident outside their home. But who is the one that needs the help?
The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing
'We're in a very funny game, and the bit you're joining is getting funnier all the time...'
The story of a man serving a 30-year prison sentence for killing a cop
A story about the origin of the Stormont state
The story of Robinson Crusoe from Man Friday's viewpoint
A hippie breaks into the house of a middle-aged couple and forms a relationship with them
Stand on your own two feet... Go for the things in the ads... But it's not quite as easy as it sounds.
An elderly general woos a shy school teacher.
A washed-up executive is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Alison has the opportunity to escape from the drudgery of her Scottish tenement life thanks to her relationship with promising footballer Joe. Tired of Joe spending so much time training, she begins seeing poorly paid sailor Alec. Circumstances change and she now faces the prospect of marriage to Alec and moving into the tiny family home with him, his parents and his elderly grandfather.
It's the big day for Dave and Meri. The baby is due - and Dave is in labour too.
The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going to Stratford-upon-Avon on a barge
Building a bridge over the Humber may bring future prosperity to Hull. Sally and Mike have to decide their future now, for when the winds blow gale-force off Iceland anything could happen.
A long-married husband leaves his family for a barmaid.
What would you do if the council decided it needed your house to build a road? Is it worth a fight? Terry decides to have a go.
The story of a defiant football manager in terminal decline
As a playwright dictates notes about his newest play to his secretary, scenes from the play are acted out.
Was this the finest hour? Sifting the truth and fiction about the Battle of Britain, Burrows and Harding give their own account of how the nation sees its heroes - and itself.
David Adler is an operator. He strips assets, other men's wives, and his oldest friend's soul - anything for a cool million.
Every Sunday, Malcolmson - a divorced man - takes his children to the zoo. As they watch the animals, he dreams of a return to married life...
The trials of an overworked and underappreciated housecleaner
'I'm the judge's daughter... I think he's a monstrous old man. I think all men who say "I'm only doing my job" are monstrous. I've despaired of changing him. But I'd stop short of killing him.'
Three underachievers have fun at a school speech day
'Fifteen years since I was forced t' leave, forced t' leave me roots, the territory of me heart.' When Gerry takes his fiancee Nita home to Brighouse what will they find?
Are Maggie and Tony using each other as a means of communicating with Dr Leafer? Or are they using Dr Leafer as a means of communicating with each other?
Edward G is nothing like a film star; his life has been ordinary - until now. But he's just had a shattering experience.
The problems of four people sharing an apartment
Everyone always looked after Maureen. But her husband comes home after two years in prison and finds she has grown up and he's not ready for the change.
They no longer live together because, after 11 years, the marriage is over. They're both agreed on that. So why is she always turning up to see him at the most embarrassing times? And why doesn't he feel inclined to send her away?
Mrs Palfrey tries hard to be accepted by the other residents at the Claremont. But then she meets Ludo and a real friendship begins.
They are all 'in' for life so the pleasures are sparse, and strictly of their own making. Their really big event is the Christmas pantomime, only this year they have lost their star. Mother Bear has escaped. Still, there is some consolation. The new arrival looks a likely Goldilocks. 'There's one or two who'll be after him,' says Woodbine - and he knows all their weaknesses.
An amateur operatic society is preparing a Gilbert and Sullivan production, and someone new is needed for the role of Jack Point - but who will break this to the veteran who's always done it?
Dean has a rare talent. He can be made happy. He exudes happiness and confidence like a rare blossom. Both Sarah in the past, and Julia now, could do this for him. But where are they now that he is alone in Battersea Park with two suitcases and no memory?
It is Wakes Week in the potteries. The factory is deserted but for three 'sparks' on a crash maintenance job. Maurice and Arthur are old hands, but young Bernie is green and not just with the wiring. He has conned his way in from somewhere strange. He is secretive about his background. Arthur and Maurice are hard men. They won't be fooled for long...
After ten years of trying, Lavinia, and a large team of medics, finally manage to produce a live baby. She should now be able to start living her dream, but what happens next is not at all the paradise she has been looking forward to.
A young farmgirl begins a romance with an artist
An elderly politician looks back over his career while being interviewed by a TV producer
A pet shop owner forsakes his religious beliefs when his daughter gets cancer
A conservative vicar's son alienates himself from his family when he finds out he's adopted
Further adventures of three Derbyshire miners
The exploitation of the Scottish land and its people from the 18th century to the present
A young man persuades a woman that he is her son
The friendship of two residents of a retirement home ends up in marriage
The Evacuees is a 1975 episode of the BBC's Play for Today series written by Jack Rosenthal and directed by Alan Parker. It was broadcast by the BBC on 5 March 1975. Starring Rosenthal's wife, Maureen Lipman, the filmed play is set during the blitz and, loosely based on Rosenthal's personal experiences, centres on the lives of two Jewish boys Neville and Danny, who are evacuated from Manchester to Blackpool.[1] The Evacuees won a BAFTA for Best Play and an International Emmy. The film was released on DVD, as part of a collection of Rosenthal's work for the BBC, by Acorn Media on 4 April 2011
The play is based on an unofficial strike amongst female textile workers in Leeds in February 1970, demanding equal pay with male workers. Dramatist Colin Welland's mother-in-law was involved in the strike, and Welland interviewed many of those involved while preparing his script. This was the first strike by the textile workers in Leeds in 36 years. The script was originally written for Granada Television, but they rejected it initially on the grounds that it would be too expensive, although it later emerged that some at Granada were worried that the political radicalism of the play might upset advertisers. Welland then took the script to the BBC, and it was produced for the Play for Today series. After being accepted in May 1972, the play's production was continuously held up by concerns about defamation, made particularly acute by filming in Leeds, and some aspects of the play were changed to obscure the identities of the employers in the 1970 strike.
After the stillbirth of her illegitimate baby, a woman steals a baby at random and is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
The first (and last) day at work of a young apprentice in a bevelling shop at a Glasgow glass factory
After 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway friars are officially "fugitives" who must be persuaded back to their order.
Birmingham is a melting pot of races and every community has a stake in the city's underworld. When John Kline is released from prison after serving a sentence for murder, he becomes the unwilling catalyst in a gang war.
A story about an asthma sufferer
Three young students suspended from school face various problems.
A elderly couple become disillusioned when they retire to their favorite holiday resort.
One day in the life a nurse in a mental hospital
A young man participating in the Orange Parade in Glasgow becomes disillusioned with the pageant when he discovers its unpleasant and violent history and witnesses the participants' attacks on Catholics.
When a stockbroker loses his job, he decides to throw a party.
In Belfast, a girl awaits the return of her missing father.
Political fantasy about a fascist regime
A married barrister's life begins to unravel when it seems that his high-strung mistress may reveal all.
An author tells an old school chum that he is about to publish a novel revealing their old relationship.
An American woman corresponds with a London bookshop owner over a period of 20 years
A boy enjoys success in the choir until his voice breaks at puberty.
A woman goes into hospital to receive treatment for breast cancer.
A group of Asians plans to sneak into England using a fishing boat
Rumpole defends a young West Indian boy accused of attempted murder.
An aggressive lesbian disrupts the lives of those around her.
Smug married couple Keith and Candice Marie are keen exponents of their belief in organic health food, exercise and the environment. They are on a camping holiday, where they find that it is not always easy to be tolerant of others when they don't share the same enthusiasms.
A woman encounters trouble when she arrives home late at night, but her neighbors on a nearby estate claim to have seen and heard nothing.
In The Happy Hunting Ground, which is set amongst the fishing quaysides of the North East of England, manipulative Bob is first able to wangle his way into a prominent position within a fish distribution firm. It isn’t long before he has his sights not only on the boss’s job but also his wife as well.
A play based on three short stories about the Scottish people and their relationship with the land: ""Clay"" concerns a farmer's obsession with his fields to the exclusion of his dying wife; ""Smeddum"" is about an indomitable woman and her large family; and ""Greenden"" tells the story of an unhappy woman from the city living with her indifferent husband in the country.
Why has Sonia taken to writing letters to her husband, posted to him in the letter-box just outside their house -love letters, on blue paper, recalling with increasing vividness the early days of their courtship and marriage?
A story depicting life in a shipyard
A story about a father's attempts at single parenthood
A playwright spends an afternoon in a hotel room with an actress who takes on the role of call girl for research purposes.
Written by Dennis Potter, this play is an adaptation of Edmund Gosse's autobiographical book Father and Son (1907)
The eldest daughter of a domineering, overprotective mother becomes engaged to an unprincipled young man who has money.
Starring Jeremy Steyn, Kim Clifford, Mark Herman, Adrienne Posta, Maria Charles, Pamela Manson and Bernard Spear, the play tells the story of a young Jewish boy, Eliott Green (Steyn), in a working class family living in North East London of the 1970s, and the apprehensions the boy feels over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah. Meanwhile, the family prepares for the celebration, preoccupied with their own preparations for the b'nai mitzvah.
Two men supposedly at work go to the Scottish hillsides every day instead.
A young man from Belfast is sent south to stay with relatives in an attempt to keep him out of trouble.
A young man's chances at romance are thwarted by his own shyness.
The rags-to-riches-to-rags story of a 1960s football pools winner, based on a true story
Michael Otway has everything to live for, but he is going to die. His life is elegant, his marriage comfortable, his career successful. But from the moment an inexplicable photograph arrives in the morning post all that world is to be turned upside down.
A pair of plays, broadcast over two weeks, about mining life: ""Meet the People,"" about a coal mining community preparing for a royal visit, and ""Back to Reality,"" about a coal mining disaster that brings tragedy to a community.
A student holds his teacher hostage in the classroom on the last day of school.
A headmaster takes on the Education Authorities on behalf of his pupils, exposing the political pressures behind the creation of a comprehensive school.
The story of Father Borelli who in Rome during World War II must choose between freedom and his principles
A worker discovers a radioactive leak at the nuclear power plant where she works and tries to make it public knowledge.
Acerbic comic drama about a neighbours' get-together in suburbia, in which the consumption of alcohol leads to the airing of prejudices and snobberies. The most memorable of Mike Leigh's submissions to Play for Today during the late '70s/early '80s, Abigail's Party is dominated by Alison Steadman's juggernaut performance as the monstrous hostess Beverly. Overbearing, tasteless, pretentious and vicious, Beverly exemplifies the English suburban middle classes at their most grotesque. A product of Leigh's famously improvised writing style, the play was originally performed on stage and has since been revived in hundreds of productions worldwide.
The story of the romance between a Jewish boy and an Irish Catholic girl
Three schoolteachers in Belfast give up teaching to become singers/songwriters.
Our Day Out is a television play about deprived children from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. It was written by Willy Russell
A Liverpool teenager has a hectic night out on New Year's Eve.
During World War II, a young woman joins the propaganda department and makes radio broadcasts to Germany from a British country house.
Three men at three different times in history come to Mow Top Hill in search of sanctuary from their troubles: a Roman soldier, an English Civil War rebel and a 1970s teenager. Somehow they seem to be linked through an energy within the hill and an axe. Is history doomed to repeat itself or can loving another person free them?
The story of a single mother of four living on welfare
A story dealing with racial tensions and fascism during a by-election in a West Midlands town
The story of a well-meaning charity worker
The story of the trial of Willie Gallagher, convicted of bombing the Strabane British Legion Hall in 1976.
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
A young man is declared a hero when he catches a burglar until it's discovered that the burglar is a dwarf.
A story about young boxers whose fighting provides entertainment for diners at a sporting club
Consists of two plays ""Audience"" and ""Private View"" about a brewery worker and writer who incurs the wrath of the autocratic government
'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. Once you start to question - you're finished.'
A young man and an old woman try to fit in when their neighborhood goes West Indian
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."
A story about a dinner party given by the managers and employees of a brokerage house.
The Irish troubles as seen by residents of a boarding house called ""The Crumlin View""
A closeted homosexual writer is content to lead a double life
A young wife tries to cope with her abusive husband.
The play is set in the shed belonging to an enthusiastic motorcycle mechanic, Fenton. He and his group of like-minded friends meet regularly – all are engaged in rebuilding an ageing Triumph motorcycle. Recorded in 1979 but never transmitted.
A fanatical Elvis Presley fan is working as a disc jockey when his idol dies
Budding comedians take an evening class taught by a retired performer and, for their final exam, must perform for an impresario in a nightclub.
The plot revolves around the life of Jake McQuillan who lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather, who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other, Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day in Jake's life, as he drifts, drinks and fights, leads to a bleak realization. Just a Boys' Game features Frankie Miller, Gregor Fisher, Ken Hutchison and Hector Nicol.
A 4-year-old boy is abused by his father
A Hole in Babylon dramatises the botched 1975 Spaghetti House Siege in Knightsbridge. Middle-aged petty criminal Frank Davies, accompanied by two young men, Wesley Dick and Anthony Monroe, prepare to rob the restaurant. The younger men want out but Frank keeps them focused. As the three cross the point of no return, things immediately go wrong. The police are called and the siege is on. What began as a means to an end is now repackaged as a political and revolutionary act. Frank Davis assumes command of the quickly improvised Black Liberation Army.
Follows the antics of Slab Boys Phil, Spanky and Hector as they try to scrape through life in the 50s
Writer Alan Bleasedale's hard hitting black comedy, set against the harsh backdrop of struggle and hopelessly bleak unemployment in the Liverpool of Thatcher's Britain, chronicled the lives of a group of tarmac layers as they sought to find work, whilst suffering the despair and indignity of life on the scrapheap.
A young man quits school and joins the army.
A journalist moves to London and gets caught up in the big city and his romance with a rich debutante.
Weekend enlightenment seminars serve as a form of brainwashing.
The marital and career problems of a middle-aged, middle-class man in Glasgow in the 1960s
A compassionate elderly woman comes to the realization that she can no longer care for herself or others.
A story about the regulation of the bus industry in 1930
The problems of an 11-year-old boy living in the Catholic part of Londonderry
MIRIAM: Here we are; celebrating a marriage, eating a cake, drinking, standing in a uniform, standing in a canteen ... with a Teasmade and a red red garter ... and I want an explanation. VALERIE: I want to know why you all resent me. BRENDA: Because you're not one of us.
A story about the highs and lows of peacetime army life
During World War II, an idealistic young woman joins the Army Transport Service
A writer gets involved with a Soviet dissident
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.
In Victorian times, a nanny cares for a mute boy, who becomes overly attached to her.
A vacation at a seaside hotel in Ireland changes the lives of four friends.
The problems of an owner of a building contractor company in Liverpool
The head of a multinational corporation wants to do business with the Soviets
A group of men hold a reunion dinner in Tokyo
An evening with the Parent-Teacher Association gets out of hand.
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.
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?
Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who calls himself Joey Dukes and dreams of becoming a professional comedian. Simpson believes the boy has talent and starts to groom him for ' stardom'.
Soldiers are subjected to a brutal and sadistic kind of psychological training exercise
A family gathering, a christening and a dance. But it's 1945 and there are plans to be made, family wealth to protect and peace to be won.
'Many areas of London might be under water for days. For example, the Isle of Dogs could be under eight feet of water for six days. River engineers believe that it is not a matter of if there is a flood, but when the flood comes.' (GLC)
James, an expatriate South African anti-apartheid fighter, deals with his nightmares and his complaining landlady in a run-down area of London, while dreaming of his lover Stephen, left behind.
A wounded member of a rebel terrorist organisation is tended by an English nurse ... She is imprisoned, interrogated, then released to face another form of interrogation.
In Belfast, Ruby has a cold and is caught in the rain while Iris is looking for work and gets caught in traffic
Vaclav Havel, a leading Czechoslovakian playwright, at this time imprisoned for his beliefs, wrote "Protest" as a dramatic expression of the ambiguities of being a writer working in an oppressive regime.
Two men on a local council fight the system when forced with massive spending cuts.
During World War II, a British officer is ordered to abandon a Russian convoy.
A manager, a foreman, and two workers are all that remains of a factory yet labor relations stay the same
Local Government Elections 1982 A motorway extension is to be built - the route will be through either the local golf course or the allotments. Which will go, the golfer's beloved greens or the allotment holders' precious land? ' Watergate ' comes to South Yorkshire.
A police inspector investigates the murder of an Arab sheik who had become a village's Lord of the Manor.
"When you get to a man in the case, They're like as a row of pins - For the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady Are sisters under their skins." (Rudyard Kipling)
Politics and relationships during the last years of the Heath government
Meg: We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half.
Four students working in a factory cause emotional, as well as industrial catastrophe, for when theory and reality meet it is the 'Silly Season'.
A family in Belfast deals with life after the death of the mother from cancer
A comedy by JIM ALLEN Every man needs just one night out, off the leash. Willie's attempt to prove himself provides a painfully funny and painfully sad comment on the battle of the sexes.
It is the mid-1980s. The Economy has not improved. For 17 years Professor Frank Merrick has been ensconced in a Research Lab of a Provincial University working on a cure for the common cold. He is very near success. Can he avoid becoming yet another victim of the eternal cutbacks?
A story about the lives of three postal sorters and their dysfunctional families.
Christine takes up an unusual line of work and proves she is not just another bored housewife.
Adolescents will always be obsessed by the same old subject, even when they are educated by nuns. Six ex-Classmates meet for the first time in 12 years and hilarious memories change into highly emotional situations.
' While Wally was happy there wasn't much wrong with the world, and pints seemed a small price to pay for what he gave us. But don't forget what we gave him. We gave him the knowledge he was important, at least to us.....
A story about a homesick Russian journalist in London at the end of the cold war
'Hello. I'm Billy and I'm going to enjoy myself first.' Saturday. Out on the streets, young people looking for fun. Billy, living for Two-Tone music. Adrian, only limping when he walks. Lectric, dressed to kill. Debbo, bored with stereotypes. Rhoda, bored with Elvis. Elvis, playing games. They move around the city in the day, making life happen wherever they are. They come together at nights to listen to their music. For as long as the song lasts, they're heroes. Three minute heroes.
A man with an obsession - a family trapped - but maybe there is a way out, after all?
A man holds a lonely vigil at the bedside of his dying father.
A family of five orphaned children are going to be split up into different homes. What will happen if the eldest is officially made their foster parent?
Patrick and Judith have everything prepared for the arrival of their first child but when he is born, they are quite unprepared for the crisis they must face.
In June 1940 Italy entered the war. With Britain threatened by a German invasion thousands of Italians were seized and thrown into security camps, with other friendly aliens - and Nazis.
Two years after his journey to the past, Dominick Hide has been promoted to instructor and is no longer a time traveller. Then one of his pupils, Pyrus Bonnington, goes missing during a visit to 1982 London. Hide must track him down and prevent Pyrus damaging the past, but will the temptation to re-visit his own history be too strong to resist?
Tending her husband's grave one day, Annabel Fox meets Jack Ives, a retired regimental sergeant-major. But when their friendship turns to love and talk of marriage, Annabel's children step in. They have other plans for her and, anyway, "He's so common, Mummy..."
In 1959 County Antrim, two traveling evangelists help a mentally retarded teenager
Forced on each other's company through no fault of their own and having nothing in common, Albert and his grandson, Wayne, are soon at daggers drawn. Until, that is ...
Goff and Lytton have a dream - a canal boat of their own on which to cruise the inland waterways. The reality is the boatyard of Josh Adkins and a rusting hulk called Atlantis.
A comedy about a couple who want their adult, successful, offspring to fly the nest.
Susan and Jenny are aged 13 and 14 and in care. Jenny's mother has died, Susan hasn't seen hers for years Both influence the close, stormy relationship that develops between the two girls.
The 18th century writer Samuel Johnson writes a political pamphlet protesting the British going to war with Spain after the 1790 invasion of the Falkland Islands.
When his father leaves Belfast to seek work in England, a young man looks after his sister
A businessman tries to keep his son from finding out about an unconventional deal he and his secretary are making with a merchant bank.
Play about amateur football in the north of England. As a cup clash approaches, rival club chairmen Reg and Percy set out to prove that football is a matter of life and death, even at non-league level.
Cynical teenager Andrew Groves re-evaluates his attitude to life and his parents after his sister dies in a plane crash.
When his father comes home to Belfast after more than 2 years in England, conflicts arise with Billy
After a nuclear holocaust, only a man and a woman survive in a Welsh valley.
The study of a woman who is falling apart, but who, at the bottom of the slope, begins to rebuild some hope for her future.
An expedition tracing the path of long-lost missionaries meets with tragedy in the Kalahari Desert.
A group of unemployed Oxford drop-outs living in a Brixton commune get their come-uppance by one of them.
Concerning the life of the artist Vincent Van Gogh
A man who has had a good life in England wants to retire to Jamaica, but the celebration with his daughters doesn't go as expected.
In 1940, during World War II, an officer is sent to investigate rumors of German spies in a sleepy village where various people are the victims of war hysteria
In a future society where euthansia is common, a man signs papers to have his father put down
Peter is a songwriter, while his old friend Jimmy is an Artists and Repertoire man. But when Jimmy tries to sell one of Peter's songs, Peter is furious. Can the friendship survive?
In 1959 Ulster, a journalist witnesses the beating of a youth
A long-suffering Glasgow housewife puts up with years of her husband's violence and drunkenness - and then something happens which makes her snap and fight back.
Jill has everything; a successful career, four close, if somewhat exotic, friends (her 'family') and a live-in lover. They provide for all her needs including, eventually, a baby. But that is where reality sets in.
Stella, 14, works nights. She sings 60s numbers between the stripper with a snake and gorgeous Doris in working men's clubs. She knows what makes her act a success, but does she want to be the breadwinner for her family?
Kenneth Branagh looks back on his experiences working on the first major production of his career: Graham Reid’s Billy Plays trilogy. The three Play for Today dramas won great praise for the way they captured ordinary working class lives in Belfast, set against the backdrop of The Troubles. The acclaim Branagh received for his portrayal of big-hearted, hot-headed Billy got his career off to a perfect start. He gives his perspective on why the drama was so well-received, recalls working with his fellow cast, and casts an experienced, critical eye over his own youthful performance.
The Bates sadly care for their severely disabled daughter Pattie. Martin arrives at their door claiming to be her college friend. He charms them into accepting him as a lodger and carer for Pattie. But Martin is not all he seems.
Roy Minton's play deals with the subject of youth imprisonment and its lack of actual rehabilitation practised during the 1970s in young offenders' institutions. The film also deals with racism, authority, gang rape and suicide. Hardened Trainee 4737 Carlin (Ray Winstone) arrives at a new borstal after allegedly brutally attacking a prison officer at his previous borstal. On arrival he is subject to abuse from the prison officers and Pongo (the Daddy) because of his previous reputation. Using the hostile environment to his advantage, Carlin decides to become “The Daddy” of his wing. One of the young inmates, Davis, is gang-raped by two other inmates and subsequently commits suicide in his cell, using a razor blade.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the first Play for Today in October 1970, this film is a celebration of the series, told by a number of its producers, directors and writers. It explores the origins of the series, its achievements and its controversies. Presenting a rich range of often surprising extracts from the archive, the film features interviews with, among others, producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, film-makers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and writer and director David Hare.
