Playhouse Presents - Episode Guide

Jonah (Tim Key) is a nervous young man and a big dog lover. One day in the park he sees A Charismatic Man (Matthew Perry) throwing his dog in the air to the crowd's enchantment. So Jonah, wanting to be popular, starts to throw his dog in the air too. Disastrous consequences ensue. Also starring Kimberley Nixon and with an exclusive score by Belle and Sebastian.

In a fit of rebellion against his director which masks his own dark demons, a tormented movie actor (Mark Strong) starring as Nosferatu runs away to a nearby small Czech town when his young wife leaves him, teaming up with a local petty crook with unexpected, absurdist consequences. Loss and failure find their way to a redemption of sorts for both of them.

Mobile hairdresser Jacky (Jane Horrocks) has been dreaming of going on an ocean cruise with her mobile mechanic husband Andy (Jason Watkins) for years. Now, just a week away from their holiday, Andy is getting cold feet. Is this down to Jacky's desire to enter the cruise ship talent contest, or is there something more peculiar behind Andy's resistance to this trip of a lifetime?

Starring Daniel Mays, Ashley Walters and Scarlett Alice Johnson, Nightshift follows two coppers as they cruise the streets of South East London in the small hours discussing life, the universe and everything else amidst the surreal world of the night.

Billie Piper, Ben Whishaw, Lindsay Duncan and Alice Sanders star in, written and directed by Polly Stenham. In her first television drama, the critically-lauded playwright brings her unique voice and vision to a contemporary ill-fated girl gang heist.

Richard Wilson and Simon Callow star as two ageing astronauts on a perilous mission to a faraway planet, battling with loneliness, isolation, and occasionally each other. It is the distant future, and mankind is in need of desperate measures to ease the swelling overpopulation of earth. The solution; send elderly volunteers - men and women who would rather die alone on a distant planet than live out their last years in nursing homes - to prepare new worlds for human settlement. On board the star-ship, our intrepid space travellers contemplate the enormity of their mission, the importance of purpose, and even the definition of life itself.

Starring Kevin Eldon and Jo Brand in a comedy set in a social services department. Social Worker and Single parent Rose (Jo Brand) is having a bad day. At work the heating is broken, there's a patronising new temp, and her three kids are off school sick. The chaos of the office is matched only by the chaos of her home life when Rose discovers her mum has misplaced her children. Could her day get any worse? Yes, indeed it could and it does when Rose is confronted with a crisis that even an experienced professional like her could not have anticipated...

Alice and Chloe may be generations apart but both share the pain of having been separated from their partners by war. Chloe's soldier fiancé is serving a term of duty in Afghanistan when an army official arrives at Alice's door. The two women are shocked by the news but the generation gap is finally closing.