Play for Today - Episode Guide

Episode List

Season 1

The Long Distance Piano Player

Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Oct 15, 1970 (100 min)

The story of one man's obsession (to win the world long distance piano-playing record) and the battle for good (his wife) and evil (his agent) that rages around him.

The Right Prospectus

Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Oct 22, 1970

What would it be like to go back to school in middle-age and have one's chances all over again? This is the question John Osborne asks in his first TV play for many years.

The Lie

Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Oct 29, 1970 (90 min)

A rare foray into television for Ingmar Bergman, this brilliantly made, disturbing film stars Frank Finlay in the story of a 70s middle-class marriage build on deceit and delusion.

Angels Are So Few

Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Nov 5, 1970 (65 min)

Cynthia's a bored housewife. The dishy angel at the door could be the answer to one of her prayers. Dennis Potter's fascinating fable about fantasy, and having your wings clipped.

The Write-Off

Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Nov 12, 1970

Where do playwrights get their ideas from? George Salverson , the distinguished Canadian author of The Write-Ofi, took this story straight from life when a friend telephoned to say that he had lost his job but for six months had been too proud to tell anyone.

I Can't See My Little Willie

Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Nov 19, 1970

When it's time to wet the baby's head, it's surprising the secrets that emerge ...

A Distant Thunder

Episode: 1x07 | Airdate: Nov 26, 1970 (50 min)

A boy's hero-worship of his distinguished father is threatened by the intrusion of echoes from the hero's wartime past

Hearts and Flowers

Episode: 1x08 | Airdate: Dec 3, 1970

Robin Redbreast

Episode: 1x09 | Airdate: Dec 10, 1970

Norah Palmer owns a cottage In the country. She is a modern woman, used to city life, and totally unprepared when the setting and the people begin to take on an ancient and terrifying meaning.

The Hallelujah Handshake

Episode: 1x10 | Airdate: Dec 17, 1970

Henry sets out to join a church and passionately help the parish. Slowly but surely his habits of exaggeration and lying begin to catch up with him.

Alma Mater

Episode: 1x11 | Airdate: Jan 7, 1971 (85 min)

Jimmy Nicholson , back from the Middle East, visits his son at the public school where he was educated. He discovers that the traditions by which he has guided his life appear to be obsolete.

Circle Line

Episode: 1x12 | Airdate: Jan 14, 1971 (65 min)

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

Hell's Angel

Episode: 1x13 | Airdate: Jan 21, 1971

The adopted child is useful; the grown-up boy a problem. But it isn't so easy to drop a person.

The Piano

Episode: 1x14 | Airdate: Jan 28, 1971 (65 min)

Change is hard when you're older -even change for the better.

Billy's Last Stand

Episode: 1x15 | Airdate: Feb 4, 1971 (50 min)

Billy is his own boss. But Darkly has plans for him ...

The Rainbirds

Episode: 1x16 | Airdate: Feb 11, 1971 (65 min)

John Rainbird is in a coma after a suicide attempt. He falls prey to fantasies involving his relatives and nightmare creatures.

Reddick

Episode: 1x17 | Airdate: Feb 18, 1971

Charges that the Rev ' Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation ...

The Foxtrot

Episode: 1x18 | Airdate: Apr 29, 1971 (70 min)

Arthur and Gwen, a cosy middle-aged couple, remember with nostalgia the pre-Motorway Britain of their youth. When Tom, an old friend, returns from voyaging the world their life takes a strange new turn.

When the Bough Breaks

Episode: 1x19 | Airdate: May 6, 1971

When Sheila, a young mother, fails to explain satisfactorily to the doctors how her baby fractured its skull, Margaret Ash down, an NSPCC social worker, is asked to investigate. Poverty, ignorance, a work-shy husband, and almost a tradition of family instability - these are only some of the things she discovers.

Orkney

Episode: 1x20 | Airdate: May 13, 1971 (90 min)

The Rank and File

Episode: 1x21 | Airdate: May 20, 1971

This story by the author of The Lump and The Big Flame explores the effects of a strike both on the men themselves and on their families

The Man in the Sidecar

Episode: 1x22 | Airdate: May 27, 1971

A famous and successful woman novelist is in the middle of a book about a woman enjoying the self-destruction of her husband's self-respect. The situation is paralleled in her own home.

Everybody Say Cheese

Episode: 1x23 | Airdate: Jun 3, 1971

Every year beach photographer Henry Hunter goes back to Mar-gate to stay with his old friend Frank and his efficient landlady wife Hylda. But now people are taking their own pictures and Frank is getting older ...

Season 1

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Season 6

Season 7