Try 30 days of free premium.

The Play on One - Episode Guide

Season 1

Down Where the Buffalo Go

Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Jan 19, 1988

No image (yet).

Carl is a long-term shore patrolman at the US Polaris base in Scotland, and his marriage to a Scots girl is failing. His brother-in-law, Willie, is already separated. In the bars of Greenock and the Holy Loch, Carl and Willie arrive at decisions which will change their lives.

The Dark Room

Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Jan 26, 1988

No image (yet).

'Please don't slam your door - we have a delicate child', but when the baby cries, Deb ignores it. There is a secret which is destroying Deb's marriage to Greg. Only she can save it - only Deb can unlock The Dark Room.

Normal Service

Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Feb 2, 1988

No image (yet).

It's General Election day 1964, and the resources of Forth and Clyde Television are under stress. Too many shows want too many things done too quickly. Some of the design and graphics staff are intent on not getting involved. Others won't survive the strain.

The Dunroamin' Rising

Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Feb 9, 1988

No image (yet).

Sixty years ago Ian Sinclair was a revolutionary leader. Today he is in an old folks' home, but he has not lost his sense of humour - or his appetite for the struggle.

A Wholly Healthy Glasgow

Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Feb 16, 1988

No image (yet).

A new, idealistic gym instructor threatens the seedy lifestyle of the current employees of the Adonis Health Club in Glasgow.

Unreported Incident

Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Feb 23, 1988

No image (yet).

'For my last guests tonight....' With these words, chat show host Michael Flynn introduces Jack Lawrence and Jimmy Dunne. Jack and Jimmy were once, briefly, enemies at opposite ends of a gun on the Irish border. Since that almost fatal moment their lives have become inextricably mixed. Michael wants a sob story with a happy ending. What he gets is something else entirely.

Airbase

Episode: 1x07 | Airdate: Mar 1, 1988

No image (yet).

'You're at war. You've always been at war and you always will be. They just give you enough comfort so you won't notice.' Hidden beneath the airbase the elite F-111 pilots live in a secret fantasy world as they wait, primed for the ultimate war game of World War Three. The arrival of the delicious Lieutenant Madeline Kohler detonates a chain reaction of deep rooted antagonism that explodes with cataclysmic consequences.

The Party

Episode: 1x08 | Airdate: Mar 8, 1988

No image (yet).

In Paris the barricades are about to burst into flames as students and police clash. In London the fashionable Left are having a dialogue.

Season 2

Heartland

Episode: 2x01 | Airdate: Feb 21, 1989

No image (yet).

A story about a farming family whose lives haven't changed for generations. Encouraged to borrow, modernise, build up their dairy herd, they face ruin when distant EEC edicts order them brutally to limit milk production and slaughter cows. Fighting for their livelihoods the whole community joins a furious campaign. But Jack Philips has got his own mind. He knows he is losing not only a farm and job but a whole history. When he fights back the result is grimly justified.

These Foolish Things

Episode: 2x02 | Airdate: Feb 28, 1989

No image (yet).

Gutrune's romance with newspaper editor Nick Verney is hampered by the fact that he is still in love with the wife from whom he is separated. She finds that in affairs of the heart, advice is the last thing she needs.

Govan Ghost Story

Episode: 2x03 | Airdate: Mar 7, 1989

No image (yet).

Old memories are awakened in a terrifying and dangerous way when Jock encounters a strange little girl in the high-rise block of flats where he lives. Who is she? What does she want?

The Shawl

Episode: 2x04 | Airdate: Mar 14, 1989

No image (yet).

Miss A, troubled by problems, consults a clairvoyant. Can he solve them for her by summoning the spirits? Or is he just a fraud, out to steal her money?

A View of Harry Clark

Episode: 2x05 | Airdate: Mar 21, 1989

No image (yet).

Harry Clark is a social worker on the verge of cracking up. His job is to help other people: who is there to help him?

The Gift

Episode: 2x06 | Airdate: Mar 28, 1989

No image (yet).

Robert and Gordon, two talented teenage footballers from Wick, are invited to Glasgow for a week's trial with a big club. It is their first taste of professional football, but both the game and the city upset their expectations.

Clowns

Episode: 2x07 | Airdate: Apr 4, 1989

No image (yet).

Arthur is about to celebrate his 80th birthday and his family is gathering for a party. It is a time for celebration, but also for family tensions and a reassessment of how we all spend our lives.

Biting the Hands

Episode: 2x08 | Airdate: Apr 11, 1989

No image (yet).

Linda and Gail are Hell's Belles - an alternative comedy double act. When success begins to beckon, they must decide whether to change their act or keep doing what they believe in. Are their principles justified - or are they just 'biting the hands' that feed them?

A Master of the Marionettes

Episode: 2x09 | Airdate: Apr 18, 1989

No image (yet).

Teddy Rose 's passion is security - selling alarm systems to prosperous yet fearful suburban homes, one of which he and his family inhabit with conspicuous success. Then one Saturday morning a violent street encounter starts a chain of events which calls into question his every assumption and changes his life for good.

Unexplained Laughter

Episode: 2x10 | Airdate: Apr 25, 1989

No image (yet).

Lydia is unlucky in love and retreats to the Welsh countryside with her friend Betty. But the beautiful scenery holds its own humour and passion.

Season 3

Changing Step

Episode: 3x01 | Airdate: Jul 26, 1990

No image (yet).

Spring 1917: the privileged world of Sorn Castle is upside down, its stately rooms full of amputees from the Western Front. While the local aristocracy makes a first attempt at nursing, a romance blossoms.

The Wreck on the Highway

Episode: 3x02 | Airdate: Aug 2, 1990

No image (yet).

Washed up country-and-western singer John McGuire is broke and his family is emigrating. He and grandson Billy share the same dreams. They run away together in search of John's wealthy American ex-co-star Betsy Hall.

Killing Time

Episode: 3x03 | Airdate: Aug 9, 1990

No image (yet).

When Martin meets Harry he doesn't know what to expect. Is it love the boy is offering or a one-way ticket to heartbreak?

Obituaries

Episode: 3x04 | Airdate: Aug 16, 1990

No image (yet).

In a nursing home for the elderly, White and Apcar compete for the privilege of shaking the Royal hand. The Daily Telegraph is the battleground, the obituary columns the challenge. As the game progresses it soon becomes clear that both are in deadly earnest.

Separation

Episode: 3x05 | Airdate: Aug 23, 1990

No image (yet).

When Sarah , a crippled New York actress, telephones Joe, an agoraphobic writer living in London, Joe's life is radically changed. She wants to perform his only hit play in an off-off-Broadway production. Through a series of transatlantic telephone calls they become strong friends, but when Sarah arrives in London to meet Joe for the first time, his terror almost destroys their developing love affair.

Yellowbacks

Episode: 3x06 | Airdate: Aug 30, 1990

No image (yet).

Britain in the very near future: in an abandoned hotel, a young female doctor and a middle-aged scientist are interrogated separately. The question which their captors need to find the answer to is, 'Where is Martin Pitt?'

Season 4

Misterioso

Episode: 4x01 | Airdate: Jul 25, 1991

No image (yet).

When Rachel discovers that the man she had always thought of as her father is not a blood relation, she embarks on a quest of self-discovery: a journey which leads her to London and the midnight moody world of jazz clubs and a man whose signature tune seems to be Misterioso, a bittersweet blues tune by Thelonius Monk.

Gas and Candles

Episode: 4x02 | Airdate: Aug 1, 1991

No image (yet).

Two pensioners strike back as they struggle to survive in a high-rise flat. A tin of salmon triggers a chain of events which changes their lives. The key to this intriguing tale is the identity of 'Mr Shah'.

Escape from Kampala

Episode: 4x03 | Airdate: Aug 8, 1991

No image (yet).

Wycliffe Kato is arrested at Entebbe airport and taken to Idi Amin 's notorious Nakasero prison. Against enormous odds, Kato and his cellmates devise a daring escape plan. This true story is adapted from Wycliffe Kato 's own book by Margaret and Eric Leclere. 

And the Cow Jumped over the Moon

Episode: 4x04 | Airdate: Aug 15, 1991

No image (yet).

In the women's cancer ward of a large Glasgow hospital, Eddie, the wisecracking hospital DJ, brightens the daily routine for former nightclub singer Andrea and her fellow patients. They share hopes and dreams for the future, which is unpredictable and provides a few surprises.

Out of the Blue

Episode: 4x05 | Airdate: Aug 22, 1991

No image (yet).

Alan makes films in the warehouse studio where he lives, with the help of his friends. But when Alan falls in love with a beautiful young girl and decides to create the perfect romance between them, life begins to imitate the film fantasy which has become an obsession for him.

Effie's Burning

Episode: 4x06 | Airdate: Aug 29, 1991

No image (yet).

The medical burns unit sees a lot of strange cases, but none stranger than Effie, who claims her burns are the result of spontaneous combustion.

Try 30 days of free premium.