Play for Today

Play for Today

  • 1970
  • 14 Seasons
  • 314 Episodes
  •  6.3  (9)
  •   Ended

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Play for Today
Seasons
Brigadista
21. Brigadista
February 05, 1985
When best-selling author James Fuller Hayes comes to Glasgow to publicise his personal account of the Spanish Civil War, a surprise reunion with two of his old comrades from the Int Brigade reveals contradictory & devastating information.
Bird Fancier
20. Bird Fancier
January 15, 1985
Talk To Me
19. Talk To Me
December 11, 1984
Matthew and his wife are deeply suspicious of psychoanalysis. It's not their sort of thing at all.
Punters
18. Punters
November 27, 1984
What is the secret of Joey and Spansky's success at the races?
The Long March
17. The Long March
November 20, 1984
A woman returns to Belfast after ten years in England and becomes involved in the Maze prison protest.
The Amazing Miss Stella Estelle
16. The Amazing Miss Stella Estelle
August 28, 1984
Miss Stella Estelle is a cabaret singer in working men's clubs, and she sings songs from the 1960s to support a large and difficult family. But how long can it go on? The backdrop is a family in decay: husband out of work, wife working and still doing the domestics, daughter the singer and hopeful star, son her "manager" but in reality going nowhere. Stella plays a crummy club circuit, singing songs for oldies for £50 a night - She's never going to be a star because of her parents' short-sighted greed.
Only Children
15. Only Children
August 21, 1984
A young woman's comfortable life is turned upside down when she has a baby.
It Could Happen to Anybody
14. It Could Happen to Anybody
August 14, 1984
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.
The Cry
13. The Cry
July 31, 1984
In 1959 Ulster, a journalist witnesses the beating of a youth
The Groundling and the Kite
12. The Groundling and the Kite
July 24, 1984
Peter is a songwriter, while his old friend Jimmy is an A and R (Artists and Repertoire) man. But when Jimmy tries to sell one of Peter's songs, Peter is furious. Can the friendship survive?
Dog Ends
11. Dog Ends
July 17, 1984
In a future society where euthansia is common, a man signs papers to have his father put down
Rainy Day Women
10. Rainy Day Women
April 10, 1984
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
King
9. King
April 03, 1984
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.
Under the Hammer
8. Under the Hammer
March 27, 1984
Concerning the life of the artist Vincent Van Gogh
Hard Feelings
7. Hard Feelings
March 20, 1984
A group of unemployed Oxford drop-outs living in a Brixton commune get their come-uppance by one of them.
Desert of Lies
6. Desert of Lies
March 13, 1984
An expedition tracing the path of long-lost missionaries meets with tragedy in the Kalahari Desert.
Moving on the Edge
5. Moving on the Edge
March 06, 1984
A woman in a state of personal crisis finds it hard to communicate with her husband and family.
Z for Zachariah
4. Z for Zachariah
February 28, 1984
After a nuclear holocaust, only a man and a woman survive in a Welsh valley.
A Coming to Terms for Billy
3. A Coming to Terms for Billy
February 21, 1984
When his father comes home to Belfast after more than 2 years in England, conflicts arise with Billy
Young Shoulders
2. Young Shoulders
February 14, 1984
Cynical teenager Andrew Groves re-evaluates his attitude to life and his parents after his sister dies in a plane crash.
Stan's Last Game
1. Stan's Last Game
October 25, 1983
James Grout and Bert Parnaby are rival chairmen of a northern football club in the run-up to an important cup match. As tempers fray, retiring president Charles Lamb provides a calming voice of sanity.
Description
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
  • Premiere Date
    October 15, 1970
  • Rating
    6.3  (9)