About this season
Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
Episodes (12)
1. Testimony of a Child
Aired 5 July 1989
Being accused of child abuse is a nightmare every family dreads. The Taylors are an ordinary happy family, but Paul and Jill are worried about their 11-year-old son Mark, who is not eating. The family GP has diagnosed 'failure to thrive', and Mark is sent to the hospital for a check-up.
2. A Night on the Tyne
Aired 12 July 1989
When four shipbuilders are made redundant they decide that as a protest they will launch the ship they have been working on.
3. Loving Hazel
Aired 19 July 1989
Mike and his ex-wife have an 8-year-old daughter, Hazel. She calls her new mother's boyfriend 'daddy', which Mike goes along with until his access to Hazel is limited.
4. The Attractions
Aired 26 July 1989
When Danny, 'one of Maggie's wandering minstrels', visits a seaside horror museum, he is rather disappointed. 'It's all about victims. Now people are interested in who done it, not who it got done to ...' So begins a process of disintegration which culminates in a new type of exhibit, 'an attraction' for the modern age.
5. Chinese Whispers
Aired 2 August 1989
Kenny's work as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital isn't just a job, it's a vocation. His special group of patients are his friends - his only friends. When a strange young man is introduced to the group, he threatens the love, discipline and respect that have been the very basis of Kenny's authority, and all that surrounds the institution is scant protection from the madness of the world beyond.
6. The Act
Aired 9 August 1989
Eastern Europe, February 1944: Johann Frink and Otto Hansen, once famous Berlin cabaret artists, are summoned to take part in a special 'entertainment', devised by a mysterious Nazi captain. When they discover where they are to perform, they find themselves with an appalling dilemma.
7. Scout
Aired 16 August 1989
Man United's scout for many generations of young footballers, sending across the water the best Irish talent regardless of background. As six more hopefuls gather at his isolated cottage for a weekend trial, their dreams of following George Best's path from Belfast are shattered by the violent return of a past graduate.
8. The Spirit of Man
Aired 23 August 1989
In pursuit of faith, God and the Devil, spells are cast, buckets of water thrown and men with black beards dance and sing.
9. Beyond the Pale
Aired 30 August 1989
Milly and her friends have been going on holiday together ever since they've known each other. This summer they return to one of their favourite haunts, a beautiful Irish country hotel. It's a place full of fond memories for all of them, but on this occasion their sense of ease and comfort is destroyed when a terrible secret is revealed.
10. The Hen House
Aired 6 September 1989
Lily lives on a remote smallholding in County Donegal. She keeps herself to herself. But a game of hide-and-seek exposes a secret.
11. Seeing in the Dark
Aired 13 September 1989
Tony has begun to panic that life may be passing him by. As his friends forge ahead, he feels stuck in a dead end job and trapped by his relationship with Judith. One day, he starts to be plagued by a series of mysterious phone calls and letters. Tony becomes haunted by a growing premonition of catastrophe.
12. A Small Mourning
Aired 20 September 1989
When Marjorie's husband of 20 years dies of a brain tumour, she's hit financially as well as emotionally. The money she makes packing tights in a factory isn't enough to cover her rent, and her TV is repossessed. Soon after the funeral she meets Arnold, a wealthy pub landlord, who squires her to the local Conservative Club ball in an effort to cheer her up. Life with Arnold promises not only companionship but undreamt-of luxury, but Marjorie's friends and family do not necessarily approve.