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 (13)
1. Amongst Barbarians
Aired 11 July 1990
Two teenage boys, Ralph and Bryan, are in a jail in Malaysia, awaiting death. They have been found guilty of smuggling drugs. 48 hours before their execution, their parents arrive to visit them.
2. Antonia and Jane
Aired 18 July 1990
Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest friend Antonia McGill knows about everything. She orders the right food; she can complain and get results. She's beautiful and has a brilliant career. Is it any wonder that they hate each other's guts?
3. Night Voice
Aired 25 July 1990
Clarence Flamer hosts a late-night talk show on regional radio station North Star Sound. A phone call he takes one night leads to his discovering a mortgage scam being run by a group of estate agents. His attempts to delve deeper have tragic consequences.
4. The Englishman's Wife
Aired 1 August 1990
A woman and her daughter are stranded in a rambling old house deep in the countryside of County Tyrone. Their economic circumstances are hopeless, but it is friends and former business associates who pose the greatest threat to their happiness.
5. The Land of Dreams
Aired 8 August 1990
Joseph Mnwana arrives at Heathrow on a flight from Johannesburg and asks for political asylum. But what is he fleeing from? The authorities are suspicious, and Joseph has an uncertain future in store.
6. Keeping Tom Nice
Aired 15 August 1990
Doug and Winnie have tried hard to keep their disabled son Tom 'nice', but when Stephen, a young social worker, takes a professional interest it has tragic consequences.
7. A Safe House
Aired 22 August 1990
In the aftermath of the Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings, a large number of people of Irish descent were rounded up for questioning by the police in London. Most were subsequently released. But for the Maguire family, 3 December 1974 was the start of a nightmare that is only now ending.
8. Afters
Aired 29 August 1990
A man discovers his love for his wife as he prepares to face life without her.
9. Wedded
Aired 29 August 1990
A husband drives throughout the night on a voyage of self-discovery, while his wife waits at home, raking over the ashes of their marriage as their child sleeps in the next room.
10. Available Light
Aired 5 September 1990
A mercenary art dealer and his beguiling young assistant pay a visit to a once-famous artist. In his isolated house, they discover disturbing paintings depicting the course of a passionate love affair. But the paintings also seem to reveal startling evidence of a murder. The visitors begin to fear for their lives.
11. Needle
Aired 12 September 1990
Danny and Paula are a young married couple with a baby. They are moving up in the world, leaving their high-rise for a house of their own. The future of their marriage is threatened by only one thing: Danny is a heroin addict.
12. Shoot the Revolution
Aired 16 December 1990
During the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, a young girl is shot in the head by Tudor Barbu, a member of the Securitate. His brother Octavian was the girl's teacher who "filled her head with the ideas of truth." The question is not how did she die, but why?
13. August Saturday
Aired 29 December 1990
Grania did something 15 years ago that brought her great happiness but also great pain. The events of that day have been a heavy secret to bear that, if discovered, would devastate those closest to her.