About this season
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.
Episodes (28)
1. Long Distance Information
Aired 11 October 1979 • 75 min
A fanatical Elvis Presley fan is working as a disc jockey when his idol dies
2. Cries from a Watchtower
Aired 18 October 1979 • 75 min
A watchmaker finds his livelihood is threatened by cheaply imported digital watches.
3. Comedians
Aired 25 October 1979 • 75 min
Budding comedians take an evening class taught by a retired performer and, for their final exam, must perform for an impresario in a nightclub.
4. Even Solomon
Aired 1 November 1979 • 75 min
Stephen Piper is a quiet young man. A virgin, he shows no interest in sex, and is cruelly scorned by an aggressive female neighbour when he rebuffs her advances. He lives with his mother, an overbearing woman who mocks him for being wet. But Stephen has a secret. An accurate and heartfelt depiction of the challenges he faces and a fascinating glimpse at the gender politics of the day.
5. Just a Boy's Game
Aired 8 November 1979 • 75 min
In Glasgow, a young man's sole aim is to be as tough as his dying grandfather once was
6. Billy
Aired 15 November 1979 • 75 min
A 4-year-old boy is abused by his father
7. A Hole in Babylon
Aired 29 November 1979 • 75 min
Exploration of the events leading up to 1975 Spaghetti House siege in London and the motivation of its three protagonists, T-Bone Wilson, Archie Pool, and Trevor Thomas.
8. The Slab-Boys
Aired 6 December 1979 • 75 min
The story of a young man who works in a carpet factory
9. Katie: The Year of a Child
Aired 13 December 1979 • 75 min
A teenage girl from a family of Irish Travellers is left to look after her brothers and sisters while her father is away.
10. The Network
Aired 20 December 1979 • 75 min
What do Rose from Devon and Christina from Stuttgart have in common? And in what way is their fate linked to that of wealthy Fiona Dunkerley?
11. Chance of a Lifetime
Aired 3 January 1980 • 75 min
A young man quits school and joins the army.
12. Keep Smiling
Aired 10 January 1980 • 75 min
Family picnics should not be like this: bugging devices, men with X-ray eyes. Mary doesn't understand what terrifies Simon, nor the bizarre events of the next six months.
13. Dreams of Leaving
Aired 17 January 1980 • 75 min
A journalist moves to London and gets caught up in the big city and his romance with a rich debutante.
14. Thicker Than Water
Aired 24 January 1980 • 75 min
Various characters have adventures on the way to a black pudding festival in Normandy.
15. Murder Rap
Aired 31 January 1980 • 75 min
An Englishman's home is his castle, and Wally aims to prove it.
16. Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
Aired 7 February 1980 • 75 min
Weekend enlightenment seminars serve as a form of brainwashing.
17. No Defence
Aired 14 February 1980 • 75 min
Mr. Germanou arrives from Cyprus with his family to settle in England. But on his arrival he's arrested for an historical rape with seemingly no defence.
18. That Crazy Woman
Aired 21 February 1980 • 75 min
Twenty years ago, at the age of 56, this extraordinary woman became a national hero by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. One of the last great English eccentrics (even though she was Russian) in the last days of English innocence.
19. A Gift from Nessus
Aired 28 February 1980 • 75 min
The marital and career problems of a middle-aged, middle-class man in Glasgow in the 1960s
20. Kate, the Good Neighbour
Aired 6 March 1980 • 75 min
A compassionate elderly woman comes to the realization that she can no longer care for herself or others.
21. Buses
Aired 13 March 1980 • 75 min
A story about the regulation of the bus industry in 1930
22. Shadows on Our Skin
Aired 20 March 1980 • 75 min
The problems of an 11-year-old boy living in the Catholic part of Londonderry
23. Ladies
Aired 27 March 1980 • 75 min
The A Shift at the MHS department store are organising a wedding gift presentation for Elaine. But what's on Miriam's mind, and why does she seem so out of sorts?
24. The Vanishing Army
Aired 3 April 1980 • 75 min
A story about the highs and lows of peacetime army life
25. Not for the Likes of Us
Aired 10 April 1980 • 75 min
"I dunno, years of putting up with it, waiting on you all, for what? Eh? To become a 14-stone invisible woman?"
26. The Executioner
Aired 17 April 1980 • 75 min
Jan and Meg Citron are on holiday in Germany. Their car is stopped by the police. A simple traffic offence? But their seemingly innocent past is ripped open and life will never be the same again.
27. The Imitation Game
Aired 24 April 1980 • 75 min
During World War II, an idealistic young woman joins the Army Transport Service
28. A Walk in the Forest
Aired 14 May 1980 • 75 min
A writer gets involved with a Soviet dissident