Play for Today — Season 2

Aired 14 October 1971 • 75 min

A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists

Aired 21 October 1971 • 75 min

Edna, the Inebriate Woman is a British television drama written by Jeremy Sandford which was transmitted by the BBC as part of the Play for Today series on 21 October 1971. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, Irene Shubik produced it. The play deals with an elderly woman, Edna, who wanders through life in an alcoholic haze without a home, a job or any money. A rambling, pathetic yet defiant woman, Edna sleeps rough and begs for food and shelter and the drama follows her progress as she moves from hostel to hostel, going to a psychiatric ward and then prison along the way. Jeremy Sandford, who had previously written Cathy Come Home, researched the play by living rough himself for two weeks. A great deal of the dialogue and the incidents in the play come from the book, 'Down and Out in Britain' published by Jeremy Sandford in 1971; although the majority of the speakers in the book are male, Jeremy Sandford puts much of their speech into the mouth of the female character. The film features the only notable acting role of British actor Vivian MacKerrell, the real-life inspiration for the character Withnail in Withnail and I. At the 1972 British Academy Television Awards, the play won the Best Drama Production category, with Patricia Hayes receiving the award for Best Actress.

Aired 28 October 1971 • 75 min

Frank is worried that he's over the hill when he reaches his 38th birthday. Conversations with his wife, lover and best friend do nothing to allay his concerns.

Aired 4 November 1971 • 75 min

The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students

Aired 11 November 1971 • 75 min

A social satire in which advertisers realise that having a blind beggar as the public face of charities would help make them seem more appealing to donors.

Aired 18 November 1971 • 75 min

A man gets revenge on a pub owner

Aired 25 November 1971 • 75 min

An awkward relationship develops between the families of a trade unionist and the regional manager when the son of the former wins a university scholarship from their employer.

Aired 2 December 1971 • 75 min

Two sworn enemies, one black and the other white, are forced to confront their prejudices when they are forced together by circumstance.

Aired 9 December 1971 • 75 min

A retired miner devotes his waking hours to his racing pigeons.

Aired 6 January 1972 • 75 min

A story about four elderly "loonies" living in a rest home

Aired 13 January 1972 • 75 min

A marriage can be lonely when the children have left home, as Nelson and Maud find out. Maud leaves in the middle of an unloving picnic, and Nelson follows - both sharing their stories with a series of strangers.

Aired 20 January 1972 • 75 min

In Cornwall, just before World War I, a striking miner befriends a cop

Aired 27 January 1972 • 75 min

A married couple move into the house on Highbury Hill and find some eccentric neighbours.

Aired 3 February 1972 • 75 min

A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica

Aired 10 February 1972 • 75 min

A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course

Aired 17 February 1972 • 75 min

A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa

Aired 24 February 1972 • 75 min

A social worker tries to help a painfully shy young man and takes him for a visit to a country farm.

Aired 27 April 1972 • 75 min

Aired 1 June 1972 • 75 min

The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing