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. The Reporters
Aired 9 October 1972 • 75 min
Two provincial newspaper reporters - one a young idealist starting out on his career, the other an embittered man who previously wrote for a failed national daily - swap views.
2. A Life Is for Ever
Aired 16 October 1972 • 75 min
The story of a man serving a 30-year prison sentence for killing a cop
3. Carson Country
Aired 23 October 1972 • 75 min
A story about the origin of the Stormont state
4. Man Friday
Aired 30 October 1972 • 75 min
The story of Robinson Crusoe from Man Friday's viewpoint
5. Triple Exposure
Aired 6 November 1972 • 75 min
A hippie breaks into the house of a middle-aged couple and forms a relationship with them
6. Better than the Movies
Aired 13 November 1972 • 75 min
A man celebrating his birthday comes to appreciate the difference between media fantasy and mundane reality.
7. The General's Day
Aired 20 November 1972 • 75 min
An elderly general woos a shy school teacher.
8. The Bankrupt
Aired 27 November 1972 • 75 min
A washed-up executive is on the verge of bankruptcy.
9. Just Your Luck
Aired 4 December 1972 • 75 min
A pregnant teenager sets about wooing a sailor in a sectarian council estate in Greenock.
10. The Bouncing Boy
Aired 11 December 1972 • 75 min
A young couple have a baby boy. However, the new father doesn't take to his new position quite as well as expected.
11. Shakespeare or Bust
Aired 8 January 1973 • 75 min
The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going to Stratford-upon-Avon on a barge
12. Land of Green Ginger
Aired 15 January 1973 • 75 min
Faced with the prospect of being sent to work abroad, Sally Brown returns home from London to Hull, to see if she still feels the same attachment for her home town - and for her old boyfriend Mike Thurlow. Will she decide to take the job abroad or return to live with Mike in Hull?
13. Kisses at Fifty
Aired 22 January 1973 • 69 min
A long-married husband leaves his family for a barmaid.
14. Highway Robbery
Aired 29 January 1973 • 75 min
A man fights council plans to demolish his home to make way for a new bypass.
15. Song at Twilight
Aired 5 February 1973 • 75 min
The story of a defiant football manager in terminal decline
16. Only Make Believe
Aired 12 February 1973 • 75 min
As a playwright dictates notes about his newest play to his secretary, scenes from the play are acted out.
17. For Sylvia or The Air Show
Aired 19 February 1973 • 75 min
Was this the finest hour? Sifting the truth and fiction about the Battle of Britain, Burrows and Harding give their own account of how the nation sees its heroes - and itself.
18. The Operation
Aired 26 February 1973 • 75 min
David Adler is an operator. He strips assets, other men's wives, and his oldest friend's soul - anything for a cool million.
19. Access to the Children
Aired 5 March 1973 • 75 min
Malcolmson spends every Sunday taking his children to the zoo, reflecting on the breakdown of his marriage and the events that brought about his divorce. Is there a chance the family can be brought back together?
20. Hard Labour
Aired 12 March 1973 • 75 min
The trials of an overworked and underappreciated housecleaner
21. Man Above Men
Aired 19 March 1973 • 75 min
"I'm the judge's daughter - I think he's a monstrous old man. I think all men who say 'I'm only doing my job' are monstrous. I've despaired of changing him. But I'd stop short of killing him."
22. Speech Day
Aired 26 March 1973 • 75 min
Three underachievers have fun at a school speech day
23. Steps Back
Aired 14 May 1973 • 75 min
"Fifteen years since I was forced t' leave, forced t' leave me roots, the territory of me heart." When Gerry takes his fiancée Nita home to Brighouse, what will they find?
24. Three's One
Aired 4 June 1973 • 75 min
Are Maggie and Tony using each other as a means of communicating with Dr Leafer? Or are they using Dr Leafer as a means of communicating with each other?
25. Edward G.--Like the Film Star
Aired 11 June 1973 • 75 min
Edward G. is nothing like a film star; his life has been ordinary - until now. But he's just had a shattering experience. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
26. Blooming Youth
Aired 18 June 1973 • 75 min
The problems of four people sharing an apartment
27. The Stretch
Aired 25 June 1973 • 75 min
Everyone always looked after Maureen. But her husband comes home after two years in prison and finds she has grown up and he's not ready for the change.
28. Making the Play
Aired 2 July 1973 • 75 min
They no longer live together because, after 11 years, the marriage is over. So why is she always turning up to see him at the most embarrassing times? And why doesn't he send her away?