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 (22)
1. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Aired 18 October 1973 • 75 min
Mrs Palfrey tries hard to be accepted by the other residents at the Claremont. But then she meets Ludo and a real friendship begins.
2. Her Majesty's Pleasure
Aired 25 October 1973 • 75 min
They are all 'in' for life so the pleasures are sparse, and strictly of their own making. Their really big event is the Christmas pantomime, only this year they have lost their star. Mother Bear has escaped. Still, there is some consolation. The new arrival looks a likely Goldilocks. 'There's one or two who'll be after him,' says Woodbine - and he knows all their weaknesses.
3. Jack Point
Aired 1 November 1973 • 75 min
An amateur operatic society is preparing a Gilbert and Sullivan production, and someone new is needed for the role of Jack Point - but who will break this to the veteran who's always done it?
4. The Emergency Channel
Aired 8 November 1973 • 75 min
Dean has a rare talent. He can be made happy. He exudes happiness and confidence like a rare blossom. Both Sarah in the past, and Julia now, could do this for him. But where are they now that he is alone in Battersea Park with two suitcases and no memory?
5. Mummy and Daddy
Aired 15 November 1973 • 75 min
An early retirement and a seaside bungalow-for Arthur and Marion it's not a chance to miss, especially since their son is buying the bungalow. Arthur's full of plans - GCE, garden, beach-not to mention his own "bit of an interesting diversion." But after a year the delight is beginning to tarnish.
6. Private Practice
Aired 22 November 1973 • 75 min
Why does Sylvia Payne , with her successful husband and luxurious home, get in such a flap about her daughter's school friend coming to visit?
7. Shutdown
Aired 29 November 1973 • 75 min
Bernie gets a temporary job as an electrician during a factory's annual minimal workforce period. But what secrets is Bernie hiding, and is he really all he claims?
8. Baby Blues
Aired 6 December 1973 • 75 min
After ten years of trying, Lavinia, and a large team of medics, finally manage to produce a live baby. She should now be able to start living her dream, but what happens next is not at all the paradise she has been looking forward to.
9. Jingle Bells
Aired 13 December 1973 • 75 min
Family Christmas, presents, drink, Christmas Eve at the club, Boxing Day football - but, among the celebrations, some hard home-truths.
10. The Lonely Man's Lover
Aired 17 January 1974 • 75 min
A young farmgirl begins a romance with an artist
11. All Good Men
Aired 31 January 1974 • 75 min
An elderly politician looks back over his career while being interviewed by a TV producer.
12. Joe's Ark
Aired 14 February 1974 • 75 min
A pet shop owner forsakes his religious beliefs when his daughter gets cancer
13. Hot Fat
Aired 21 February 1974 • 75 min
Sauna baths are supposed to relax you, but it rather depends who you meet in there.
14. Easy Go
Aired 7 March 1974 • 75 min
A group of Deptford youngsters hang about by the River Thames on a hot day. When they and some nearby dockers spot a valuable copper boiler floating in the river the two rival factions try to get at it first. The youngsters succeed, but on their way to the totter's yard they are waylaid by the adults, who take the copper off them.
15. Headmaster
Aired 14 March 1974 • 75 min
Fisher is good at his job but in new circumstances that isn't enough: he has to face the risks of competition for something bigger.
16. Penda's Fen
10.0Aired 21 March 1974 • 75 min
Summer 1955, and pastor's son Stephen must come to terms with his own identity amid societal pressure, religious guilt and his own imaginings. Penda's Fen is a British television play which was written by David Rudkin and directed by Alan Clarke. Commissioned by BBC producer David Rose, it was transmitted as part of the corporation's Play for Today series.
17. Pigeon--Hawk or Dove?
Aired 28 March 1974 • 75 min
At the climax of the School Sports something went drastically wrong. Now, Wallace Pidgeon faces the contradictory demands of the bird-watching headmaster, his pupils, his pork-magnate father-in-law and his "child bride."
18. Three for the Fancy
Aired 11 April 1974 • 75 min
Further adventures of three Derbyshire miners
19. The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
Aired 6 June 1974 • 75 min
The exploitation of the Scottish land and its people from the 18th century to the present
20. Schmoedipus
Aired 20 June 1974 • 75 min
A young man persuades a woman that he is her son.
21. The Childhood Friend
Aired 27 June 1974 • 75 min
On holiday, with his family, nothing to do and his wife ill, Sasha is only too pleased to meet again the girl he loved at 17.
22. A Follower for Emily
Aired 4 July 1974 • 75 min
The friendship of two residents of a retirement home ends up in marriage