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. Leeds--United!
Aired 31 October 1974 • 75 min
About a strike in a textile factory, based on a true story
2. Baby Love
Aired 7 November 1974 • 75 min
After the stillbirth of her illegitimate baby, a woman steals a baby at random and is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
3. Back of Beyond
Aired 14 November 1974 • 75 min
Olwen lives in a tumbledown farm up in the mountains - a lonely widow, virtually a recluse. Her only human contact is with the occasional shopkeeper and young Rachel, who delivers her papers. For Rachel, her visits to Olwen are half adventure, half honest friendship. But they also mean a time to 'put aside childish things.'
4. The Bevellers
Aired 21 November 1974 • 75 min
The first (and last) day at work of a young apprentice in a bevelling shop at a Glasgow glass factory
5. Taking Leave
Aired 28 November 1974 • 75 min
"Well, I hope I won'be seeing you come home in that uniform much more. Six years - that's long enough out of any man's life." Mike's time is nearly up. The army gives him a weekend pass so he's home from Ulster to decide whether to sign on again. His parents want him to stay but he's wondering whether the family's own flare-ups aren't a bit too like the Troubles he has left behind.
6. Fugitive
Aired 5 December 1974 • 75 min
After 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway friars are officially "fugitives" who must be persuaded back to their order.
7. Eleanor
Aired 12 December 1974 • 75 min
Eleanor is unable to communicate her inner thoughts as she's bullied at school and virtually ignored by her parents. With a mundane working existence awaiting her, she desires a chance at another life - but at what cost?
8. Gangsters
Aired 9 January 1975 • 75 min
A story exploring the Birmingham underworld
9. The After Dinner Game
Aired 16 January 1975 • 75 min
Vice-Chancellor Bartley Humbolt has problems. His young university is almost bankrupt, his wife is threatening to leave him, his protége professor from industry is threatening to overshadow him, and his prestigious professor of history is threatening to resign. But Bartley is a born manipulator. And when he gives a dinner party, he has something very special in mind - for afters.
10. Breath
Aired 23 January 1975 • 75 min
A story about an asthma sufferer
11. The Death of a Young, Young Man
Aired 30 January 1975 • 75 min
Three young students suspended from school face various problems.
12. Sunset Across the Bay
Aired 20 February 1975 • 75 min
A elderly couple become disillusioned when they retire to their favorite holiday resort.
13. Funny Farm
Aired 27 February 1975 • 75 min
One day in the life a nurse in a mental hospital
14. Goodbye
Aired 6 March 1975 • 75 min
"All I said was the gramophone's too loud." Tony and Zoe Lyle 's silly row starts like any other, but Tony finds that Zoe means it this time. She's walking out and he's got a week to save a marriage that he hasn't looked at in 18 years, and with it all the trappings of a good life in Maida Vale.
15. Just Another Saturday
Aired 13 March 1975 • 75 min
A young man participating in the Orange Parade in Glasgow becomes disillusioned with the pageant when he discovers its unpleasant and violent history and witnesses the participants' attacks on Catholics.
16. A Child of Hope
Aired 24 April 1975 • 75 min
Thirty-seven men from the disputed territory of South West Africa are on trial for their lives in Pretoria, 1,000 miles from their home. They are to be tried under South Africa's Terrorism Act despite the UN ruling that South Africa must abandon its "illegal administration" of their country.
17. The Saturday Party
Aired 1 May 1975 • 75 min
When a stockbroker loses his job, he decides to throw a party.
18. Wednesday Love
Aired 8 May 1975 • 75 min
Two women, looking for amusement on their afternoons off, visit a drinking club.
19. The Dandelion Clock
Aired 15 May 1975 • 75 min
In Belfast, a girl awaits the return of her missing father.
20. Brassneck
Aired 22 May 1975 • 75 min
England, 1945-75: Builder Alfred Bagley makes a fortune, with a little help from his friends.
21. The Floater
Aired 29 May 1975 • 75 min
A comedy about the law - seen from the inside. All formality and procedure on the surface but not quite so convincing when you see the works.
22. By Common Consent
Aired 5 June 1975 • 75 min
Political fantasy about a fascist regime