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 (25)
1. Plaintiffs and Defendants
Aired 14 October 1975 • 75 min
A married barrister's life begins to unravel when it seems that his high-strung mistress may reveal all.
2. Two Sundays
Aired 21 October 1975 • 75 min
An author tells an old school chum that he is about to publish a novel revealing their old relationship.
3. Moss
Aired 28 October 1975 • 75 min
Moss is a miser whose only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes, and Moss is "reborn."
4. 84 Charing Cross Road
Aired 4 November 1975 • 75 min
An American woman corresponds with a London bookshop owner over a period of 20 years
5. Keep an Eye on Albert
Aired 11 November 1975 • 75 min
Terry has begun to neglect his wife for a life of drinking, weight lifting, pigeon racing and other women. But when his best friend Albert returns from the navy and begins to pay Terry's wife some attention, what will be the outcome?
6. Children of the Sun
Aired 18 November 1975 • 75 min
"You expect to face a bit of danger when you travel. Half the fun of it. But you keep cool and bluff your way out. After all, we're all British aren't we?"
7. After the Solo
Aired 25 November 1975 • 75 min
A boy enjoys success in the choir until his voice breaks at puberty.
8. Through the Night
Aired 2 December 1975 • 75 min
A woman goes into hospital to receive treatment for breast cancer.
9. A Passage to England
Aired 9 December 1975 • 75 min
A group of Asians plans to sneak into England using a fishing boat
10. Rumpole of the Bailey
Aired 16 December 1975 • 75 min
Rumpole defends a young West Indian boy accused of attempted murder.
11. The Other Woman
Aired 6 January 1976 • 71 min
An aggressive lesbian disrupts the lives of those around her.
12. Nuts in May
Aired 13 January 1976 • 75 min
Smug married couple Keith and Candice Marie “keen exponents of their belief in organic health food, exercise and the environment” are on a camping holiday, where they find that it is not always easy to be tolerant of others when they don't share the same enthusiasms.
13. Doran's Box
Aired 20 January 1976 • 75 min
A long-distance lorry driver; a spaceman; a volunteer under reduced environmental conditions; a man in solitary confinement: the discomfort of these people is shared by Doran - when he can't put his finger on the panic button.
14. Packman's Barn
Aired 27 January 1976 • 75 min
John Barrett returns to his remote hill farm after 20 years to deal with some unfinished business, and finds himself once again in conflict with the locals.
15. A Story to Frighten the Children
Aired 3 February 1976 • 75 min
A woman encounters trouble when she arrives home late at night, but her neighbors on a nearby estate claim to have seen and heard nothing.
16. The Happy Hunting Ground
Aired 10 February 1976 • 75 min
The fish quay is a happy hunting ground for an ambitious young rogue like Bob, who has an eye on the boss's business - and all that goes with it.
17. The Jumping Bean Bag
Aired 17 February 1976 • 75 min
An end-of-term play with a difference as Ozzie and the boys break into a hard rock number. But even though they make the big time, success has its darker side.
18. Clay, Smeddum and Greenden
Aired 24 February 1976 • 75 min
A play based on three short stories about the Scottish people and their relationship with the land: ""Clay"" concerns a farmer's obsession with his fields to the exclusion of his dying wife; ""Smeddum"" is about an indomitable woman and her large family; and ""Greenden"" tells the story of an unhappy woman from the city living with her indifferent husband in the country.
19. Love Letters on Blue Paper
Aired 2 March 1976 • 75 min
Why has Sonia taken to writing letters to her husband, posted to him in the letter-box just outside their house - love letters, on blue paper, recalling with increasing vividness the early days of their courtship and marriage?
20. Willie Rough
Aired 9 March 1976 • 75 min
A story depicting life in a shipyard
21. Tiptoe through the Tulips
Aired 16 March 1976 • 75 min
A divorced woman is introduced to a separated man at an awkward dinner party.
22. The Peddler
Aired 23 March 1976 • 75 min
One pill, and you're floating on air. A different one, and you're full of lead. Married, mortgaged, broke, a love-affair gone sour - which drug can help Alec?
23. Early Struggles
Aired 30 March 1976 • 75 min
A story about a father's attempts at single parenthood
24. Double Dare
Aired 6 April 1976 • 75 min
A playwright spends an afternoon in a hotel room with an actress who takes on the role of call girl for research purposes.
25. The House of Bernarda Alba
Aired 28 July 1976 • 75 min
The eldest daughter of a domineering, overprotective mother becomes engaged to an unprincipled young man who has money.