Drama1965–1983BBC One

The Best Episodes of BBC Play of the Month

Every episode of BBC Play of the Month ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of BBC Play of the Month!

Best episode
S15E2 On Approval
8.986 votes
Worst episode
S4E2 The Male Animal
3.012 votes
Top season
Season 15
8.2avg
Binge time
4d 15h
127 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons16

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    BBC Play of the Month Season 15 Episode 2 - On Approval
    8.9/10(86 votes)

    S15:E2

    Wealthy widow Maria invites long-time dinner companion Richard to spend a month at her house in Scotland. If she still likes him after a month together, they will marry. Mutual friends George, Duke of Bristol and his companion Helen decide to make it a foursome.

    Director:David Giles
    Writer:Frederick Lonsdale

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  2. BBC Play of the Month Season 5 Episode 7 - Howards End
    9.5/10(21 votes)

    S5:E7

    A businessman thwarts his wife's bequest of an estate to another woman.

    Director:Donald McWhinnie
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. BBC Play of the Month Season 10 Episode 6 - The School for Scandal
    9.5/10(19 votes)

    S10:E6

    Scandalmonger Lady Sneerwell controls a nest of gossipy vipers, and young Lady Teazle, bored by her elderly husband Sir Peter, has been lured into the circle too.

    Director:Stuart Burge
    Writer:Richard B. Sheridan

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  4. BBC Play of the Month Season 1 Episode 4 - Gordon of Khartoum
    9.7/10(15 votes)

    S1:E4

    The story of Charles 'Chinese' Gordon, a brilliant but eccentric military commander, and his death defending Khartoum in 1885.

    Director:Rudolph Cartier
    Writer:Robin Maugham

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  5. BBC Play of the Month Season 2 Episode 3 - Corridors of Power
    9.7/10(12 votes)

    S2:E3

    Concerns the attempts of an English MP to influence the country's policy on nuclear weapons in the 1950s.

    Director:Raymond Menmuir
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. BBC Play of the Month Season 3 Episode 5 - Cyrano de Bergerac
    9.6/10(13 votes)

    S3:E5

    Long-nosed Cyrano de Bergerac helps an army officer woo Roxanne, the woman he loves.

    Director:James MacTaggart
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of BBC Play of the Month

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  7. BBC Play of the Month Season 6 Episode 8 - Don Juan in Hell
    9.4/10(14 votes)

    S6:E8

    In Hell, Don Juan argues with the Devil, and confronts a woman from his past.

    Director:Basil Coleman
    Writer:George Bernard Shaw

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  8. BBC Play of the Month Season 4 Episode 1 - St. Joan
    9.5/10(12 votes)

    S4:E1

    In 15th century France, a teenage peasant leads the army to victories against the English after claiming she has heard the voices of saints.

    Director:Waris Hussein
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. BBC Play of the Month Season 9 Episode 6 - The Importance of Being Earnest
    8.8/10(31 votes)

    S9:E6

    Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ('Ernest') on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities.

    Director:James MacTaggart
    Writer:Oscar Wilde

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  10. BBC Play of the Month Season 4 Episode 4 - Waters of the Moon
    9.4/10(12 votes)

    S4:E4

    Lonely people in a quiet hotel find their lives shaken up by the arrival of the glamorous, assertive Helen Lancaster.

    Director:Herbert Wise
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. BBC Play of the Month Season 6 Episode 6 - Candida
    9.3/10(13 votes)

    S6:E6

    Idealistic Reverend Morell tries to unite Socialism and Christianity.

    Director:Alan Cooke
    Writer:George Bernard Shaw

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  12. BBC Play of the Month Season 10 Episode 1 - The Linden Tree
    9.5/10(10 votes)

    S10:E1

    In 1947 England, in the home of Professor Robert Linden, chair of modern history at the provincial University of Burmanley, rationing and austerity seem to have fostered opportunism, escapism and confrontation within the Linden family, gathered to celebrate Robert's 65th birthday and each of whom is struggling with their own crises.

    Director:Moira Armstrong
    Writer:J. B. Priestley

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  13. BBC Play of the Month Season 1 Episode 5 - Where Angels Fear to Tread
    9.2/10(13 votes)

    S1:E5

    After a rich Edwardian widow impulsively marries a handsome but poor Tuscan dentist and dies in childbirth, her English in-laws try to gain custody of the baby.

    Director:Don Taylor
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. BBC Play of the Month Season 3 Episode 2 - The Moon and Sixpence
    9.3/10(11 votes)

    S3:E2

    Loosely inspired from Gauguin's life, Charles Strickland is a middle-aged stockbroker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting, what he has always wanted to do. He is from now on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.

    Director:Donald McWhinnie
    Writer:Clive Exton

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  15. BBC Play of the Month Season 13 Episode 5 - The Sea
    9.3/10(11 votes)

    S13:E5

    In 1907, after a tempestuous storm claims the life of a well-known and loved member of the community, the reactions of the villagers are explored, as well as the attempts by two young lovers to break away from the constraints of the hierarchical, and sometimes irrational, society.

    Director:Jane Howell
    Writer:Edward Bond

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  16. BBC Play of the Month Season 7 Episode 9 - The Playboy of the Western World
    9.2/10(12 votes)

    S7:E9

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. BBC Play of the Month Season 13 Episode 6 - The Beaux Stratagem
    9.2/10(12 votes)

    S13:E6

    Two gentlemen have fallen on hard times, so they plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on, but romance gets in the way.

    Director:David Hugh Jones
    Writer:George Farquhar

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  18. BBC Play of the Month Season 5 Episode 5 - In Good King Charles's Golden Days
    9.1/10(13 votes)

    S5:E5

    No description available

    Director:Basil Coleman
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. BBC Play of the Month Season 7 Episode 4 - The Cherry Orchard
    8.8/10(20 votes)

    S7:E4

    Madamr Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocrat who returns from Paris to face the loss of her magnificent cherry orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the repossessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.

    Director:Cedric Messina
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. BBC Play of the Month Season 11 Episode 3 - Love's Labour's Lost
    8.5/10(39 votes)

    S11:E3

    A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

    Director:Basil Coleman
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. BBC Play of the Month Season 12 Episode 3 - Look Back in Anger
    9.2/10(10 votes)

    S12:E3

    A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

    Director:John Glenister
    Writer:John Osborne

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  22. BBC Play of the Month Season 10 Episode 2 - Electra
    9.1/10(11 votes)

    S10:E2

    In the city of Mycenae, a few years after the Trojan War, a bitter struggle for justice is undertaken by Electra and her brother Orestes for the murder of their father Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus.

    Director:Michael Lindsay-Hogg
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. BBC Play of the Month Season 15 Episode 1 - I Have Been Here Before
    8.5/10(27 votes)

    S15:E1

    Guests at a small hotel are disquieted by the insistence of a mysterious doctor that he has been there before.

    Director:James Ormerod
    Writer:J. B. Priestley

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  24. BBC Play of the Month Season 15 Episode 5 - The White Guard
    8.8/10(12 votes)

    S15:E5

    In late 1918 Ukraine, the various armies of the Ukrainian War of Independence (the White Army, the Red Army, the Imperial German Army and Ukrainian nationalists) fight over the city of Kiev, leaving the fate of the Turbin family in ambiguity.

    Director:Don Taylor
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. BBC Play of the Month Season 1 Episode 9 - The Devil's Eggshell
    8.7/10(14 votes)

    S1:E9

    The discovery of mysterious egg-shaped objects at the sites of a series of disasters lead people to believe that we are being attacked by alien beings, but it is revealed to be a conspiracy hatched by a team of scientists intent on using an alien menace to unite the world. But their scheme backfires with fatal consequences...

    Director:Gareth Davies
    Writer:David Weir

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Best Episodes Summary

"On Approval" is the best rated episode of BBC Play of the Month. It scored 8.9/10 from 86 votes. Directed by David Giles and written by Frederick Lonsdale, it aired on June 21, 1982.

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