Every season of Play for Today ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Play for Today!

A man tries to break the world's record for nonstop piano playing

The Long Distance Piano Player

A couple look for the proper school, not for their children but for themselves.

The Right Prospectus

""The Lie"" refers to the 8-year marriage of a couple who are constantly hurting each other.

The Lie

A man claiming to be an angel enters the household of a bored housewife and teaches the family a few lessons.

Angels Are So Few

A man is made redundant but can't bring himself to let anyone know, plunging into a web of deceit as he keeps up the charade he is still in work.

The Write-Off

A man has a mid-life crisis in his brother's pub where sees life as a game show

I Can't See My Little Willie

A newly-appointed knight finds his celebrations cut short by someone who was witness to his treachery during the war.

A Distant Thunder

A TV host and his architect brother attend their father's funeral

Hearts and Flowers

A woman living in a country cottage thinks that someone is trying to get her.

Robin Redbreast

A petty thief and social misfit finagles his way into a church congregation

The Hallelujah Handshake

A civil servant working abroad revisits his old school

Alma Mater

A cynical student has a radically different view of life from his landlady, leading to conflict. Matters come to a head when he sleeps with her fourteen-year-old brother.

Circle Line

A couple are distressed by the changes in their adopted teenage son when he joins a biker gang.

Hell's Angel

An old couple refuse to move when they find out that they can't take their piano with them

The Piano

Billy, a self-employed coal-shoveller, gains a seedy business partner and competition in the form of a rival coal-shoveller.

Billy's Last Stand

A man who attempted suicide by jumping out a window is saved only to live in a coma, in which he has fantasies about his relatives and nightmare creatures.

The Rainbirds

Charges that the Rev 'Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation.

Reddick

An odd menage a trois results when a woman and her lover are visited by her long-lost husband

The Foxtrot

When an injured baby arrives at the hospital, a social worker looks for the parents

When the Bough Breaks

A trilogy of plays--A Time to Keep, The Whaler's Return, and Celia--exploring the life of the islanders in the past and present

Orkney

The story of the Pilkington glass workers strike of 1970

The Rank and File

A succesful novelist Edith lives with her husband and his friend, but she decides to ask the friend to leave.

The Man in the Sidecar

The story of a disintegrating marriage told through family photos

Everybody Say Cheese

The Cellar and the Almond Tree

A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists

Traitor

Edna, the Inebriate Woman is a British television drama written by Jeremy Sandford which was transmitted by the BBC as part of the Play for Today series on 21 October 1971. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, Irene Shubik produced it.

The play deals with an elderly woman, Edna, who wanders through life in an alcoholic haze without a home, a job or any money. A rambling, pathetic yet defiant woman, Edna sleeps rough and begs for food and shelter and the drama follows her progress as she moves from hostel to hostel, going to a psychiatric ward and then prison along the way. Jeremy Sandford, who had previously written Cathy Come Home, researched the play by living rough himself for two weeks.

A great deal of the dialogue and the incidents in the play come from the book, 'Down and Out in Britain' published by Jeremy Sandford in 1971; although the majority of the speakers in the book are male, Jeremy Sandford puts much of their speech into the mouth of the female character.

The film features the only notable acting role of British actor Vivian MacKerrell, the real-life inspiration for the character Withnail in Withnail and I.

At the 1972 British Academy Television Awards, the play won the Best Drama Production category, with Patricia Hayes receiving the award for Best Actress.

Edna, the Inebriate Woman

Frank is worried that he's over the hill when he reaches his 38th birthday. Conversations with his wife, lover and best friend do nothing to allay his concerns.

Evelyn

The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students

O Fat White Woman

A social satire in which advertisers realise that having a blind beggar as the public face of charities would help make them seem more appealing to donors.

Thank You Very Much

Michael Regan

An awkward relationship develops between the families of a trade unionist and the regional manager when the son of the former wins a university scholarship from their employer.

Skin Deep

Two sworn enemies, one black and the other white, are forced to confront their prejudices when they are forced together by circumstance.

A retired miner devotes his waking hours to his racing pigeons.

The Pigeon Fancier

A story about four elderly "loonies" living in a rest home

Home

A marriage can be lonely when the children have left home, as Nelson and Maud find out. Maud leaves in the middle of an unloving picnic, and Nelson follows - both sharing their stories with a series of strangers.

Still Waters

In Cornwall, just before World War I, a striking miner befriends a cop

Stocker's Copper

A married couple move into the house on Highbury Hill and find some eccentric neighbours.

The House on Highbury Hill

A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica

In the Beautiful Caribbean

A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course

Ackerman, Dougall and Harker

A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa

The Villa Maroc

A social worker tries to help a painfully shy young man and takes him for a visit to a country farm.

Cows

A Time to Keep

The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing

The Fishing Party

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.

The Reporters

The story of a man serving a 30-year prison sentence for killing a cop

A Life Is for Ever

A story about the origin of the Stormont state

Carson Country

The story of Robinson Crusoe from Man Friday's viewpoint

Man Friday

A hippie breaks into the house of a middle-aged couple and forms a relationship with them

Triple Exposure

A man celebrating his birthday comes to appreciate the difference between media fantasy and mundane reality.

Better than the Movies

An elderly general woos a shy school teacher.

The General's Day

A washed-up executive is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The Bankrupt

A pregnant teenager sets about wooing a sailor in a sectarian council estate in Greenock.

Just Your Luck

A young couple have a baby boy. However, the new father doesn't take to his new position quite as well as expected.

The Bouncing Boy

The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going to Stratford-upon-Avon on a barge

Shakespeare or Bust

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?

Land of Green Ginger

A long-married husband leaves his family for a barmaid.

Kisses at Fifty

A man fights council plans to demolish his home to make way for a new bypass.

Highway Robbery

The story of a defiant football manager in terminal decline

Song at Twilight

As a playwright dictates notes about his newest play to his secretary, scenes from the play are acted out.

Only Make Believe

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.

For Sylvia or The Air Show

David Adler is an operator. He strips assets, other men's wives, and his oldest friend's soul - anything for a cool million.

The Operation

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?

Access to the Children

The trials of an overworked and underappreciated housecleaner

Hard Labour

"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."

Man Above Men

Three underachievers have fun at a school speech day

Speech Day

"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?

Steps Back

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?

Three's One

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.

Edward G.--Like the Film Star

The problems of four people sharing an apartment

Blooming Youth

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.

The Stretch

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?

Making the Play

Mrs Palfrey tries hard to be accepted by the other residents at the Claremont. But then she meets Ludo and a real friendship begins.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

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.

Her Majesty's Pleasure

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?

Jack Point

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?

The Emergency Channel

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.

Mummy and Daddy

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?

Private Practice

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?

Shutdown

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.

Baby Blues

Family Christmas, presents, drink, Christmas Eve at the club, Boxing Day football - but, among the celebrations, some hard home-truths.

Jingle Bells

A young farmgirl begins a romance with an artist

The Lonely Man's Lover

An elderly politician looks back over his career while being interviewed by a TV producer.

All Good Men

A pet shop owner forsakes his religious beliefs when his daughter gets cancer

Joe's Ark

Sauna baths are supposed to relax you, but it rather depends who you meet in there.

Hot Fat

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.

Easy Go

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.

Headmaster

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.

Penda's Fen

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."

Pigeon--Hawk or Dove?

Further adventures of three Derbyshire miners

Three for the Fancy

The exploitation of the Scottish land and its people from the 18th century to the present

The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil

A young man persuades a woman that he is her son.

Schmoedipus

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.

The Childhood Friend

The friendship of two residents of a retirement home ends up in marriage

A Follower for Emily

About a strike in a textile factory, based on a true story

Leeds--United!

After the stillbirth of her illegitimate baby, a woman steals a baby at random and is sentenced to 9 months in prison.

Baby Love

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.'

Back of Beyond

The first (and last) day at work of a young apprentice in a bevelling shop at a Glasgow glass factory

The Bevellers

"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.

Taking Leave

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.

Fugitive

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?

Eleanor

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.

The Best Seasons of Play for Today

The Best Seasons of Play for Today

Season 2

Season 7

Season 8

Season 5

Season 3

Season 13

Season 14

Season 1

Season 12

Season 4

Season 6

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11