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The Best Episodes of Play for Today Season 12

Every episode of Play for Today Season 12 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Play for Today Season 12!

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,...
Genre:Drama
Network:BBC One

Season 12 Ratings Summary

"Country" is the best rated episode of "Play for Today" season 12. It scored 7/10 based on 96 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 10/20/1981. This episode is rated 0.7 points higher than the second-best, "London Is Drowning".

  • Country
    7.0/1096 votes

    #1 - Country

    Season 12 Episode 1 - Aired 10/20/1981

    The story of the disintegration of an aristocratic country estate after World War II

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • London Is Drowning
    6.3/1016 votes

    #2 - London Is Drowning

    Season 12 Episode 2 - Aired 10/27/1981

    A docudrama about what would happen if London was hit by severe flooding

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • A Room for the Winter
    NaN/100 votes

    #3 - A Room for the Winter

    Season 12 Episode 3 - Aired 11/3/1981

    James, an expatriate South African anti-apartheid fighter, deals with his nightmares and his complaining landlady in a run-down area of London, while dreaming of his lover Stephen, left behind.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • No Visible Scar
    6.6/1013 votes

    #4 - No Visible Scar

    Season 12 Episode 4 - Aired 11/17/1981

    A nurse is subjected to an interrogation after giving medical treatment to a terrorist leader.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain
    7.8/1013 votes

    #5 - Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain

    Season 12 Episode 5 - Aired 11/24/1981

    In Belfast, Ruby has a cold and is caught in the rain while Iris is looking for work and gets caught in traffic

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Protest
    6.0/109 votes

    #6 - Protest

    Season 12 Episode 6 - Aired 12/1/1981

    In an adaptation of Václav Havel's play, a dissident, newly released from prison for political reasons, attempts to get his well-connected friend to sign a protest. In this one man play, both the roles are played by Nigel Hawthorne.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • United Kingdom
    8.8/1030 votes

    #7 - United Kingdom

    Season 12 Episode 7 - Aired 12/8/1981

    Two men on a local council fight the system when forced with massive spending cuts.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • PQ17
    6.7/1014 votes

    #8 - PQ17

    Season 12 Episode 8 - Aired 12/15/1981

    During World War II, a British officer is ordered to abandon a Russian convoy.

    Director: Frank Cox

    Writer: N/A

  • The Factory
    6.3/1021 votes

    #9 - The Factory

    Season 12 Episode 9 - Aired 12/22/1981

    A manager, a foreman, and two workers are all that remains of a factory yet labor relations stay the same

    Director: Gerald Blake

    Writer: N/A

  • England's Green and Pleasant Land
    7.2/109 votes

    #10 - England's Green and Pleasant Land

    Season 12 Episode 10 - Aired 1/5/1982

    A planning decision must be made, and the motorway extension must go through on either the Golf Course or the Allotments - will the greens survive or the peasant lands?

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • A Cotswold Death
    6.1/1088 votes

    #11 - A Cotswold Death

    Season 12 Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1982

    A police inspector investigates the murder of an Arab sheik who had become a village's Lord of the Manor.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Under the Skin
    6.5/109 votes

    #12 - Under the Skin

    Season 12 Episode 12 - Aired 1/19/1982

    Three women involved in different ways in the women's movement.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Commitments
    6.0/1010 votes

    #13 - Commitments

    Season 12 Episode 13 - Aired 1/26/1982

    Politics and relationships during the last years of the Heath government

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Life After Death
    6.5/1020 votes

    #14 - Life After Death

    Season 12 Episode 14 - Aired 2/2/1982

    Meg: We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Silly Season
    6.7/1010 votes

    #15 - The Silly Season

    Season 12 Episode 15 - Aired 2/9/1982

    Malcolm goes through life hating the mundanity of his existence as a factory worker and an unloved husband. But when students take up summer jobs at the factory, it reawakens both his passion for political feeling and romantic urges.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Too Late to Talk to Billy
    7.9/1093 votes

    #16 - Too Late to Talk to Billy

    Season 12 Episode 16 - Aired 2/16/1982

    A family in Belfast deals with life after the death of the mother from cancer

    Director: Paul Seed

    Writer: N/A

  • Willie's Last Stand
    7.8/1022 votes

    #17 - Willie's Last Stand

    Season 12 Episode 17 - Aired 2/23/1982

    Willie and his friends notice the passage of time around them, and how society is changing as their marriages stagnate. Can Willie prove to himself that he still has it, by being able to cheat on his wife just once?

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Tishoo
    6.6/1012 votes

    #18 - Tishoo

    Season 12 Episode 18 - Aired 3/9/1982

    Frank has dedicated 19 years to researching a cure for the common cold, and is almost ready to publish a paper. Yet budget cuts and his own inability to form real relationships with those around him threaten to derail the project.

    Director: Gerald Blake

    Writer: N/A

  • Home Sweet Home
    7.2/10299 votes

    #19 - Home Sweet Home

    Season 12 Episode 19 - Aired 3/16/1982

    Home Sweet Home is a 1982 television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh, for BBC TV, 'about postmen, parenthood, social workers and sex.' It was Leigh's second collaboration with Play for Today producer Louis Marks, and cinematographer Remi Adefarasin, and with composer Carl Davis - the music score featured a quartet of basses -. It stars Timothy Spall, here working with Leigh for the first time, Eric Richard, Tim Barker, Kay Stonham, Su Elliot, Frances Barber, Sheila Kelley, and Lorraine Brunning. It was first broadcast on 16 March 1982. The film was shot on location in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. 90 minutes.

    Director: Mike Leigh

    Writer: Mike Leigh

  • A Sudden Wrench
    7.2/1014 votes

    #20 - A Sudden Wrench

    Season 12 Episode 20 - Aired 3/23/1982

    "My life is over - and I just didn't notice it passing." A call to a radio helpline leads to depressed housewife Christine finding a new direction in life.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Eve Set the Balls of Corruption Going
    6.9/1013 votes

    #21 - Eve Set the Balls of Corruption Going

    Season 12 Episode 21 - Aired 3/30/1982

    Adolescents will always be obsessed by the same old subject, even when they are educated by nuns. Six ex-Classmates meet for the first time in 12 years and hilarious memories change into highly emotional situations.

    Director: David Maloney

    Writer: N/A

  • Whistling Wally
    6.9/1010 votes

    #22 - Whistling Wally

    Season 12 Episode 22 - Aired 4/6/1982

    While Wally was happy there wasn't much wrong with the world, and pints seemed a small price to pay for what he gave us. But don't forget what we gave him. We gave him the knowledge he was important, at least to us.

    Director: Gerald Blake

    Writer: N/A