7.1/1085 votes#1 - Soft Targets
Season 13 Episode 1 - Aired 10/19/1982
A story about a homesick Russian journalist in London at the end of the cold war
Director: Charles Sturridge
Writer: Stephen Poliakoff
- 7.1/1011 votes
#2 - Three Minute Heroes
Season 13 Episode 2 - Aired 10/26/1982
Out on the streets, young people looking for fun. They come together at nights to listen to their music. For as long as the song lasts, they're heroes. Three minute heroes.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#3 - The Remainder Man
Season 13 Episode 3 - Aired 11/2/1982
Jack's obsession with the possibility of nuclear war sees him usher his family down into his home made fall out shelter after a nuclear strike hits the country. Will their time in confinement draw them together or push them apart?
Director: Richard Wilson
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/1021 votes
#4 - Intensive Care
Season 13 Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/1982
A man holds a lonely vigil at the bedside of his dying father.
Director: Gavin Millar
Writer: Alan Bennett
- NaN/100 votes
#5 - A Mother Like Him
Season 13 Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/1982
A family of five orphaned children are going to be split up into different homes. What will happen if the eldest is officially made their foster parent?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#6 - John David
Season 13 Episode 6 - Aired 11/23/1982
After giving birth to a Down's Syndrome baby, Judith decides she doesn't want to keep him. Obliged to register the birth she arbitrarily chooses John David as the name. A few months later she learns the baby has died.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/108 votes
#7 - Aliens
Season 13 Episode 7 - Aired 11/30/1982
In June 1940 Italy entered the war. With Britain threatened by a German invasion thousands of Italians were seized and thrown into security camps, with other friendly aliens - and Nazis.
Director: David Maloney
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/10152 votes
#8 - Another Flip for Dominick
Season 13 Episode 8 - Aired 12/14/1982
Two years after his journey to the past, Dominick Hide has been promoted to instructor and is no longer a time traveller. Then one of his pupils, Pyrus Bonnington, goes missing during a visit to 1982 London. Hide must track him down and prevent Pyrus damaging the past, but will the temptation to re-visit his own history be too strong to resist?
Director: N/A
Writer: Jeremy Paul
- 7.0/108 votes
#9 - Last Love
Season 13 Episode 9 - Aired 3/1/1983
Annabel, an upper-middle-class widow, falls in love with Jack, a self-made man of humble origins. Her grown-up children do not approve.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.4/108 votes
#10 - Gates of Gold
Season 13 Episode 10 - Aired 3/8/1983
In 1959 County Antrim, two traveling evangelists help a mentally retarded teenager
Director: Jon Amiel
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#11 - Wayne and Albert
Season 13 Episode 11 - Aired 3/15/1983
Wayne goes to live with his grandfather Albert. Initial generation gap hostilities between them are eventually overcome as a mutual respect develops through a their shared love of carpentry and snooker.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.1/1011 votes
#12 - Atlantis
Season 13 Episode 12 - Aired 3/22/1983
Goff and Lytton have a dream - a canal boat of their own on which to cruise the inland waterways: The reality is the boatyard of Josh Adkins and a rusting hulk called Atlantis.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.3/109 votes
#13 - The Last Term
Season 13 Episode 13 - Aired 4/5/1983
Devon 1940. The boys of the local public school are alerted after a German parachute drop and as members of the Local Defence Volunteers they prepare to put their youthful enthusiasm for war into practice.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#14 - Reluctant Chickens
Season 13 Episode 14 - Aired 4/12/1983
Malcolm is a GP wrestling with ideas of retirement, while his wife Jo is a frustrated, would-be novelist. Together they dream of a more contented life, but are hampered by the arrested development of their children who won't leave home.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#15 - Shall I Be Mother?
Season 13 Episode 15 - Aired 4/19/1983
Susan and Jenny are aged 13 and 14 and in care. Jenny's mother has died, Susan hasn't seen hers for years Both influence the close, stormy relationship that develops between the two girls.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#16 - The Falklands Factor
Season 13 Episode 16 - Aired 4/26/1983
The 18th century writer Samuel Johnson writes a political pamphlet protesting the British going to war with Spain after the 1790 invasion of the Falkland Islands.
Director: Colin Bucksey
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1056 votes
#17 - A Matter of Choice for Billy
Season 13 Episode 17 - Aired 5/10/1983
When his father leaves Belfast to seek work in England, a young man looks after his sister
Director: Paul Seed
Writer: N/A
- NaN/100 votes
#18 - Floating Off
Season 13 Episode 18 - Aired 8/24/1983
A businessman tries to keep his son from finding out about an unconventional deal he and his secretary are making with a merchant bank.
Director: N/A
Writer: Stephen Davis
The Best Episodes of Play for Today Season 13
Every episode of Play for Today Season 13 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Play for Today Season 13!
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 13 Ratings Summary
"Soft Targets" is the best rated episode of "Play for Today" season 13. It scored 7.1/10 based on 85 votes. Directed by Charles Sturridge and written by Stephen Poliakoff, it aired on 10/19/1982. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "Three Minute Heroes".