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

Drama written by Will Self and starring David Tennant as Will, the artist, who observes life in minute detail, providing a witty and acerbic critique of his life. When a tragedy occurs, Will is forced to reconsider the trust he has in the urban-suburban, middle-class landscape of his middle-aged friends.

The Minor Character

Melba teaches ballroom dancing and likes to play whist. Her 51 year-old son still lives at home working at the dreaded social security office. His dream is to go onto the stage which, despite a catalogue of disasters, he triumphantly does – with a little help from his mother.

Nellie and Melba

Comedy-drama starring Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons) as Nixon. This is a verbatim account of Nixon’s time in the Oval office, based on more than 198 hours of recordings made between February 1971 and 1973. This brilliant film is a fascinating account of his controversial and often farcical time in office.

Nixon's the One

Tina works part time as a cleaner. Ron’s been made redundant by the bottle factory. The lives of this long-term married couple are turned upside-down with the surprise visit of their best friend from the fifties and deep feelings are rekindled.

King of the Teds

Riding a wave of popular opinion after footage of her defiant stance against London rioters becomes an internet hit, an ordinary woman finds herself as the capital’s first female Mayor.

City Hall

CARE stars Gina McKee as Natalie, a nurse whose relationship with an elderly patient and other residents on the notorious Byker Estate forces her to confront her own fears and isolation.

Care

Set in a post-apocalyptic Britain, a lone sniper (Henshall) must fend off plague carriers and rescue stranded communities in order to survive. But is this landscape of a destroyed civilisation all that it seems?

The Snipist

An intruder breaks into the Queen’s bedroom at dawn. They discuss love, family and personal freedom before the police arrive to take him away.

Walking the Dogs

Hidden in an exclusive hotel, a cabal of powerful individuals debates international politics, economics and war. A chilling look at how an unelected few control the fate of the masses.

The Man

Life imitates art as a successful TV writer and his actress wife’s failing marriage is mirrored in the show he writes and she stars in. But can they work out their problems on screen or is their relationship doomed to fail?

The Other Woman

This comedy puts history’s most famous women into the psychiatrist’s chair. Starring Rebecca Front as the therapist, and featuring Catherine Tate as Eva Braun and Édith Piaf, Sharon Horgan as Jane Austen and Frieda Kahlo, Katy Brand as Joan of Arc and George Eliot, Sheila Reid as Mother Theresa, Sam Spiro as Mary Whitehouse and Judy Garland, Selina Griffiths as Beatrix Potter and Andy Nyman as Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Psychobitches

For every star that is born...one has to die. When the star of the show suffers a tragic accident who is to blame? The understudy? A faulty trap door? Or the theatre's lucky cat? A dark comedy-drama about drama.

Hey Diddly Dee

A 50 year old John Lennon sits in a dingy kitchen, smoking a roll up, unemployed and on his uppers. This John Lennon walked out on the Beatles in 1962 before the hits -- before they changed music for ever.

Snodgrass

A disturbance at Union Square leads to some strange encounters for two policemen in this funny and poignant portrait of loneliness in the city.

The Call Out

Idris Elba writes and directs this taut drama in which accountant Anna Friel strikes up a unique relationship with homeless man Nonso Anozie.

Pavement Psychologist

In a funny and thought-provoking tale co-created by artist Grayson Perry, a transvestite battling with issues of self-doubt tries to overcome his fears.

Mr. Understood

Five theatre enthusiasts will stop at nothing to let their idols know how they truly feel...even if it means causing a little accidental grievous bodily harm along the way.

Stage Door Johnnies

Matt Smith makes his directorial debut with a tense and stylish drama about two teenagers stuck on a council estate. Written by Simon Stephens, it stars Craig Roberts.

Cargese

Based on Ricky Tomlinson's true experiences campaigning to overturn a verdict which sent him to jail for 2 years in the early 1970s. While in prison and on hunger strike, Ricky is encouraged by a prison governor to read Robert Tressell's book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists -- which changed his life forever.

Ragged

Chris has a unique gift,the ability to heal the sick by touching them. He is also a germophobe,which makes him shy away from human contact and live a lonely,secluded life. His sister Eleanor is scornful of his inability to connect with the rest of his family but then he meets Mona,a new colleague and single mother and - in all likelihood - his very first date. But at the same time his mother May is admitted to hospital with cancer. Can his new-found confidence after meeting Mona enable him to save his mother's life?

Gifted

Psychobitches: Episode 1

Lonely man Jonah begins throwing his dog in the air and catching him after witnessing a charismatic man doing the same in a local park.

The Dog Thrower

While on location in the Czech Republic for a remake of the vampire classic, our tormented lead flees the set in full Dracula costume. Teaming up with petty crook Fonso, his revenge against his director and his wife will involve his best acting talents - and twelve thousand rats.

Nosferatu in Love

Mobile Hairdresser Jacky is one week from her silver anniversary dream cruise. But is husband Andy's hesitation just simple concern - or are darker forces at play?

The Cruise

Two contrasting police officers tries to get through a long nightshift in South-East London.

The Nightshift

Strippers Badger and the androgynous Fox, who poses as a boy, have kidnapped Ezra, a punter who injured one of their colleagues, and have him prisoner in a hotel room.

Foxtrot

Dudley and John are two old men who gain a new lease of life thanks to a voluntary space mission.

Space Age

Two stressed social workers struggle to keep control of their private lives and chaotic office.

Damned

Drama about the burgeoning relationship between a World War II widow and her great-granddaughter.

Timeless

In 1980s Hackney nine-year old Akuna's proud father sees him as the next Eddy Grant, but Akuna is asthmatic, which means he must attend a special school for children with disabilities and before long he has fallen foul of sadistic teacher Mr Grimme, who labels him Asthma Boy. Akuna however, with the help of a cheeky Scots fellow student, soon leads the rest of the class into humiliating Mr Grimme, making Akuna King for a Term

King For a Term

Playhouse Presents is a series of self-contained TV plays, made by British broadcaster Sky Arts. The series started airing on 12 April 2012, on Sky Arts 1. Each episode is written by a different writer and stars a different cast.

The four-part adaptation of A Country Doctor's Notebook was also broadcast on the strand in December 2012.

Sky Arts have announced that they are ordering a five-part spin-off of the third play, Nixon’s The One. They say the full cast, including Harry Shearer as Nixon and Henry Goodman as Kissinger, will return for the series run, which will be filmed in September 2012. The series will broadcast in 2013.

The second series began airing in April 2013 featuring Kathy Burke, Frances Barber, Julia Davis, Idris Elba, Anna Friel, Rebecca Front, Stephen Graham, David Harewood, Ian Hart, Sharon Horgan, Mathew Horne, Suranne Jones, Kylie Minogue, Vanessa Redgrave, Peter Serafinowicz, Matt Smith, Johnny Vegas, Marc Warren, Jack Whitehall and Reggie Yates.

The Best Seasons of Playhouse Presents

The Best Seasons of Playhouse Presents

Season 2

Season 3

Season 1