Drama

The Best Episodes of ScreenPlay

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

Binge this in 10h 31m•Peaking at 9.1/10

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    ScreenPlay Season 4 Episode 8 - The Spirit of Man
    9.1/10(35 votes)

    S4:E8

    In pursuit of faith, God and the Devil, spells are cast, buckets of water thrown and men with black beards dance and sing.

    Directors:Geoff Feld, Peter Barnes
    Writer:Peter Barnes

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  2. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 11 - Shift Work
    8.6/10(6 votes)

    S1:E11

    Julie, a cab driver, collects a fare from the local airport one evening. Unfortunately he dies of a suspected heart attack on his way home in her taxi and Julie has to decide how best to handle the situation.......

    Director:Angela Pope
    Writers:Angela Pope, Lesley Bruce

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  3. ScreenPlay Season 3 Episode 11 - Starlings
    8.6/10(53 votes)

    S3:E11

    Gary Wilson loses his factory job, retrains as a butler and under the patronage of a wealthy young woman finds success in the City.

    Director:David Wheatley
    Writer:Andy Armitage

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  4. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 7 - The Shutter Falls
    8.4/10(16 votes)

    S2:E7

    A 19th Century photographer travels to the North of Scotland to document the fishing industry, where he falls in love with one of the Gaelic-speaking fish gutting girls

    Director:Peter Barber-Fleming
    Writer:N.M. MacDonald

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  5. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 9 - Wedded
    8.3/10(11 votes)

    S5:E9

    A husband drives throughout the night on a voyage of self-discovery, while his wife waits at home, raking over the ashes of their marriage as their child sleeps in the next room.

    Director:Malcolm McKay
    Writer:Jim Cartwright

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  6. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 2 - Broke
    8.3/10(7 votes)

    S6:E2

    A man and his wife, who are proprietors of a struggling window-covering business, agree to install curtains in an exclusive club patronized by a wealthy friend of theirs. After completing the job, the shop owner has great difficulty collecting payment for the job. His "friend" becomes scarce and Spall finds he has no legal foot to stand on since there is no written record of the informal transaction. With the couple's business floundering due to mounting debts, and their former friend's crass attitude towards their predicament, anger and frustration reach the boiling point.

    Director:Alan Dossor
    Writer:Stephen Bill

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of ScreenPlay

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  7. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 10 - Journey to Knock
    8.2/10(36 votes)

    S6:E10

    Journey to Knock humorously follows three disabled men on their pilgrimage from the North of England to Knock shrine in Co. Mayo.

    Director:David Wheatley
    Writer:William Ivory

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  8. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 1 - Amongst Barbarians
    8.1/10(42 votes)

    S5:E1

    Two teenage boys, Ralph and Bryan, are in a jail in Malaysia, awaiting death. They have been found guilty of smuggling drugs. 48 hours before their execution, their parents arrive to visit them.

    Director:Jane Howell
    Writer:Michael Wall

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  9. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 3 - Brick Is Beautiful
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    S1:E3

    'Bricks have a future, Mr Clark - you can count on that. They're out there waiting to be taken!' 'There is one small problem.' 'What's that?' 'Well - they're still attached to buildings, most of them, aren't they?' Steve thinks there is a fortune in reclaimed bricks. But how will his ambition affect his girlfriend, Maureen, and his mates, Brad, Dez and Snapper?

    Director:David Wheatley
    Writer:Andy Armitage

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  10. ScreenPlay Season 3 Episode 8 - The Black and Blue Lamp
    8.0/10(28 votes)

    S3:E8

    In 1949, Tom Riley is arrested for the murder of PC George Dixon. As he awaits interrogation at the station, he is mysteriously transported into an episode of "The Filth", a 1988 police series where the hard men rule.

    Director:Guy Slater
    Writer:Arthur Ellis

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  11. ScreenPlay Season 8 Episode 1 - Love Lies Bleeding/L'Inconnue de Belfast
    8.0/10(43 votes)

    S8:E1

    Conn is an IRA murderer serving a life sentence in an Irish prison. He is given a 24 hour home leave during which he goes from point to point in Belfast looking to revenge his lover's murder.

    Director:Michael Winterbottom
    Writer:Ronan Bennett

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  12. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 10 - Road
    7.9/10(357 votes)

    S2:E10

    Your tour guide for the night is one drunken man called Scullery. Prepare yourself for the experience of your lifetime as he shows you an average night along a derelict Lancashire road in the 1980s.

    Director:Alan Clarke
    Writer:Jim Cartwright

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  13. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 1 - The Countess Alice
    7.9/10(86 votes)

    S7:E1

    A reporter is assigned a then-and-now piece on a 50-year old photospread of three society beauties. One of them, Lady Alice Munroe, now the widowed Grafin von Holzendorf, has agreed to be interviewed. A few questions set the Grafin's daughter, Connie, thinking about her past, and she sets off for her fatherland, now that the Berlin wall is down, to find out where she comes from. But what she finds out may destroy her relationship with her mother.

    Director:Moira Armstrong
    Writer:Allan Cubitt

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  14. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 11 - Needle
    7.8/10(29 votes)

    S5:E11

    Danny and Paula are a young married couple with a baby. They are moving up in the world, leaving their high-rise for a house of their own. The future of their marriage is threatened by only one thing: Danny is a heroin addict.

    Director:Gillies MacKinnon
    Writer:Jimmy McGovern

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  15. ScreenPlay Season 8 Episode 4 - Safe
    7.8/10(171 votes)

    S8:E4

    Kaz and her friends spend their days trying to get by and their nights in a homeless shelter. But how did they end up there and what does the future hold for them?

    Director:Antonia Bird
    Writer:Al Hunter Ashton

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  16. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 9 - The Marlowe Inquest
    7.7/10(9 votes)

    S1:E9

    In an unscripted inquest, three practicing barristers interrogate actors portraying relevant figures of the 16th century in order to determine what really happened to the playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe.

    Director:Anthony Garner
    Writer:Simon Whitworth

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  17. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 5 - Man to Man
    7.7/10(32 votes)

    S7:E5

    A German woman takes on her husband's identity after his death, and spends the next 40 years impersonating him.

    Director:John Maybury
    Writer:Manfred Karge

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  18. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 1 - Redemption
    7.6/10(21 votes)

    S6:E1

    After 16 years away Stan Peachey returns to his village. His wife still loves him but his sister wants revenge. What was his crime?

    Director:Malcolm McKay
    Writer:Malcolm McKay

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  19. ScreenPlay Season 8 Episode 3 - The Vision Thing
    7.6/10(16 votes)

    S8:E3

    In the run-up to a General Election, the British Prime Minister thinks he is receiving messages from God.

    Director:Pedr James
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 3 - Bad Girl
    7.5/10(25 votes)

    S7:E3

    A young single mother has to convince the authorities that she is a fit parent.

    Director:George Case
    Writer:Guy Hibbert

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  21. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 5 - Drums Along Balmoral Drive
    7.4/10(6 votes)

    S1:E5

    'I don't think at first I thought at all. I had a nice house, lovely kids. I didn't think about blacks at all. I should've done, but I didn't. They were just there.'

    Director:Jane Howell
    Writer:Douglas Livingstone

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  22. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 4 - Carianai and the Courtesans
    7.4/10(16 votes)

    S2:E4

    A painter falls in love with a woman whom he suspects may be a thief and a prostitute.

    Director:Leslie Megahey
    Writer:Leslie Megahey

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  23. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 8 - Christine
    7.3/10(341 votes)

    S2:E8

    Depiction of the everyday life of a teenage heroin addict.

    Director:Alan Clarke
    Writers:Alan Clarke, Arthur Ellis

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  24. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 2 - Force of Duty
    7.3/10(14 votes)

    S7:E2

    RUC detective Simpson Gabby is consumed by guilt after he fails to act decisively in a moment of terror. As the pressure on him builds, Gabby gradually loses control of his life.

    Director:Pat O'Connor
    Writer:Bill Morrison

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  25. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 2 - Antonia and Jane
    7.1/10(360 votes)

    S5:E2

    Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest friend Antonia McGill knows about everything. She orders the right food; she can complain and get results. She's beautiful and has a brilliant career. Is it any wonder that they hate each other's guts?

    Director:Beeban Kidron
    Writer:Marcy Kahan

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Spirit of Man" is the best rated episode of "ScreenPlay". It scored 9.1/10 based on 35 votes. Directed by Geoff Feld, Peter Barnes and written by Peter Barnes, it aired on 8/23/1989. This episode scored 0.5 points higher than the second highest rated, "Shift Work".