Play for Today

Oct 21, 1980 · 1h 15m

Colin Pasmore tests his strength against his family ties but finds them stronger than he ever imagined.

Oct 28, 1980 · 1h 15m

"In heaven there is no drama - drama depends on failure and conflict. My trade is a scrutiny of hell. For any proud dramatist his style is his prejudice."

Nov 4, 1980 · 1h 15m

Writer-director John McGrath deliberately shies away from naturalism in an experiment that mixes blue screen, songs, and characters realising they're acting within a play. This first of two parts sees Frank travel to a hostile London.

Nov 11, 1980 · 1h 15m

Nov 18, 1980 · 1h 15m

Kay Gilbert goes into hospital for a minor operation which goes badly wrong. This play tells the story of her fight for compensation.

Nov 25, 1980 · 1h 15m

What could Steve Jackson's documentary film expose that must be concealed from the African leaders meeting in Brussels? Steve Jackson is on the run and the wrong decision could prove fatal.

Dec 2, 1980 · 1h 15m

Twelve-year-old Jude has never met Dick, his father. One Sunday afternoon Dick impulsively engineers a meeting, which has distressing consequences.

Dec 9, 1980 · 1h 15m

Dominick Hide, a time traveller from London in the year 2130, is studying the city's transport system of 1980. Breaking the rules, he lands his craft to seek out his great-grandfather. Compared to his anaesthetised home, 80s London is filthy and polluted...and yet...it exudes an excitement that soon draws him in.

Dec 16, 1980 · 1h 15m

Clive admits himself to a psychiatric hospital after undergoing a breakdown. His wife wants him back home, but in order for Clive to be released, he has to want to be cured.

Dec 23, 1980 · 1h 15m

In Victorian times, a nanny cares for a mute boy, who becomes overly attached to her.

Jan 6, 1981 · 1h 15m

A vacation at a seaside hotel in Ireland changes the lives of four friends.

Jan 13, 1981 · 1h 15m

The problems of an owner of a building contractor company in Liverpool

Jan 20, 1981 · 1h 15m

"They're nice affable gobblers and we're in the nice affable gobbling business." Tom and Gwen soon find that their gastronomical retreat from the rat race is anything but an escape when the Porters come to dine.

Jan 27, 1981 · 1h 15m

"They say that in the wood you get what nearly everybody here is longing for - a second chance." J. M. Barrie's fantasy play, depicting alternative realities for its characters and their eventual return to real life.

Feb 3, 1981 · 1h 15m

A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.

Feb 10, 1981 · 1h 15m

The head of a multinational corporation wants to do business with the Soviets

Feb 17, 1981 · 1h 15m

A group of men hold a reunion dinner in Tokyo

Feb 24, 1981 · 1h 15m

You know the nuts and bolts of our policy? To penetrate the unions. To use all sorts of stratagems, manoeuvres, illegal measures, evasions, subterfuges, to carry on Communist activities inside them at all cost.

Mar 3, 1981 · 1h 15m

Two very different women share an office, a common enemy, and a sense of humour.

Mar 10, 1981 · 1h 15m

When her 17-year-old son Roy falls in love with a Muslim girl, and a Bangladeshi butcher seeks help from her husband Raji, Leela realizes that the tears and romance of Indian cinema are closer to her own life than she has ever imagined.

Mar 17, 1981 · 1h 15m

Six lifers living in an experimental self-rehabilitation unit attached to an ordinary prison participate in a group therapy session. All of them have spent many years in prison and have little chance of ever getting out.

Mar 24, 1981 · 1h 15m

An evening with the Parent-Teacher Association gets out of hand.

Mar 31, 1981 · 1h 15m

When the dynamic young head-master of St Peter's Primary School decides to liven up a parents' fund-raising social by hiring a Bavarian band, he little suspects the hidden passions that are about to be unleashed.

Apr 7, 1981 · 1h 15m

Nancy and Ella are two bored housewives starved of affection when their husbands are away on the oil rigs. The rules are simple: have some fun, just make sure nobody finds out, and you don't get emotionally involved.

Apr 14, 1981 · 1h 15m

It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help - or are the emotions around a new baby more complex than anyone had expected?

Apr 28, 1981 · 1h 15m

Soldiers are subjected to a brutal and sadistic kind of psychological training exercise

May 12, 1981 · 1h 15m

Soldiers are captured and interrogated by terrorists: but is it real or only a sadistic form of psychological training exercise?