Oct 1970 - Aug 1984
3.2
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Browse episode ratings trends for Play for Today. Simply click on the interactive rating graph to explore the best and worst of Play for Today's 309 episodes.
S10 Ep18
10.0
21st Feb 1980
Twenty years ago, at the age of 56, this extraordinary woman became a national hero by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. One of the last great English eccentrics (even though she was Russian) in the last days of English innocence.
S10 Ep5
10.0
8th Nov 1979
In Glasgow, a young man's sole aim is to be as tough as his dying grandfather once was
S10 Ep3
10.0
25th Oct 1979
Budding comedians take an evening class taught by a retired performer and, for their final exam, must perform for an impresario in a nightclub.
S5 Ep12
10.0
20th Feb 1975
A elderly couple become disillusioned when they retire to their favorite holiday resort.
S2 Ep19
10.0
1st Jun 1972
The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing
S2 Ep3
10.0
28th Oct 1971
Frank is worried that he's over the hill when he reaches his 38th birthday. Conversations with his wife, lover and best friend do nothing to allay his concerns.
S8 Ep14
9.5
24th Jan 1978
The story of a single mother of four living on welfare
S14 Ep9
9.0
3rd Apr 1984
A man who has had a good life in England wants to retire to Jamaica, but the celebration with his daughters doesn't go as expected.
S11 Ep8
9.0
9th Dec 1980
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.
S9 Ep13
9.0
23rd Jan 1979
A young man and an old woman try to fit in when their neighborhood goes West Indian
S7 Ep15
9.0
5th Apr 1977
A pair of plays, broadcast over two weeks, about mining life: ""Meet the People,"" about a coal mining community preparing for a royal visit, and ""Back to Reality,"" about a coal mining disaster that brings tragedy to a community.
S4 Ep19
9.0
6th Jun 1974
The exploitation of the Scottish land and its people from the 18th century to the present
S4 Ep3
9.0
1st Nov 1973
An amateur operatic society is preparing a Gilbert and Sullivan production, and someone new is needed for the role of Jack Point - but who will break this to the veteran who's always done it?
S12 Ep16
8.0
16th Feb 1982
A family in Belfast deals with life after the death of the mother from cancer
S10 Ep4
8.0
1st Nov 1979
Stephen Piper is a quiet young man. A virgin, he shows no interest in sex, and is cruelly scorned by an aggressive female neighbour when he rebuffs her advances. He lives with his mother, an overbearing woman who mocks him for being wet. But Stephen has a secret. An accurate and heartfelt depiction of the challenges he faces and a fascinating glimpse at the gender politics of the day.
S10 Ep27
1.0
24th Apr 1980
During World War II, an idealistic young woman joins the Army Transport Service
S1 Ep1
3.0
15th Oct 1970
A man tries to break the world's record for nonstop piano playing
S13 Ep17
4.0
10th May 1983
When his father leaves Belfast to seek work in England, a young man looks after his sister
S9 Ep21
5.0
24th Jul 1979
A young wife tries to cope with her abusive husband.
S10 Ep7
5.0
29th Nov 1979
Exploration of the events leading up to 1975 Spaghetti House siege in London and the motivation of its three protagonists, T-Bone Wilson, Archie Pool, and Trevor Thomas.
S1 Ep21
6.0
20th May 1971
The story of the Pilkington glass workers strike of 1970
S4 Ep15
6.0
14th Mar 1974
Fisher is good at his job but in new circumstances that isn't enough: he has to face the risks of competition for something bigger.
S7 Ep9
6.0
11th Jan 1977
A young man's chances at romance are thwarted by his own shyness.
S7 Ep16
6.0
12th Apr 1977
A student holds his teacher hostage in the classroom on the last day of school.
S9 Ep20
6.0
10th Apr 1979
A closeted homosexual writer is content to lead a double life
S12 Ep1
6.5
20th Oct 1981
The story of the disintegration of an aristocratic country estate after World War II
S6 Ep12
6.7
13th Jan 1976
Smug married couple Keith and Candice Marie “keen exponents of their belief in organic health food, exercise and the environment” are on a camping holiday, where they find that it is not always easy to be tolerant of others when they don't share the same enthusiasms.
S1 Ep3
7.0
29th Oct 1970
""The Lie"" refers to the 8-year marriage of a couple who are constantly hurting each other.
S2 Ep1
7.0
14th Oct 1971
A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists
S3 Ep11
7.0
8th Jan 1973
The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going to Stratford-upon-Avon on a barge
S1 Ep1
3.0
15th Oct 1970
A man tries to break the world's record for nonstop piano playing
S1 Ep2
8.0
22nd Oct 1970
A couple look for the proper school, not for their children but for themselves.
S1 Ep3
7.0
29th Oct 1970
""The Lie"" refers to the 8-year marriage of a couple who are constantly hurting each other.
S1 Ep4
5th Nov 1970
A man claiming to be an angel enters the household of a bored housewife and teaches the family a few lessons.
S1 Ep5
12th Nov 1970
A man is made redundant but can't bring himself to let anyone know, plunging into a web of deceit as he keeps up the charade he is still in work.
S1 Ep6
19th Nov 1970
A man has a mid-life crisis in his brother's pub where sees life as a game show
S1 Ep7
26th Nov 1970
A newly-appointed knight finds his celebrations cut short by someone who was witness to his treachery during the war.
S1 Ep8
3rd Dec 1970
A TV host and his architect brother attend their father's funeral
S1 Ep9
10th Dec 1970
A woman living in a country cottage thinks that someone is trying to get her.
S1 Ep10
17th Dec 1970
A petty thief and social misfit finagles his way into a church congregation
S1 Ep11
7th Jan 1971
A civil servant working abroad revisits his old school
S1 Ep12
14th Jan 1971
A cynical student has a radically different view of life from his landlady, leading to conflict. Matters come to a head when he sleeps with her fourteen-year-old brother.
S1 Ep13
21st Jan 1971
A couple are distressed by the changes in their adopted teenage son when he joins a biker gang.
S1 Ep14
28th Jan 1971
An old couple refuse to move when they find out that they can't take their piano with them
S1 Ep15
4th Feb 1971
Billy, a self-employed coal-shoveller, gains a seedy business partner and competition in the form of a rival coal-shoveller.
S1 Ep16
11th Feb 1971
A man who attempted suicide by jumping out a window is saved only to live in a coma, in which he has fantasies about his relatives and nightmare creatures.
S1 Ep17
18th Feb 1971
Charges that the Rev 'Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation.
S1 Ep18
29th Apr 1971
An odd menage a trois results when a woman and her lover are visited by her long-lost husband
S1 Ep19
6th May 1971
When an injured baby arrives at the hospital, a social worker looks for the parents
S1 Ep20
13th May 1971
A trilogy of plays--A Time to Keep, The Whaler's Return, and Celia--exploring the life of the islanders in the past and present
S1 Ep21
6.0
20th May 1971
The story of the Pilkington glass workers strike of 1970
S1 Ep22
27th May 1971
A succesful novelist Edith lives with her husband and his friend, but she decides to ask the friend to leave.
S1 Ep23
3rd Jun 1971
The story of a disintegrating marriage told through family photos
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, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
The first episode of Play for Today aired on October 15, 1970.
The last episode of Play for Today aired on August 28, 1984.
There are 309 episodes of Play for Today.
There are 14 seasons of Play for Today.
No.
Play for Today has ended.
