Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-250 of 304
- Todays theme is the United Kingdom.
- Set against the backdrop of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the play depicts a single mother's struggles in this highly polemical and unremittingly bleak diatribe against government welfare cuts from the poor and disabled.
- 1970–19841h 30m8.6 (42)TV EpisodeDrama documentary adaptation of John McGrath's play staged by the 7:84 theatre company dealing with the exploitation of the Scottish people throughout history, from the brutal evictions of the Highland crofters by landowners to make way for the more economically viable Cheviot sheep in the 18th century, the development of stag hunts in Highland game parks in the 19th century and finally the exploitation of resources during the oil boom of the 1970's.
- Danny Duggan's rough-house business methods and lifestyle owe more to early influences than the CBI. But with the bottom falling out of the building game playing at gangster is only fun on the winning side.
- Dishillusioned by his rich, aristocratic upbringing in Britain, top foreign office diplomat Adrian Harris became a spy for the Russians. He escaped to Moscow after being found out and it is there that, a few years later, a group of Western journalists come in search of his story. He disgusts them with his drunken ranting, but, unknown to them, he has good reason to conceal his true feelings.
- 1970–19841h 8m8.4 (9)TV Episode"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.
- Three miners plan a weekend fishing.
- Everyone seems to have a theory about young Stephen's private life. So quiet and self-contained, he must have some secret. Only he is sure of his own identity - both sexual and social. But perhaps he's got it wrong?
- An irreverent barrister chooses to defend a young Jamaican boy accused of stabbing on the same day his only son leaves for college in America.
- Six wannabe stand-up comedians attend an evening class run by Eddie Waters. Eddie is a professional comic and he's determined to teach them that comedy is much more than just jokes.
- Dominick Hide has a mission to study and report on the transport systems of the past, but only as an observer. Yet when his Great Aunt Mavis talks about one of his ancestors, Dominick begins to bend the rules and become involved.
- Autobiographical tale about Viv Nicholson who had a large Football Pools win in the early 1960s, and the ultimately destructive effect it had on her and her family.
- 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.
- Grace Dwyer, a 70-year-old woman, leaves an old people's home to return to her birthplace in Lambeth. She discovers a world that initially looks different, but is in fact all too familiar.
- When a stranger, Glen, appears at the door of middle-aged Elizabeth Carter, he claims to be the illegitimate son she gave away at birth, and she accepts his story.
- Birmingham is a melting pot of races and every community has a stake in the city's underworld. When John Kline is released from prison after serving a sentence for murder, he becomes the unwilling catalyst in a gang war.
- On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, young Elliot finds that all the grown men in his life are somewhat wanting.
- In a play mirroring real-life events, the fictional borough of Taddley is holding a by-election. Despite the concerns of the major parties, support for the far-right organisation "Nation First" is growing among the electorate.
- Teenager Jimmy's life begins to unravel after the death of his father. With his mother promiscuous and his new stepfather and stepbrother difficult to get along with, he begins to fall into a cycle of petty crime and self harm.
- An old couple refuse to move when they find out that they can't take their piano with them.
- Three miners take a boat trip to Stratford-on-Avon.
- A watchmaker finds his livelihood is threatened by cheaply imported digital watches.
- For the BBC's WEDNESDAY PLAY series, Dennis Potter offered one of his "visitation dramas": Housewife Cynthia Nicholls is married to prudish Richard Nicholls. One day, her mundane household chores are interrupted by the arrival on her front step of scruffy, coarse Michael Biddle. He claims to be an angel, but on the face of it, he could simply be a deranged street person. She challenges the angel Michael by pointing out that he has no wings.
- Playwright Christopher Hudson finds his medical problem hinders his writing. He employs secretary Sandra George and dictates his new play to her, but tensions soon develop between the two. As Hudson creates, scenes from his play are dramatized and interpolated. The play being created is Dennis Potter's Angels Are So Few, seen with a totally different cast from the 1970 BBC production.
- Harry Marcus (Ron Moody) is a former welterweight champion mourning the loss of the past and dreaming of a return to the glory years of boxing. When a squatter moves in next door, does he have what it takes to fulfil Harry's dreams?
- Arrested during the Charter 77 purge, Vanek is living under a suspended sentence handed out at his last trial and now only goes into Prague when summoned for an interview by the police.
- When a teacher takes a group of troubled school children on a school trip to Conwy in Wales, the children understand life outside of Liverpool.
- The true story of a strike in 1970 by female textile-factory workers in Leeds who wanted to be paid the same as their male colleagues, but whose efforts were undermined by the trade union that they belonged to.
- Jake lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather, who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other, Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day in Jake's life, as he drifts, drinks and fights, leads to a bleak realisation.
- An elderly English spinster lady lives alone, is heartily disliked, and will not accept aid from anyone. She has lived a life of total denial, but preserves her past in the diaries she keeps on her shelf, one for each year. We learn that her memories of one particular year continue to haunt her. She picks the journal up from time to time, revisiting the early war years, when she met and came to know the one love of her life, an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain, and how it ended in pregnancy and ultimately grief. At the end, she learns to adjust to the idea that managed care can indeed bring new ways to deal with life's disappointments.
- Mrs Palfrey tries hard to be accepted by the other residents at the Claremont. But then she meets Ludo and a real friendship begins.
- Harrowing portrayal of Middle Class Domestic Abuse.
- Dennis Potter's meta commentary on scriptwriting, as Helen meets writer Martin Ellis in a hotel bar to help with his writer's block. Also there is Carol, an escort girl with her client. But are they real, or merely Martin's imaginings?
- Arguably the most famous edition of Play For Today, and one of the most beloved, as Mike Leigh directs a comedy of manners. Middle-class suburbia gets to reveal its darker side over the course of an increasingly uncomfortable drinks party.
- This play, set in 1977, is about rank, responsibilities and relationships within a Belfast family.
- Edna is a drunk, and a homeless one. The play follows her through the streets, the police station, the psychiatric ward and a hostel, which for a while looks like it may become somewhere she can stay.
- In a mental home, two elderly men become unlikely friends.
- Jewish boy loves Catholic girl - will love triumph over family objections?
- It's the day of the Orange Parade in Glasgow, but for Jon, the thrill of leading the parade and swinging the mace soon turns to horror as he learns the truth behind the costumes and songs.
- 1970–19841h 3m7.9 (12)TV EpisodeIris is a young girl looking for employment, while Ruby is an embattled social worker fighting a cold. In a divided Belfast beset by protests and armed patrols, fate constantly tries to draw the two women together.
- A young woman involved in secret work during World War II finds herself in difficulties, and maybe even danger - from her own side.
- Four-year-old Billy lives with an abusive father in a terrible home situation. But can anything be done to change this?
- "People coming to their first AA meeting, prosperous people, sometimes, accustomed to the best. They look round the places where we meet, and you can see them thinking: what am I doing here? I owe my life to these rooms!"
- David Adler is an operator. He strips assets, other men's wives, and his oldest friend's soul - anything for a cool million.
- The invitations are out for Richard and Jane Elkinson's annual Christmas party. Only trouble is stockbroker Richard is out of a job.
- Willie and his friends notice the passage of time around them, and how society is changing as their marriages stagnate. Can Willie prove to himself that he still has it, by being able to cheat on his wife just once?
- An ultra-realistic procedural drama of a social worker's investigation into the case of a battered infant received critical acclaim.
- On holiday, with his family, nothing to do and his wife ill, Sasha (Alexander) is only too pleased to meet again the girl he loved at 17.
- A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.
- Lewis, a gay writer of romantic novels, writes an article on gay issues under the pseudonym of "Zippy Grimes." The reason for this is that he hasn't come out yet and he doesn't want to alienate his mainly female fan-base. The article is a great success and leads to a huge amount of reactions, mainly from other gay men who are leading a double life. He decides to meet a number of these letter writers and eventually is forced to come out.
- 1970–19841h 17m7.8 (98)TV EpisodeThe workers of Milton Colliery prepare for a royal visit by Prince Charles.
- "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."
- Jan and Meg Citron are on holiday in Germany. Their car is stopped by the police. A simple traffic offence? But their seemingly innocent past is ripped open and life will never be the same again.
- Two stories about school. Gotcha by Barrie Keeffe and Campion's Interview by Brian Clark.
- 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.
- An elderly general woos a shy school teacher.
- Christine Potts, in hospital for a routine operation, comes to face the most important crisis in her life.
- Faced with the prospect of being sent to work abroad, Sally Brown returns home from London to Hull, to see if she still feels the same attachment for her home town - and for her old boyfriend Mike Thurlow. Will she decide to take the job abroad or return to live with Mike in Hull?
- Anand, his pretty cousin and their sick uncle. Stranded in Amsterdam. To them England is still the land of fair play and the village green. They seem prepared to offer all they have to get there. And Onslow is prepared to take them -on his terms. Are the two parties wise to trust each other?
- A feisty lesbian moves in with a beautiful younger gay woman. But one of the women also has a boyfriend.
- A marriage can be lonely when the children have left home, as Nelson and Maud find out. Maud leaves in the middle of a unloving picnic, and Nelson follows - both sharing their stories with a series of strangers.
- True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.
- When his father becomes the latest bomb victim Jimmy leaves Belfast and goes to begin a new life on his uncle's farm in the remote west of Ireland. But even here there are links with the past and Jimmy's new start is soon under threat.
- "When we dream of childhood," said Dennis Potter, "we take our present selves with us. It is not the adult world writ small; childhood is the adult world writ large." Since Potter viewed childhood as "adult society without all the conventions and the polite forms which overlay it," he repeated the device he had introduced 14 years earlier (in "Stand Up, Nigel Barton"); children's roles were cast with adult actors in this naturalistic memory drama of a "golden day" that turns to tragedy. On a sunny, summer afternoon in bucolic England of 1943, seven West Country children (two girls, five boys) play in the Forest of Dean. Their games and spontaneous actions (continuous and in real time) reflect their awareness of WWII, but no adults are present to intrude. As the group moves through the woods and back to the grassy hills, their words and actions illustrate how "childhood is not transparent with innocence." When the two girls push a pram into a barn to play house, the casting concept is heightened, doubling back on itself in a remarkable moment: adults are suddenly seen to be acting as children who are pretending to be adults, and lines from Housman echo across the years: "That is the land of lost content/I see it shining plain/The happy highways where I went/And cannot come again."
- A married couple, after a life time of work and bringing up a family, retire and awaken to the fast changing world around them, the habitual nature of their relationship, and what they have left.
- A fifty-year-old factory worker leaves his wife of many years for another woman.
- Norman comes storming into the family home with his new lady friend. But has she managed to achieve the impossible by mellowing the big man?
- 1970–19841h 31m7.6 (77)TV EpisodeA month after the royal visit, the workers at Milton Colliery are brought crashing back down to earth by an underground explosion.
- A couple receives a photograph in the mail of two girls sitting in front of a caravan and neither can identify the people or the place.
- A woman starts work as a nanny to a mute boy in a Victorian household. The boy's growing attachment to her, however, causes far more problems than his original detachment from his family.
- 1970–19841h 9m7.5 (9)TV EpisodeOn August the 15th, 1945, after the official surrender of the Empire of Japan, Admiral Matome Ugaki led the last Special Attack Force pilots across the Pacific, to crash into American ships. Thirty-five years later, the men who serviced the aeroplanes are still meeting up for their annual dinner. Now settled into civilian jobs - dentist, baker, taxi-driver, insurance salesman - and with children and grandchildren, they bemoan the decay of traditional Japanese values. Hard liquor is imbibed, toasts raised to the memory of the heroic dead, and old rivalries resurface. The survivors' dissatisfaction with post-war life comes to a head when, in a moment of drunken inspiration, Tokkotai the airline pilot decides on a symbolic gesture to show that the kamikaze spirit lives on.
- 1941 and Anna Seaton (Kate Nelligan) is hired as part of a radio propaganda project, creating disinformation about the Nazi war effort. But tensions between her and writer Archie MacLean (Bill Paterson) threaten to undermine the work.
- Life at a local radio station on the night of Elvis Presley's death.
- Olwen lives in a tumbledown farm up in the mountains - a lonely widow, virtually a recluse. Her only human contact is with the occasional shopkeeper and young Rachel, who delivers her papers. For Rachel, her visits to Olwen are half adventure, half honest friendship. But they also mean a time to 'put aside childish things.'
- Bernie (Freddie Fletcher) gets a temporary job as an electrician during a factory's annual minimal workforce period. But what secrets is Bernie hiding, and is he really all he claims?
- For a successful man with public responsibilities Alan Berry is strangely reluctant to help the police when his wife is murdered.
- Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who dreams of becoming a professional comedian.
- The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students.
- The story of a defiant football manager in terminal decline. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- The religious beliefs of pet shop owner Joe (Freddie Jones) are shaken by the terminal illness of his daughter Lucy (Angharad Rees). For Potter, this play "makes more than a wry nod at possibilities which can comprehend pain, or disgust, or the implacable presence of death itself."
- An end-of-term play with a difference as Ozzie and the boys break into a hard rock number. But even though they make the big time, success has its darker side.
- Bernadette Scully is determined to celebrate New Year's Eve with her family, even though none of them want to be there. As the party unfolds, it reveals a series of catastrophes and bitter resentments.
- A lonely young man longing to be accepted lies his way into a local church. The priest and his congregation soon begin to unravel his tales as his actions become versatile.
- In 1940, during World War II, an officer is sent to investigate rumors of German spies in a sleepy village where various people are the victims of war hysteria.
- Bunny spends all his day hiding in the woods, too frightened to tell his wife he's not really going to work and is actually unemployed. While there he meets Jody, a man with a frighteningly similar outlook on life.
- It's 1978, a year on from when we last saw the Martin family, and Ma has died. So, everything erupts again when Norman returns from England for the funeral.
- It's not easy being a striker with a strike-breaking policeman billeted in your home but Manuel Stocker and Herbert Griffith manage to make a go of it. Until events turn violent.
- Joe is an 11-year-old boy growing up on the Bogside of Derry, Northern Ireland. A chance meeting with a girl on his way home from school promises to open up his life in an unexpected and exciting way.
- Richard Elkinson, the former stockbroker, is now running a country restaurant. His daughter decides to spring a surprise on him in an attempt to change his life for the better.
- A dramatisation of three short stories by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, adapted by Bill Craig. Loosely interlinked, they explore relationships with land and obsessional nature, all three featuring Fulton Mackay, Bill Fraser and Joan Fitzpatrick.
- Two women, looking for amusement on their afternoons off, visit a drinking club.
- A planning decision must be made, and the motorway extension must go through on either the Golf Course or the Allotments - will the greens survive or the peasant lands?
- A couple are trapped in their marriage and way of life. Locked up in their bourgeois inferno.
- A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence.
- Kate works in the nuclear industry. She is concerned about the way things are being run. So she smuggles out some Plutonium to prove how easy it is. She tries to pass it on to protest groups, but nobody is interested as they have their own agendas.
- Now a respected teacher of temporal observers, Dominick has not visited the past for several years. He is content with his lot, resigned to the idea that he will never again see Jane, the lover he left in 1980, or their son. Then his boss gives him a new mission: to find out what has become of one of Dominick's students, Pyrus Bonnington, who has gone missing in 1982. Pyrus, who idolises Dominick, is attempting to emulate his exploits in the past. Dominick's search reunites him with Jane who now lives with a musician (conveniently on a six-month stint in Brazil) and allows him to meet his son for the first time. Pyrus is attempting to rescue a foreign princess being held to ransom by terrorists, which might have a disastrous affect on future history if he succeeds. Matters become even more complicated when Dominick and Jane quarrel, and he decides to use his time machine to revisit the previous day, and try to repair the rift. Meanwhile, in Dominick's own time, his wife becomes increasingly disenchanted with his dalliance in the past, and runs off with their baby-sitter.
- Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner.
- 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.
- Adolescent love can be difficult at the best of times, but Donal and Sally have special problems - problems which alarm their families and the instructors at Strathvale Centre.
- "You've been a good man with us, Eddie. Made a lot of contacts. But two things you'd better realise. One: a salesman who doesn't sell is a liability. Two: don't charge your private life to our account."
- Follows the antics of Slab Boys Phil, Spanky and Hector as they try to scrape through life in the 50s
- 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.
- A pregnant teenager sets about wooing a sailor in a sectarian council estate in Greenock.
- Malcolmson (Joss Ackland) spends every Sunday taking his children to the zoo, reflecting on the breakdown of his marriage and the events that brought about his divorce. Is there a chance the family can be brought back together?
- An elderly politician looks back over his career while being interviewed by a TV producer.
- Two boys at school in the 1950s. Two professional men in their dubious prime today. Two Sundays and two crises. What have they to do with each other and which child is father of the man?
- When Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sure he's there if his father ever regains consciousness. As he hates his job as a schoolteacher, and his home-life with his wife, her senile mother and their insolent teenage son, he has no qualms about lingering around the hospital. But as days turn into weeks, his father obstinately refuses to 'slip away', and Denis' motivation for staying by his father's bedside has more and more to do with Valery, a young nurse.
- Soldiers are captured and interrogated by terrorists: but is it real or only a sadistic form of psychological training exercise?
- After a long-term relationship ends, Norah moves to a remote house in the country. The locals are friendly., if eccentric. She starts a flirtatious relationship with young gamekeeper, Rob. But events at a festival have her feeling manipulated. Only later, do the consequences of that relationship leave her trapped in a nightmare.
- Why has Sonia taken to writing letters to her husband, posted to him in the letter-box just outside their house - love letters, on blue paper, recalling with increasing vividness the early days of their courtship and marriage?
- "My life is over - and I just didn't notice it passing." A call to a radio helpline leads to depressed housewife Christine finding a new direction in life.
- A TV host and his architect brother attend their father's funeral. This edition remains in the BBC archives only in black and white.
- John Duncan is a 22-year-old boxer with three losses in a row but world title dreams. His manager is an idealist with scruples in a business full of immoral corporate sponsorship. John is given a chance he shouldn't take, but can't refuse.
- A Russian in London finds himself targeted by British Intelligence.
- The working day of nurse Alan Welbeck at a psychiatric ward. Points out the conditions in UK mental hospitals - understaffing, overwork, bad pay, old inadequate buildings and unsatisfactory patient treatment and cure.
- Summer 1955, and pastor's son Stephen must come to terms with his own identity amid societal pressure, religious guilt and his own imaginings.
- A previously unknown painting by Vincent Van Gogh, said to have come from Russia, comes up for sale at a London auction of impressionist paintings. The good order of the sale house is disturbed when someone challenges the picture's authenticity.
- Three boys watch horror films on late night TV and see a man in a local cemetery whom they believe to be a vampire.
- Lovers dream of changing their lives - but it's not easy.
- "Why don't you keep that missus o' yours under control? She ain't exactly doin' you a packet o' good, is she? If she was mine I'd bloody put 'er right, I'll tell yer."
- Mr. Germanou arrives from Cyprus with his family to settle in England. But on his arrival he's arrested for an historical rape with seemingly no defence.
- Arthur's life is becoming miserable as he has to share his family home with an elderly dog and his incontinent father. His neighbour suggests a specialist who can help resolve the situation - but has Arthur fully understood?
- 1970–19841h 18m7.1 (11)TV EpisodeAdolescents will always be obsessed by the same old subject, even when they are educated by nuns. Six ex-Classmates meet for the first time in 12 years and hilarious memories change into highly emotional situations.
- A trilogy of plays - "A Time to Keep", "The Whaler's Return" and "Celia" - exploring the life of the Orkney islanders in the past and present.
- A cynical teenage boy re-evaluates his attitude to life and his parents after his sister is killed in a plane crash.
- A siege situation develops when an attempted robbery of a restaurant goes wrong.
- An Englishman's home is his castle, and Wally aims to prove it.
- A young farm-girl begins a romance with an artist.
- When Joyce appears on the door-step she looks like the perfect 'kindly, respectable lady whom Marcia needs to look after her baby. But Joyce only seems to be the average housewife.
- Kevin's wife walked out, and left him holding the baby. No sleep, dirty nappies - and a career in pop music at risk. And ahead lies a visit to the clinic. Will Kevin succeed as a mother?
- In 1945, the Carlions assemble at an English country house for a family gathering. During the event, they must determine who is to take over the family brewing empire, since the present head of the business, Sir Frederick, is getting old. The results of the 1945 general election causes a major stir, and some angry farmers occupy a barn.
- "Ye spend yer days grindin glass an' at the finish yer life's like slurry at the bottom o' the wheel. The damp gets intae the soles o' yer feet. Yer face turns tae the colour o' pomas an' ye cannae stop it. Somethin' breaks down in the ciest an' the sound o' yer voice gets thin an' one day ye're an old man, bent an' brittle. Don'stay at it, Norrie, get intae the sun an' the fresh air. Don'stay at this trade. For if ye do, it'll bend ye."
- The parochial Lionel and Doris take their daughter on a holiday to Morocco, where they claim they'll make an effort to expand their horizons. But who is the mysterious house servant Ali, and how does he keep appearing and disappearing?
- George, a black South African, finds it hard to settle down in London after his experiences in South Africa.
- A quietly unhappy housewife finds a stranger in her house and is raped at knife-point by him. But when she turns to friends, neighbors and her parents-in-law for sympathy, they all seem preoccupied by other matters.
- Richard Briers plays Commander Jack Broome in a real-life story based on Broome's own published memoirs. Plagued by an admiral's order that saw the P.Q. 17 leave merchant ships to their death, Jack must face his own guilt and culpability.
- One pill, and you're floating on air. A different one, and you're full of lead. Married, mortgaged, broke, a love-affair gone sour - which drug can help Alec?
- When a pay discrepancy continues without any resolution, glass factory workers turn to their union for support. But when it is not forthcoming, they take things into their own hands.
- 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.
- Four students go through their third year studying literature at a polytechnic, and trying to live peacefully together. This includes Jeff and Jim, who have a very opposing dedication towards their study.
- How Mums and Dads feel when they have one.
- A group of house-sharing ex-college friends begin to find their existence disintegrating amid a backdrop of London riots and their own selfishly hedonistic lifestyle.
- Malcolm goes through life hating the mundanity of his existence as a factory worker and an unloved husband. But when students take up summer jobs at the factory, it reawakens both his passion for political feeling and romantic urges.
- Two provincial newspaper reporters - one a young idealist starting out on his career, the other an embittered man who previously wrote for a failed national daily - swap views.
- Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees at a brokerage house.
- 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.
- The friendship of two residents of a retirement home results in marriage.
- A group of people come together to help Soviet dissidents - "to act as horseflies on the Kremlin's rump".
- Like alcoholism, gambling is a disease. Ches, a compulsive gambler, is sent for medical help. A wonder drug perhaps? Or hypnosis maybe? Ches finds that his psychiatrist has other ideas.
- A long-suffering Glasgow housewife puts up with years of her husband's violence and drunkenness - and then something happens which makes her snap and fight back.
- Meg: We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half.
- Torn between a long-suffering wife and a neurotic, demanding mistress, a lawyer suffers a series of personal crises.
- A corporation decides to outsource one of their contracts to the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. As they work with politicians on both sides of the table to keep the story out of the press, they also try to keep the contract.
- Miss Stella Estelle is a cabaret singer in working men's clubs, and she sings songs from the 1960s to support a large and difficult family. But how long can it go on? The backdrop is a family in decay: husband out of work, wife working and still doing the domestics, daughter the singer and hopeful star, son her "manager" but in reality going nowhere. Stella plays a crummy club circuit, singing songs for oldies for £50 a night - She's never going to be a star because of her parents' short-sighted greed.
- A man is hailed as a hero when he attacks a would-be burglar.
- The story of the trial of Willie Gallagher, convicted of bombing the Strabane (Northern Ireland) British Legion Hall in 1976.
- Three men at three different times in history come to Mow Cop Hill in search of sanctuary from their troubles: a Roman soldier, an English Civil War rebel and a 1970s teenager. Somehow they seem to be linked through an energy within the hill and an axe. Is history doomed to repeat itself or can loving another person free them?
- Play For Today began with Alan Sharp's script about a man whose marriage is under strain when he undertakes a piano-playing marathon over four days. Starring Ray Davies, it remains in the BBC archives only as a black and white copy.
- The fish quay is a happy hunting ground for an ambitious young rogue like Bob, who has an eye on the boss's business - and all that goes with it.
- 1970–19841h 21m6.6 (12)TV EpisodeA weekend seminar for 17 people is held in a London hotel room. Each day runs from 9am till midnight. No one may leave for any reason.
- Twelve-year-old Jude has never met Dick, his father. One Sunday afternoon Dick impulsively engineers a meeting, which has distressing consequences.
- The A Shift at the MHS department store are organising a wedding gift presentation for Elaine. But what's on Miriam's mind, and why does she seem so out of sorts?
- A nurse is subjected to an interrogation after giving medical treatment to a terrorist leader.
- Frank has dedicated 19 years to researching a cure for the common cold, and is almost ready to publish a paper. Yet budget cuts and his own inability to form real relationships with those around him threaten to derail the project.
- A docudrama about what would happen if London was hit by severe flooding.
- Three underachievers have fun at a school speech day.
- Trevor is an extremely shy undertaker's assistant. He always tags along with his good friend Ronnie, when he goes to the pub with his girlfriend Sandra. Sandra introduces Trevor to her more forward friend Linda. Linda has a difficult time getting Trevor to go out with her, but she finally gets him to go to a disco; he won't dance, so Linda dances with Ronnie.
- Carol Mclain hurries home late one night, and encounters trouble. No one on the nearby estate claims to have seen or heard anything. And why should they care. A woman out so late on her own. She's asking for trouble. Isn't she?
- 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?
- "What's a lockout, my son? A lock-out is engraved in the history of the class struggle. A lock-out is our Glencoe. It's where they try and drive a stake into our underbelly."
- Olive Major is determined that her year of office as Mayor will be a happy and successful one. But her appointment of Ex-Warrant Officer Higham as Attendant and Mace-bearer causes the storm-clouds to gather over Medburgh Town Hall.
- When Nina falls in love with Yuri he already has an exit permit from Russia. Nina knows it will be painful being an exile but she cannot resist following Yuri to London.
- Mike and his commune have a performance of their musical theatre "Diver" at the local pub, and ITV's Beth Bailey is coming along to see it. But will Beth's visions for the play as an incitement to revolution please everyone?
- A woman in a state of personal crisis finds it hard to communicate with her husband and family.
- The story of Jewish immigrants in London's East End in the early 20th century.
- 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.
- In Ulster in 1959, a journalist witnesses the beating of a youth.
- A couple look for the proper school, not for their children but for themselves.
- Jake and Sue's expedition to the Kalahari Desert in 1983 follows in the footsteps of an earlier trek in 1848 by two missionaries. The two pairs of travellers, in the past and the present, meet with disaster.
- The origin of Northern Ireland.
- Based on a book of the same name, depicting events in a Welsh valley after a nuclear holocaust, in which almost everyone has dies, leaving just two families. Eventually just one girl and one man are left, and the majority of the film is about how they cope with the situation and each other.
- "We've just got to get it right. It'll be our little secret. When all the other servants have gone out, we'll play this little game to amuse ourselves. A sort of private charade."
- Inspector Arrowsmith investigates the murder of a rich Arab Sheik at a country estate.
- In Yorkshire during the 20s, it seems that everyone who holds a driver's licence wants to run his own private bus company, and young Jim Stone is no exception.
- Peter is a songwriter, while his old friend Jimmy is an A and R (Artists and Repertoire) man. But when Jimmy tries to sell one of Peter's songs, Peter is furious. Can the friendship survive?
- At the climax of the School Sports something went drastically wrong. Now, Wallace Pidgeon faces the contradictory demands of the bird-watching headmaster, his pupils, his pork-magnate father-in-law and his "child bride."
- 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.
- In an adaptation of Václav Havel's play, a dissident, newly released from prison for political reasons, attempts to get his well-connected friend to sign a protest. In this one man play, both the roles are played by Nigel Hawthorne.
- After ten years of trying, Lavinia, and a large team of medics, finally manage to produce a live baby. She should now be able to start living her dream, but what happens next is not at all the paradise she has been looking forward to.
- 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.
- The lives of Gwen and Arthur are complicated when Gwen's long-lost husband comes back on the scene, and none of them seem to notice when their situation is reflected on TV. This edition remains in the BBC archives only in black and white.
- Freddie is going through an existential crisis as everyone around him seems to doubt their own identity and the entire purpose of conversation. Surrounded by inflation and extra marital affairs, his only solace is in buffet room drinking.
- 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.
- A newly-appointed knight finds his celebrations cut short by someone who was witness to his treachery during the war. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- A civil servant working abroad revisits his old school. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- The story of a disintegrating marriage told through family photos. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- A couple are distressed by the changes in their adopted teenage son when he joins a biker gang. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Edith is a very successful writer. Her husband, Gerald, is a very much less successful one, as she never fails to remind him. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Michael Regan, a working-class Irishman, is humiliated when he takes his girl out to a posh restaurant. His desire for revenge against the owner gets out of control and dominates his life.
- An awkward relationship develops between the families of a trade unionist and the regional manager when the son of the former wins a university scholarship from their employer. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Ellis is 50, bankrupt and showing signs of psychosis. He fantasises about killing his father, has dreams of the occult, and feels the only thing he can communicate with in life is a garden worm.
- A social worker tries to help a painfully shy young man and takes him for a visit to a country farm. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- The familiar story of Robinson Crusoe - this time told from the viewpoint of his companion, Friday. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- They are all 'in' for life so the pleasures are sparse, and strictly of their own making. Their really big event is the Christmas pantomime, only this year they have lost their star. Mother Bear has escaped. Still, there is some consolation. The new arrival looks a likely Goldilocks. 'There's one or two who'll be after him,' says Woodbine - and he knows all their weaknesses.
- "I'm the judge's daughter - I think he's a monstrous old man. I think all men who say 'I'm only doing my job' are monstrous. I've despaired of changing him. But I'd stop short of killing him." This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Are Maggie and Tony using each other as a means of communicating with Dr Leafer? Or are they using Dr Leafer as a means of communicating with each other? This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- England, 1945-75: Builder Alfred Bagley makes a fortune, with a little help from his friends.
- A comedy about the law - seen from the inside. All formality and procedure on the surface but not quite so convincing when you see the works.
- "All I said was the gramophone's too loud." Tony and Zoe Lyle 's silly row starts like any other, but Tony finds that Zoe means it this time. She's walking out and he's got a week to save a marriage that he hasn't looked at in 18 years, and with it all the trappings of a good life in Maida Vale.
- Moss is a miser whose only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes, and Moss is "reborn."
- A divorced woman is introduced to a separated man at an awkward dinner party.
- A satire on charity and politics that plays deliberate games with naturalistic presentation. Paula Wilcox stars as a charity worker who travels the world via bluescreen.
- "Whether priest or thespian, never once let yourself doubt that the role you're playing is real. Lead your little flock from childhood to the grave via God's sweet sacraments and let no doubts intrude - ever."
- 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?
- "I'm 37 years old, remember? I'm not a dead-pan, genned-up, discreetly nymphomaniac ex-head-girl like the majority of your female students. I'm an innocent. I'm vulnerable."
- School leaver Gordon Saville (Martyn Hesford) joins the army.
- In 1959, ten years before the Troubles began, two glamorous travelling evangelists spread the flame of revival in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
- Billy, a self-employed coal-shoveller, gains a seedy business partner and competition in the form of a rival coal-shoveller. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Various characters have adventures on the way to a black pudding festival in Normandy.
- 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.
- 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.
- "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.
- 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. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- When it's time to wet the baby's head, it's surprising the secrets that emerge. This edition is missing from the BBC archives, though a domestic copy of the soundtrack exists.
- Two sworn enemies, one black and the other white, are forced to confront their prejudices when they are forced together by circumstance. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Why does Sylvia Payne , with her successful husband and luxurious home, get in such a flap about her daughter's school friend coming to visit? This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Charges that the Reverend 'Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation.
- A social satire in which advertisers realise that having a blind beggar as the public face of charities would help make them seem more appealing to donors. This episode remains in the BBC archives only as a 16mm black-and-white film print.
- A retired miner devotes his waking hours to his racing pigeons. This edition remains in the BBC archives only as a 16mm black-and-white film print.
- 1970–19841h 7mTV EpisodeWriter-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.
- Vice-Chancellor Bartley Humbolt has problems. His young university is almost bankrupt, his wife is threatening to leave him, his protége professor from industry is threatening to overshadow him, and his prestigious professor of history is threatening to resign. But Bartley is a born manipulator. And when he gives a dinner party, he has something very special in mind - for afters.
- A controversial war breaks out in the far-off Falkland Islands. Dr. Samuel Johnson wonders if there is a secret political agenda involved.
- The further adventures of three Derbyshire miners on holiday.
- A former South African anti-apartheid campaigner deals with life as an expatriate in London.
- Thirty-seven men from the disputed territory of South West Africa are on trial for their lives in Pretoria, 1,000 miles from their home. They are to be tried under South Africa's Terrorism Act despite the UN ruling that South Africa must abandon its "illegal administration" of their country.
- Cardinal Volponi tries to save his old friend, a priest turned militant communist, from being executed by the Nazis alongside 334 other hostages but fails to reason with either the Vatican, the Nazis or the priest himself.
- A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course.
- "The voice will make its effect. And it will, undoubtedly, be very touching. But, tell me: after his voice has broken, can you make anything of him then?" After the solo, after the chorus, after the applause?
- 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.
- 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?
- A man celebrating his birthday comes to appreciate the difference between media fantasy and mundane reality. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- Nell tries hard to cope with her husband, family and friends - but her asthma creates problems. Everyone seems to be helpful - but are they? Is there something sinister about Mrs Pritchett, the new housekeeper, or is it Nell's imagination? Who knows where reality ends and fantasy begins?
- Adapted from Paul Thompson's celebrated play for the National Youth Theatre, "By Common Consent" is set in an unnamed country sometime in the future where a League of Youth has been established to restore moral and political order. The Boys of City Zone 8 are in disgrace when four of their members desert to join the 'terrorists' in the North.
- Roy and Martyn want to write the next Irish winner for the Eurovision Song Contest. So who thinks they are working for British Army Intelligence? Why has someone sent them two bullets through the post?
- "You expect to face a bit of danger when you travel. Half the fun of it. But you keep cool and bluff your way out. After all, we're all British aren't we?" This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
- A long-distance lorry driver; a spaceman; a volunteer under reduced environmental conditions; a man in solitary confinement: the discomfort of these people is shared by Doran - when he can't put his finger on the panic button.
- A group of Deptford youngsters hang about by the River Thames on a hot day. When they and some nearby dockers spot a valuable copper boiler floating in the river the two rival factions try to get at it first. The youngsters succeed, but on their way to the totter's yard they are waylaid by the adults, who take the copper off them.
- Eleanor is unable to communicate her inner thoughts as she's bullied at school and virtually ignored by her parents. With a mundane working existence awaiting her, she desires a chance at another life - but at what cost?
- Was this the finest hour? Sifting the truth and fiction about the Battle of Britain, Burrows and Harding give their own account of how the nation sees its heroes - and itself. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.