Play for Today (1970) Web Series — Cast, Story & Where to Watch | MovieLinkBD

Play for Today (1970) is a drama web series in English. On MovieLinkBD: full story, cast, ratings, season & episode guide, official trailer and where to watch Play for Today online in HD.

Play for Today — Storyline

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.

Cast & Crew

Play for Today — Series Details

Play for Today — Episode Guide

Series 1

• E1: The Long Distance Piano Player (1970-10-15) — A man tries to break the world's record for nonstop piano playing
• E2: The Right Prospectus (1970-10-22) — A couple look for the proper school, not for their children but for themselves.
• E3: The Lie (1970-10-29) — ""The Lie"" refers to the 8-year marriage of a couple who are constantly hurting each other.
• E4: Angels Are So Few (1970-11-05) — A man claiming to be an angel enters the household of a bored housewife and teaches the family a few lessons.
• E5: The Write-Off (1970-11-12) — 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.
• E6: I Can't See My Little Willie (1970-11-19) — A man has a mid-life crisis in his brother's pub where sees life as a game show
• E7: A Distant Thunder (1970-11-26) — A newly-appointed knight finds his celebrations cut short by someone who was witness to his treachery during the war.
• E8: Hearts and Flowers (1970-12-03) — A TV host and his architect brother attend their father's funeral
• E9: Robin Redbreast (1970-12-10) — A woman living in a country cottage thinks that someone is trying to get her.
• E10: The Hallelujah Handshake (1970-12-17) — A petty thief and social misfit finagles his way into a church congregation
• E11: Alma Mater (1971-01-07) — A civil servant working abroad revisits his old school
• E12: Circle Line (1971-01-14) — 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.
• E13: Hell's Angel (1971-01-21) — A couple are distressed by the changes in their adopted teenage son when he joins a biker gang.
• E14: The Piano (1971-01-28) — An old couple refuse to move when they find out that they can't take their piano with them
• E15: Billy's Last Stand (1971-02-04) — Billy, a self-employed coal-shoveller, gains a seedy business partner and competition in the form of a rival coal-shoveller.
• E16: The Rainbirds (1971-02-11) — 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.
• E17: Reddick (1971-02-18) — Charges that the Rev 'Red' Reddick is exploiting his youth club members leads to an explosive confrontation.
• E18: The Foxtrot (1971-04-29) — An odd menage a trois results when a woman and her lover are visited by her long-lost husband
• E19: When the Bough Breaks (1971-05-06) — When an injured baby arrives at the hospital, a social worker looks for the parents
• E20: Orkney (1971-05-13) — 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
• E21: The Rank and File (1971-05-20) — The story of the Pilkington glass workers strike of 1970
• E22: The Man in the Sidecar (1971-05-27) — A succesful novelist Edith lives with her husband and his friend, but she decides to ask the friend to leave.
• E23: Everybody Say Cheese (1971-06-03) — The story of a disintegrating marriage told through family photos
• E24: The Cellar and the Almond Tree (1971-06-10)

Series 2

• E1: Traitor (1971-10-14) — A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists
• E2: Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971-10-21) — Edna, the Inebriate Woman is a British television drama written by Jeremy Sandford which was transmitted by the BBC as part of the Play for Today series on 21 October 1971. Directe
• E3: Evelyn (1971-10-28) — 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.
• E4: O Fat White Woman (1971-11-04) — The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students
• E5: Thank You Very Much (1971-11-11) — 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.
• E6: Michael Regan (1971-11-18) — A man gets revenge on a pub owner
• E7: Skin Deep (1971-11-25) — 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.
• E8: Pal (1971-12-02) — Two sworn enemies, one black and the other white, are forced to confront their prejudices when they are forced together by circumstance.
• E9: The Pigeon Fancier (1971-12-09) — A retired miner devotes his waking hours to his racing pigeons.
• E10: Home (1972-01-06) — A story about four elderly "loonies" living in a rest home
• E11: Still Waters (1972-01-13) — A marriage can be lonely when the children have left home, as Nelson and Maud find out. Maud leaves in the middle of an unloving picnic, and Nelson follows – both sharing their sto
• E12: Stocker's Copper (1972-01-20) — In Cornwall, just before World War I, a striking miner befriends a cop
• E13: The House on Highbury Hill (1972-01-27) — A married couple move into the house on Highbury Hill and find some eccentric neighbours.
• E14: In the Beautiful Caribbean (1972-02-03) — A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica
• E15: Ackerman, Dougall and Harker (1972-02-10) — A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course
• E16: The Villa Maroc (1972-02-17) — A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa
• E17: Cows (1972-02-24) — A social worker tries to help a painfully shy young man and takes him for a visit to a country farm.
• E18: A Time to Keep (1972-04-27)
• E19: The Fishing Party (1972-06-01) — The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing

Series 3

• E1: The Reporters (1972-10-09) — 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.
• E2: A Life Is for Ever (1972-10-16) — The story of a man serving a 30-year prison sentence for killing a cop
• E3: Carson Country (1972-10-23) — A story about the origin of the Stormont state
• E4: Man Friday (1972-10-30) — The story of Robinson Crusoe from Man Friday's viewpoint
• E5: Triple Exposure (1972-11-06) — A hippie breaks into the house of a middle-aged couple and forms a relationship with them
• E6: Better than the Movies (1972-11-13) — A man celebrating his birthday comes to appreciate the difference between media fantasy and mundane reality.
• E7: The General's Day (1972-11-20) — An elderly general woos a shy school teacher.
• E8: The Bankrupt (1972-11-27) — A washed-up executive is on the verge of bankruptcy.
• E9: Just Your Luck (1972-12-04) — A pregnant teenager sets about wooing a sailor in a sectarian council estate in Greenock.
• E10: The Bouncing Boy (1972-12-11) — A young couple have a baby boy. However, the new father doesn't take to his new position quite as well as expected.
• E11: Shakespeare or Bust (1973-01-08) — The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going to Stratford-upon-Avon on a barge
• E12: Land of Green Ginger (1973-01-15) — 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 ol
• E13: Kisses at Fifty (1973-01-22) — A long-married husband leaves his family for a barmaid.
• E14: Highway Robbery (1973-01-29) — A man fights council plans to demolish his home to make way for a new bypass.
• E15: Song at Twilight (1973-02-05) — The story of a defiant football manager in terminal decline
• E16: Only Make Believe (1973-02-12) — As a playwright dictates notes about his newest play to his secretary, scenes from the play are acted out.
• E17: For Sylvia or The Air Show (1973-02-19) — 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.
• E18: The Operation (1973-02-26) — David Adler is an operator. He strips assets, other men's wives, and his oldest friend's soul – anything for a cool million.
• E19: Access to the Children (1973-03-05) — Malcolmson 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 fami
• E20: Hard Labour (1973-03-12) — The trials of an overworked and underappreciated housecleaner
• E21: Man Above Men (1973-03-19) — "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 k
• E22: Speech Day (1973-03-26) — Three underachievers have fun at a school speech day
• E23: Steps Back (1973-05-14) — "Fifteen years since I was forced t' leave, forced t' leave me roots, the territory of me heart." When Gerry takes his fiancée Nita home to Brighouse, what will they find?
• E24: Three's One (1973-06-04) — 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?
• E25: Edward G.–Like the Film Star (1973-06-11) — Edward G. is nothing like a film star; his life has been ordinary – until now. But he's just had a shattering experience. This edition is missing from the BBC archives.
• E26: Blooming Youth (1973-06-18) — The problems of four people sharing an apartment
• E27: The Stretch (1973-06-25) — Everyone always looked after Maureen. But her husband comes home after two years in prison and finds she has grown up and he's not ready for the change.
• E28: Making the Play (1973-07-02) — They no longer live together because, after 11 years, the marriage is over. So why is she always turning up to see him at the most embarrassing times? And why doesn't he send her a

Series 4

• E1: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1973-10-18) — Mrs Palfrey tries hard to be accepted by the other residents at the Claremont. But then she meets Ludo and a real friendship begins.
• E2: Her Majesty's Pleasure (1973-10-25) — 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 sta
• E3: Jack Point (1973-11-01) — 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 alwa
• E4: The Emergency Channel (1973-11-08) — Dean has a rare talent. He can be made happy. He exudes happiness and confidence like a rare blossom. Both Sarah in the past, and Julia now, could do this for him. But where are th
• E5: Mummy and Daddy (1973-11-15) — An early retirement and a seaside bungalow-for Arthur and Marion it's not a chance to miss, especially since their son is buying the bungalow. Arthur's full of plans – GCE, garden,
• E6: Private Practice (1973-11-22) — 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?
• E7: Shutdown (1973-11-29) — Bernie 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?
• E8: Baby Blues (1973-12-06) — 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 no
• E9: Jingle Bells (1973-12-13) — Family Christmas, presents, drink, Christmas Eve at the club, Boxing Day football – but, among the celebrations, some hard home-truths.
• E10: The Lonely Man's Lover (1974-01-17) — A young farmgirl begins a romance with an artist
• E11: All Good Men (1974-01-31) — An elderly politician looks back over his career while being interviewed by a TV producer.
• E12: Joe's Ark (1974-02-14) — A pet shop owner forsakes his religious beliefs when his daughter gets cancer
• E13: Hot Fat (1974-02-21) — Sauna baths are supposed to relax you, but it rather depends who you meet in there.
• E14: Easy Go (1974-03-07) — 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 fact
• E15: Headmaster (1974-03-14) — 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.
• E16: Penda's Fen (1974-03-21) — Summer 1955, and pastor's son Stephen must come to terms with his own identity amid societal pressure, religious guilt and his own imaginings.

  Penda's Fen is a British television

• E17: Pigeon–Hawk or Dove? (1974-03-28) — 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-magn
• E18: Three for the Fancy (1974-04-11) — Further adventures of three Derbyshire miners
• E19: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil (1974-06-06) — The exploitation of the Scottish land and its people from the 18th century to the present
• E20: Schmoedipus (1974-06-20) — A young man persuades a woman that he is her son.
• E21: The Childhood Friend (1974-06-27) — On holiday, with his family, nothing to do and his wife ill, Sasha is only too pleased to meet again the girl he loved at 17.
• E22: A Follower for Emily (1974-07-04) — The friendship of two residents of a retirement home ends up in marriage

Series 5

• E1: Leeds–United! (1974-10-31) — About a strike in a textile factory, based on a true story
• E2: Baby Love (1974-11-07) — After the stillbirth of her illegitimate baby, a woman steals a baby at random and is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
• E3: Back of Beyond (1974-11-14) — 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
• E4: The Bevellers (1974-11-21) — The first (and last) day at work of a young apprentice in a bevelling shop at a Glasgow glass factory
• E5: Taking Leave (1974-11-28) — "Well, I hope I won'be seeing you come home in that uniform much more. Six years – that's long enough out of any man's life." Mike's time is nearly up. The army gives him a weekend
• E6: Fugitive (1974-12-05) — After 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway fria
• E7: Eleanor (1974-12-12) — 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 ch
• E8: Gangsters (1975-01-09) — A story exploring the Birmingham underworld
• E9: The After Dinner Game (1975-01-16) — 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 o
• E10: Breath (1975-01-23) — A story about an asthma sufferer
• E11: The Death of a Young, Young Man (1975-01-30) — Three young students suspended from school face various problems.
• E12: Sunset Across the Bay (1975-02-20) — A elderly couple become disillusioned when they retire to their favorite holiday resort.
• E13: Funny Farm (1975-02-27) — One day in the life a nurse in a mental hospital
• E14: Goodbye (1975-03-06) — "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
• E15: Just Another Saturday (1975-03-13) — A young man participating in the Orange Parade in Glasgow becomes disillusioned with the pageant when he discovers its unpleasant and violent history and witnesses the participants
• E16: A Child of Hope (1975-04-24) — 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 T
• E17: The Saturday Party (1975-05-01) — When a stockbroker loses his job, he decides to throw a party.
• E18: Wednesday Love (1975-05-08) — Two women, looking for amusement on their afternoons off, visit a drinking club.
• E19: The Dandelion Clock (1975-05-15) — In Belfast, a girl awaits the return of her missing father.
• E20: Brassneck (1975-05-22) — England, 1945-75: Builder Alfred Bagley makes a fortune, with a little help from his friends.
• E21: The Floater (1975-05-29) — 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.
• E22: By Common Consent (1975-06-05) — Political fantasy about a fascist regime

Series 6

• E1: Plaintiffs and Defendants (1975-10-14) — A married barrister's life begins to unravel when it seems that his high-strung mistress may reveal all.
• E2: Two Sundays (1975-10-21) — An author tells an old school chum that he is about to publish a novel revealing their old relationship.
• E3: Moss (1975-10-28) — Moss is a miser whose only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes, and Moss is "reborn."
• E4: 84 Charing Cross Road (1975-11-04) — An American woman corresponds with a London bookshop owner over a period of 20 years
• E5: Keep an Eye on Albert (1975-11-11) — Terry has begun to neglect his wife for a life of drinking, weight lifting, pigeon racing and other women. But when his best friend Albert returns from the navy and begins to pay T
• E6: Children of the Sun (1975-11-18) — "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?"
• E7: After the Solo (1975-11-25) — A boy enjoys success in the choir until his voice breaks at puberty.
• E8: Through the Night (1975-12-02) — A woman goes into hospital to receive treatment for breast cancer.
• E9: A Passage to England (1975-12-09) — A group of Asians plans to sneak into England using a fishing boat
• E10: Rumpole of the Bailey (1975-12-16) — Rumpole defends a young West Indian boy accused of attempted murder.
• E11: The Other Woman (1976-01-06) — An aggressive lesbian disrupts the lives of those around her.
• E12: Nuts in May (1976-01-13) — 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
• E13: Doran's Box (1976-01-20) — 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 – whe
• E14: Packman's Barn (1976-01-27) — John Barrett returns to his remote hill farm after 20 years to deal with some unfinished business, and finds himself once again in conflict with the locals.
• E15: A Story to Frighten the Children (1976-02-03) — A woman encounters trouble when she arrives home late at night, but her neighbors on a nearby estate claim to have seen and heard nothing.
• E16: The Happy Hunting Ground (1976-02-10) — 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.
• E17: The Jumping Bean Bag (1976-02-17) — 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.
• E18: Clay, Smeddum and Greenden (1976-02-24) — A play based on three short stories about the Scottish people and their relationship with the land: ""Clay"" concerns a farmer's obsession with his fields to the exclusion of his
• E19: Love Letters on Blue Paper (1976-03-02) — 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 t
• E20: Willie Rough (1976-03-09) — A story depicting life in a shipyard
• E21: Tiptoe through the Tulips (1976-03-16) — A divorced woman is introduced to a separated man at an awkward dinner party.
• E22: The Peddler (1976-03-23) — 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?
• E23: Early Struggles (1976-03-30) — A story about a father's attempts at single parenthood
• E24: Double Dare (1976-04-06) — A playwright spends an afternoon in a hotel room with an actress who takes on the role of call girl for research purposes.
• E25: The House of Bernarda Alba (1976-07-28) — The eldest daughter of a domineering, overprotective mother becomes engaged to an unprincipled young man who has money.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many seasons does Play for Today have? 14 season(s) with 314 episodes.

Where can I watch Play for Today? See the Where to Watch section above for current streaming options.