Playhouse (1974)

Sizwe Bansi Is Dead

Two Black South Africans discover what it means to lose their passbooks, which they must carry to prove their identity during the apartheid era.

The Joke

The Cafeteria

An eccentric Jewish writer is drawn into the world of an apparently delusional young woman and her invalid father.

The Breakthrough

On a remote Cornish coast, a small group of scientists at an out of the way research laboratory delve into the mystery of what happens at the moment of death.

Mrs. Acland's Ghosts

An isolated woman is haunted by the ghosts of her dead siblings.

Diane

Teenager Diane Weaver lives with her abusive single father. A religious local boy only who wants to be her friend, but she doesn't like him as much as he does her. What no one realizes is how far the abuse goes.

Kites

Retired prep school headmaster Lawrence Hastings has few pleasures in life. One is kite flying, until this too is spoilt by the intrusions of an irritating small boy.

An Accident of Class and Sex

A Martyr to the System

A school lecturer is possessed by the spirit of Othello during the teaching of Classics.

The Button Man

Practical Experience

Dad

The Chauffeur

Joe, chauffeur to a South American embassy, enjoys the small perks of privilege his job provides. When a coup results in the ambassador's recall, his halcyon life is upended.

Play Things

A young man volunteers to work with a children's play group in a desolate London area.

Jumbo

The Mind Beyond: Meriel, the Ghost Girl

Psychic investigator George Livingston is asked to attend a séance. Can it be that he has finally discovered a genuine supernatural phenomena!?

The Mind Beyond: Double Echo

Alison has suffered Autism since childhood. Now 17, her parents take her to Dr. Mallam for psychotherapy. Alison is tested with Zener cards, leading him to suspect she is telepathic.

The Mind Beyond: The Love of a Good Woman

A pair of childhood sweethearts have their peaceful life interrupted when a vulgar woman from her dreams show up in reality.

The Mind Beyond: The Daedalus Equations

During a séance, a medium transcribes complex equations that seem to be the final work of a recently deceased physicist revealing the secret of cold fusion, to the consternation of a rationalistic scientist.

The Mind Beyond: Stones

Stones and curses go together. A series of strange events connected with Stonehenge lead Professor Reeve, an Oxford historian, to wonder if this superstition is true.

The Mind Beyond: The Man with the Power

An ordinary man suddenly discovers that he possesses psychic powers.

The Achurch Letters

A play about the (celibate) relationship between writer George Bernard Shaw and a famous drug addict actress.

School Play

A play about the horrors of life at an English public school - with all the schoolboys played by adults.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

A dissident, Alexander, has been pronounced insane by the authorities (although he isn't), and finds himself sharing a cell with a genuine mental patient, Ivanov.

The Brylcreem Boys

Cpl. George Hunn's sentry post is knocked over and he wakes to find he is suffering from frost bite of the face. Sent to hospital he is put on a ward with aircrew who have mental issues. He is trapped reenacting their missions at night.

An Affinity with Dr. Still

Home Movies

Keith and Alec have been making holiday movies, together for 25 years. Alec suddenly spots a moment between wife Sybil and Keith. He realises daughter Katie is actually Keith's and she is in a sexual relationship with her 'brother' John.

Sweet Wine of Youth

Speed King

In 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell's obsession is to win the World's Land Speed Record in his car Bluebird. Speed King is about the man, the car, and the ruthless, but irresistible, public ambition of a world hero.

Pews

Set in a north country synagogue, a group of Jewish men have to organise a shiva, however, not having the required number of their faith, resort to recruiting George, a 'non-Jew', to make up the numbers.

Gentle Folk

An Edwardian house party given by a Fabian woman, her business-man husband and assorted guests from politics and the Arts—including a young man prone to disturbing premonitions.

Trouble with Gregory

Gregory has troubles enough when Ella moves him out and sets him up for a job with the radio. Suspicions of infidelity can make the world a disturbing place. But then he still has to meet the new neighbours...

Lifelike

A comprehensive school is praised for its authenticity, but one schoolboy does not agree with this assessment.

The Enigma

An upper-class young man has rejected his affluent background, but, when a crisis comes, reverts to type pretty quickly.

Hesther for Example

Cousin, W. Clifford Mill, ran a dirty postcard business; which brings Paul to the country in search of a profitable afternoon. Hesther knows the value of most things and, when evening falls, she turns his visit to her own advantage.

The Best of Friends

What is friendship? Why do two grown men behave like egomaniac children or flustered prima donnas? And when they meet unexpectedly after ten years, how will things be?

In Hiding

A teenager learns about life and death while staying with his aunt during the school holidays.

Rottingdean

Mother is manic, Father frustrated. Son sees himself as quite an operator. Daughter wants to change the dreary world of Jubilee-year England. The day has come. Back to Rottingdean... if all goes smoothly.

The Dig

Happy

Mary's Wife

A married transvestite comes to terms with their true gender identity.

Games Without Frontiers

Nobody goes to Amsterdam to wander about. It's either the Rijksmuseum or the red-light district. On the boat going home Clive and Stewart admit to not having spent long in the museums – so what did they get up to in Amsterdam?

The Unborn

A physicist has visions of his unborn baby – it turns out that the child will grow up to become a Hitler-like dictator responsible for World War III.

Electric in the City

Blue Remembered Hills

Repeated from Play for Today

Thank You Comrades

Coming Out

Crest of a Wave

Freedom of the Dig

A Walk in the Forest

Hallelujah, Mary Plum

A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

Dalhousie's Luck

Our gamble is over, Dalhousie. You'll walk at dawn tomorrow as agreed, but in case you've no mind to return, there's one fact might persuade you. On what you do hangs not only your life but hers .

An Ordered Life

German composer Anton Webern survives Naziism only to be shot by an American GI in the closing days of WWII. His son, against his father's wishes, joins the Wehrmacht and is killed in a railway accident in 1943.

Caught on a Train

Peter boards a train to attend an important business meeting across Europe. His trip is complicated by two women also assigned to his compartment. One is an independent American whom Peter finds attractive. The other is Frau Messner, an extremely particular and demanding older European woman. Between the two of them, they try different aspects of Peter's patience...

Fatal Spring

Using a remarkable blend of dramatic techniques, this study of three English poets – also three courageous soldiers – gradually develops towards their historical and crucial meeting.

The Black Madonna

Lou Parker feels very strongly that she and her husband, Ray, are different from the Farrells and the Ackerleys. With them it's all television. But she and Ray have the local library and The Observer. They keep abreast. They're different.

The Happy Autumn Fields

Grown-Ups

Young working class couple Dick and Mandy move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door. Mandy's unmarried sister, Gloria, is constantly dropping in, and will not take any hints that the couple would prefer to be left alone, until her presence finally goads them to action.

My Dear Palestrina

Shaping Up

Standing in for Henry

At a Nottingham advertising agency, young graphic designer Graham is recruited as a temporary replacement for the iconic Henry. The agency are desperate to be part of the Swinging Sixties but not without Henry. Can Graham replace him?

Fothergill

John Fothergill, aesthete and scholar, becomes the proprietor of the Spread Eagle, in Thame, Oxfordshire, with the intent of turning it into the most celebrated Inn in England, catering to the brightest lights in London's literati.

One Hundred and Eighty!!!

A darts tournament is put in peril when the players' wives stage a sit-in in the pub.

The Kindness of Mrs. Radcliffe

A day in the life of Mrs Radcliffe, who believes that the advice she so freely gives is done only out of kindness.

A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter

In prison the night before his execution, Republican preacher Hugh Peter prepares to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.

Journal of Bridget Hitler

An Irishwoman married to a German in pre-WWI Liverpool prepares to meet her brother-in-law, a young man named Adolf Hitler.

Days at the Beach

In 1920, a trio of British soldiers have to guard an unexploded mine that has washed up on a beach.

Bobby Wants to Meet Me

In 1978, Changes Magazine journalist Neville Morris writes an essay about Bob Dylan called 'A Jewish Massiah'. Dylan's publicist Elle Smith reaches out that The Bard wants to meet him at Earl's Court.

Days

A mother, waiting for a visit through a hospital day, reflects on her life. Dreams haunt her, fantasies seduce her, memories crowd in on her, distorting the drab reality of her day to day existence. Must her daughter follow in her footsteps? How can she find a way to guide her towards a brighter future?

Clapperclaw

VE Night, 1945: In a Yorkshire pub, not everyone is in a mood to celebrate. Lorna Thorpe's 'All-Star' dance band is down two members, the beer has run out, and some influential friends on the city council have booked flights to Buenos Aires.

The Potsdam Quartet

An exploration of the personal and professional conflicts of a string quartet who have been playing together for many years, but are on the point of disintegrating.

Unity

The true story of Unity Mitford who, in the 1930s, moves to Germany, where she befriends Adolf Hitler.

Skylark

Elizabeth Alone: Part 1

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Elizabeth Alone: Part 2

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Elizabeth Alone: Part 3

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

The Man Who Almost Knew Eamonn Andrews

You're All Right, How Am I?

The Day War Broke Out

Albie Warren and his girlfriend Carla are second on the bill of variety artists and musicians performing to half empty venues. Albie impersonates wartime comic Rob Wilton to people who don't know him. Will he take the chance to top the bill?

Random Moments in a May Garden

Going Gently

Two men sharing a hospital room after their diagnoses of terminal cancer struggle with fear, physical pain, the difficulties of being in hospital, family members unable to cope, loneliness, and their unusual friendship.

Marriage

Mrs. Reinhardt

An Englishwoman seeking to escape her marriage arrives at French hotel.

Last Summer's Child

A boy feels restless during a hot summer in prewar Cornwall.

Autumn Sunshine

The Grudge Fight

Virginia Fly Is Drowning

Secure in her suburban home, Virginia Fly dreams of a life of unbridled passion and romance. She feels her fantasies are about to become reality when she is asked to take part in a TV documentary about pre-marital love - a subject about which she is sadly ignorant...

Findings on a Late Afternoon

Gerald is on the edge of a complete breakdown. During an afternoon with his father, he starts to come to terms with the wounding confusions and mistakes of his past—his lies, his girlfriend's suicide, his mother's obsessive love of his younger brother, and her death in a hospital when he arrived too late to communicate his real feelings for her.

Dancing Country

The local country dancing team of old-age pensioners is forced to change its style when Jack, its leader, arrives with a new partner, one who is younger and prettier.

The Combination

A Silly Little Habit

An apparently happy and privileged woman begins shoplifting.

Aubrey

The story of Aubrey Beardsley, an English illustrator and author, whose black ink drawings were influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler.

Preview

Four television critics gather in a Wardour Street preview theatre to see a documentary and get the surprise of their lives.

Out of Step

A keen ballroom dancer becomes an alcoholic after discovering she's infertile.

A Shilling Life

A once-famous writer, now long out of fashion, is interviewed by a disconcerting young woman.

The Workshop

In 1945, just a year since the allied troops entered Paris, Simone arrives for her first day at M. Leon's tailoring workshop.

How Many Miles to Babylon?

Wealthy Alexander Moore and working-class Jerry Crowe are childhood friends and, in 1914, find themselves in the same Army unit – Alex as an officer and Jerry as a private. They still remain close, however, until Jerry is court-martialed for desertion, and Alex is put in charge of the firing squad.

The Pigman's Protégé

In 1919, the carnage of WWI has left the country desperately short of young men. Maud, who runs the farm for her crippled father, decides that it is time for her young sister Clara to be married, and a husband could provide a strong pair of hands around the place. Stan the pigman seems to fix most things, why not this?

A Pocketful of Dreams

At the moment, money is scarce and times are hard for everyone—even villains like Charlie and Denny are feeling the pinch. But their luck could change when a chance encounter with a film crew provides them with an eccentric method of getting their hands on a lot of loot.

Keeping in Touch

When James pays one of his periodic visits to his mother, he finds her curiously resigned to the loneliness she's suffered for the years since her husband's death. Somehow, she has managed to keep all the family ties intact.

The Guest

Gerald fancies himself as a bit of a gourmet and a trip to the gastronomic delights of France promises well. His wife Hilary isn't so sure; she isn't sure of a lot of things about Gerald just recently, but the menu at the extravagantly recommended La Petite Chanson provides an unexpected solution.

The Sidmouth Letters

Academic scavenger Shorty believes he's tracked down some letters that reveal an unexpected side to Miss Jane Austen's nature.

The Queen of Annagh

Nancy is the sole inhabitant of the Isle of Annagh off the west coast of Scotland. Although World War III is raging all around she sees little of it until Michael, a young pilot officer, pays an involuntary visit and is in danger of dragging the hostilities along with him.

By George

An anthropologist observed by one of his erstwhile victims — a sophisticated comedy.

Lunch

Two women meet for lunch every two weeks to swap news. But this week is different.

Passing Through

At a railway public house, two strangers engage in a conversation and begin to open up about their life's. Richard is an alcoholic and former stockbroker is just been released from jail. Arthur works for the railway as a points operator.

Jake's End

Jake's a professional, a married man with a reputation to maintain—and a bank to rob.

Housewarming

Her husband Gary is behind on the central heating installation. Eunice, her best friend, has a crush on the lodger — an actor appearing in a violent play at the local rep. No wonder Tina is anxious about the housewarming.

Easy Money

At a concert, Marcia picked Terry out of the crowd. So he no longer feels alone. Until he learns about her secret life and dare not tell his friends.

Potatohead Blues

Stan McVay has given up smoking, gone on a diet and feels like hell. He's also abandoned the Ulster spud and just learned that his teenage daughter is having an affair with a married man.

Irwin Shaw Triple Bill: The Man Who Married a French Wife / The Monument / The Girls in Their Summer Dresses

Three short stories by Irwin Shaw.

Chains

Eddie's 40th birthday party reunites friends not seen since the old days of ton-up bikes and early rock and roll. It could be a chance to relive those 'good times', if the others can only match Eddie's enthusiasm.

Come Into the Garden, Maud

A henpecked American visiting Europe is able to throw off his ghastly wife and find love.

A Song at Twilight

A famous writer finds that a long-suppressed secret is about to be revealed by his former mistress.

Fraulein Else

Imaginary Friends

Possibilities