The Best Episodes of Play for Today Season 9

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

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   #1 - Nina

   S9:E110/17/1978

   The story of two Soviet dissidents living in London and slowly coming apart under the strain of his drinking and her enforced separation from her child

   Director:Alan Clarke

   Writer:Jehane Markham

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   Director:Alan Clarke

   Writer:Jehane Markham
2. 

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   #2 - Victims of Apartheid

   S9:E210/24/1978

   George, a black South African, finds it hard to settle down in London after his experiences in South Africa.

   Director:Stuart Burge

   Writer:Tom Clarke

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   Director:Stuart Burge

   Writer:Tom Clarke
3. 

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   #3 - A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts

   S9:E310/31/1978

   A young man is declared a hero when he catches a burglar until it's discovered that the burglar is a dwarf.

   Director:James Cellan Jones

   Writers:Bob Larbey, John Esmonde

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   Director:James Cellan Jones

   Writers:Bob Larbey, John Esmonde
4. 

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   #4 - Dinner at the Sporting Club

   S9:E411/7/1978

   A story about young boxers whose fighting provides entertainment for diners at a sporting club

   Director:Brian Gibson

   Writer:Leon Griffiths

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   Director:Brian Gibson

   Writer:Leon Griffiths
5. 

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   #5 - Donal and Sally

   S9:E511/14/1978

   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.

   Director:Brian Parker

   Writer:James Duthie

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   Director:Brian Parker

   Writer:James Duthie
6. 

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   #6 - Sorry

   S9:E611/21/1978

   Consists of two plays ""Audience"" and ""Private View"" about a brewery worker and writer who incurs the wrath of the autocratic government

   Director:Claude Whatham

   Writers:Vera Blackwell, Václav Havel

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   Director:Claude Whatham

   Writers:Vera Blackwell, Václav Havel
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7. 

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   #7 - Butterflies Don't Count

   S9:E711/28/1978

   "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."

   Director:Kenneth Ives

   Writer:Wally K. Daly

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   Director:Kenneth Ives

   Writer:Wally K. Daly
8. 

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   #8 - Soldiers Talking Cleanly

   S9:E812/5/1978

   A freelance TV presenter has been hired by the BBC to film a documentary about the British army stationed in Germany. Unfortunately the budget is so low he is only allowed to film soldiers talking, and all bad language must be censored.

   Director:Alan Dossor

   Writer:Mike Stott

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   Director:Alan Dossor

   Writer:Mike Stott
9. 

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   #9 - One Bummer Newsday

   S9:E912/12/1978

   What happens to provincial journalists when there's nothing in the news and they have a paper to fill?

   Director:Michael Darlow

   Writer:Andy McSmith

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   Director:Michael Darlow

   Writer:Andy McSmith
10. 

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    #10 - The Out of Town Boys

    S9:E101/2/1979

    "This could be a bit special, Maggie. This could be the first case of an office block falling down during the topping-out party."

    Director:Robert Knights

    Writer:Ron Hutchinson

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    Director:Robert Knights

    Writer:Ron Hutchinson
11. 

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    #11 - Vampires

    S9:E111/9/1979

    Three boys watch horror films on late night TV and see a man in a local cemetery whom they believe to be a vampire.

    Director:John Goldschmidt

    Writer:Dixie Williams

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    Director:John Goldschmidt

    Writer:Dixie Williams
12. 

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    #12 - The Chief Mourner

    S9:E121/16/1979

    For a successful man with public responsibilities Alan Berry is strangely reluctant to help the police when his wife is murdered.

    Director:Ben Rea

    Writer:John Elliot

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    Director:Ben Rea

    Writer:John Elliot
13. 

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    #13 - Waterloo Sunset

    S9:E131/23/1979

    A young man and an old woman try to fit in when their neighborhood goes West Indian

    Director:Richard Eyre

    Writer:Barrie Keeffe

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    Director:Richard Eyre

    Writer:Barrie Keeffe
14. 

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    #14 - Blue Remembered Hills

    S9:E141/30/1979

    The play activities of seven children living in the countryside during the summer of 1943 end in tragedy; the children were played by adults in childrens clothing. The title is taken from A.E. Housman's 1896 poem: "Into my heart an air that kills; From yon far country blows; What are those blue remembered hills..." It's 1943 on a summer's afternoon and 7 children play in the fields & woods of old England. The children's roles are all played by adults to act as "A magnifying glass to show what it's like to be a child." "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."

    Director:Brian Gibson

    Writer:Dennis Potter

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    Director:Brian Gibson

    Writer:Dennis Potter
15. 

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    #15 - Who's Who

    S9:E152/6/1979

    A story about a dinner party given by the managers and employees of a brokerage house

    Director:Mike Leigh

    Writer:Mike Leigh

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    Director:Mike Leigh

    Writer:Mike Leigh
16. 

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    #16 - The Last Window Cleaner

    S9:E162/13/1979

    The Irish troubles as seen by residents of a boarding house called ""The Crumlin View""

    Director:Bill Craske

    Writer:Ron Hutchinson

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    Director:Bill Craske

    Writer:Ron Hutchinson
17. 

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    #17 - Ploughman's Share

    S9:E172/27/1979

    "Ploughman. Nobody calls you that. You're a has-been. Your head and heart went into a museum wi' that lot you keep in there. Face it: you're redundant."

    Director:Fiona Cumming

    Writer:Douglas Dunn

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    Director:Fiona Cumming

    Writer:Douglas Dunn
18. 

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    #18 - Degree of Uncertainty

    S9:E183/6/1979

    "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."

    Director:Paul Annett

    Writer:Alma Cullen

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    Director:Paul Annett

    Writer:Alma Cullen
19. 

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    #19 - Light

    S9:E193/13/1979

    A village in Cheshire. A deserted cinema. A poet murdered by Stalin. A blown fuse. Victor Silvester. Pickets on trial. Trimmers and fishwires.

    Director:Jane Howell

    Writer:Tony Perrin

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    Director:Jane Howell

    Writer:Tony Perrin
20. 

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    #20 - Coming Out

    S9:E204/10/1979

    A closeted homosexual writer is content to lead a double life

    Director:Carol Wiseman

    Writer:James Andrew Hall

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    Director:Carol Wiseman

    Writer:James Andrew Hall
21. 

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    #21 - Don't Be Silly

    S9:E217/24/1979

    A young wife tries to cope with her abusive husband.

    Director:Kenneth Ives

    Writer:Rachel Billington

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    Director:Kenneth Ives

    Writer:Rachel Billington