DramaBBC Two

The Worst Episodes of ScreenPlay

Every episode of ScreenPlay ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of ScreenPlay!

Worst episode
S5E4 The Englishman's Wife
5.38 votes
Best episode
S4E8 The Spirit of Man
9.135 votes
Top season
Season 3
8.3avg
Binge time
10h 31m
87 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons8

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 4 - The Englishman's Wife
    5.3/10(8 votes)

    S5:E4

    A woman and her daughter are stranded in a rambling old house deep in the countryside of County Tyrone. Their economic circumstances are hopeless, but it is friends and former business associates who pose the greatest threat to their happiness.

    Director:Robert Cooper
    Writer:Holly Chandler

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  2. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 9 - Continental Drift
    6.5/10(34 votes)

    S7:E9

    An eccentric Scottish spinster greets the collapse of communism by snapping up a statue of Lenin on the cheap and towing it home across a bemused or hostile Europe. / Two members of the British fascist movement bring fraternal greetings to their neo-Nazi counterparts in Berlin. / Marijke and Pieter were in love. Now it has gone sour, but they still have to finish their George Formby documentary on location in Lancashire.

    Director:Bernard Rudden
    Writer:Bernard Rudden

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  3. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 6 - White Lady
    6.6/10(22 votes)

    S2:E6

    In a derelict farmhouse, deep in the English countryside, Gil struggles alone to bring up his little daughters 'to need very little. - strong against all harm'. But unknown to any of them, in the surrounding fields of wheat and barley, and in the nodding branches of the fruit trees, there lurks a deathly power.

    Director:David Rudkin
    Writer:David Rudkin

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  4. ScreenPlay Season 8 Episode 6 - Boswell & Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles
    6.7/10(27 votes)

    S8:E6

    In the autumn of 1773, the English writer Samuel Johnson visits the Hebrides, or Western Isles, off the North-West coast of Scotland. With him are his friend, the Scotsman James Boswell, and his black servant Francis Barber. Staying with a series of hosts, including elderly Jacobite heroine Flora McDonald, Johnson and Boswell encounter traditional Scottish hospitality at first-hand, all the time arguing about politics (and in Boswell's case losing his head over every pretty woman he meets). Meanwhile, Francis and another black servant they encounter provide evidence of the new consciousness emerging in Britain's soon-to-be-independent American colonies.

    Director:John Byrne
    Writer:John Byrne

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  5. ScreenPlay Season 4 Episode 10 - The Hen House
    6.6/10(15 votes)

    S4:E10

    Lily lives on a remote smallholding in County Donegal. She keeps herself to herself. But a game of hide-and-seek exposes a secret.

    Director:Danny Boyle
    Writer:Frank McGuinness

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  6. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 5 - Murder in Oakland
    6.0/10(6 votes)

    S6:E5

    Oakland, California, is the murder capital of the USA - there were 161 homicides in 1990 in a city the size of Cardiff. Blue and Eric are new additions to the Police Department's five overworked homicide teams. When they investigate a seemingly motiveless prostitute killing, they find themselves drawn into the centre of a fight for survival among Oakland's dangerous drug gangs.

    Director:Karl Francis
    Writer:Karl Francis

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  7. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 2 - Antonia and Jane
    7.1/10(360 votes)

    S5:E2

    Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest friend Antonia McGill knows about everything. She orders the right food; she can complain and get results. She's beautiful and has a brilliant career. Is it any wonder that they hate each other's guts?

    Director:Beeban Kidron
    Writer:Marcy Kahan

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  8. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 10 - A Little Bit of Lippy
    7.0/10(42 votes)

    S7:E10

    Cross-dressing husband is unmasked but eventually wins through.

    Director:Chris Bernard
    Writer:Martyn Hesford

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  9. ScreenPlay Season 4 Episode 1 - Testimony of a Child
    6.4/10(8 votes)

    S4:E1

    Being accused of child abuse is a nightmare every family dreads. The Taylors are an ordinary happy family, but Paul and Jill are worried about their 11-year-old son Mark, who is not eating. The family GP has diagnosed 'failure to thrive', and Mark is sent to the hospital for a check-up.

    Director:Peter Smith
    Writer:Lucy Gannon

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  10. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 3 - Night Voice
    6.6/10(9 votes)

    S5:E3

    Clarence Flamer hosts a late-night talk show on regional radio station North Star Sound. A phone call he takes one night leads to his discovering a mortgage scam being run by a group of estate agents. His attempts to delve deeper have tragic consequences.

    Director:Richard Spence
    Writer:Dave Sheasby

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  11. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 6 - Death and the Compass
    6.7/10(9 votes)

    S7:E6

    In the comic book world of a timeless Latin American country, famed policeman Inspector Lonnrot becomes embroiled in a series of murders. Rejecting all obvious solutions to the crime he discovers a more complex set of clues only to find himself enmeshed in a diabolical plot.

    Director:Alex Cox
    Writer:Alex Cox

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  12. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 5 - The Land of Dreams
    6.7/10(7 votes)

    S5:E5

    Joseph Mnwana arrives at Heathrow on a flight from Johannesburg and asks for political asylum. But what is he fleeing from? The authorities are suspicious, and Joseph has an uncertain future in store.

    Director:Diarmuid Lawrence
    Writer:Allan Cubitt

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  13. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 1 - The Trial of Klaus Barbie
    6.8/10(7 votes)

    S2:E1

    Decades after the end of World War II, escaped war criminal Klaus Barbie is brought to justice

    Director:Gareth Jones
    Writer:Ray Jenkins

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  14. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 8 - Christine
    7.3/10(341 votes)

    S2:E8

    Depiction of the everyday life of a teenage heroin addict.

    Director:Alan Clarke
    Writers:Alan Clarke, Arthur Ellis

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  15. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 2 - Force of Duty
    7.3/10(14 votes)

    S7:E2

    RUC detective Simpson Gabby is consumed by guilt after he fails to act decisively in a moment of terror. As the pressure on him builds, Gabby gradually loses control of his life.

    Director:Pat O'Connor
    Writer:Bill Morrison

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  16. ScreenPlay Season 2 Episode 4 - Carianai and the Courtesans
    7.4/10(16 votes)

    S2:E4

    A painter falls in love with a woman whom he suspects may be a thief and a prostitute.

    Director:Leslie Megahey
    Writer:Leslie Megahey

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  17. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 5 - Drums Along Balmoral Drive
    7.4/10(6 votes)

    S1:E5

    'I don't think at first I thought at all. I had a nice house, lovely kids. I didn't think about blacks at all. I should've done, but I didn't. They were just there.'

    Director:Jane Howell
    Writer:Douglas Livingstone

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  18. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 3 - Bad Girl
    7.5/10(25 votes)

    S7:E3

    A young single mother has to convince the authorities that she is a fit parent.

    Director:George Case
    Writer:Guy Hibbert

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  19. ScreenPlay Season 8 Episode 3 - The Vision Thing
    7.6/10(16 votes)

    S8:E3

    In the run-up to a General Election, the British Prime Minister thinks he is receiving messages from God.

    Director:Pedr James
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 9 - The Marlowe Inquest
    7.7/10(9 votes)

    S1:E9

    In an unscripted inquest, three practicing barristers interrogate actors portraying relevant figures of the 16th century in order to determine what really happened to the playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe.

    Director:Anthony Garner
    Writer:Simon Whitworth

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  21. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 1 - Redemption
    7.6/10(21 votes)

    S6:E1

    After 16 years away Stan Peachey returns to his village. His wife still loves him but his sister wants revenge. What was his crime?

    Director:Malcolm McKay
    Writer:Malcolm McKay

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  22. ScreenPlay Season 1 Episode 3 - Brick Is Beautiful
    8.0/10(6 votes)

    S1:E3

    'Bricks have a future, Mr Clark - you can count on that. They're out there waiting to be taken!' 'There is one small problem.' 'What's that?' 'Well - they're still attached to buildings, most of them, aren't they?' Steve thinks there is a fortune in reclaimed bricks. But how will his ambition affect his girlfriend, Maureen, and his mates, Brad, Dez and Snapper?

    Director:David Wheatley
    Writer:Andy Armitage

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  23. ScreenPlay Season 7 Episode 5 - Man to Man
    7.7/10(32 votes)

    S7:E5

    A German woman takes on her husband's identity after his death, and spends the next 40 years impersonating him.

    Director:John Maybury
    Writer:Manfred Karge

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  24. ScreenPlay Season 5 Episode 11 - Needle
    7.8/10(29 votes)

    S5:E11

    Danny and Paula are a young married couple with a baby. They are moving up in the world, leaving their high-rise for a house of their own. The future of their marriage is threatened by only one thing: Danny is a heroin addict.

    Director:Gillies MacKinnon
    Writer:Jimmy McGovern

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  25. ScreenPlay Season 6 Episode 2 - Broke
    8.3/10(7 votes)

    S6:E2

    A man and his wife, who are proprietors of a struggling window-covering business, agree to install curtains in an exclusive club patronized by a wealthy friend of theirs. After completing the job, the shop owner has great difficulty collecting payment for the job. His "friend" becomes scarce and Spall finds he has no legal foot to stand on since there is no written record of the informal transaction. With the couple's business floundering due to mounting debts, and their former friend's crass attitude towards their predicament, anger and frustration reach the boiling point.

    Director:Alan Dossor
    Writer:Stephen Bill

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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Englishman's Wife" is the worst rated episode of ScreenPlay. It scored 5.3/10 from 8 votes. Directed by Robert Cooper and written by Holly Chandler, it aired on August 1, 1990. This episode scored 1.2 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Continental Drift".

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