Play For Today

For Sylvia or The Air Show

John Burrows and John Harding’s two-man show transferred from the Edinburgh Fringe, examining the myths surrounding British heroism, in particular the Battle...

3.3K

Operation, The

George Lazenby, asset stripping and blow jobs.

1.9K

Access to the Children

Joss Ackland plays a reluctant divorcee, pondering chances of reuniting with his wife while taking his kids on a day trip to...

3.1K

Hard Labour

Liz Smith 'does'. And then doesn't.

Man Above Men

Lawyers, defendants and even his own daughter all have it in for a maverick judge, Alexander Knox. David Hare’s first play for...

2.6K

1

Speech Day

Kes with cups instead of, um, birds.

Steps Back

By David Halliwell. David Hill returns home to Brighouse with his new fiancee after being driven away 15 years earlier.

Three’s One

By Penelope Mortimer. Couple Hywel Bennett and Caroline Mortimer are rocked by the arrival of an old flame of Mortimer’s. With Fulton...

Edward G: Like the Filmstar

By John Harvey Flint. Robert Lang’s dull life takes a turn for the dramatic after he reluctantly takes on the role of...

2.2K

Blooming Youth

Two male students have to sort themselves out when a girl moves in with them.

1.3K

Stretch, The

Rosalind Ayres finds she can cope on her own when her husband goes to prison for two years. When he gets out...

Making the Play

Barbara Ferris and James Bolam are an estranged couple still trying to reconcile with each other by sending drafts of a co-written...

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Celia Johnson turns in an award-winning performance as the titular new tenant in a retirement home, desperately trying to keep up appearances....

1.7K

Her Majesty’s Pleasure

Life-sentenced prisoners with little hope of release busy themselves with activities, in particular a panto production of Goldilocks. By ex-lag Jimmy O’Connor....

Jack Point

Old and young members of a Gilbert and Sullivan society get under each other’s feet in the run-up to a special Jubilee...

1.3K

Emergency Channel, The

By John Bowen. Richard Pasco lives out of a suitcase in Battersea and is tormented by his rapidly fading memory of his...

1.3K

Mummy and Daddy

By Douglas Livingstone. A retired couple begin to find life tough going after a year in a seaside bungalow bought for them...

Private Practice

By Peter Hankin. Respectable snob Priscilla Morgan is unduly worried about a visit from her daughter’s schoolfriend.

Shutdown

By Tony Perrin. In a deserted Potteries factory, closed for the mass holiday excursions of Wakes Week, young electrician Freddie Fletcher arrives...

Baby Blues

By Nemone Lethbridge. Zena Walker finally has a baby after receiving specialist treatment for ten years – then the problems really start.

Jingle Bells

By Arthur Hopcraft. Colin Farrell’s various Christmas and Boxing Day gatherings with family and mates bring issues and problems to the surface.

Lonely Man’s Lover, The

By Barry Collins. The arrival of a poet in a Yorkshire village arouses suspicion in local farmers, and sexual longing in farm...

2.2K

All Good Men

Bill Fraser Labours a point.

Easy Go

A gang of Deptford street kids races against local dockers to retrieve a promising-looking abandoned barrel from the Thames. Devised by Brian...

2.2K

Joe’s Ark

It's grim in pet shops.

1.7K

Hot Fat

Comic drama of friendships and deals made and broken in a men’s sauna. Jack Rosenthal’s first work for the strand.

2.6K

Headmaster

Frank Windsor plays the titular head with an increasingly tenuous grip on his position in this first play submitted unsolicited by then...

5.2K

1

Penda’s Fen

Wet dreams and pagan loons.

2.1K

Pidgeon – Hawk or Dove?

By Michael Sadler. After a school sports day humiliation, teacher Wallace Pidgeon (Jack Shepherd) comes under pressure from all corners – his...

3.6K

Three for the Fancy

Third outing for Peter Terson’s trio of mining idiots-at-large from The Fishing Party – Art (Brian Glover), Ern (Ray Mort) and Abe...

2.3K

Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, The

Scottish country dancing, militant style.

3.0K

Schmoedipus

Dennis Potter's Model World.

Follower for Emily, A

By Brian Clark. A couple in an old people’s home develop a close friendship, and eventually marry.

Leeds – United!

Colin Welland delves into a favourite subject of Play for Today writers, industrial relations, with a look at a strike in a...

Baby Love

By David Edgar. Patti Love undergoes a traumatic stillbirth, steals a baby, is arrested and sentenced to – appropriately enough – nine...

1.7K

Back of Beyond

By Julia Jones. Lynne Jones develops a bond with Rachel Roberts, a reclusive widow in the Welsh mountains she delivers newspapers to.

Bevellers, The

A day in the life of a basement bevelling (grinding the bevelled edges and decorative grooves into plate glass) workshop in Glasgow,...

Taking Leave

By Joyce Neary. Soldier George Sweeney returns to his parents’ in Ulster after six years’ service, and finds they don’t want him...

Fugitive

By Sean Walsh. Franciscan friar Stephen Rea goes on the run from the order. Based on Walsh’s real life experience. With David...