19 episodes

Play for Today - Series 2

First aired Oct 13, 1971Season 2

Browse all 19 episodes in this season, including available images, air dates, runtimes, ratings and episode summaries from TMDB.

Episodes

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Episode 1

Traitor

NR
Oct 14, 197175 min

A British aristocrat turned Russian spy is visited in Moscow by Western journalists

Edna, the Inebriate Woman still

Episode 2

Edna, the Inebriate Woman

9.0
Oct 21, 197190 min1 votes

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. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, Irene Shubik produced it. The play deals with an elderly woman, Edna, who wanders through life in an alcoholic haze without a home, a job or any money. A rambling, pathetic yet defiant woman, Edna sleeps rough and begs for food and shelter and the drama follows her progress as she moves from hostel to hostel, going to a psychiatric ward and then prison along the way. Jeremy Sandford, who had previously written Cathy Come Home, researched the play by living rough himself for two weeks. A great deal of the dialogue and the incidents in the play come from the book, 'Down and Out in Britain' published by Jeremy Sandford in 1971; although the majority of the speakers in the book are male, Jeremy Sandford puts much of their speech into the mouth of the female character.

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Episode 3

Evelyn

NR
Oct 28, 197175 min

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.

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Episode 4

O Fat White Woman

NR
Nov 4, 197175 min

The wife of a headmaster discovers that he has been physically abusing his students

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Episode 5

Thank You Very Much

NR
Nov 11, 197175 min

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.

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Episode 6

Michael Regan

NR
Nov 18, 197175 min

A man gets revenge on a pub owner

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Episode 7

Skin Deep

NR
Nov 25, 197175 min

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.

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Episode 8

Pal

NR
Dec 2, 197175 min

Two sworn enemies, one black and the other white, are forced to confront their prejudices when they are forced together by circumstance.

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Episode 9

The Pigeon Fancier

NR
Dec 9, 197175 min

A retired miner devotes his waking hours to his racing pigeons.

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Episode 10

Home

NR
Jan 6, 197275 min

A story about four elderly "loonies" living in a rest home

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Episode 11

Still Waters

NR
Jan 13, 197275 min

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 stories with a series of strangers.

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Episode 12

Stocker's Copper

NR
Jan 20, 197275 min

In Cornwall, just before World War I, a striking miner befriends a cop

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Episode 13

The House on Highbury Hill

NR
Jan 27, 197275 min

A married couple move into the house on Highbury Hill and find some eccentric neighbours.

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Episode 14

In the Beautiful Caribbean

NR
Feb 3, 197275 min

A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica

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Episode 15

Ackerman, Dougall and Harker

NR
Feb 10, 197275 min

A salesman learns a few lessons from the locals when he goes to Yorkshire for a business course

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Episode 16

The Villa Maroc

NR
Feb 17, 197275 min

A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa

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Episode 17

Cows

NR
Feb 24, 197275 min

A social worker tries to help a painfully shy young man and takes him for a visit to a country farm.

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Episode 18

A Time to Keep

NR
Apr 27, 197275 min

TMDB has not published a written overview for this episode yet.

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Episode 19

The Fishing Party

NR
Jun 1, 197275 min

The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing