Ken Taylor

BBC Play of the Month

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

Release Date1965-10-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count7

The Maze

A couple move to a country estate that turns out to be haunted.

Release Date1983-01-24

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Cause Célèbre

When the ailing husband of an adulterous wife is discovered bludgeoned to death and suspicions fall on the older woman's young lover, the newly widowed woman claims that it was she who was solely responsible for the death despite evidence that points to the contrary in this dramatic account of true-life 1935 trial that shocked all of England. Though notable evidence and strong suspicion suggests that the murder may have been of crime of passion perpetrated by the jealous lover only half her age, Alma Rattenbury (Helen Mirren) confesses to the murder of her husband and is soon brought to trial. Despite the fact that Alma is already being deemed guilty by the general public for her adulterous indiscretion alone, her lawyer, star attorney T.J. O'Connor (David Suchet), remains convinced that his client will eventually be cleared of all charges.

Release Date1987-08-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count6

Theatre 625

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Release Date1964-05-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count4

The Borgias

A a serial in ten parts on the lives of one of the most intriguing families in history.

Release Date1981-10-14

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count10

Vote Count2

The Jewel in the Crown

The Jewel in the Crown is a 1984 British television miniseries based on Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet novels. In India during the final years of British rule in World War II, an unjust arrest for rape sets off questions of identity and personal responsibility being explored against a background of war and personal intrigue. The critically acclaimed drama explores the complex relationships between the British colonizers and the Indian population, focusing on themes of cultural clash, racial tension, and the decline of the empire.

Release Date1984-01-09

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count14

Vote Count23

Web of Evidence

A World War II evacuee returns years later to England and finds his father in prison framed for murder.

Release Date1959-04-28

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count5

Seaton’s Aunt

A young boy forced to live with his aunt after his parents die is convinced that she is old hag in league with the devil.

Release Date1983-07-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Peacock Spring

Filmed in India, Rumer Godden’s story has been adapted and directed by the Jewel in the Crown team. Two English schoolgirls arrive in New Delhi, 1959. Their diplomat father has secured them a beautiful Eurasian governess. 15-year-old Una suspects an ulterior motive. But her father’s affairs take second place to her own when she has a secret affair with the Indian gardener.

Release Date1996-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count2

Let's Get Married

A medical student who is thrown out of his university, ends up working in a laundry and rebuilds his confidence with a relationship with a fashion model.

Release Date1960-03-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder

When a young bride moves into a country manor, long repressed childhood memories of witnessing a murder come to the surface.

Release Date1987-01-11

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Episode Count2

Vote Count34

Churchill's People

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

Release Date1974-12-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count1

Story Parade

Story Parade specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It was broadcast on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Isaac Asimov's work.

Release Date1964-04-24

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count1

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park is a British six-part television drama serial based on Jane Austen's 1814 novel of the same name. Produced by the BBC and adapted by Kenneth Taylor, it stars Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny Price, who is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.

Release Date1983-11-06

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count10

The Lady's Maid's Bell

Based on a short story by Edith Wharton. A lady's maid named Hartley finds employment with Mrs. Brympton, a lady who is confined to her country estate because of delicate health. Almost immediately Ms. Hartley realizes something ominous is occurring in the old house.

Release Date1983-05-27

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

The Edwardians

The Edwardians is an eight-part miniseries broadcast in 1972–73. An anthology, each 90-minute episode explores influential figure(s) of the Edwardian era: Charles Rolls and Henry Royce; Horatio Bottomley; E. Nesbit; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Robert Baden-Powell; Marie Lloyd; Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; and David Lloyd George.

Release Date1972-11-21

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count3

Drama 61-67

Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.

Release Date1961-03-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count2

The Camomile Lawn

The Camomile Lawn is a 1992 British miniseries based on Mary Wesley's novel of the same name, following five cousins and their family in Cornwall as they navigate the start of World War II. The story is framed by a funeral in 1984, which prompts the characters to recall their experiences during the war, including love, loss, and secrets.

Release Date1992-03-05

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count5

Vote Count11

The Girls of Slender Means

The Girls of Slender Means is a 1975 BBC television mini-series based on Muriel Spark's novel. The drama, aired in three parts, follows a group of young women living in a London boarding house in 1945, and is framed by a death that occurs in 1960.

Release Date1975-05-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count3

Vote Count2

The Devil's Crown

The Devil's Crown was a BBC limited series which dramatised the reigns of three medieval Kings of England: Henry II and his sons Richard the Lionheart and John. It was broadcast in thirteen 55-minute episodes between 30 April and 23 July 1978. Henry Plantagenet (latterly Henry II), sees his opportunity to seize the crown of England and create a kingdom of law and order. He cuts a deal with King Stephen in which Stephen will name him his heir, excluding his sons Eustace and William in exchange for a fragile truce. Stephen's sudden death elevates Henry to the throne. He may have been King of England, but the bulk of the Angevin Empire was in France, and it was this that Henry regarded as the Jewel in his Crown, maintained through a series of political marriages and complex allegiances. Henry pays homage to Louis VII, King of the Franks, for these lands, but it is clear that Henry is the shrewder and more ambitious of the two kings, having married Louis' ex-wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Release Date1978-04-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count5

Vote Count3

Shoulder to Shoulder

Shoulder to Shoulder is a 1974 BBC drama serial created through the collaboration of actress Georgia Brown, filmmaker Midge Mackenzie, and producer Verity Lambert. A dramatisation of the history of the women's suffrage movement in Britain, focusing on the Pankhurst family and their fight for women's right to vote, the six-part series, starring Siân Phillips as Emmeline Pankhurst, is considered a landmark in feminist television drama.

Release Date1974-04-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count3

Vote Count1

Into the Dark

A 1963 TV play written by Ken Taylor and broadcast as an episode of Armchair Theatre.

Release Date1963-02-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter