Playhouse (Season 6)

School Play (Episode 1)

Writer: Frederic Raphael

Air date: 1979-11-07

Overview: A play about the horrors of life at an English public school - with all the schoolboys played by adults.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Episode 2)

Air date: 1979-11-14

Overview: A dissident, Alexander, has been pronounced insane by the authorities (although he isn't), and finds himself sharing a cell with a genuine mental patient, Ivanov.

The Brylcreem Boys (Episode 3)

Writer: Peter Durrant

Air date: 1979-11-21

Overview: Cpl. George Hunn's sentry post is knocked over and he wakes to find he is suffering from frost bite of the face. Sent to hospital he is put on a ward with aircrew who have mental issues. He is trapped reenacting their missions at night.

An Affinity with Dr. Still (Episode 4)

Writer: David Snodin

Air date: 1979-11-28

Home Movies (Episode 5)

Air date: 1979-12-05

Overview: Keith and Alec have been making holiday movies, together for 25 years. Alec suddenly spots a moment between wife Sybil and Keith. He realises daughter Katie is actually Keith's and she is in a sexual relationship with her 'brother' John.

Sweet Wine of Youth (Episode 6)

Writer: Darrol Blake

Air date: 1979-12-12

Speed King (Episode 7)

Writer: Roger Milner

Air date: 1979-12-19

Overview: In 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell's obsession is to win the World's Land Speed Record in his car Bluebird. Speed King is about the man, the car, and the ruthless, but irresistible, public ambition of a world hero.

Pews (Episode 8)

Writer: Chaim Bermant

Air date: 1980-01-12

Overview: Set in a north country synagogue, a group of Jewish men have to organise a shiva, however, not having the required number of their faith, resort to recruiting George, a 'non-Jew', to make up the numbers.

Gentle Folk (Episode 9)

Writer: Alexander Baron

Air date: 1980-01-19

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: An Edwardian house party given by a Fabian woman, her business-man husband and assorted guests from politics and the Arts—including a young man prone to disturbing premonitions.

Trouble with Gregory (Episode 10)

Writer: Stephen Davis

Air date: 1980-01-23

Overview: Gregory has troubles enough when Ella moves him out and sets him up for a job with the radio. Suspicions of infidelity can make the world a disturbing place. But then he still has to meet the new neighbours...

Lifelike (Episode 11)

Writer: John Challen

Air date: 1980-01-26

Overview: A comprehensive school is praised for its authenticity, but one schoolboy does not agree with this assessment.

The Enigma (Episode 12)

Writer: John Fowles

Air date: 1980-02-09

Overview: An upper-class young man has rejected his affluent background, but, when a crisis comes, reverts to type pretty quickly.

Hesther for Example (Episode 13)

Writer: Michael Sullivan

Air date: 1980-02-16

Overview: Cousin, W. Clifford Mill, ran a dirty postcard business; which brings Paul to the country in search of a profitable afternoon. Hesther knows the value of most things and, when evening falls, she turns his visit to her own advantage.

The Best of Friends (Episode 14)

Writer: Frederic Raphael

Air date: 1980-03-08

Overview: What is friendship? Why do two grown men behave like egomaniac children or flustered prima donnas? And when they meet unexpectedly after ten years, how will things be?

In Hiding (Episode 15)

Writer: Don Taylor

Air date: 1980-03-15

Overview: A teenager learns about life and death while staying with his aunt during the school holidays.

Rottingdean (Episode 16)

Writer: Richard Crane

Air date: 1980-03-22

Overview: Mother is manic, Father frustrated. Son sees himself as quite an operator. Daughter wants to change the dreary world of Jubilee-year England. The day has come. Back to Rottingdean... if all goes smoothly.

The Dig (Episode 17)

Writer: James Robson

Air date: 1980-04-18

Happy (Episode 18)

Writer: Derrick Buttress

Air date: 1980-04-25

Mary's Wife (Episode 19)

Writer: David Cook

Air date: 1980-05-02

Overview: A married transvestite comes to terms with their true gender identity.

Games Without Frontiers (Episode 20)

Writer: Mike Bradwell

Air date: 1980-05-09

Overview: Nobody goes to Amsterdam to wander about. It's either the Rijksmuseum or the red-light district. On the boat going home Clive and Stewart admit to not having spent long in the museums – so what did they get up to in Amsterdam?

The Unborn (Episode 21)

Writer: Philip Martin

Air date: 1980-05-16

Overview: A physicist has visions of his unborn baby – it turns out that the child will grow up to become a Hitler-like dictator responsible for World War III.

Electric in the City (Episode 22)

Writer: Tony Bicât

Air date: 1980-05-23

Blue Remembered Hills (Episode 23)

Air date: 1980-05-30

Overview: Repeated from Play for Today

Thank You Comrades (Episode 24)

Air date: 1980-06-06

Coming Out (Episode 25)

Air date: 1980-06-13

Crest of a Wave (Episode 26)

Air date: 1980-06-20

Freedom of the Dig (Episode 27)

Air date: 1980-06-20

A Walk in the Forest (Episode 28)

Air date: 1980-07-06

Hallelujah, Mary Plum (Episode 29)

Writer: Rose Tremain

Air date: 1980-07-13

Overview: A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

Dalhousie's Luck (Episode 30)

Writer: Fulton Mackay

Air date: 1980-08-03

Overview: Our gamble is over, Dalhousie. You'll walk at dawn tomorrow as agreed, but in case you've no mind to return, there's one fact might persuade you. On what you do hangs not only your life but hers .

An Ordered Life (Episode 31)

Writer: Stephen Deutsch

Air date: 1980-08-10

Overview: German composer Anton Webern survives Naziism only to be shot by an American GI in the closing days of WWII. His son, against his father's wishes, joins the Wehrmacht and is killed in a railway accident in 1943.