Play for Today (Season 2)

Traitor (Episode 1)

Writer: Dennis Potter

Air date: 1971-10-14

Runtime: 75 min

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

Edna, the Inebriate Woman (Episode 2) 9.0

Writer: Jeremy Sandford

Air date: 1971-10-21

Runtime: 90 min

Overview: 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.

Evelyn (Episode 3)

Writer: Rhys Adrian

Air date: 1971-10-28

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: 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.

O Fat White Woman (Episode 4)

Writer: William Trevor

Air date: 1971-11-04

Runtime: 75 min

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

Thank You Very Much (Episode 5)

Writer: N.F. Simpson

Air date: 1971-11-11

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: 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.

Michael Regan (Episode 6)

Writer: Robert Holles

Air date: 1971-11-18

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: A man gets revenge on a pub owner

Skin Deep (Episode 7)

Writer: Jeremy Seabrook

Air date: 1971-11-25

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: 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.

Pal (Episode 8)

Writer: Alun Owen

Air date: 1971-12-02

Runtime: 75 min

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

The Pigeon Fancier (Episode 9)

Writer: Peter Hankin

Air date: 1971-12-09

Runtime: 75 min

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

Home (Episode 10)

Writer: David Storey

Air date: 1972-01-06

Runtime: 75 min

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

Still Waters (Episode 11)

Writer: Julia Jones

Air date: 1972-01-13

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: 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.

Stocker's Copper (Episode 12)

Writer: Tom Clarke

Air date: 1972-01-20

Runtime: 75 min

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

The House on Highbury Hill (Episode 13)

Writer: Piers Paul Read

Air date: 1972-01-27

Runtime: 75 min

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

In the Beautiful Caribbean (Episode 14)

Writer: Barry Reckord

Air date: 1972-02-03

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: A story about unemployment and the Black Movement in Jamaica

Ackerman, Dougall and Harker (Episode 15)

Writer: Don Shaw

Air date: 1972-02-10

Runtime: 75 min

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

The Villa Maroc (Episode 16)

Writer: Willis Hall

Air date: 1972-02-17

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: A couple and their daughter take a trip to Africa

Cows (Episode 17)

Writer: Howard Barker

Air date: 1972-02-24

Runtime: 75 min

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

A Time to Keep (Episode 18)

Writer: Peter Terson

Air date: 1972-04-27

Runtime: 75 min

The Fishing Party (Episode 19)

Air date: 1972-06-01

Runtime: 75 min

Overview: The adventures of three Derbyshire miners going fishing