The Play for Today logo, seen here in the opening title sequence from 1976. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Play for Today was a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. Seventeen Seconds is the second studio Album by The Cure, released in April 1980 by Fiction Records. British television broadcasting started in 1936 and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media through which there are up to 600 channels Year 1970 ( MCMLXX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) Over three hundred original plays, most between an hour and ninety minutes in length, were transmitted during the fourteen-year period the series aired, and it is by far the most famous programme of its type to have been screened on British television.

History

It was in fact a successor to the 1960s anthology series The Wednesday Play, with the title being changed after the transmission day moved and became variable. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 The Wednesday Play was a British Television play which ran on BBC1 from 1964 Occasionally Wednesday Plays would be repeated under the Play for Today banner, as would examples from another earlier anthology series, BBC Two's Theatre 625. Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968 There were also some groups of plays transmitted that — for various reasons — did not go out under the Play for Today banner, but which were funded from the same department, used much the same production team and are generally regarded in episode guides and analysis as being part of the Play for Today 'canon'.

Plays could cover all genres, although comedy was usually reserved for the separate Comedy Playhouse strand. Comedy Playhouse was a long running British series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1974 In its time, Play for Today featured gritty contemporary social realist dramas, historical pieces, fantasies, biopics and science-fiction. Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an Artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts Working class Most pieces were written directly for television, but there were also occasional adaptations of stories from other media, such as novels and stage plays.

Writers who contributed plays to the series included John Osborne, Dennis Potter, Stephen Poliakoff, David Hare, Willy Russell, Alan Bleasdale, Arthur Hopcraft, Alan Plater, Graham Reid, David Storey, and John Hopkins. John James Osborne ( December 12, 1929 &ndash December 24, 1994) was an English Playwright, Screenwriter, Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935&ndash7 June 1994 was a controversial English Dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective Stephen Poliakoff CBE (born 1 December 1952 in Holland Park in West London, England) is an acclaimed British playwright David Hare can refer to David Hare (philanthropist (1775–1842 Scottish philanthropist David Hare (artist (1917–1992 U William Russell (born 23 August 1947 in Whiston Merseyside) is a British Playwright, Screenwriter, Author, Alan Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, brought up in Huyton Arthur Hopcraft ( November 30, 1932 &ndash November 22, 2004) was an English scriptwriter well known for his TV plays such as Alan Frederick Plater CBE (born 15 April 1935 is an English Playwright and Screenwriter, who has worked extensively in British television from For the Australian field hockey player see Graham Reid Graham Reid (born 1945 David Malcolm Storey (born 13 July 1933) the son of a miner is an English Playwright, Screenwriter, award winning Novelist John Hopkins (sometimes credited as John R Hopkins) ( January 27, 1931 &ndash July 23 1998) was an English Film Several prominent directors also featured, including Stephen Frears, Alan Clarke, Michael Apted, Mike Newell, Roland Joffe, Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson, and Mike Leigh. Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a two-time Oscar -nominated English film director Alan Clarke ( 28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was a television and Film director, producer and writer born Michael David Apted, CMG (born 10 February 1941) is an English director, producer, writer and Actor Michael Cormac Newell (born 28 March 1942 is an English director and producer of motion pictures for the screen and for Television. Roland Joffé (born November 17, 1945 in London) is a Film director who began his career in Kenneth Loach (born 17 June 1936) known as Ken Loach, is an English television and Film director. Lindsay Gordon Anderson ( April 17 1923 — August 30 1994) was an Indian born English Feature film, Theatre Mike Leigh, OBE (born February 20, 1943) is an English film and theatre director screenwriter and playwright Some of the most famous plays broadcast in the strand include Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971), Home (1972), Schmoedipus (1974), Nuts in May (1976), Bar Mitzvah Boy (1976), Our Day Out (1976), Abigail's Party (1977), Blue Remembered Hills (1979), and The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980). Edna the Inebriate Woman is a one-off British television drama transmitted by the BBC under the Play for Today banner in 1971 Home is a play by David Storey. Written in a quasi- absurdist style heavily influenced by Samuel Becket, it is set in a mental asylum Nuts in May (aka Play for Today Nuts in May) is a 1976 television film written and directed by Mike Leigh, originally broadcast as part of the Bar Mitzvah Boy is a British television play, written by Jack Rosenthal and originally transmitted in the Play for Today Our Day Out is a Made-for-TV film about deprived children from Liverpool, United Kingdom. Abigail's Party is a play for stage and Television written in 1977 by Mike Leigh. Blue Remembered Hills is a Television play by Dennis Potter, originally broadcast on January 30th 1979 as part of the BBC 's Play The Flipside Of Dominick Hide is a British television play which has attained cult status

Some installments in the series spun-off into full-blown series. Probably the two best-remembered examples of this are Rumpole of the Bailey, which was produced as a one-off in the Play for Today strand in 1975 and three years later became a series for Thames Television with the same star, Leo McKern, and Boys from the Blackstuff, a hard-hitting 1982 BBC2 drama serial by Alan Bleasdale which spun-off from his play The Black Stuff, made in 1978 although not screened until 1980, and only then as a one-off play and not part of PfT. Rumpole of the Bailey is a British Television series created and written by British writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer, Thames Television was a licencee of the British ITV television network covering London and parts of the surrounding counties Reginald "Leo" McKern AO (16 March 1920 &ndash 23 July 2002 was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British Television programs movies Boys from The Blackstuff is a British Television drama series of five episodes originally transmitted from October 10 to November Alan Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, brought up in Huyton Other spin-offs include Gangsters, and a single series of science fiction-based plays styled as Play for Tomorrow. Gangsters is a British television series made by the BBC and shown from 1975 to 1978. Play for Tomorrow was a British television anthology science fiction series produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 in 1982.

The series inspired the song "Play for Today" by the band The Cure, from their 1980 album Seventeen Seconds. The Cure are an English rock band that formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976 Seventeen Seconds is the second studio Album by The Cure, released in April 1980 by Fiction Records.

Controversy

Two plays were controversially pulled from transmission shortly before broadcast due to concerns over their content: these were Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle in 1976 and Roy Minton's Scum the following year. Brimstone and Treacle is a 1976 play by Dennis Potter which is best known via adaptations as a 1976 BBC television play and a 1982 film co-starring Scum is a Film made in 1979 portraying the brutality of life inside a British Borstal. In the case of Brimstone and Treacle it was due to concerns over the play's depiction of a disabled woman's rape at the hands of a man who may or may not be the devil, and with Scum the worry was its supposed sensationalism of life in a young offenders' institution (then still known as a borstal). The Devil is the In the United Kingdom, a borstal was a specific kind of youth prison run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously Delinquent young people Brimstone and Treacle remained untransmitted until it was shown on BBC One in 1987, and Scum until BBC Two transmitted it in 1991. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. In the meantime, however, both had circumvented their withdrawal by being re-made as films: Brimstone and Treacle was filmed in 1982 with Sting in the lead role, while the cinematic version of Scum appeared in 1979 with most of the same cast and directed by the man responsible for Play for Today version, Alan Clarke. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born October 2, 1951) better known by his Stage name Sting, is a three time Academy Award Alan Clarke ( 28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was a television and Film director, producer and writer born The film version of Scum was shown on Channel 4 in 1983, much to the chagrin of campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who instigated a private prosecution despite the fact that the Independent Broadcasting Authority had specifically approved the broadcast of the film. Channel 4 is a public-service Television and Radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom centred around a television channel of the same name which began Mary Whitehouse CBE ( 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British campaigner for values of Morality The Independent Broadcasting Authority ( IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial Television ( ITV and The High Court found in her favour, but Channel 4 won on appeal. For the Cameroonian court by this name see High Court of Justice (Cameroon, for the Israeli court of this name see Supreme Court of Israel.

Demise

The programme officially ended in 1984, although there was one further series not broadcast in its original name but in its replacement name "Screen One" and "Screen Two" in 1985. The general trend in 1980s television production was away from one-off plays and towards a concentration on series and serials. When one-offs were produced, they tended to be more cinematic and less theatrical than Play for Today and the earlier series had been, and its style of dialogue and character-driven one-offs increasingly fell out of favour.

Nonetheless, the series is generally remembered as a benchmark of high-quality British television drama, and has become a byword for what many continue to argue was a golden age of British television. In 2000, the British Film Institute produced a poll of industry professionals to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, and five of the programmes included in the final tally were from Play for Today. The British Film Institute ( BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film television The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Some of the better-known plays in the series, such as "Abigail's Party", "The Black Stuff", "The Flipside of Dominick Hide" and several of the Potter plays, have been made available on VHS and DVD. Abigail's Party is a play for stage and Television written in 1977 by Mike Leigh. Boys from The Blackstuff is a British Television drama series of five episodes originally transmitted from October 10 to November The Flipside Of Dominick Hide is a British television play which has attained cult status DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is

A revival of the single play for BBC One, publicised as a return of Play for Today, but under the working title of The Evening Play, was announced at the beginning of March 2006,^[1] but nothing has been heard from it since. Kevin Spacey, film star and director of the Old Vic, in March 2008 told BBC News that he would like to see the return of the show,^[2] but the Conservative MP Michael Gove and journalist Mark Lawson expressed disagreement, Gove condemning them as "dreadfully earnest exercises in socialist-realist art". Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26 1959 is an American actor and Film director. The Old Vic is a Theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Michael Andrew Gove (born August 26, 1967) is a Conservative Politician, Journalist and Author in the United Kingdom Mark Gerard Lawson (born April 11, 1962) is an English journalist broadcaster and author ^[3][4] Jan Moir in The Daily Telegraph wrote in support of Spacey though, saying "the British loved Play for Today once, and would do so again. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. A good piece of drama looks at the human condition, and tells us something we should know about ourselves. "^[5]

References

• Evans, Jeff. The Penguin TV Companion (1st ed. ). London: Penguin Books. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Penguin Books is a British Publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. 2001. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. ISBN 0-140-51467-8.
• Vahimagi, Tise. British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford. Oxford is currently bidding for the 2010 Wikimania Conference Oxford () is a city, and the County town of Oxfordshire, Oxford University Press / British Film Institute. The British Film Institute ( BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film television 1994. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) ISBN 0-19-818336-4.

External links

• Play for Today site
• Play for Today at the Internet Movie Database
• Section on the series at the TV Cream website, containing good synopses of most episodes
• Play for Today section at the BFI's Screenonline
• Archive status of Play for Today at lostshows. The British Film Institute ( BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film television screenonline is a Web site devoted to the history of British film and television, and to Social history as revealed by film and television com
• Kettering Magazine Issue #4 contains a history of the much underrated role of comedy in the Play for Today strand.