Barry Davis

Her Majesty's Pleasure

They are all 'in' for life so the pleasures are sparse, and strictly of their own making.Their really big event is the Christmas pantomime, only this year they have lost their star. Mother Bear has escaped. Still, there is some consolation. The new arrival looks a likely Goldilocks. "There's one or two who'll be after him", says Woodbine - and he knows all their weaknesses.

The Floater

A comedy about the law - seen from the inside. All formality and procedure on the surface but not quite so convincing when you see the works.

When We Are Married

Three married couples discover that, through a legal technicality, they are, in fact, not actually married in the eyes of the law. This was the fifth television film version of this play by J.B. Priestley made by the BBC.

There Is a Happy Land

Keith Waterhouse's near autobiographical tale about characters from his childhood.

Brimstone and Treacle

A mysterious stranger inserts himself into a troubled family's life, blurring the lines between good and evil as he cares for their disabled daughter.

Schmoedipus

Glen, a complete stranger, appears at the door of Elizabeth Carter, a middle-aged woman, and claims to be the illegitimate son she gave away at birth.

For Sylvia, or the Air Show

Was this the finest hour? Sifting the truth and fiction about the Battle of Britain, Burrows and Harding give their own account of how the nation sees its heroes - and itself.

Mummy and Daddy

Arthur takes early retirement, and with his wife Marion, moves into a bungalow by the sea, bought by their son. However, disillusionment sets in after a year when the plans he had do not work out and life is not what they expected or hoped.

Gotcha / Campion's Interview

Two stories about school. Gotcha by Barrie Keeffe: On his last day at school, a 'no hope' 16-year-old pupil holds his teachers hostage using a motor-bike petrol tank as a bomb. Campion's Interview by Brian Clark: A headmaster takes on the Education Authorities on behalf on his pupils, exposing the political pressures behind the creation of a comprehensive school.

Your Man from Six Counties

When his father becomes a bomb victim, Jimmy leaves Belfast for his uncle’s farm in remote west Ireland. But even here there are links to the past.

The People’s Jack

A musical version of the life of the 17th Century English radical politician, John Wilkes, who campaigned for the right for voters to determine their representatives, not the House of Commons.

Katie: The Year of a Child

Katie, the 14-year-old daughter of a travelling family, is left in charge of an ailing mother and her nine brothers and sisters in Dublin whilst her father is in England seeking his fortune.

What the Butler Saw

White golliwogs, cross-dressing coppers, bellboy rapists, insanity, incest, and Winston Churchill’s giant member all play their part in this BBC production of Joe Orton’s farcical, bitingly satirical 1969 play, in which the head psychiatrist of a lunatic asylum, when trying to conceal the attempted molestation of his new secretary from his wife, only succeeds in making himself (and everyone else) look completely round the bend.

Baby Love

Play about Eileen who steals a baby, and the reactions of those around her, including the priest, police, and authorities and the consequences of what she does.

The Cause

"I wish I could write ... about what Spain was like - a real cause. Not just Cornford, Hemingway and Orwell, but the ordinary blokes who went." A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley 's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.

Eleanor

Eleanor seems normal enough to her parents and teachers. Why then has she disappeared?

Pews

Liftchick has a problem. As beadle to the synagogue he is responsible for getting ten men together to say Kaddish, but it is holiday-time and the town is empty.

Paper Roses

Facing retirement, elderly journalist Clarence Hubbard reflects on the pointlessness of a life wasted writing banal tabloid human interest, animal, and crime stories. Rather than go quietly to tend roses in a garden, Hubbard begins a series of violent actions not unlike those described in tabloids, and this is heightened by inter cutting tabloid headlines between scenes. Throughout, there are occasional shots of a television critic who watches this very play as it unfolds, and he writes a negative review filled with cleverly phrased but bitter invective.

Do as I Say

A quietly unhappy housewife finds a stranger in her house and is raped at knife-point by him. But when she turns to friends, neighbours and her parents-in-law for sympathy, they all seem preoccupied by other matters.

Play for Today

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Playhouse

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Tales of the Unexpected

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

American Playhouse

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

ITV Playhouse

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

The Play on One

A series of television plays, some original, some based on pre-existing plays or novels.

ITV Saturday Night Theatre

Anthology series of dramatic works.

Theatre Night

A series of dramas featuring staged theatre plays.

Country Matters

An anthology series adapted from plays and short stories by A.E Coppard and H.E. Bates, depicting English country life and rural romance at the turn of the 20th-century. It presents unsentimental stories of human relationships and raw emotions – heartfelt passions, crippling frustrations, unspoken love and destructive jealousy.

The Adams Chronicles

Chronicles the story of the Adams political family over a 150-year span, including John Adams (drafter and signer of the Declaration, accomplished diplomat, and the 2nd President of the U.S.), his wife Abigail Adams, his son John Quincy Adams (acclaimed Secretary of State, the 6th President, and prominent abolitionist Congressman), grandson Charles Francis Adams, Congressman and Ambassador to Great Britain during the Civil War, and much-heralded members of the fourth generation Henry Brooks Adams, the historian and author of the novel Democracy, and Charles Francis Adams II, the industrialist.

Wessex Tales

An anthology series based on the Wessex Tales, a collection of short stories by novelist Thomas Hardy.

Oppenheimer

This seven-part series highlights scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer from 1938 to 1953 as he develops the Atomic bomb.