成人快手

Play For Today

15 October 1970

Image: Norman Rossington as Jack Burnshaw and Ray Davies as Pete in 'The Long Distance Piano Player' by Alan Sharp.

A new season of television dramas under the banner Play for Today was launched on 15 October 1970. In effect it was a rebrand of The Wednesday Play, moved to Thursday night, but there was still a huge appetite for single dramas on the 成人快手. Introducing the new season in the Radio Times, Dennis Potter stated that "television is the true national theatre". Through the 1970s and early '80s Play for Today made a significant contribution to the canon of television drama.

The first play was The Long Distance Piano Player by Alan Sharp, starring musician Ray Davies (pictured above). Subsequent weeks included works by John Osborne, Ingmar Bergman and Potter. Over its lifetime Play for Today produced many classics ranging from Edna the Inebriate Woman, Licking Hitler and Blue Remembered Hills, to Spend, Spend, Spend, Bar Mitzvah Boy and Abigail’s Party. The strand also caused controversy with two plays – Scum and Brimstone and Treacle - that were banned for a time.

'The Slab Boys' by John Byrne, Play For Today series 10 episode 8 (1979).

Play for Today ended in 1984 but many of the plays it featured have taken on a life of their own. Alan Bleasdale鈥檚 The Blackstuff became a series. Abigail鈥檚 Party was repeated in a whole evening of programmes in its honour. 成人快手 drama continues to commission original and ground breaking work, with The C-WordThe Missing and Happy Valley among recent successes.

  • Katie Crosson, PhD researcher at The Centre for the History of Television Culture and Production, Royal Holloway College examines the phenomenon of Play for Today in collaboration with the BFI.
  • A quick guide to Play for Today

    The 成人快手 History quick guide to Play for Today.

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