Play for Today: Series 10
Season 10 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Play for Today Season 9.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 10 Progress Shield
Long Distance Information
Oct 11, 1979 · 75 min
A fanatical Elvis Presley fan is working as a disc jockey when his idol dies
Cries from a Watchtower
Oct 18, 1979 · 75 min
A watchmaker finds his livelihood is threatened by cheaply imported digital watches.
Comedians
Oct 25, 1979 · 75 min
Budding comedians take an evening class taught by a retired performer and, for their final exam, must perform for an impresario in a nightclub.
Even Solomon
Nov 1, 1979 · 75 min
Stephen Piper is a quiet young man. A virgin, he shows no interest in sex, and is cruelly scorned by an aggressive female neighbour when he rebuffs her advances. He lives with his
Just a Boy's Game
Nov 8, 1979 · 75 min
In Glasgow, a young man's sole aim is to be as tough as his dying grandfather once was
A Hole in Babylon
Nov 29, 1979 · 75 min
Exploration of the events leading up to 1975 Spaghetti House siege in London and the motivation of its three protagonists, T-Bone Wilson, Archie Pool, and Trevor Thomas.
The Slab-Boys
Dec 6, 1979 · 75 min
The story of a young man who works in a carpet factory
Katie: The Year of a Child
Dec 13, 1979 · 75 min
A teenage girl from a family of Irish Travellers is left to look after her brothers and sisters while her father is away.
The Network
Dec 20, 1979 · 75 min
What do Rose from Devon and Christina from Stuttgart have in common? And in what way is their fate linked to that of wealthy Fiona Dunkerley?
Keep Smiling
Jan 10, 1980 · 75 min
Family picnics should not be like this: bugging devices, men with X-ray eyes. Mary doesn't understand what terrifies Simon, nor the bizarre events of the next six months.
Dreams of Leaving
Jan 17, 1980 · 75 min
A journalist moves to London and gets caught up in the big city and his romance with a rich debutante.
Thicker Than Water
Jan 24, 1980 · 75 min
Various characters have adventures on the way to a black pudding festival in Normandy.
Murder Rap
Jan 31, 1980 · 75 min
An Englishman's home is his castle, and Wally aims to prove it.
Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
Feb 7, 1980 · 75 min
Weekend enlightenment seminars serve as a form of brainwashing.
No Defence
Feb 14, 1980 · 75 min
Mr. Germanou arrives from Cyprus with his family to settle in England. But on his arrival he's arrested for an historical rape with seemingly no defence.
That Crazy Woman
Feb 21, 1980 · 75 min
Twenty years ago, at the age of 56, this extraordinary woman became a national hero by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. One of the last great English eccentrics (even thou
A Gift from Nessus
Feb 28, 1980 · 75 min
The marital and career problems of a middle-aged, middle-class man in Glasgow in the 1960s
Kate, the Good Neighbour
Mar 6, 1980 · 75 min
A compassionate elderly woman comes to the realization that she can no longer care for herself or others.
Shadows on Our Skin
Mar 20, 1980 · 75 min
The problems of an 11-year-old boy living in the Catholic part of Londonderry
Ladies
Mar 27, 1980 · 75 min
The A Shift at the MHS department store are organising a wedding gift presentation for Elaine. But what's on Miriam's mind, and why does she seem so out of sorts?
The Vanishing Army
Apr 3, 1980 · 75 min
A story about the highs and lows of peacetime army life
Not for the Likes of Us
Apr 10, 1980 · 75 min
"I dunno, years of putting up with it, waiting on you all, for what? Eh? To become a 14-stone invisible woman?"
The Executioner
Apr 17, 1980 · 75 min
Jan and Meg Citron are on holiday in Germany. Their car is stopped by the police. A simple traffic offence? But their seemingly innocent past is ripped open and life will never be
The Imitation Game
Apr 24, 1980 · 75 min
During World War II, an idealistic young woman joins the Army Transport Service
A Walk in the Forest
May 14, 1980 · 75 min
A writer gets involved with a Soviet dissident