Play for Today: Series 11
Season 11 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 10.
- 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 11 Progress Shield
Pasmore
Oct 21, 1980 · 75 min
Colin Pasmore tests his strength against his family ties but finds them stronger than he ever imagined.
C2H5OH
Oct 28, 1980 · 75 min
"In heaven there is no drama - drama depends on failure and conflict. My trade is a scrutiny of hell. For any proud dramatist his style is his prejudice."
The Adventures of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something
Nov 4, 1980 · 75 min
Writer-director John McGrath deliberately shies away from naturalism in an experiment that mixes blue screen, songs, and characters realising they're acting within a play. This fir
Minor Complications
Nov 18, 1980 · 75 min
Kay Gilbert goes into hospital for a minor operation which goes badly wrong. This play tells the story of her fight for compensation.
Number on End
Nov 25, 1980 · 75 min
What could Steve Jackson's documentary film expose that must be concealed from the African leaders meeting in Brussels? Steve Jackson is on the run and the wrong decision could pro
Jude
Dec 2, 1980 · 75 min
Twelve-year-old Jude has never met Dick, his father. One Sunday afternoon Dick impulsively engineers a meeting, which has distressing consequences.
The Flipside of Dominick Hide
Dec 9, 1980 · 75 min
Dominick Hide, a time traveller from London in the year 2130, is studying the city's transport system of 1980. Breaking the rules, he lands his craft to seek out his great-grandfat
Name for the Day
Dec 16, 1980 · 75 min
Clive admits himself to a psychiatric hospital after undergoing a breakdown. His wife wants him back home, but in order for Clive to be released, he has to want to be cured.
Jessie
Dec 23, 1980 · 75 min
In Victorian times, a nanny cares for a mute boy, who becomes overly attached to her.
Beyond the Pale
Jan 6, 1981 · 75 min
A vacation at a seaside hotel in Ireland changes the lives of four friends.
The Muscle Market
Jan 13, 1981 · 75 min
The problems of an owner of a building contractor company in Liverpool
A Brush with Mr. Porter on the Road to El Dorado
Jan 20, 1981 · 75 min
"They're nice affable gobblers and we're in the nice affable gobbling business." Tom and Gwen soon find that their gastronomical retreat from the rat race is anything but an escape
Dear Brutus
Jan 27, 1981 · 75 min
"They say that in the wood you get what nearly everybody here is longing for - a second chance." J. M. Barrie's fantasy play, depicting alternative realities for its characters and
The Cause
Feb 3, 1981 · 75 min
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 seeme
Beloved Enemy
Feb 10, 1981 · 75 min
The head of a multinational corporation wants to do business with the Soviets
The Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner
Feb 17, 1981 · 75 min
A group of men hold a reunion dinner in Tokyo
The Union
Feb 24, 1981 · 75 min
You know the nuts and bolts of our policy? To penetrate the unions. To use all sorts of stratagems, manoeuvres, illegal measures, evasions, subterfuges, to carry on Communist activ
Sorry
Mar 3, 1981 · 75 min
Two very different women share an office, a common enemy, and a sense of humour.
Shai Mãlã Khani: The Garland
Mar 10, 1981 · 75 min
When her 17-year-old son Roy falls in love with a Muslim girl, and a Bangladeshi butcher seeks help from her husband Raji, Leela realizes that the tears and romance of Indian cinem
The Sin Bin
Mar 17, 1981 · 75 min
Six lifers living in an experimental self-rehabilitation unit attached to an ordinary prison participate in a group therapy session. All of them have spent many years in prison and
Before Water Lillies
Mar 24, 1981 · 75 min
An evening with the Parent-Teacher Association gets out of hand.
Bavarian Night
Mar 31, 1981 · 75 min
When the dynamic young head-master of St Peter's Primary School decides to liven up a parents' fund-raising social by hiring a Bavarian band, he little suspects the hidden passions
The Good Time Girls
Apr 7, 1981 · 75 min
Nancy and Ella are two bored housewives starved of affection when their husbands are away on the oil rigs. The rules are simple: have some fun, just make sure nobody finds out, and
Baby Talk
Apr 14, 1981 · 75 min
It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help - or are the emotio
A Turn for the Worse
Apr 28, 1981 · 75 min
Soldiers are subjected to a brutal and sadistic kind of psychological training exercise
Psy-Warriors
May 12, 1981 · 75 min
Soldiers are captured and interrogated by terrorists: but is it real or only a sadistic form of psychological training exercise?