Play for Today: Series 13
Season 13 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 12.
- 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 13 Progress Shield
Soft Targets
Oct 19, 1982 · 75 min
A story about a homesick Russian journalist in London at the end of the cold war
Three Minute Heroes
Oct 26, 1982 · 75 min
Out on the streets, young people looking for fun. They come together at nights to listen to their music. For as long as the song lasts, they're heroes. Three minute heroes.
The Remainder Man
Nov 2, 1982 · 75 min
Jack's obsession with the possibility of nuclear war sees him usher his family down into his home made fall out shelter after a nuclear strike hits the country. Will their time in
Intensive Care
Nov 9, 1982 · 75 min
A man holds a lonely vigil at the bedside of his dying father.
A Mother Like Him
Nov 16, 1982 · 75 min
A family of five orphaned children are going to be split up into different homes. What will happen if the eldest is officially made their foster parent?
John David
Nov 23, 1982 · 75 min
After giving birth to a Down's Syndrome baby, Judith decides she doesn't want to keep him. Obliged to register the birth she arbitrarily chooses John David as the name. A few month
Aliens
Nov 30, 1982 · 75 min
In June 1940 Italy entered the war. With Britain threatened by a German invasion thousands of Italians were seized and thrown into security camps, with other friendly aliens - and
Another Flip for Dominick
Dec 14, 1982 · 75 min
Two years after his journey to the past, Dominick Hide has been promoted to instructor and is no longer a time traveller. Then one of his pupils, Pyrus Bonnington, goes missing dur
Last Love
Mar 1, 1983 · 75 min
Annabel, an upper-middle-class widow, falls in love with Jack, a self-made man of humble origins. Her grown-up children do not approve.
Gates of Gold
Mar 8, 1983 · 75 min
In 1959 County Antrim, two traveling evangelists help a mentally retarded teenager
Wayne and Albert
Mar 15, 1983 · 75 min
Wayne goes to live with his grandfather Albert. Initial generation gap hostilities between them are eventually overcome as a mutual respect develops through a their shared love of
Atlantis
Mar 22, 1983 · 75 min
Goff and Lytton have a dream - a canal boat of their own on which to cruise the inland waterways: The reality is the boatyard of Josh Adkins and a rusting hulk called Atlantis.
The Last Term
Apr 5, 1983 · 75 min
Devon 1940. The boys of the local public school are alerted after a German parachute drop and as members of the Local Defence Volunteers they prepare to put their youthful enthusia
Reluctant Chickens
Apr 12, 1983 · 75 min
Malcolm is a GP wrestling with ideas of retirement, while his wife Jo is a frustrated, would-be novelist. Together they dream of a more contented life, but are hampered by the arre
Shall I Be Mother?
Apr 19, 1983 · 75 min
Susan and Jenny are aged 13 and 14 and in care. Jenny's mother has died, Susan hasn't seen hers for years Both influence the close, stormy relationship that develops between the tw
The Falklands Factor
Apr 26, 1983 · 75 min
The 18th century writer Samuel Johnson writes a political pamphlet protesting the British going to war with Spain after the 1790 invasion of the Falkland Islands.
A Matter of Choice for Billy
May 10, 1983 · 75 min
When his father leaves Belfast to seek work in England, a young man looks after his sister
Floating Off
Aug 24, 1983 · 75 min
A businessman tries to keep his son from finding out about an unconventional deal he and his secretary are making with a merchant bank.