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Play for Today Season 13 Episodes

17 Episodes 1982 - 1983

Episode 1

Soft Targets

95 mins

A Russian in London finds himself targeted by British Intelligence.

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Episode 2

3 Minute Heroes

75 mins

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.

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Episode 3

The Remainder Man

63 mins

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 confinement draw them together or push them apart?

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Episode 4

Intensive Care

80 mins

When Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sure he's there if his father ever regains consciousness. As he hates his job as a schoolteacher, and his home-life with his wife, her senile mother and their insolent teenage son, he has no qualms about lingering around the hospital. But as days turn into weeks, his father obstinately refuses to 'slip away', and Denis' motivation for staying by his father's bedside has more and more to do with Valery, a young nurse.

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Episode 5

A Mother Like Him

53 mins

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?

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Episode 6

John David

79 mins

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 months later she learns the baby has died.

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Episode 7

Aliens

68 mins

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 Nazis.

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Episode 8

Another Flip for Dominick

83 mins

Now a respected teacher of temporal observers, Dominick has not visited the past for several years. He is content with his lot, resigned to the idea that he will never again see Jane, the lover he left in 1980, or their son. Then his boss gives him a new mission: to find out what has become of one of Dominick's students, Pyrus Bonnington, who has gone missing in 1982. Pyrus, who idolises Dominick, is attempting to emulate his exploits in the past. Dominick's search reunites him with Jane who now lives with a musician (conveniently on a six-month stint in Brazil) and allows him to meet his son for the first time. Pyrus is attempting to rescue a foreign princess being held to ransom by terrorists, which might have a disastrous affect on future history if he succeeds. Matters become even more complicated when Dominick and Jane quarrel, and he decides to use his time machine to revisit the previous day, and try to repair the rift. Meanwhile, in Dominick's own time, his wife becomes increasingly disenchanted with his dalliance in the past, and runs off with their baby-sitter.

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Episode 9

Last Love

58 mins

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.

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Episode 10

Gates of Gold

68 mins

In 1959, ten years before the Troubles began, two glamorous travelling evangelists spread the flame of revival in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

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Episode 11

Wayne and Albert

59 mins

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 carpentry and snooker.

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Episode 12

Atlantis

75 mins

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.

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Episode 13

The Last Term

69 mins

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 enthusiasm for war into practice.

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Episode 14

Reluctant Chickens

54 mins

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 arrested development of their children who won't leave home.

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Episode 15

Shall I Be Mother?

90 mins

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 two girls.

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Episode 16

The Falklands Factor

55 mins

A controversial war breaks out in the far-off Falkland Islands. Dr. Samuel Johnson wonders if there is a secret political agenda involved.

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Episode 17

A Matter of Choice for Billy

84 mins

It's 1978, a year on from when we last saw the Martin family, and Ma has died. So, everything erupts again when Norman returns from England for the funeral.

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