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21 Episodes 1978 - 1979
Episode 1
76 mins
When Nina falls in love with Yuri he already has an exit permit from Russia. Nina knows it will be painful being an exile but she cannot resist following Yuri to London.
Episode 2
79 mins
George, a black South African, finds it hard to settle down in London after his experiences in South Africa.
Episode 3
63 mins
A man is hailed as a hero when he attacks a would-be burglar.
Episode 4
63 mins
John Thaw plays Dinny Mathews a small time boxing promoter who struggles with his conscience as to whether or not to provide a fighter for a Sporting Club promotion, a fighter he knows is unfit against an opponent who is way out of his league. However Mathews needs sponsorship and this would be the ideal opportunity to mix with the "frilly shirted" sportsmen who enjoy their lavish lifestyle as fighters slug it out as the steak is served.
Episode 5
75 mins
Adolescent love can be difficult at the best of times, but Donal and Sally have special problems - problems which alarm their families and the instructors at Strathvale Centre.
Episode 6
87 mins
Arrested during the Charter 77 purge, Vanek is living under a suspended sentence handed out at his last trial and now only goes into Prague when summoned for an interview by the police.
Episode 7
76 mins
"Whether priest or thespian, never once let yourself doubt that the role you're playing is real. Lead your little flock from childhood to the grave via God's sweet sacraments and let no doubts intrude - ever."
Episode 8
70 mins
A freelance TV presenter has been hired by the BBC to film a documentary about the British army stationed in Germany. Unfortunately the budget is so low he is only allowed to film soldiers talking, and all bad language must be censored.
Episode 9
62 mins
What happens to provincial journalists when there's nothing in the news and they have a paper to fill?
Episode 10
80 mins
"This could be a bit special, Maggie. This could be the first case of an office block falling down during the topping-out party."
Episode 11
49 mins
Three boys watch horror films on late night TV and see a man in a local cemetery whom they believe to be a vampire.
Episode 12
69 mins
For a successful man with public responsibilities Alan Berry is strangely reluctant to help the police when his wife is murdered.
Episode 13
77 mins
Grace Dwyer, a 70-year-old woman, leaves an old people's home to return to her birthplace in Lambeth. She discovers a world that initially looks different, but is in fact all too familiar.
Episode 14
72 mins
"When we dream of childhood," said Dennis Potter, "we take our present selves with us. It is not the adult world writ small; childhood is the adult world writ large." Since Potter viewed childhood as "adult society without all the conventions and the polite forms which overlay it," he repeated the device he had introduced 14 years earlier (in "Stand Up, Nigel Barton"); children's roles were cast with adult actors in this naturalistic memory drama of a "golden day" that turns to tragedy. On a sunny, summer afternoon in bucolic England of 1943, seven West Country children (two girls, five boys) play in the Forest of Dean. Their games and spontaneous actions (continuous and in real time) reflect their awareness of WWII, but no adults are present to intrude. As the group moves through the woods and back to the grassy hills, their words and actions illustrate how "childhood is not transparent with innocence." When the two girls push a pram into a barn to play house, the casting concept is heightened, doubling back on itself in a remarkable moment: adults are suddenly seen to be acting as children who are pretending to be adults, and lines from Housman echo across the years: "That is the land of lost content/I see it shining plain/The happy highways where I went/And cannot come again."
Episode 15
80 mins
Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife April, who raises cats; youthful and pretentious friends Nigel, Giles, and Anthony, who gather for a wine-soaked dinner party with the chatty and risque Samantha and the mousy Caroline; the plummy Lord and Lady Crouchurst, in a spot of bother needing the help of Francis, a senior partner, to assist with the family's cash flow. Alan comes home from work to find Mr. Shakespeare doing a photo shoot of one of April's cats and a wealthy stranger, Miss Hunt, waiting to purchase one. His instincts for sycophantic palaver kick in.
Episode 16
67 mins
When DC Deacey finds himself surprisingly transferred to Belfast he gets digs in a most unusual boarding house called The Crumlin View where no one is what they seem and everyone has been living with the troubles for far too long.
Episode 17
74 mins
"Ploughman. Nobody calls you that. You're a has-been. Your head and heart went into a museum wi' that lot you keep in there. Face it: you're redundant."
Episode 18
76 mins
"I'm 37 years old, remember? I'm not a dead-pan, genned-up, discreetly nymphomaniac ex-head-girl like the majority of your female students. I'm an innocent. I'm vulnerable."
Episode 19
78 mins
A village in Cheshire. A deserted cinema. A poet murdered by Stalin. A blown fuse. Victor Silvester. Pickets on trial. Trimmers and fishwires.
Episode 20
69 mins
Lewis, a gay writer of romantic novels, writes an article on gay issues under the pseudonym of "Zippy Grimes." The reason for this is that he hasn't come out yet and he doesn't want to alienate his mainly female fan-base. The article is a great success and leads to a huge amount of reactions, mainly from other gay men who are leading a double life. He decides to meet a number of these letter writers and eventually is forced to come out.
Episode 21
74 mins
Harrowing portrayal of Middle Class Domestic Abuse.