The Wednesday Play
Series of one-off plays made by BBC television, which gave breaks to a wide range of writers and directors in the late 1960s, such as Dennis Potter, Ken Loach, David Mercer, and John Hopkins. Famous plays include "Up the Junction", "Cathy Come Home" , "Stand Up Nigel Barton", "Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton", "On the Eve of Publication", and "Son of Man". The series often addressed controversial issues, such as homelessness and abortion.
- 1964-1970
- 9 seasons
- Drama
Series of one-off plays made by BBC television, which gave breaks to a wide range of writers and directors in the late 1960s, such as Dennis Potter, Ken Loach, David Mercer, and John Hopkins. Famous plays include "Up the Junction", "Cathy Come Home" , "Stand Up Nigel Barton", "Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton", "On the Eve of Publication", and "Son of Man". The series often addressed controversial issues, such as homelessness and abortion.
Season 9 Episode Guide
26 Episodes 1969 - 1970
Episode 1
The Last Train through Harecastle Tunnel
76 mins
A shy clerk suffers from his colleagues petty office politics and contemptuous treatment of him, but this weekend, as a deeply involved train spotter, the closing of an old tunnel is his big adventure. On the way up, he encounters a well off couple with a daughter that hates them, and an Army Sergeant whose men hate him. The hotel he stays at is run by a fellow railway enthusiast, with a gay son that hates him, and he meets a famous signal designer with a daughter that hates him.
Episode 2
Patterson O.K.
50 mins
A story about growing up, falling in love and settling old scores in the unfriendly environment of a big city.
Episode 3
The Mark II Wife
70 mins
A woman who suspects her husband of having an affair reveals her suspicions at a party.
Episode 4
Close the Coalhouse Door
80 mins
The history of the mining industry in the northeast of England is told through family drama, comedy sketches and song.
Episode 5
The Sad Decline of Arthur Maybury
80 mins
A schoolmaster takes to drink.
Episode 6
All Out for Kangaroo Valley
70 mins
Two young Australians on holiday in London find that the "old country" has its problems.
Episode 7
Happy
80 mins
The story of an up-and-coming businessman.
Episode 8
There Is Also Tomorrow
60 mins
The commanding officer of a regiment handling nuclear missiles is shocked to see his daughter Sally on television taking part in a student demonstration.
Episode 9
Double Bill: The Compartment/Playmates
60 mins
In the first part, an insane man boards a quiet railway coach and starts to annoy a patient man trying to read a paper with incessant small talk in an increasingly menacing manner until he finally pulls out a gun and screaming class hatred bile, humiliates the man until his stop is reached. In part two he breaks into a lonely house and proceeds to terrorise a spinster woman who lives there.
Episode 10
Blood of the Lamb
80 mins
A student architect and his black girlfriend set out from South Africa to Britain. On the voyage, the student shares a cabin with an enigmatic Austrian.
Episode 11
The Vortex
70 mins
Young Nicky Lancaster must cope with the discovery that his socialite mother is a drug addict.
Episode 12
It Wasn't Me
60 mins
A couple seek a desperate remedy to the problem of a burdensome parent.
Episode 13
Season of the Witch
70 mins
A young woman quits her dull job in the typing pool, and goes off on a search for personal freedom.
Episode 14
The Hunting of Lionel Crane
75 mins
An army deserter hides out on a country estate but falls foul of the gamekeeper.
Episode 15
Rest in Peace, Uncle Fred
60 mins
A tragi-comic study of a Northern funeral.
Episode 16
Mad Jack
Thu, Apr 15, 1971 75 mins
Second Lieutenant Siegfried Sassoon of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers protests the appalling and unnecessary sacrifice of men's lives in the First World War.
Episode 17
Nathan and Tabileth
75 mins
A young man befriends an elderly couple, claiming to be their grandson.
Episode 18
The Italian Table
75 mins
A junk dealer is caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between a woman, her husband and his mistress when they sell a piece of their furniture.
Episode 19
The Boy Who Wanted Peace
75 mins
Two Glaswegian youngsters are caught up in sectarian gang warfare.
Episode 20
The Cellar and the Almond Tree
80 mins
A former poet, now a Communist Party official in the German Democratic Republic, becomes entangled in the political machinery of a state about to plunge into a succession of Stalinist purges.
Episode 21
No Trams to Lime Street
50 mins
Three young merchant seamen from Liverpool take shore leave in their home city after three years away.
Episode 22
Wine of India
50 mins
In the year 2050, advances in medicine have resulted in a need for population control. People reaching the age of 100 must submit to a government controlled euthanasia program. The story centers around a 100-year old couple who must now make plans for their funeral.
Episode 23
Sovereign's Company
78 mins
A young man from an army family with a long tradition of honour and distinction goes to a military academy as an officer cadet and finds himself temperamentally unsuited to the life.
Episode 24
Emma's Time
80 mins
Emma, who lived with an author for the last two years of his life, is involved in a television film about him.
Episode 25
Chariot of Fire
75 mins
A prison visitor becomes involved with a convicted sex offender.
Episode 26