Play For Today

Image: Norman Rossington as Jack Burnshaw and Ray Davies as Pete in 'The Long Distance Piano Player' by Alan Sharp.

A new season of television dramas under the banner Play for Today was launched on 15 October 1970. In effect it was a rebrand of The Wednesday Play, moved to Thursday night, but there was still a huge appetite for single dramas on the BBC. Introducing the new season in the Radio Times, Dennis Potter stated that "television is the true national theatre". Through the 1970s and early '80s Play for Today made a significant contribution to the canon of television drama.

The first play was The Long Distance Piano Player by Alan Sharp, starring musician Ray Davies (pictured above). Subsequent weeks included works by John Osborne, Ingmar Bergman and Potter. Over its lifetime Play for Today produced many classics ranging from Edna the Inebriate Woman, Licking Hitler and Blue Remembered Hills, to Spend, Spend, Spend, Bar Mitzvah Boy and Abigail’s Party. The strand also caused controversy with two plays – Scum and Brimstone and Treacle - that were banned for a time.

Play for Today ended in 1984 but many of the plays it featured have taken on a life of their own. Alan Bleasdale’s The Blackstuff became a series. Abigail’s Party was repeated in a whole evening of programmes in its honour. BBC drama continues to commission original and ground breaking work, with The C-Word, The Missing and Happy Valley among recent successes.