Play for Today

Play for Today is a long-running British anthology drama series presenting a different self-contained television play each episode. Airing on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984, it showcases original stories as well as adaptations of stage works and novels. Episodes typically run around an hour to feature-length, giving writers and directors room for bold ideas, social observation, and intimate character studies across a wide range of settings and tones.

Play for Today is an anthology drama strand in which every installment tells a complete, standalone story with its own cast, characters, and setting. Originally broadcast on BBC1 between 1970 and 1984, the series became a showcase for ambitious television writing, mixing contemporary realism with inventive storytelling and occasional literary or theatrical adaptations. Episodes vary in length, usually ranging from roughly fifty minutes to feature-length, allowing each play to develop like a compact film. Across its extensive run, the collection explores personal relationships, work and class pressures, political tensions, and moral dilemmas, shifting from gritty everyday situations to more stylized dramas depending on the creative team. With hundreds of individual plays produced, it offers a broad snapshot of changing social attitudes and TV craft across the period, and it has also served as a launching pad for ideas and characters that later evolved into other screen projects.