Editing Play for Today (section)

==History==
The strand was a successor to ''[[The Wednesday Play]]'', the 1960s anthology series, the title being changed when the day of transmission moved to Thursday to make way for a sport programme. Some works, screened in anthology series on [[BBC Two|BBC2]], like [[Willy Russell]]'s ''[[Our Day Out]]'' (1977), were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of ''The Wednesday Play'', [[Graeme MacDonald]] and [[Irene Shubik]], transferred to the new series. Shubik continued with the series until 1973<ref>Irene Shubik [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/apr/05/theatre "Letters: Eclectic roster on Play for Today"], ''The Guardian'', 5 April 2008</ref><!-- Shubik produced an additional 3 productions screened in 1974-75. --> while MacDonald remained with the series until 1977 when he was promoted. Later producers included [[Kenith Trodd]] (1973–1982), [[David Rose (producer)|David Rose]] (1972–1980), [[Innes Lloyd]] (1975–1982), Margaret Matheson (1977–1979), Sir [[Richard Eyre]] (1978–1980), and Pharic MacLaren (1974–1982).

Plays covered all genres. In its time, ''Play for Today'' featured contemporary [[social realism|social realist dramas]], historical pieces, fantasies, biopics and occasionally science-fiction<ref>Richard Hewett [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/714453/index.html ''Flipside of Dominick Hide, The (1980)''], screenonline.org.uk. Accessed 8 December 2022.</ref> (''[[The Flipside of Dominick Hide]]'', 1980). Most pieces were written directly for television, but there were also occasional adaptations from other narrative forms, such as novels and stage plays.

Writers who contributed plays to the series included [[Ian McEwan]], [[John Osborne]], [[Dennis Potter]], [[Stephen Poliakoff]], Sir [[David Hare (dramatist)|David Hare]], [[Willy Russell]], [[Alan Bleasdale]], [[Arthur Hopcraft]], [[Alan Plater]], [[Graham Reid (writer)|Graham Reid]], [[David Storey]], [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]], [[Rhys Adrian]] and [[John Hopkins (screenwriter)|John Hopkins]].

Several prominent directors also featured, including [[Stephen Frears]], [[Alan Clarke]], [[Michael Apted]], [[Mike Newell (director)|Mike Newell]], [[Roland Joffé]], [[Ken Loach]], [[Lindsay Anderson]], and [[Mike Leigh]]. Some of the best remembered plays broadcast in the strand include ''[[Edna, the Inebriate Woman]]'' (1971), ''[[The Foxtrot]]'' (1971), ''[[Home (Storey play)|Home]]'' (1972), ''The Fishing Party'' (1972), ''[[Bar Mitzvah Boy]]'' (1976), ''[[The Other Woman (Play For Today)|The Other Woman]]'' (1976), ''[[Abigail's Party]]'' (1977), ''[[Blue Remembered Hills]]'' (1979) and ''[[Just a Boys' Game]]'' (1979). Certain other plays, including ''[[Penda's Fen]]'' (1974) and ''[[Nuts in May (Play for Today)|Nuts in May]]'' (1976), were commissioned by [[David Rose (producer)|David Rose]] of the BBC's English Regions Drama department based in Pebble Mill Studios in [[Birmingham]].

Some installments in the series were spun off into full-blown series, including ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey#Origins: Play for Today|Rumpole of the Bailey]]'', which was produced as a one-off in the ''Play for Today'' strand in 1975 and three years later became a series for [[Thames Television]], again with [[Leo McKern]]. [[Alan Bleasdale]]'s ''The Black Stuff'', was a single play broadcast on BBC2 in January 1980, which was developed into ''[[Boys from the Blackstuff]]''. It was never part of the ''Play For Today'' strand, although it was repeated on BBC1 later that year as a single play.<ref name="BBCG TBS">{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6dd53e1faa6844c1a56cd4c5e049db68|title=The Black Stuff|date=2 January 1980|issue=2928|page=89|via=BBC Genome}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/c95d68d870274ab1941362fb1649c953|title=The Black Stuff|date=30 July 1981|issue=3011|page=58|via=BBC Genome}}</ref>

Other offshoots were ''[[Gangsters (TV series)|Gangsters]]'', ''Headmaster'', and a single series of science fiction-based plays styled as ''[[Play for Tomorrow]]''. Towards the end of the run, three plays set in [[Northern Ireland]] were written by [[Graham Reid (writer)|Graham Reid]]. Known as the Billy Plays, they starred [[Kenneth Branagh]] as Billy Martin in his first acting role following his graduation from [[RADA]].

There were also some groups of plays transmitted that – for various reasons – did not go out under the ''Play for Today'' banner, but which were funded from the same department, used much the same production team and are generally regarded in episode guides and analysis as being part of the ''Play for Today'' canon.

Several plays were BAFTA award winners. [[John Le Mesurier]] and [[Patricia Hayes]] were named Best Actor and Actress, respectively, for their roles in the 1971 series ''Traitor'' and ''Edna, The Inebriate Woman'', the latter also being named Best Drama Production. Dame [[Celia Johnson]] was named Best Actress for ''Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont'', broadcast in 1973. ''Stocker's Copper'' (1972), ''Kisses At Fifty'' (1973), ''Bar Mitzvah Boy'' (1976), ''Spend, Spend, Spend!'' (1977), ''Licking Hitler'' (1978), and ''Blue Remembered Hills'' (1979) were all named Best Single Play by BAFTA.

Videotapes of thirty-seven of the episodes produced between 1970 and 1975 were [[Lost television broadcast#Wiping|wiped]] after transmission, and no copies of many of them are known to exist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tvbrain.info/tv-archive?showname=Play+for+Today&type=lostshow|title=Play for Today|website=TV Brain|access-date=23 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="DooaC">{{Cite AV media |title=Drama out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000ng9w/drama-out-of-a-crisis-a-celebration-of-play-for-today |access-date=23 October 2020 |publisher=[[BBC Television]]|date=12 October 2020}}</ref>

Two plays were controversially pulled from transmission shortly before broadcast due to concerns over their content: these were Dennis Potter's ''[[Brimstone and Treacle|Brimstone & Treacle]]'' in 1976 and Roy Minton's ''[[Scum (television play)|Scum]]'' the following year. In the case of ''Brimstone & Treacle'' it was due to concerns over the play's depiction of a disabled woman's rape at the hands of a man who may possibly have been the [[devil]], and with ''Scum'' the worry was its supposed [[sensationalism]] of life in a [[borstal]]. ''Scum'' and ''Brimstone & Treacle'' were eventually transmitted, although in the meantime both had circumvented their withdrawal by being re-made as cinema films. Another play ''Pillion'' recorded in 1979 was never broadcast.

One play, ''The Other Woman'', generated some mild controversy for its "graphic depiction" of lesbianism, and for the onscreen kiss between [[Jane Lapotaire]] and [[Lynne Frederick]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Farquhar|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Farquhar|date=5 June 2017|title=Savage Ms-Siah|url=https://dreamsgatheringdust.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/the-other-woman/|access-date=20 August 2020|website=Dreams Gathering Dust}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Isaacs|first=David|date=31 December 1975|title=Another side of the triangle|journal=Coventry Evening Telegraph|page=17}}</ref>