The Wednesday Play Season 3, Episode 9: A Pyre for Private James

Photo Finish

Eighty years old, Sam, a famous writer, looks back on his life and tempestuous marriage, and meets himself at the ages of sixty, forty and twenty.

75 min

A Hero of our Time

A young Russian embarks on an affair as a relief from boredom but so brings about his doom.

75 min

The Frighteners

75 min

A Piece of Resistance

A retired colonel is enduring the invasion of the Channel Islands when his household is disrupted by the arrival of a German officer who is surprisingly civilised and susceptible to the daughter's charms.

75 min

Where the Buffalo Roam

A mentally disturbed Welsh teenager is obsessed with Westerns. His volatile temperament loses him the few people who might have been sympathetic, and helped him. Instead, he spirals down to inevitable destruction.

75 min

The Head Waiter

It is end of the season and the head waiter at the seaside hotel has some marvellous tales to tell a young boy.

75 min

Cathy Come Home

A play about a British woman's descent into poverty and homelessness because of her country's rigid and problem-ridden welfare system.

75 min

The Private Tutor

A mother, anxious to secure her daughter's admission to Oxford, invites a young male graduate to lodge with them.

75 min

A Tale of Two Wives

A tale of two wives: one a blonde living in a chic Parisian apartment and the other a brunette with a smart mews flat in London. Both are young, attractive, and separated from their husbands, and their paths are about to cross in an unexpected way.

75 min

Little Master Mind

The Barking brothers dote on their parents and do a lot of good work for charity but the police are determined to bring them to account.

75 min

The Mayfly and the Frog

Following an accident, the rider of a rusting old scooter pursues the driver of a Rolls Royce to a Mayfair mansion and forces entry in an attempt to confront the owner.

Person To Person

A twenty-two-year-old architecture student appears at the door of a divorced thirty-something journalist and asks to use her telephone. They talk, and slowly begin to understand one another: their lives, values, and very different sets of relationships.

The Order

An inspector in Austria investigates the death, over twenty years earlier, of a teenage girl who fell into a canal and drowned trying to evade capture by a policeman searching for members of the resistance.

Everybody's Rich Except Us

Eddie Marble admires the lifestyles of the rich and wants a piece for himself.

The Lump

Yorky is considered a troublemaker by the building site manager. When they sack him a strike is called but lost after the police intervene. He wants nationalise the building industry but forced to go the lump - tax free and off the books.

Who's Going to Take Me On?

The adventures of a knicker factory worker aspiring to be a sales representative.

Death of a Teddy Bear

Inspired by a real-life case, a woman encourages her lover to murder her older husband.

Days in the Trees

A frail old woman meets a middle-aged man - her estranged son, whom she hasn't seen for five years.

In Two Minds

In a series of small vignettes, we follow the course of a manic-depressive girl through high and low instances, slowly following her disintegration as she deals with her doctors and family, especially her hot headed, unimaginative father. Eventually she is brought back to a mental asylum where she'd been committed before.

Another Day, Another Dollar

A new steward on a large passenger liner finds himself subject to "charges" levied by the senior bar steward.

Public Inquiry

A tired signalman waits to be relieved. However, there are four trains to be guided through and some of the equipment doesn't seem to be working properly.

A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant

John Joe Moran is pulled between the compulsion to leave his small town in Ireland and the desire to stay.

A Breach in the Wall

A parish church is undergoing restoration, when a coffin bearing the seal of Thomas à Becket, the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, is discovered. Will the discovery help unite the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches?

The Voices in the Park

The life and passions of a speaker at Hyde Park Corner.

Dismissal Leading to Lustfulness

A young man, newly dismissed from his job, returns home to a party where the other partygoers seem determined that he and a female flatmate should go on holiday together.

A Brilliant Future Behind Him

A minor driving offence is being tried in court, but the case involves a rich young heiress, a dope peddler, and a Shadow Cabinet member.

Message for Posterity

An elderly painter, once radical and confrontational, is given a final commission - to paint the portrait of the former Conservative Prime Minister who represented a totally opposing set of values when they were both young. Both men are now old and of little consequence to the modern generation, but the painter sees his opportunity to make an artistic statement by means of the portrait.

A Way with the Ladies

Josh and Maisie come to Italy after the passing of the old lady who had been living in their sapre room but are soon drawn to another old lady, and try to convince her daughter that she would be better off in their tender care.

The Playground

Walter has three children, by his estranged wife and his current partner, so he is far too busy to get a job, preferring to spend his time in the playground.

Drums Along the Avon

A liberal white man becomes a Muslim to promote racial harmony.