The Wednesday Play Season 5, Episode 18: Birthday

Mrs Lawrence Will Look After It

When an elderly woman is hospitalised, the truth behind her illegal adoption of 14 children is revealed.

75 min

Spoiled

A schoolmaster invites a nineteen-year-old student to stay with him and his wife to cram for imminent exams.

75 min

The Gorge

A teenage boy reluctantly accompanies his ghastly family on a coarse bank-holiday day out to local beauty spot and tourist trap, the Cheddar Gorge.

75 min

A Night with Mrs. Da Tanka

A lonely bachelor, seeking his long-lost sweetheart at a boarding house, meets a serial divorcée.

75 min

Charlie

James has come in search of his feckless older brother, Charlie, to ask him to come home and settle down.

Anyone For Tennis?

Garry committed suicide to escape disgrace and imprisonment. Does he now have the chance to change the circumstances leading to his downfall?

Mooney and his Caravans

A couple move to a caravan park, where the owner is a petty dictator.

The Lower Largo Sequence

A man seeks his inner island.

Hello, Good Evening and Welcome

A talk-show host is required to examine his conscience and also the ethics of "good television".

A Bit of Crucifixion, Father

A doctor advises a woman not to proceed with her latest pregnancy, contrary to her strict Catholic upbringing.

Nothing Will be The Same

A family becomes increasingly suspicious of the relationship between the mother and a mysterious stranger who starts to follow her around.

A Beast With Two Backs

An isolated New Forest community in 19th Century Britain. A young local girl is murdered by a mentally disturbed youth, but the villagers blame a stranger, an Italian traveling showman and his bear, rather than see the rot in their own camp.

On the Eve of Publication

An author hosts a dinner party to celebrate the publication of his new novel.

The Fabulous Frump

A fashion editor competes for the affections of a designer with their new male model.

Smoke Screen

A successful advertising executive who promotes a brand of cigarettes is reproached by his family when his mother contracts terminal lung cancer.

Dr. Aitkinson's Daughter

After a year as a Volunteer Service Overseas worker, a young woman returns home in search of love and understanding.

The Apprentices

A portrait of the life of some Northern apprentices.

The Big Flame

Dock workers under the threat of redundancy, work day and night in an attempt to keep employed by running the workforce themselves.

A Serpent in Putney

An off-beat romance in bed-sitter land.

Bami Powl Zapl

A young man bitterly regrets his part in an attack on a bank cashier.

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.

Sling Your Hook

A group of coal miners from Nottingham go on their annual trip to Blackpool.

A Child and a Half

A man enters into a correspondence with his colleague's eight-year-old daughter.

Son of Man

Dennis Potter's controversial reading of the life of Christ, with Jesus portrayed as a hearty, fiery, well-meaning carpenter who believes that people should try to love their enemies rather than fight all the time, but who is racked by self doubt as to whether or not he is the popularly anticipated Messiah.

The Exiles

Three Trinidadians consider what it means to be exiles in an essentially white society.

Blodwen, Home from Rachel's Marriage

The daughter of a religious Welsh family becomes the centrepiece of a bizarre student festival.