Play for Today Season 12, Episode 20: A Sudden Wrench

1

Country

The story of the disintegration of an aristocratic country estate after World War II

75 min

2

London Is Drowning

A docudrama about what would happen if London was hit by severe flooding

75 min

3

A Room for the Winter

James, an expatriate South African anti-apartheid fighter, deals with his nightmares and his complaining landlady in a run-down area of London, while dreaming of his lover Stephen, left behind.

75 min

4

No Visible Scar

A nurse is subjected to an interrogation after giving medical treatment to a terrorist leader.

75 min

5

Iris in the Traffic, Ruby in the Rain

In Belfast, Ruby has a cold and is caught in the rain while Iris is looking for work and gets caught in traffic

75 min

6

Protest

In an adaptation of Václav Havel's play, a dissident, newly released from prison for political reasons, attempts to get his well-connected friend to sign a protest. In this one man play, both the roles are played by Nigel Hawthorne.

75 min

7

United Kingdom

Two men on a local council fight the system when forced with massive spending cuts.

75 min

8

PQ17

During World War II, a British officer is ordered to abandon a Russian convoy.

75 min

9

The Factory

A manager, a foreman, and two workers are all that remains of a factory yet labor relations stay the same

75 min

10

England's Green and Pleasant Land

A planning decision must be made, and the motorway extension must go through on either the Golf Course or the Allotments - will the greens survive or the peasant lands?

75 min

11

A Cotswold Death

A police inspector investigates the murder of an Arab sheik who had become a village's Lord of the Manor.

75 min

12

Under the Skin

Three women involved in different ways in the women's movement.

75 min

13

Commitments

Politics and relationships during the last years of the Heath government

75 min

14

Life After Death

Meg: We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half.

75 min

15

The Silly Season

Malcolm goes through life hating the mundanity of his existence as a factory worker and an unloved husband. But when students take up summer jobs at the factory, it reawakens both his passion for political feeling and romantic urges.

75 min

16

Too Late to Talk to Billy

A family in Belfast deals with life after the death of the mother from cancer

75 min

17

Willie's Last Stand

Willie and his friends notice the passage of time around them, and how society is changing as their marriages stagnate. Can Willie prove to himself that he still has it, by being able to cheat on his wife just once?

75 min

18

Tishoo

Frank has dedicated 19 years to researching a cure for the common cold, and is almost ready to publish a paper. Yet budget cuts and his own inability to form real relationships with those around him threaten to derail the project.

75 min

19

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home is a 1982 television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh, for BBC TV, 'about postmen, parenthood, social workers and sex.' It was Leigh's second collaboration with Play for Today producer Louis Marks, and cinematographer Remi Adefarasin, and with composer Carl Davis - the music score featured a quartet of basses -. It stars Timothy Spall, here working with Leigh for the first time, Eric Richard, Tim Barker, Kay Stonham, Su Elliot, Frances Barber, Sheila Kelley, and Lorraine Brunning. It was first broadcast on 16 March 1982. The film was shot on location in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. 90 minutes.

75 min

20

A Sudden Wrench

"My life is over - and I just didn't notice it passing." A call to a radio helpline leads to depressed housewife Christine finding a new direction in life.

75 min

21

Eve Set the Balls of Corruption Going

Adolescents will always be obsessed by the same old subject, even when they are educated by nuns. Six ex-Classmates meet for the first time in 12 years and hilarious memories change into highly emotional situations.

75 min

22

Whistling Wally

While Wally was happy there wasn't much wrong with the world, and pints seemed a small price to pay for what he gave us. But don't forget what we gave him. We gave him the knowledge he was important, at least to us.

75 min