An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
Seasons
34 Episodes • Premiered 1964
1. Catch As Catch Can
Based on the play "La foire d'empoigne" by Jean Anouilh.
2. A Crack in the Ice
A soldier named Postnikov rescues a drowning man.
3. In Camera
Three people find themselves sharing a room with no way out. As they talk, the nature of the room and how they came to be there is gradually revealed.
4. Pale Horse, Pale Rider
A young woman's dreams of death but The Pale Rider fills her dreams along with her lover.
5. The Big Breaker
A lodger, recuperating from a heart attack, sets his sights on his landlady.
6. Mr. Douglas
Coronation Day, 1761: A merchant entertains a guest with an extraordinary secret.
7. Malatesta
Sigismondo Malatesta is a condottiere, a mercenary for hire and patron of the arts.
8. The July Plot
Dramatisation of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944 by a conspiracy of high-ranking German Army officers.
9. First Love
A study of a boy's passion for an older girl as he discovers the difference between infatuation and true love.
10. Tap on the Shoulder
Archibald Cooper is a London gangster who is living the life of a country squire while running a criminal empire. He learns that he's getting a knighthood so invites some old associates to country house unaware they are planning a robbery.
11. Sir Jocelyn, the Minister Would Like a Word...
A group of politicians and university dons argue over whether a new university should have a chapel or a state-of-the-art lecture hall.
12. The Navigators
A tale of romance between two working class navvies.
13. Fable
In a parallel totalitarian Great Britain, those in authority are Black people, and white people are their social underdogs — a reversal of the situation in then-contemporary apartheid South Africa.
14. Dan, Dan the Charity Man
Dan Sankey, the charity knocker, has become a national celebrity but who is the man behind the image?
15. Ashes to Ashes
Barbara is an assertive, clever, liberated woman, her own boss. Who'd think she could be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger for whom she'd give up her career, London, everything? Especially as her new husband maybe wants to kill her.
16. Wear a Very Big Hat
A young couple celebrate their wedding anniversary with a night on the town.
17. The Confidence Course
A trio of swindlers advertise a self-assertiveness seminar, lure a dozen victims to a hotel and attempt to persuade them to enroll in their course. However, a man claiming to be 18th century critic-essayist William Hazlitt attacks the consumerist values outlined by the motivational speaker.
18. Campaign for One
Astronaut Osborne is stuck in a malfunctioning capsule. As he goes round and round the Earth, he starts telling jokes and secrets. When the time comes to bring him down to Earth, he can't face it as he feels like a sexual failure.
19. Horror of Darkness
Peter and Cathy are initially delighted to see their charismatic, subtly domineering friend Robin. But he outstays his welcome, and that's to say the least of it.
