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Old 24-03-2015, 19:28
Caroline_Hardin
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Does anyone remember a Play for Today in 1977 called Nipper? I can remember being really upset when the kid playing Nipper got killed in the end by crashing his dead father's car.
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Old 24-03-2015, 20:40
Sun Glasses Ron
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Does anyone remember a Play for Today in 1977 called Nipper? I can remember being really upset when the kid playing Nipper got killed in the end by crashing his dead father's car.
Dont remember that episode tbh but there are loads more that spring to mind

I wish they would repeat them as they were a spring board for many great writers of today
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Old 24-03-2015, 21:04
Doghouse Riley
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Dont remember that episode tbh but there are loads more that spring to mind

I wish they would repeat them as they were a spring board for many great writers of today
This was something the BBC did well, I'm sure they weren't big budget productions, but were something well worth anticipating.
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Old 24-03-2015, 21:51
Monty Fuque
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Seemingly the public's desire for one-off, thought provoking, adult themed 75 minute dramas waned in the late 70s /early 80s, this is what the BBC told us.

Yet they still produced great sdrama eries like The Singing Detective and Pennies From Heaven.
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:05
Phoenix Lazarus
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Of Play For Today, does anyone else remember Keep Smiling, the story of a suburban office worker and family man developing paranoid schizophrenia? Shown in 1980.
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:17
Caroline_Hardin
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I don't remember Keep Smiling, but others I remember watching are Barmitvah Boy, Spend Spend Spend and the Spongers, that had me in floods of tears at the end too!
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:20
Prince Monalulu
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Seemingly the public's desire for one-off, thought provoking, adult themed 75 minute dramas waned in the late 70s /early 80s, this is what the BBC told us.

Yet they still produced great sdrama eries like The Singing Detective and Pennies From Heaven.
BIB Did they?
They followed up with Screen One and Screen Two which didn't finish until 1994 according to Wiki.
Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_for_Today
TV Cream http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?cat=2682
The latter link is the one to follow if you want to waste some time
Then you can toddle off to an auction site of your preference.
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:24
Ben_Fisher1
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My favourite PFT is Dennis Potter's 'Double Dare' chilling and brilliant, about a playwright with writers block meeting an actress he's obsessed with in a hotel bar, and fantasy and reality clash. It was so well written. Anyone seen it?
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:31
Phoenix Lazarus
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And there was Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle and Blue Remembered Hills. Both brilliantly done but grim.
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Old 24-03-2015, 22:39
Ben_Fisher1
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And there was Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle and Blue Remembered Hills. Both brilliantly done but grim.
Potter wrote the best Play for Today's. He always seems to zero in on what it is to be human, and it's not always pleasant, especially regarding sexuality. Abuse, betrayal and corruption of power were his constant themes, he was polarising because his dramas often got too close to truth for many people I reckon. But I love the dollops of black humor he employed too. One thing's for sure, they would never let a writer like Potter anywhere near TV nowadays. More's the pity.
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Old 29-12-2016, 11:55
Kid B
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Does anyone remember a Play for Today in 1977 called Nipper? I can remember being really upset when the kid playing Nipper got killed in the end by crashing his dead father's car.
Yes. I was 14 then and in a children's home and I hazily remember the storekeeper was trying to do something to the boy that he shouldn't. That's what sticks out in the memory. Apparently it was a BBC Play For Today production. Another movie I saw at the time which was in similar vein was Bloody Kids. You can get that on Youtube but I can't find Nipper anywhere.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:00
ftv
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Certainly Cathy Come Home was one of the most memorable with Ray Brooks
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:29
suesuesue
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Spongers was repeated a while back on BBC 4 I think. As hard hitting and shocking still. Cathy Come Home has also been shown on BBC 4 a couple of times recently. So many good Play for Today's; Barrie Keeffe is one of my favourite playwrights. I spoke with him about 10 years ago. He said he was writing a sequel to The Long Good Friday but I don't think it was ever made.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:53
RegTumbler
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I have just watched a Play for Today which someone had uploaded to YouTube and one which I had wanted to watch for some time. It was Shakespeare or Bust with the brilliant Brian Glover, and was one of a trio of plays about three miners.

Shakespeare or Bust was first aired in January 1973 and I remember watching it then, but cannot say whether it had been repeated, I suppose it must have but I have never saw it again. The quality on Youtube is not brilliant, so I wish the Beeb could repeat some of these so we could see them in all their glory.
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Old 29-12-2016, 13:23
CLL Dodge
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Dont remember that episode tbh but there are loads more that spring to mind

I wish they would repeat them as they were a spring board for many great writers of today
The BFI have been digitising them for free access at its Mediatheques (and hopefully online via its BFI Player, for a fee).

http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collec...play-for-today
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Old 29-12-2016, 14:40
Kid B
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Certainly Cathy Come Home was one of the most memorable with Ray Brooks
Remember him as Robbie Box in Big Deal? I think there was another one he did after that called Growing Pains too. I sure wouldn't mind seeing them again. Freeview tv is dead boring.
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Old 30-12-2016, 00:29
CLL Dodge
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Complete listing of Plays for Today here:

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?cat=2682

Missing episodes listed here:

http://www.lostshows.com/default.asp...9-67ce68895b65
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Old 30-12-2016, 08:52
Kid B
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Complete listing of Plays for Today here:

http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?cat=2682
That just goes to the homepage?
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Old 30-12-2016, 19:52
CLL Dodge
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That just goes to the homepage?
It wouldn't let me link to the PFT page.

Select "Telly" on the menu bar and Play for Today is a listed option. Select "more posts" at the foot of each page to bring up more titles. Click on each title for a very brief synopsis.

There's more info on the Radio Times genome.
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Old 30-12-2016, 20:22
Fairyprincess0
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Any chance of bbc4 repeating 'land of green ginger' in time for hull's year as city of culture??
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Old 30-12-2016, 20:28
Willpurry
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It wouldn't let me link to the PFT page.

Select "Telly" on the menu bar and Play for Today is a listed option. Select "more posts" at the foot of each page to bring up more titles. Click on each title for a very brief synopsis.

There's more info on the Radio Times genome.
For my next trick..........


http://www.tvcreamtest.co.uk/categor...lay-for-today/
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Old Yesterday, 01:14
Fibromite59
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I don't remember Keep Smiling, but others I remember watching are Barmitvah Boy, Spend Spend Spend and the Spongers, that had me in floods of tears at the end too!
I also remember Bar mitzvah Boy, Spend Spend Spend and the Spongers. They were all very good and like you said the Spongers was so sad at the end. Another one I remember was about two Jewish boys who were evacuated during the war. Their mother was played by Maureen Lipman. It may have just been called The Evacuees, but I am not sure.
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