Play for Today: a series of single dramas broadcast by BBC television between 1970 and 1984: years of crisis when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world began to unravel, when industrial relations, education and the health-service faced fundamental challenges … Play for Today reflected and responded to all this and more in more than 300 dramas shown in prime time. Drama out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today, BBC 2020
The Wednesday Play ran for six years and featured a much wider range of drama. ibid.
Only Make Believe (1973: writer Dennis Potter; director Robert Knights) … Angles are so Few (1970: writer Dennis Potter; director Gareth Davies) … Mike Leigh: Hard Labour (1973) … Nuts in May (1976) … Abigail’s Party (1977) … Ken Loach: Up the Junction (1965) … Cathy Come Home (1966) … The Rank & File (1971) … Ann Scott: Angels are so Few (1970) … Stocker’s Copper (1972) … Richard Eyre: Comedians (1979) … The Imitation Game (1980) … Country (1981) … ibid.
The After Dinner Joke (1978: writer Caryl Churchill; director Colin Bucksey) … Shakespeare or Bust (1973: writer Peter Tarson; director Brian Parker) … Stocker’s Copper (1972: writer Tom Clarke; director Jack Gold) … Leeds United! (1974: writer Colin Welland; director Roy Battersby) … All Good Men (1974: writer Trevor Griffiths; director Michael Lindsay-Hogg) … Licking Hitler (1978: writer and director David Hare) … The Cheviot, The Stag & the Black Black Oil (1974: writer John McGrath; director John McKenzie). ibid.
Destiny (1978): ’Cause first there’ll be the blacks and Asians. Then the Jews and Irish. And this ain’t easy speeches – this is true. And then it’ll be the unions. Oh ar make no mistake. The Labour Party: that’ll do. The others too. All in the interests of the nation. And to save the nation, they’ll destroy the nation. All of it except themselves. And if we let ’em, we’ve got ourselves to blame. Our fault. We turned our back.’ ibid. Destiny: Play for Today 1978: White shop steward addresses need for solidarity with Asian colleagues
The troubles in Belfast also framed the acclaimed Billy trilogy by Graham Reid made for BBC Northern Ireland in the final years of Play for Today. The dramas explore tensions and violence in a protestant working class family. ibid.
Out of 300 Plays for Today only a dozen were directed by a woman. ibid.
Shaw’s plays are the price we pay for Shaw’s prefaces. James Agate, 1877-1947, British drama critic & novelist
Perecles’ play: The Persians [luxurious and decadent]. Dr Michael Scott, Guilty Pleasures I: Luxury in Ancient Greece: Nothing in Excess BBC 2013
William Shakespeare’s childhood was scarred by tragedy. When he was just 14 his younger sister died of plague. His father, John Shakespeare, a successful glovemaker who had risen to become mayor of Stratford, was exposed for illegal business deals and was forced to resign. The Shakespeare family lost everything. Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius II
In 1595 William Shakespeare is on top of the world. A few years earlier he arrived in London a broke nobody. Now he is the most famous playwright in England. ibid.
He wants to make theatre respectable by building a new kind of playhouse. Indoors and bespoke with a small capacity of higher-paying higher-class people. ibid.
In Stratford his son Hamlet lies ill. ibid.
By Spring 1599 work is completed on Shakespeare’s new Bankside Theatre. With a capacity of 3,000 this is the biggest theatre ever built in London. ibid.
Shakespeare completes work on the most personal play he has ever written. He calls it Hamlet. ibid.
By the time William Shakespeare is 40 years old he has spent nearly 2 decades in London. He rarely goes back to Stratford to see his wife Anne and his now grown daughters. Shakespeare is reaching the end of his career. Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius III
King James doesn’t share Queen Elizabeth’s love of theatre. ibid.
William Shakespeare will now be known as the King’s man. ibid.
Othello is a Moorish general in the Venetian army who at the start of the play marries a nobleman’s daughter … Othello is Shakespeare’s darkest work so far. ibid.
What it means to murder the king as a representative of God ... Almost Salvador Dali … ibid.
He calls it King Lear … ‘On its deepest level it’s about rejection.’ ibid.
Shakespeare has screwed it up. ibid.
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost. Arthur Miller, Shadows of the Gods, Harper’s 1958
It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves. Arthur Miller, The Crucible
What a real playwright has to do is to say to the audience in effect – this is what you think, you are seeing in life every day, and turn it around and say – This is what it really is. Arthur Miller: Writer, Sky Atlantic 2018
My father had become a national icon of the theatre decades before I was born. ibid. daughter
We didn’t have a freezer. And we didn’t have a cake. ibid. Miller
I finished the play in about five days. ibid.
From the beginning writing meant freedom. ibid.
I felt that I was out of place more than anything else. ibid.
Linda: Willy?
Willy: It’s all right. I came back. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
I’m tired to the death, Linda. I couldn’t make it. ibid. Willy
Biff is a lazy bum! ibid.
The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air in the neighbourhood. ibid.
There’s more people. That’s what’s ruining this country! ibid.
You’re my foundation and my support, Linda. ibid.
To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation. ibid. Biff
Like I’m not supposed to take bribes. Manufacturers offer me a hundred-dollar bill now and then to throw an order their way. You know how honest I am, but it’s like this girl, see. I hate myself for it. Because I don’t want the girl, and still, I take it and — I love it. ibid. Happy
The trouble is, Linda, people don’t seem to take to me. ibid. Willy
I get so lonely — especially when business is bad. ibid. Willy to The Woman
I won’t have you mending stockings in this house! ibid. Willy to Linda
Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, Willy. Surprised you’re not up there. ibid. Ben
He [Willy] always, always wiped the floor with you. Never had an ounce of respect for you. ibid. Biff to Linda
He [Willy] drives seven hundred miles, and when he gets there no-one knows him any more. ibid. Linda
Because I know he’s [Willy] a fake, and he doesn’t like anybody around who knows. ibid. Biff
All of a sudden everything falls to pieces. ibid. Willy
Whoever heard of a Hastings refrigerator? ibid.
Howard, I’ve come to the decision that I’d rather not travel any more. ibid.
I’m talking about your father! There were promises made across this desk! ibid.
What happened in Boston, Willy? ibid. Bernard
The only thing you’ve got in this world is what you can sell. ibid. Charlie
You end up being worth more dead than alive. ibid. Willy
No, you’re no good. You’re no good for anything. ibid. Willy to Biff
You — you gave her Mama’s stockings. Don’t touch me, you liar! You fake! You phony little fake! ibid. Biff
May you rot in hell if you leave this place! ibid. Willy to Biff
We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house! ibid. Biff
Pop, I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you. ibid.
The jungle is dark but fully of diamonds, Willy. ibid. Ben