The Wednesday Play

Season 2

Groundbreaking one-off plays in late 1960s, launching careers of Potter, Loach, Mercer and Hopkins. Notable works like "Cathy Come Home" and "Up the Junction" tackled social issues like homelessness and abortion.

Where to Watch The Wednesday Play • Season 2

37 Episodes

  • The War Game
    E1
    The War GameWritten, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins. Depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war, it was withdrawn from the broadcast schedule due to fear by the BBC and the British Government that it was too horrifying for TV. It premiered at a London cinema six months later and was shown at film festivals, winning a special prize at the Venice Film Festival. It then won the 1967 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
  • Alice
    E2
    AliceIn this look at Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), aka Lewis Carroll, Potter mixed biographical drama with a psychological profile to explore the roots of Dodgson's creativity. Dodgson tells stories to ten-year-old Alice Liddell, leading to recreations of scenes adapted from ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (1865), designed to resemble the original Sir John Tenniel illustrations.
  • The Girl Who Loved Robots
    E3
    The Girl Who Loved RobotsNight club girl Victory Ducann is found murdered, the main suspect is an astronaut, but police are prevented from approaching him as he is due to fly off to the Moon.
  • A Designing Woman
    E4
    A Designing WomanMilly has been at it again.
  • Up The Junction
    E5
    Up The JunctionFragments of the life of three working-class women, and the people around them, in South London in the 1960s. Scenes in homes, streets, pubs, prison and their workplace cover family, friendship, romance, sex, and abortion.
  • The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne
    E6
    The Trial and Torture of Sir John RampayneAn elderly right-wing politician is kidnapped, seemingly as part of a student prank. But his captors have a more alarming agenda.
  • The End of Arthur's Marriage
    E7
    The End of Arthur's MarriageA simple-minded man on the outs with his wife and her family must take a large amount of his father-in-law's hard-earned money to buy a house, in the belief that home-ownership will make him responsible and respectable. Instead, he throws it away on a mad spending spree with his daughter.
  • Tomorrow, Just You Wait
    E8
    Tomorrow, Just You WaitJimmy is young, earning good money and going out with a smashing girl. What more could a man wish for?
  • The Bond
    E9
    The BondNewlyweds Chris and Sally are young and attractive, with successful careers and a beautiful home. Their future is rosy. However, trying to make marriage work is not easy.
  • Stand Up, Nigel Barton
    E10
    Stand Up, Nigel BartonIt deals with the experiences of Nigel Barton, a young man from a poor mining community who wins a scholarship to Oxford University. The villagers accuse him of snobbery, while the rich University students treat him like a peasant. Uncertain of which sphere he should be moving in, Nigel tries to reconcile himself with his proud but stubborn father, and also succeed at University, despite its pretentions which appal him.
  • Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton
    E11
    Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel BartonCandidate Nigel Barton goes from idealism to cynicism as he becomes disillusioned and suspicious of hollow campaign promises.
  • The Coming Out Party
    E12
    The Coming Out PartyA boy begins a search in Notting Hill shortly before Christmas.
  • The Bone Yard
    E13
    The Bone YardMrs. Miller wants to know why her husband has been working nights. PC Miller claims that a statue of Jesus on the cross has spoken to him in the graveyard. When senior officers and the church get involved, is he a prophet or a fraud?
  • A Man On Her Back
    E14
    A Man On Her BackJohn is an aspiring composer and pianist at a club and Mary is a single girl that he meets there. When friendship turns to romance, John has to contend with Colin, a charming ladies' man who turns to Mary in times of trouble.
  • Rodney, Our Intrepid Hero
    E15
    Rodney, Our Intrepid HeroAnything Incorporated, an exclusive club devoted to providing the illegal and unattainable for its clients. Our intrepid hero, Rodney, is a newspaper journalist determined to expose the venture.
  • Calf Love
    E16
    Calf LoveA young English exchange student staying with a German family falls for the daughters.
  • Silent Song
    E17
    Silent SongLife in a Trappist monastery offers a life of contemplation and hard labour.
  • Who's A Good Boy Then?
    E18
    Who's A Good Boy Then?Billy Oates meets a lady in a market and, taken by his kindness, she invites him to lodge with her and her husband. A rivalry soon develops between the young man and his landlord.
  • A Game - Like - Only A Game
    E19
    A Game - Like - Only A GameTwo boys hatch a plan to get some money to go to the seaside.
  • Why Aren't You Famous?
    E20
    Why Aren't You Famous?A young Irish woman named Eileen comes to Britain with romantic ideas of fame and fortune and meets Toppet, a struggling artist with a spare room.
  • Macready's Gala
    E21
    Macready's GalaThe Headmaster and governors of a boarding school are accidentally locked in the new memorial room with the convicted Great Train Robbers.
  • A Walk In The Sea
    E22
    A Walk In The SeaAuthor James Hanley, Irish by birth and Welsh by adoption, crafted a TV play about a lonely spinster having her cottage in a seaside village requisitioned by the local council for a building scheme, with tragic consequences.
  • Boy In The Smoke
    E23
    Boy In The Smoke
  • Barlowe of the Car Park
    E24
    Barlowe of the Car ParkWe spend a day with Barlowe, a council car park attendant.
  • The Portsmouth Defence
    E25
    The Portsmouth DefenceAfter an assault a man tries to find justice in court only to find that his incompetent prosecution team and the attractive female defense lawyer who wows the court, conspire against him.
  • Pity About The Abbey
    E26
    Pity About The AbbeySatirical play in which businessmen want to destroy Westminster Abbey to make way for a bypass.
  • The Big Man Coughed and Died
    E27
    The Big Man Coughed and DiedLouie, a married factory worker, has just been made redundant when he meets a girl in a park and decides to change his life.
  • The Snow Ball
    E28
    The Snow BallA passionate, ambiguous relationship begins between two people who meet at a masked ball.
  • A Cheery Soul
    E29
    A Cheery SoulWhen a bossy do-gooder becomes homeless, she is passed from home to home.
  • The Connoiseur
    E30
    The ConnoiseurA cynical housemaster at a boarding school tries to feather his nest in advance of his forthcoming retirement.
  • The Retreat
    E31
    The RetreatA young priest, newly arrived in Dublin, is conducting a retreat for the first time.
  • Ape and Essence
    E32
    Ape and EssenceEighty years after a nuclear war ravaged the British Isles, a team of scientists from New Zealand come to conduct a survey.
  • Toddler on the Run
    E33
    Toddler on the RunMorris, a homunculus, is under suspicion of having stolen the swimming pool fund from a girls' school.
  • The Executioner
    E34
    The ExecutionerFollows the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
  • Way Off Beat
    E35
    Way Off BeatArthur Bradshaw is a successful fixer, with plans to start a night club.
  • A Soiree at Blossom's Hotel
    E36
    A Soiree at Blossom's HotelA police raid on Edna Bossom's discreet hotel would be most ill-advised, in the opinion of Superintendent Willow; but one of his younger officers is determined to go ahead with one.
  • Cock, Hen and Counting Pit
    E37
    Cock, Hen and Counting PitA couple revisit a past love affair when they meet again ten years later.

 

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