The BBC anthology series Play for Today is 50 this month. In celebration, the BFI is releasing a Blu Ray of previously unreleased episodes, including one of my favourites, John Bowen’s A Photograph.
Play for Today was one of the most important and influential series of British television, running for 14 years between 1970 and 1984. It brought the work of writers and directors such as Mike Leigh, Alan Clarke, Ken Loach and Alan Bleasdale to a far wider audience, and while it gained a reputation for social radicalism some of the best remembered episodes form an eclectic mix that encompass comedy, science-fiction and so called folk horror.
Best remembered for his first Play for Today, Robin Redbreast (1970), A Photograph was writer John Bowen’s third and final work for the series. I recently wrote a piece for Royal Holloway, University of London’s Forgotten Television Drama blog.
You can find it here.
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