Barry Davis

Separation

When Sarah, a New York actress, calls Joe, a London playwright they begin a very special relationship conducted through trans-Antlantic phone calls. And both Sarah and Joe have very special conditions they both have to fight to overcome their separation.

Benefactors

Michael Frayn play part of TV series Theatre Night.

When We Are Married

Three married couples discover that, through a legal technicality, they are, in fact, not actually married in the eyes of the law. This was the fifth television film version of this play by J.B. Priestley made by the BBC.

Brimstone and Treacle

The Bates care for their severely disabled daughter Pattie. Martin arrives at their door claiming to be her college friend. He charms them into accepting him as a lodger and carer for Pattie, but Martin is not all he seems.

What the Butler Saw

White golliwogs, cross-dressing coppers, bellboy rapists, insanity, incest, and Winston Churchill’s giant member all play their part in this BBC production of Joe Orton’s farcical, bitingly satirical 1969 play, in which the head psychiatrist of a lunatic asylum, when trying to conceal the attempted molestation of his new secretary from his wife, only succeeds in making himself (and everyone else) look completely round the bend.

The Cause

"I wish I could write ... about what Spain was like - a real cause. Not just Cornford, Hemingway and Orwell, but the ordinary blokes who went." A confused industrial dispute at a London hospital triggers off in trade unionist George Harley 's mind memories of his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War, when the issues seemed so much clearer.

Pews

Liftchick has a problem. As beadle to the synagogue he is responsible for getting ten men together to say Kaddish, but it is holiday-time and the town is empty.

Katie: The Year of a Child

Katie, the 14-year-old daughter of a travelling family, is left in charge of an ailing mother and her nine brothers and sisters in Dublin whilst her father is in England seeking his fortune.

Gotcha / Campion's Interview

Two stories about school. Gotcha by Barrie Keeffe: On his last day at school, a 'no hope' 16-year-old pupil holds his teachers hostage using a motor-bike petrol tank as a bomb. Campion's Interview by Brian Clark: A headmaster takes on the Education Authorities on behalf on his pupils, exposing the political pressures behind the creation of a comprehensive school.

Do as I Say

A quietly unhappy housewife finds a stranger in her house and is raped at knife-point by him. But when she turns to friends, neighbours and her parents-in-law for sympathy, they all seem preoccupied by other matters.

Your Man from Six Counties

When his father becomes a bomb victim, Jimmy leaves Belfast for his uncle’s farm in remote west Ireland. But even here there are links to the past.

The Floater

A comedy about the law - seen from the inside. All formality and procedure on the surface but not quite so convincing when you see the works.

Eleanor

Eleanor seems normal enough to her parents and teachers. Why then has she disappeared?

Baby Love

Play about Eileen who steals a baby, and the reactions of those around her, including the priest, police, and authorities and the consequences of what she does.

Schmoedipus

Glen, a complete stranger, appears at the door of Elizabeth Carter, a middle-aged woman, and claims to be the illegitimate son she gave away at birth.

There Is a Happy Land

Keith Waterhouse's near autobiographical tale about characters from his childhood.

Mummy and Daddy

Arthur takes early retirement, and with his wife Marion, moves into a bungalow by the sea, bought by their son. However, disillusionment sets in after a year when the plans he had do not work out and life is not what they expected or hoped.

Her Majesty's Pleasure

They are all 'in' for life so the pleasures are sparse, and strictly of their own making.Their really big event is the Christmas pantomime, only this year they have lost their star. Mother Bear has escaped. Still, there is some consolation. The new arrival looks a likely Goldilocks. "There's one or two who'll be after him", says Woodbine - and he knows all their weaknesses.

For Sylvia, or the Air Show

Was this the finest hour? Sifting the truth and fiction about the Battle of Britain, Burrows and Harding give their own account of how the nation sees its heroes - and itself.

Funny

In London, Tom and Phyl are self-assured and in control of the situation whenever they meet their friends Huw and Tegwen. But when they're not on home ground and when they accept an invitation to visit Huw and Tegwen’s home in Wales, relationships change more than a little Huw, a London barrister, whose heart is in the Welsh hills, is truly king of his castle, and shocks and excites Phul with some of his "Cassanova" qualities. And Tegwen's relationship with her husband intrigues Tom, whose marriage is more of an easy companionship. But why have they been invited for the weekend?

Paper Roses

Facing retirement, elderly journalist Clarence Hubbard reflects on the pointlessness of a life wasted writing banal tabloid human interest, animal, and crime stories. Rather than go quietly to tend roses in a garden, Hubbard begins a series of violent actions not unlike those described in tabloids, and this is heightened by inter cutting tabloid headlines between scenes. Throughout, there are occasional shots of a television critic who watches this very play as it unfolds, and he writes a negative review filled with cleverly phrased but bitter invective.

The People’s Jack

A musical version of the life of the 17th Century English radical politician, John Wilkes, who campaigned for the right for voters to determine their representatives, not the House of Commons.

The Ha-Ha

A young woman has a mental breakdown in a state institution.

If Only the Trains Came

Play based on a story by Chekhov. For Gromov, behind the bars of a mental ward, the railway is the one hope of escape. For the doctor in charge, Andrei, it is the link with civilisation which alone could rose him from the lethargy of life in provincial Russia.

The Waiting Game

A henpecked trade union leader tries to bully and then bribe a vulnerable housing manager into letting him jump the queue and have a new council flat.