Reflecting on the impact of the BBC drama series Play for Today, for which he was a producer and director in the late 1970s, Richard Eyre described its weekly broadcast as a “social occasion” that was hard to ignore. “You could resent it, you could look forward to it,” he commented in a book chronicling the series’ early years, “but it had a place in the broad cultural life of the nation.”
In a fragmented landscape transformed by streamers and social media, many modern writers and directors can only dream of that kind of influence for their work. Adolescence, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, was an exception. But the globalising tendencies, and rising costs, of the Netflix age have made it increasingly hard for public service broadcasters to produce original programming with a distinctively British feel and focus. ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office made a £1m loss, and Mark Rylance took a pay cut to ensure that the second series of the BBC’s Wolf Hall actually got made.
Three cheers, then, for Channel 5’s bold move to bring back Play for Today, more than 40 years after it left our screens in 1984. The channel has announced it will revive the brand from early next year, with an emphasis on the social realism that was an important feature of the original series. Some established stars such as Alan Davies and Sue Johnston are on board. But the plays are also intended to offer a springboard for young writers and actors from lower-income backgrounds – a welcome emphasis in an industry that is increasingly inaccessible to working-class talent.
They will be aspiring to replicate one of the most successful experiments in the history of British television. In an era when producers, directors and writers enjoyed considerable freedom and trust, Play for Today offered some of the country’s finest creative spirits a prime-time Thursday-night slot. The extensive list of famous alumni includes Dennis Potter, Helen Mirren, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Alison Steadman and Trevor Griffiths.
Hopefully, the revived version will offer greater room for female talent to flourish. Reflecting its time, the production process of Play for Today was very much a man’s world. But 14 years’ worth of plays, some of them adapted from the stage, allowed names to be made and often gritty themes to be addressed.
David Edgar’s acclaimed Destiny, which examined the rise of the British far right in the late 1970s, was one of a number of sobering takes on the state of the nation. Abigail’s Party, Mike Leigh’s tragicomic portrait of suburban social anxiety, still delights theatre audiences today.
The days when the executives in charge of only three television channels decided what people watched belong to a different age. Next year’s reboot will face daunting competition for the public’s attention. But at a time when British politics feels particularly fissile, and opinions reverberate around social media echo chambers, a televisual space in which difficult subjects can be creatively addressed would be a national asset.
A few years ago, Channel 5 scored a big hit when it faithfully remade All Creatures Great and Small, the cosy adaptation of James Herriot’s vet novels originally broadcast from 1978. In tone and content, the new Play for Today will strike a rather different note from that pastoral reprise. But this is another revival that deserves to succeed.
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