Back to TV Shows Login to Watch
Playhouse
1974 - 1983 7.0 (1 votes) 8 Seasons
Genres
Drama
Networks
BBC Two
Created By
Sarah Pia Anderson

Playhouse

Overview

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Seasons

Season 6 (1979)

No overview available.

31 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: School Play
1979-11-07

A play about the horrors of life at an English public school - with all the schoolboys played by adults.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 2: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
1979-11-14

A dissident, Alexander, has been pronounced insane by the authorities (although he isn't), and finds himself sharing a cell with a genuine mental patient, Ivanov.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 3: The Brylcreem Boys
1979-11-21

Cpl. George Hunn's sentry post is knocked over and he wakes to find he is suffering from frost bite of the face. Sent to hospital he is put on a ward with aircrew who have mental issues. He is trapped reenacting their missions at night.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 4: An Affinity with Dr. Still
1979-11-28

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 5: Home Movies
1979-12-05

Keith and Alec have been making holiday movies, together for 25 years. Alec suddenly spots a moment between wife Sybil and Keith. He realises daughter Katie is actually Keith's and she is in a sexual relationship with her 'brother' John.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 6: Sweet Wine of Youth
1979-12-12

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 7: Speed King
1979-12-19

In 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell's obsession is to win the World's Land Speed Record in his car Bluebird. Speed King is about the man, the car, and the ruthless, but irresistible, public ambition of a world hero.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 8: Pews
1980-01-12

Set in a north country synagogue, a group of Jewish men have to organise a shiva, however, not having the required number of their faith, resort to recruiting George, a 'non-Jew', to make up the numbers.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 9: Gentle Folk
1980-01-19

An Edwardian house party given by a Fabian woman, her business-man husband and assorted guests from politics and the Arts—including a young man prone to disturbing premonitions.

Runtime: 75 min
Episode 10: Trouble with Gregory
1980-01-23

Gregory has troubles enough when Ella moves him out and sets him up for a job with the radio. Suspicions of infidelity can make the world a disturbing place. But then he still has to meet the new neighbours...

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 11: Lifelike
1980-01-26

A comprehensive school is praised for its authenticity, but one schoolboy does not agree with this assessment.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 12: The Enigma
1980-02-09

An upper-class young man has rejected his affluent background, but, when a crisis comes, reverts to type pretty quickly.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 13: Hesther for Example
1980-02-16

Cousin, W. Clifford Mill, ran a dirty postcard business; which brings Paul to the country in search of a profitable afternoon. Hesther knows the value of most things and, when evening falls, she turns his visit to her own advantage.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 14: The Best of Friends
1980-03-08

What is friendship? Why do two grown men behave like egomaniac children or flustered prima donnas? And when they meet unexpectedly after ten years, how will things be?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 15: In Hiding
1980-03-15

A teenager learns about life and death while staying with his aunt during the school holidays.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 16: Rottingdean
1980-03-22

Mother is manic, Father frustrated. Son sees himself as quite an operator. Daughter wants to change the dreary world of Jubilee-year England. The day has come. Back to Rottingdean... if all goes smoothly.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 17: The Dig
1980-04-18

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 18: Happy
1980-04-25

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 19: Mary's Wife
1980-05-02

A married transvestite comes to terms with their true gender identity.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 20: Games Without Frontiers
1980-05-09

Nobody goes to Amsterdam to wander about. It's either the Rijksmuseum or the red-light district. On the boat going home Clive and Stewart admit to not having spent long in the museums – so what did they get up to in Amsterdam?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 21: The Unborn
1980-05-16

A physicist has visions of his unborn baby – it turns out that the child will grow up to become a Hitler-like dictator responsible for World War III.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 22: Electric in the City
1980-05-23

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 23: Blue Remembered Hills
1980-05-30

Repeated from Play for Today

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 24: Thank You Comrades
1980-06-06

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 25: Coming Out
1980-06-13

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 26: Crest of a Wave
1980-06-20

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 27: Freedom of the Dig
1980-06-20

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 28: A Walk in the Forest
1980-07-06

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 29: Hallelujah, Mary Plum
1980-07-13

A talented, independent artist lives by the sea with her daughter. As summer approaches, she faces two threats to her way of life: the local doctor who is in love with her and her unhappy sister who comes to stay.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 30: Dalhousie's Luck
1980-08-03

Our gamble is over, Dalhousie. You'll walk at dawn tomorrow as agreed, but in case you've no mind to return, there's one fact might persuade you. On what you do hangs not only your life but hers .

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 31: An Ordered Life
1980-08-10

German composer Anton Webern survives Naziism only to be shot by an American GI in the closing days of WWII. His son, against his father's wishes, joins the Wehrmacht and is killed in a railway accident in 1943.

Runtime: N/A min
Season 7 (1980)

No overview available.

29 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Caught on a Train
1980-10-31

Peter boards a train to attend an important business meeting across Europe. His trip is complicated by two women also assigned to his compartment. One is an independent American whom Peter finds attractive. The other is Frau Messner, an extremely particular and demanding older European woman. Between the two of them, they try different aspects of Peter's patience...

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 2: Fatal Spring
1980-11-07

Using a remarkable blend of dramatic techniques, this study of three English poets – also three courageous soldiers – gradually develops towards their historical and crucial meeting.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 3: The Black Madonna
1980-11-14

Lou Parker feels very strongly that she and her husband, Ray, are different from the Farrells and the Ackerleys. With them it's all television. But she and Ray have the local library and The Observer. They keep abreast. They're different.

Runtime: 50 min
Episode 4: The Happy Autumn Fields
1980-11-21

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 5: Grown-Ups
1980-11-28

Young working class couple Dick and Mandy move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door. Mandy's unmarried sister, Gloria, is constantly dropping in, and will not take any hints that the couple would prefer to be left alone, until her presence finally goads them to action.

Runtime: 95 min
Episode 6: My Dear Palestrina
1980-12-05

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 7: Shaping Up
1980-12-12

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 8: Standing in for Henry
1980-12-19

At a Nottingham advertising agency, young graphic designer Graham is recruited as a temporary replacement for the iconic Henry. The agency are desperate to be part of the Swinging Sixties but not without Henry. Can Graham replace him?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 9: Fothergill
1981-01-09

John Fothergill, aesthete and scholar, becomes the proprietor of the Spread Eagle, in Thame, Oxfordshire, with the intent of turning it into the most celebrated Inn in England, catering to the brightest lights in London's literati.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 10: One Hundred and Eighty!!!
1981-01-16

A darts tournament is put in peril when the players' wives stage a sit-in in the pub.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 11: The Kindness of Mrs. Radcliffe
1981-01-23

A day in the life of Mrs Radcliffe, who believes that the advice she so freely gives is done only out of kindness.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 12: A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter
1981-01-30

In prison the night before his execution, Republican preacher Hugh Peter prepares to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 13: Journal of Bridget Hitler
1981-02-06

An Irishwoman married to a German in pre-WWI Liverpool prepares to meet her brother-in-law, a young man named Adolf Hitler.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 14: Days at the Beach
1981-02-13

In 1920, a trio of British soldiers have to guard an unexploded mine that has washed up on a beach.

Runtime: 90 min
Episode 15: Bobby Wants to Meet Me
1981-02-20

In 1978, Changes Magazine journalist Neville Morris writes an essay about Bob Dylan called 'A Jewish Massiah'. Dylan's publicist Elle Smith reaches out that The Bard wants to meet him at Earl's Court.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 16: Days
1981-02-27

A mother, waiting for a visit through a hospital day, reflects on her life. Dreams haunt her, fantasies seduce her, memories crowd in on her, distorting the drab reality of her day to day existence. Must her daughter follow in her footsteps? How can she find a way to guide her towards a brighter future?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 17: Clapperclaw
1981-03-06

VE Night, 1945: In a Yorkshire pub, not everyone is in a mood to celebrate. Lorna Thorpe's 'All-Star' dance band is down two members, the beer has run out, and some influential friends on the city council have booked flights to Buenos Aires.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 18: The Potsdam Quartet
1981-03-13

An exploration of the personal and professional conflicts of a string quartet who have been playing together for many years, but are on the point of disintegrating.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 19: Unity
1981-03-20

The true story of Unity Mitford who, in the 1930s, moves to Germany, where she befriends Adolf Hitler.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 20: Skylark
1981-03-27

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 21: Elizabeth Alone: Part 1
1981-04-03

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 22: Elizabeth Alone: Part 2
1981-04-10

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 23: Elizabeth Alone: Part 3
1981-04-17

After nineteen years of marriage, three children, and a brief but passionate affair followed by a quick divorce, Elizabeth Aidallbery has to go for an emergency operation. From her bed, she has the leisure to take stock of her life, and frankly, it doesn't look very edifying: there's the 17-year-old daughter who's run off to a commune with her boyfriend; an old hopeless suitor who continues to press his claims; and of course the memory of the havoc caused by the affair. No doubt she could put her life back in order. But need that involve all those people who cause her so much heartache?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 24: The Man Who Almost Knew Eamonn Andrews
1981-04-24

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 25: You're All Right, How Am I?
1981-05-01

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 26: The Day War Broke Out
1981-05-15

Albie Warren and his girlfriend Carla are second on the bill of variety artists and musicians performing to half empty venues. Albie impersonates wartime comic Rob Wilton to people who don't know him. Will he take the chance to top the bill?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 27: Random Moments in a May Garden
1981-05-22

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 28: Going Gently
1981-06-05

Two men sharing a hospital room after their diagnoses of terminal cancer struggle with fear, physical pain, the difficulties of being in hospital, family members unable to cope, loneliness, and their unusual friendship.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 29: Marriage
1981-07-10

Runtime: N/A min
Season 8 (1981)

No overview available.

35 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Mrs. Reinhardt
1981-10-30

An Englishwoman seeking to escape her marriage arrives at French hotel.

Runtime: 115 min
Episode 2: Last Summer's Child
1981-11-06

A boy feels restless during a hot summer in prewar Cornwall.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 3: Autumn Sunshine
1981-11-13

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 4: The Grudge Fight
1981-11-27

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 5: Virginia Fly Is Drowning
1981-12-04

Secure in her suburban home, Virginia Fly dreams of a life of unbridled passion and romance. She feels her fantasies are about to become reality when she is asked to take part in a TV documentary about pre-marital love - a subject about which she is sadly ignorant...

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 6: Findings on a Late Afternoon
1981-12-11

Gerald is on the edge of a complete breakdown. During an afternoon with his father, he starts to come to terms with the wounding confusions and mistakes of his past—his lies, his girlfriend's suicide, his mother's obsessive love of his younger brother, and her death in a hospital when he arrived too late to communicate his real feelings for her.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 7: Dancing Country
1981-12-18

The local country dancing team of old-age pensioners is forced to change its style when Jack, its leader, arrives with a new partner, one who is younger and prettier.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 8: The Combination
1982-01-08

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 9: A Silly Little Habit
1982-01-15

An apparently happy and privileged woman begins shoplifting.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 10: Aubrey
1982-01-22

The story of Aubrey Beardsley, an English illustrator and author, whose black ink drawings were influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 11: Preview
1982-01-29

Four television critics gather in a Wardour Street preview theatre to see a documentary and get the surprise of their lives.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 12: Out of Step
1982-02-05

A keen ballroom dancer becomes an alcoholic after discovering she's infertile.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 13: A Shilling Life
1982-02-12

A once-famous writer, now long out of fashion, is interviewed by a disconcerting young woman.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 14: The Workshop
1982-02-19

In 1945, just a year since the allied troops entered Paris, Simone arrives for her first day at M. Leon's tailoring workshop.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 15: How Many Miles to Babylon?
1982-02-26

Wealthy Alexander Moore and working-class Jerry Crowe are childhood friends and, in 1914, find themselves in the same Army unit – Alex as an officer and Jerry as a private. They still remain close, however, until Jerry is court-martialed for desertion, and Alex is put in charge of the firing squad.

Runtime: 111 min
Episode 16: The Pigman's Protégé
1982-03-05

In 1919, the carnage of WWI has left the country desperately short of young men. Maud, who runs the farm for her crippled father, decides that it is time for her young sister Clara to be married, and a husband could provide a strong pair of hands around the place. Stan the pigman seems to fix most things, why not this?

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 17: A Pocketful of Dreams
1982-03-12

At the moment, money is scarce and times are hard for everyone—even villains like Charlie and Denny are feeling the pinch. But their luck could change when a chance encounter with a film crew provides them with an eccentric method of getting their hands on a lot of loot.

Runtime: 29 min
Episode 18: Keeping in Touch
1982-03-19

When James pays one of his periodic visits to his mother, he finds her curiously resigned to the loneliness she's suffered for the years since her husband's death. Somehow, she has managed to keep all the family ties intact.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 19: The Guest
1982-03-26

Gerald fancies himself as a bit of a gourmet and a trip to the gastronomic delights of France promises well. His wife Hilary isn't so sure; she isn't sure of a lot of things about Gerald just recently, but the menu at the extravagantly recommended La Petite Chanson provides an unexpected solution.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 20: The Sidmouth Letters
1982-04-02

Academic scavenger Shorty believes he's tracked down some letters that reveal an unexpected side to Miss Jane Austen's nature.

Runtime: 35 min
Episode 21: The Queen of Annagh
1982-04-16

Nancy is the sole inhabitant of the Isle of Annagh off the west coast of Scotland. Although World War III is raging all around she sees little of it until Michael, a young pilot officer, pays an involuntary visit and is in danger of dragging the hostilities along with him.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 22: By George
1982-04-23

An anthropologist observed by one of his erstwhile victims — a sophisticated comedy.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 23: Lunch
1982-04-30

Two women meet for lunch every two weeks to swap news. But this week is different.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 24: Passing Through
1982-05-07

At a railway public house, two strangers engage in a conversation and begin to open up about their life's. Richard is an alcoholic and former stockbroker is just been released from jail. Arthur works for the railway as a points operator.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 25: Jake's End
1982-05-14

Jake's a professional, a married man with a reputation to maintain—and a bank to rob.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 26: Housewarming
1982-05-21

Her husband Gary is behind on the central heating installation. Eunice, her best friend, has a crush on the lodger — an actor appearing in a violent play at the local rep. No wonder Tina is anxious about the housewarming.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 27: Easy Money
1982-05-28

At a concert, Marcia picked Terry out of the crowd. So he no longer feels alone. Until he learns about her secret life and dare not tell his friends.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 28: Potatohead Blues
1982-06-04

Stan McVay has given up smoking, gone on a diet and feels like hell. He's also abandoned the Ulster spud and just learned that his teenage daughter is having an affair with a married man.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 29: Irwin Shaw Triple Bill: The Man Who Married a French Wife / The Monument / The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
1982-06-11

Three short stories by Irwin Shaw.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 30: Chains
1982-06-18

Eddie's 40th birthday party reunites friends not seen since the old days of ton-up bikes and early rock and roll. It could be a chance to relive those 'good times', if the others can only match Eddie's enthusiasm.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 31: Come Into the Garden, Maud
1982-07-07

A henpecked American visiting Europe is able to throw off his ghastly wife and find love.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 32: A Song at Twilight
1982-07-09

A famous writer finds that a long-suppressed secret is about to be revealed by his former mistress.

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 33: Fraulein Else
1983-01-14

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 34: Imaginary Friends
1983-04-01

Runtime: N/A min
Episode 35: Possibilities
1983-05-20

Runtime: N/A min

Similar TV Shows

Recommended TV Shows

Watch Now!

Welcome to TF.ORG!

Free Legal Streaming

After quick registration, enjoy free legal streaming of thousands of TV shows directly in your browser.

Privacy Focused

We respect your privacy. No tracking, no ads, just pure TV show experience. Learn more

100% Legal

All content is legally available for streaming. Terms of Service

No Additional Software

Watch instantly in your browser - no downloads or plugins needed (for supported formats).