Play for Today

Play for Today (TV Series 1970–1984)
75 min - Drama

Code: 

Download Link

Dominick Hide

[IMG]http://i26.*******.com/wbqd8n.jpg[/IMG]

By pure co-incidence, here's another item starring Peter Firth! The Flipside of Dominick Hide and it's sequel Another Flip for Dominick are a pair of cult-classic sci-fi comedy dramas originally shown as part of the BBC's Play For Today series in the early 80s. Starring Peter Firth as time traveller "Dominick Hide", gorgeous Caroline Langrishe as "Jane", Pippa Guard and the great Patrick Magee (in his final role) as Dominick's mentor "Caleb Line". Denis "Ewan McGregor's uncle" Lawson also appears in a small role. The sequel co-stars Michael Gough as an eccentric ufologist and Ron Berglas as lost time traveller "Pyrus Bonnington". Both plays are written by Alan Gibson and Jeremy Paul and directed by Alan Gibson. The music is by the band Meal Ticket (the lead singer of which is none other than Fingerbobs and Play School presenter Rick Jones) who also sing the theme song "You Better Believe It Babe" which sounds a lot like it could have been by Elton John (especially the chorus).

The Flipside of Dominick Hide
The plot: Dominick Hide, a time traveller from London in the year 2130, is studying the city's transport system of 1980. Breaking the rules, he lands his craft to seek out his great-grandfather. Compared to his anaesthetised home, 80s London is filthy and polluted...and yet...it exudes an excitement that soon draws him in.

Another Flip for Dominick
The plot: Two years after his journey to the past, Dominick Hide has been promoted to instructor, and is no longer a time traveller. Then one of his pupils, Pyrus Bonnington, goes missing during a visit to 1982 London. Hide must track him down and prevent Pyrus damaging the past, but will the temptation to re-visit his own history be too strong to resist?

A perfect cross-between Doctor Who and The Man Who Fell To Earth with a touch of Back To The Future, both The Flipside of Dominick Hide and Another Flip for Dominick are two of the finest pieces of sci-fi television I've ever seen and sure beats the hell out of most of what they call "sci-fi" nowadays. I could say a lot about these two superb pieces of escapist fiction but it might reveal too much and ruin any surprises. So my advice would be to not read up too much on these shows and watch them first. For me, "Dominick Hide" is Peter Firth's finest moment and both plays are an absolute pleasure to watch.

The Flipside of Dominick Hide
1980
XVID
Approx. 91 mins
686 mb

Code: 

Download Link

Another Flip for Dominick
1982
XVID
Approx. 83 mins
766 mb

Code: 

Download Link

Play for Today: Nuts in May (1976)

Code: 

Download Link

Broadcast:: 13th January 1976
Director : Mike Leigh
Script : Mike Leigh
An early masterpiece from Mike Leigh, Nuts in May is a filmed-for-TV adaptation of an earlier stage play. The cast is small (only five characters who matter), but the acting is impeccable, and the mix of wicked humour and social observation make this one of Leigh's best works. Keith Pratt, a man who fully earns his surname due to his nit-picking obsessions with order and detail, takes his partner Candice-Marie, a well-meaning but irritating hippie, on a camping trip. There they meet Trevor, a shy teacher who finds their enforced friendship intrusive but is too polite to extricate himself, and a brash young couple of bikers, Honky and Finger, whose loud and chaotic personalities lead them into conflict with the repressed and dogmatic Keith. Plot isn't the issue here, since Leigh is far more interested in teasing out the subtleties of human behaviour, which he does with forensic skill in several unforgettable scenes. Funny and painful at the same time, like all Leigh's successes, Nuts in May is brilliantly acted by all concerned, though special mention must go to Roger Sloman, for bringing to life the appalling but ultimately pitiable Keith, and Alison Steadman, whose portrayal of fey, goofy and tragi-comic Candice-Marie is every bit as memorable and nuanced as her more famous turn as Beverley in Leigh's Abigail's Party

Roger Sloman ... Keith
Alison Steadman ... Candice Marie
Anthony O'Donnell ... Ray
Sheila Kelley ... Honky
Stephen Bill ... Finger
Richenda Carey ... Miss Beale
Eric Allan ... Quarryman
Matthew Guinness ... Farmer
Sally Watts ... Farm Girl
Richard Ireson ... Policeman

Genre: Drama
Codec: Xvid
Resolution: 432x320
Framerate: 25.00
Language: English (no subs incl.)
Audio: MP3/128 Kbit VBR/44.1 KHz
Runtime: 1:22:05 (729 MB)

Code: 

Download Link

Join with HJSplit

Play for Today: Penda's Fen (1974)

Code: 

Download Link

Broadcast:: 21st. March 1974
Director : Alan Clarke
Script : David Rudkin
Through a series of real and imagined encounters with angels, demons, and England's pagan past, a pastor's son begins to question his religion and politics, and comes to terms with his sexuality.
British, gay-relevant TV plays and telefilms changed drastically in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the movement for gay equality became increasingly visible in society. By 1974, seven years after Parliament partially decriminalized male homosexuality, the BBC was willing to air this relatively gay-positive, coming-of-age TV movie, in which a gay teenager was front-and-center as the protagonist.
David Rudkin wrote and Alan Clarke directed the unusual "Penda's Fen," an arty, cerebral drama about the pious son of a country parson, struggling through spiritual and sexual conflicts on his 18th birthday. The film is filled with symbolic dream images that envelop young Stephen (Spencer Banks, top photo) as he wrestles with questions of conformity versus individuality, professed faith versus profound belief, good versus evil, modern society versus traditional village life, heterosexuality versus homosexuality, and modern Christianity versus Britain's Celtic Pagan roots.
Early on, it becomes clear that Stephen is uncomfortable with the desires he feels toward a muscular, straight young milkman. Stephen's parents realize their son is homosexual, and are waiting for him to figure it out. In one scene (lower photo), the very repressed lad has a vivid wet dream that allows him to acknowledge consciously the urges he had suppressed as "unnatural." At the height of the dream, the camera cuts back to the sleeping Stephen, whose body twitches twice convulsively, causing him to awaken in a sweat. He then imagines facing his sexuality: it appears to him in the form of a smiling demon, which he reaches out to touch. Later, in a conversation about adoptions, a married neighbor assures Stephen that gay men can be fine parents. This assuages one of the doubts he had about his options for the future.
This is one of the few BBC one-shot dramas that, decades later, is still shown in film festivals and in repeat telecasts. It also forms a notable point of contrast for the tame dramas that were appearing at the time in other countries. For example, unlike American teen dramas of the era, "Penda's Fen" leaves no doubt as to the boy's sexual orientation, and acknowledges his homosexuality as something erotic, not just conceptual or theoretical. It deals with a teenager's gayness matter-of-factly, without marginalizing it as an "issue of the week." Stephen's sexuality is just one of many elements in the story of a very complicated young man -- a drama about ideas and philosophy as much as about growing up and national identity.
[B]Georgine Anderson ... Mrs. Franklin
John Atkinson ... Rev. J. Franklin
Spencer Banks ... Stephen Franklin
Moray Black ... Sixth-former
Pat Bowker ... Joel's girl
Christopher Douglas ... Honeybone
Ray Gatenby ... The Man
Ian Gemmel ... Harry
Joyce Grundy ... Mrs. Gisbourne

INFO:
ORIGINAL TITLE: Penda's Fen
TV SERIES: "Play for Today"
YEAR: 1974
DIRECTOR: Alan Clarke
GENRE: Drama
RUNTIME: 90 min
COUNTRY: UK
LANGUAGE: English

Code: 

Download Link

Play for Today: Brimstone and Treacle (1987)

Code: 

Download Link

Broadcast:: 25th August 1987
Director : Barry Davis
Script : Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter's most controversial work by a country mile, BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE was a BBC Play For Today production that tackled an almost unthinkable subject. A bickering, middle-aged couple with a brain-damaged daughter (Pattie) are visited one typically fraught evening by an overbearingly polite young man named Martin, who claims to be a friend of Pattie's. The mother is thoroughly charmed by the stranger, the father is less convinced, but - in desperate need of some respite from the round-the-clock attention their daughter requires - they allow Martin to stay with them anyway. Trouble is, Martin is an extremely disturbed individual who either is - or believes himself to be - the Devil incarnate, and takes to raping Pattie when her parents aren't at home.

A very bleak, disturbing and claustrophobic piece, bolstered by excellent performances and one of Potter's darkest ever scripts (particularly in these politically-correct times), BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE was banned by the BBC in the mid-seventies and remained unscreened until over a decade later. Despite the low-budget production and some very seventies camera trickery, the play has lost nothing of its ability to shock and unsettle, and will rightly affect everyone who approaches it seriously. Potter saves the biggest surprise until the very end, and it could be this sudden, shocking curve-ball thrown to an audience who thought they knew all the characters inside out that was the strongest deciding factor in the BBC's eleven-year-ban on one of their toughest masterpieces.

Denholm Elliott ... Mr. Bates
Michael Kitchen ... Martin
Patricia Lawrence ... Mrs. Bates
Michelle Newell ... Pattie
Paul Williamson ... Businessman
Esmond Webb ... Man with dog
Patricia Quayle ... Woman in street
James Greene ... Man in street

General
Size: 711687 KB (695 MB)
Length: 01:13:14
Demuxer: avi
Video
Resolution: 512 x 400
Aspect ratio: 1.28
Format: XVID
Bitrate: 1185 kbps
Frames per second: 25.000
Audio
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 kbps
Rate: 48000 Hz
Channels: 2

Code: 

Download Link

Play for Today: Just Another Saturday (1975)

Code: 

Download Link

Broadcast:: 13th March 1975
Director : John Mackenzie
Script : Peter McDougall
It's the day of the Orange Parade in Glasgow, but for Jon, the thrill of leading the parade and swinging the mace soon turns to horror as he learns the truth behind the costumes and songs.
Jon Morrison ... John McNeil (as John Morrison)
Eileen McCallum ... Lizzie
Bill Henderson ... Dan
Ken Hutchison ... Rab Williamson
Billy Connolly ... Paddy
Jim Gibb ... Jim
Phil McCall ... Joe
Jake D'Arcy ... Jackie
James Walsh ... Tommy
Martin Black ... Man with Knife

Genre: Drama
Codec: Xvid
Resolution: 512x384
Framerate: 25.00
Language: English (no subs incl.)
Audio: MP3/128 Kbit VBR/48 KHz
Runtime: 1:22:57 (699 MB)

Code: 

Download Link

Play for Today: Z for Zachariah (1984)

Code: 

Download Link

Broadcast:: 28th February 1984
Director : Anthony Garner
Script : Written by Anthony Garner based on the book by Robert O'Brien
By 1984 the BBCs Play for Today strand of drama was just about at an end. The fourth episode of the fourteenth run though was Z for Zachariah. Based on the popular novel by Robert C. O’ Brien, the story was adapted by writer-director Anthony Garner and tells the tale of a remote Welsh valley in which only two families initially survive following a catastrophic nuclear war. The novel was set in the USA and was first publsihed in the UK in 1975 and at the time was featured on several examinig boards CSE/O Level English courses in the UK. The book is mainly in the form of a diary detailing the events.
The post-apocalyptic line of storytelling was a popular one during the 1980s, with other productions such as the terrifying Threads appearing on British screens at around the same time. Quite why Z for Zachariah was ever considered as a Play for Today is a little baffling though: the story is an adaptation rather than being an original script and it isn’t really set “Today”, rather it utilises a flimsy ‘What If…” premise. We don’t see the nuclear war, the tale being set one year after the event, only some of its devastating consequences. People are dead everywhere, there are repeated radio warnings broadcast, informing people that there is “no need for panic”, while power cuts are frequent and sheep and fish are found
dead in rivers. It is even revealed that nerve gas was released following the nuclear war.

Ann Burden, is a teenager who lives in a remote valley community with her family on their farm. She is the main protagonist and becomes the heroine of the piece when she finds herself alone and in the company of the sinister John Loomis.

Loomis turns up in a special anti- radiation suit that he claims to have invented following the disappearance of Ann’s family and at first appears to be friendly towards Ann. Before too long though Loomis becomes sick after coming into contact with radioactive water. Ann helps to nurse him back to health, but things soon take a menacing turn, as Loomis gets better. At the outset he helps her to get the family tractor running by finding some petrol from a local garage that he is able to get working and he sets up a plan to get agriculture going again. He becomes more demanding and eventually takes over the farmhouse, forcing Ann to leave and even shooting her with his shotgun at one point. The play indicates too that the valley itself plays a part in his recovery, with the area somehow being protected from the worst of the nuclear poisoning. We are told that the valley has “its own weather”, and it seems that it exists in a protective bubble from the rest of the world. Despite the devastation all around her, Ann still regularly goes to church on her own.

Z for Zachariah is an interesting piece to see (virtually no words are spoken in the first half hour of the play, all the drama unfolding against a silent background), but feels slightly at odds with other productions in the Play for Today series. Pippa Hinchley is good as the vulnerable, yet strong Ann, while Anthony Andrews impresses in a role a world away from the usual upper-class staid types that he was more used to playing at the time.
Characters
Anthony Andrews ... John Loomis
Pippa Hinchley ... Ann Burden
David Daker ... Father
Angela Galbraith ... Mother
Andrew Hughes ... Joseph
David Davenport ... Mr. Johnson
Nickola Sterne ... Mrs. Johnson
Brett ... Faro

Size: 970mb
Resolution: 512 x384
Duration 1:57.08
Format: .Avi

Code: 

Download Link