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Season 6

Playhouse

1979
Episodes: 31

Episodes

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1. School Play

November 7, 1979

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

Guest Stars: Jeremy Kemp, Denholm Elliott, Michael Kitchen

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2. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

November 14, 1979

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.

Guest Stars: Ian McKellen, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Ben Kingsley

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3. The Brylcreem Boys

November 21, 1979

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.

Guest Stars: David Threlfall, Stephanie Turner, Steven Grives

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4. An Affinity with Dr. Still

November 28, 1979

Guest Stars: Nicholas Le Prevost, Hugh Latimer, Robert Eddison

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5. Home Movies

December 5, 1979

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.

Guest Stars: Clive Swift, Frederick Jaeger, Yvonne Bonnamy

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6. Sweet Wine of Youth

December 12, 1979

Guest Stars: Simon Shepherd, Rachel Kempson, Richard Pasco

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7. Speed King

December 19, 1979

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.

Guest Stars: Robert Hardy, Rosalind Knight, Derek Martin

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8. Pews

January 12, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: John Bennett, Harold Berens, Jack Lynn

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9. Gentle Folk

January 19, 1980

75 min

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.

Guest Stars: Christopher Strauli, Denholm Elliott, Sheila Ruskin

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10. Trouble with Gregory

January 23, 1980

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...

Guest Stars: Richard Pasco, David Wood, Martin Howells

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11. Lifelike

January 26, 1980

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

Guest Stars: John Ringham, Peter Clay, Paul Easom

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12. The Enigma

February 9, 1980

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

Guest Stars: Michael Thomas, Barbara Kellerman, Ursula Howells

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13. Hesther for Example

February 16, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: Geraldine James, Robert Stephens, Joseph Blatchley

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14. The Best of Friends

March 8, 1980

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?

Guest Stars: Keith Barron, Jane Wymark, Ann Bell

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15. In Hiding

March 15, 1980

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

Guest Stars: Doreen Mantle, Denholm Elliott, Alan Rowe

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16. Rottingdean

March 22, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: Pat Heywood, Trevor Peacock, Terence Budd

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17. The Dig

April 18, 1980

Guest Stars: Stanley Lebor, Kevin Whately, Dickie Arnold

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18. Happy

April 25, 1980

Guest Stars: Paul Copley, Lynne Miller, Alun Lewis

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19. Mary's Wife

May 2, 1980

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

Guest Stars: Robert Gillespie, Ray Burdis, Helena Breck

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20. Games Without Frontiers

May 9, 1980

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?

Guest Stars: Philip Jackson, Eric Allan, Eric Richard

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21. The Unborn

May 16, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: Jack Shepherd, Mary Larkin, Judy Parfitt

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22. Electric in the City

May 23, 1980

Guest Stars: Will Knightley, Roger Hume, Stephen Murray

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23. Blue Remembered Hills

May 30, 1980

Repeated from Play for Today

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24. Thank You Comrades

June 6, 1980

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25. Coming Out

June 13, 1980

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26. Crest of a Wave

June 20, 1980

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27. Freedom of the Dig

June 20, 1980

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28. A Walk in the Forest

July 6, 1980

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29. Hallelujah, Mary Plum

July 13, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: Chrissy Iddon, Gillian Blake, Eleanor Tremain

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30. Dalhousie's Luck

August 3, 1980

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 .

Guest Stars: Brian Cox, Anthony Bate, Ralph Arliss

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31. An Ordered Life

August 10, 1980

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.

Guest Stars: Colin Jeavons, Nell Brennan, Daniel Gerroll

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