Graeme MacDonald

Producer

July 30, 1930 (67 years)

† September 30, 1997

London, England, UK

Biography

No biography available.

Filmography

6.6

Play for Today

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

7.0

Playhouse

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

4.2

Thirty-Minute Theatre

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

6.5

The Lie

Ingmar Bergman play looking at the cool and brittle relationship between a successful architect (Frank Finlay) and his academic wife (Gemma Jones). Commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation on behalf of European members participating in ‘The Largest Theatre in the World’. This, the Radio Times explained, was ‘a project which enabled a play to be broadcast simultaneously in several languages across Europe.’ This UK Play For Today version was directed by Alan Bridges, whilst an American version was put out on CBS, directed by Alex Segal

10.0

Son of Man

Dennis Potter's controversial reading of the life of Christ, with Jesus portrayed as a hearty, fiery, well-meaning carpenter who believes that people should try to love their enemies rather than fight all the time, but who is racked by self doubt as to whether or not he is the popularly anticipated Messiah.

9.0

Brassneck

Through the story of a single family, Brassneck traces a history that parallels the Labour Party's advent to power in 1945 through to the property speculation of the 1960s and the disillusionment with the Labour government in the early 1970s. Like most of the early work of the writers, David Hare and Howard Brenton, committed radical (if not revolutionary) socialists throughout the 1970s, it is a satirical attack on capitalist greed and corruption, full of savage, and often disturbing, humour.

7.0

Skin Deep

Gerry Muddiman works for a large American corporation, supposedly modern and forward-thinking, but whose style of modern business paternalism and methods ends up driving a wedge between him and his wife.

5.9

Goldeneye

British writer Ian Fleming's life and loves suggest that of his spy-novel hero, secret agent James Bond.

9.0

Man Friday

Play based on the tale of Robinson Crusoe, examining the relationship between Crusoe and Man Friday, with a new twist by which both characters believe they are teaching the other.

8.0

The Bankrupt

Ellis Cripper has lost his money and his memory; in different ways he tries to make sense of his situation.

9.0

The Reporters

Two provincial newspaper reporters - one a young idealist starting out on his career, the other an embittered man who previously wrote for a failed national daily - swap views.

10.0

Once Upon a Classic

Once Upon a Classic was an American television program hosted by Bill Bixby, at the time of The Incredible Hulk fame. The program aired on PBS from 1976 to 1980 as a production of WQED in Pittsburgh. The episodes consisted of adaptations of such classic literature as "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and Leatherstocking Tales; some of these adaptations were produced by other broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV in the United Kingdom. In a sense, it was a children's counterpart to Masterpiece Theatre, and a sort-of ancestor to Long Ago and Far Away a decade later.

10.0

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.

8.0

Joe's Ark

The religious beliefs of pet shop owner Joe (Freddie Jones) are shaken by the terminal illness of his daughter Lucy (Angharad Rees). For Potter, this play "makes more than a wry nod at possibilities which can comprehend pain, or disgust, or the implacable presence of death itself."

N/A

The Peddler

One pill, and you're floating on air. A different one, and you're full of lead. Married, mortgaged, broke, a love-affair gone sour - which drug can help Alec?

10.0

A Beast with Two Backs

A young local girl is murdered by a mentally disturbed youth, but the villagers blame a stranger, an Italian traveling showman and his bear, rather than see the rot in their own camp.

N/A

The Emergency Channel

Dean has a rare talent. He can be made happy. He exudes happiness and confidence like a rare blossom. Both Sarah in the past, and Julia now, could do this for him. But where are they now that he is alone in Battersea Park with two suitcases and no memory?

8.0

Angels Are So Few

This neat, intense drama, labelled “a fable for television”, stars Tom Bell as the scruffy, childlike Michael Biddle, who is invited in from the cold of a suburban street by sexually frustrated, bored housewife Cynthia, played by Christine Hargreaves. He declares that he’s an angel, and Cynthia needs an angel, but in a way Michael fears...

8.0

Cows

Geraldine, a psychiatric social worker, has an accident whilst in the country. The inhabitants of a nearby house come out to help her and she discovers that one of the family members prefers cows to people.

9.0

Speech Day

Speech Day is a bit of a laugh if you are not one of nature's prize-winners. But now that they've finished with school and school with them, what comes next for Ronnie, Wally and Rob?