What's A Mother For?

1969 - United Kingdom

Angela (June Whitfield), whose husband is abroad, wakes to find she has been sharing a bed with a strange man.

The lady's embarrassment is not eased when she discovers her bed-mate dead.

Her first thought is to dial 999, but with the wild illogic that afflicts the mind in moments of crisis (at least in comic plays), she persuades herself that the police can be kept out of this.

Her mother (Mona Washbourne), the genial Pete (popular musician Joe Brown) from Happy Housewives Cleaning Service, and fussy Mrs. Katapodis (Claire Davenport) conspire to dispose of the body.

This was Charles Laurence's first play and also a new venture for Joe Brown, who was making his first drama appearance. The play was broadcast under the Armchair Theatre strand on 20 January 1969 at 8.30pm.

Published on April 4th, 2020. Adapted from original TV Times article..

Filter

Alphabetically

Air date

Air location

Play and Single Dramas

Sally (1964)

October 29th, 2024

A 'lost' ITV play from 1964 which gave Vanessa Redgrave her Independent Television debut is a tale of a disabled artist who is commissioned to paint a portrait of a woman, whose married son she is having an affair with

The Yellow Pill (1962)

April 4th, 2020

Who is the strange man brought by the police to Dr. Frame? Is he a murderer? How did he gain his uncanny knowledge of Frame's private life? Is it possible that he really comes from another time?

There's Always Juliet (1951)

November 6th, 2020

Single play that has been reimagined on several occasions by the BBC and was the inspiration for a movie.

The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)

November 28th, 2020

In a future Britain, the appetites and passions of the masses are controlled by television. When audiences show signs of boredom, the broadcasters must find new methods to engage them.

Alice (1946)

November 27th, 2018

The earliest television version of Lewis Caroll's fantasy masterpiece was broadcast before most people in Britain had televisions...

A Pyre for Private James (1966)

January 22nd, 2026

A jungle clearing in the Far East. A solitary hut. Inside, four soldiers retreat from an all consuming fire. Beyond a burning curtain, stretched out, the blanketed form of a human being

TVH

Television Heaven Magazine

Interviews

Read Next...

The Close Prisoner

"We are all conceived in close prison: in our mother's wombs, we are close prisoners all...and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death..." John Donne.

Also tagged Single Play

Freedom in September

A Soviet musician is missing from his hotel. He wanders through 1962 London trying to contact people he has met and known in Russia. Who are these people? What lies behind his desperate search?

Also tagged Single Play

All Summer Long

Willie has tried to make his father aware of the danger to their house from flood water, but Dad thinks that Willie's fears are excessive. Willie decides to spend all summer long building a wall to keep out the river, but his efforts are in vain.

Also tagged Single Play

The Tingaree Affair

The struggle behind a country's negotiations to gain independence from Britain forms the unusual theme for this late 1960s 7-part drama serial.

Also released in 1969

Saki, The Improper Stories of H.H. Munro

Hector Hugh Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture and he is considered a master of the short story.

Also tagged Single Play

Curry and Chips

Poorly received sitcom by Johnny Speight who attempted (and many would say failed) to highlight the stupidity of racism.

Also released in 1969

Luck of the Draw

Accepting the luck of the draw has become the Green's family motto. But Arthur, at 28 the only unmarried one, begins to have doubts. Should he carry on as before or should he forget family tradition and give fate a definite hand?

Also tagged Single Play

The Fossett Saga

Victorian comedy series starring Jimmy Edwards as James Fossett, a writer of "penny dreadfuls"

Also released in 1969

After the Funeral

When Alun Owen's play 'After the Funeral' was read by Sydney Newman, head of drama for ABC Television, and William Kotcheff, the television director, they were so taken by his conception of Wales and the Welsh, they decided to see for themselves.

Also tagged Single Play