After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, feature length filmed dramas, including ScreenPlay.[1] Various writers and directors were utilized on the series. Writer Jimmy McGovern was hired by producer George Faber to pen a series five episode based upon the Merseysideneedle exchange programme of the 1980s.[2][3] The episode, directed by Gillies MacKinnon, was entitled Needle and featured Sean McKee, Emma Bird, and Pete Postlethwaite.[2][4] The last episode of the series was titled "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" and featured Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson, who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie. Some scenes were shot at Lennoxlove House in East Lothian and others in the Scottish Borders.[5]
Cast : Colin Farrell, Colin Blumenau, Jerome Davies, Bryan James, Terry Molloy, Colyn Davies, Nick Mercer, Jacqueline Hill, Audrey Leybourne, Lynda Myers, Michael Griffiths, Chrissy Roberts, Alan Starkey, Keith Mansell, Patrick Wilkes and Clive Swift
Cast : Christopher Wild, Caroline Milmoe, Ian Mercer, Paul Oldham, Terry Sue-Patt, Tommy Boyle, Bert Gaunt, Stephen Boyes, Lottie Ward, Ruth Holden, Wendy Votel, Gilly Coman, Roberta Kerr, Louis Raynes, Anthony Benson, Drew Dawson, Doc O'Brien, Mike Donelan, Joan Campion, Margo Stanley, Ian Bleasdale and John Ryan
Cast : James Kennedy, Patrick Hannaway, Joe Mullaney, Leonard O'Malley, Matthew Hodgman, Caroline Paterson, Angie Murphy, John McGlynn, Una MacNab, Andrew Barr, Stuart Bishop, Robert Paterson
Cast : Jeananne Crowley, Lorcan Cranitch, Iain Cuthbertson, Ruth McGuigan, Ann Hasson, Trudy Kelly, Aine McCartney, Leila Webster, Bridget Erin Bates, B J Hogg, Mark Mulholland, Brenda Winter, Jean Claude Deret, Sylvie Fevre, Tony Doyle
Cast : Leah Adeola, Richard Bench, Giselle Glasman, Kevin Gopie, Lennie James, Anthony Lennon, Simon McNally, Cliff Parisi, Baron Philip, Michael Quain, Gerald Simms and Richard Taylor
Cast : Maggie Shevlin, Gary Lilburn, James Coyle, Dan Gordon, Niall Cusack, Gerard O'Hare, Patrick O'Kane, James Matthews, Peter Ferdinando, P J Nicholas, Scott Riley, Annatt Bass, Lousie Kattenhorn, Lauren Martin, Victoria Aked, Fleur Fekkes, Christian Robinson, Mia Callow, Jonathan Stratt, Jeffrey Robert, Ian Thompson, Harold Saks, Tony Stephens, Michael Dalton, Barrie Ewart, Tony O'Callaghan, Al Gregg, Richard Pescud, Christopher Driscoll, Mark Shelley, Nicholas Jeune, Derek Anders and Sarah Whitlock
NB: Although not billed as an episode of ScreenPlay in the Radio Times, it was as such - or as a "Screenplay Special" - in some newspaper listings, and started with the contemporary series title sequence
Cast : Ving Rhames, Lili Bernard, Lonnie Ford, Algin Ford, Brenda Callahan, Eriq La Salle, Mollie McAllister, Carol Little, Hansford Prince, Michael McFall, Edmond Johnson, Kenneth Crow, James Brooks, Deborah Garrett and Kevin Hope