Sarah Snook, Riz Ahmed and return of Play for Today

Riz Ahmed is one of his generation’s great British actors. He starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, before landing roles in big budget films from Jason Bourne to Rogue One. For his latest role, Ahmed has teamed up with director David McKenzie to play a man who works as a broker between whistleblowers and the companies who want their secrets returned. As Shiv in Succession, the scheming daughter of the Logan Roy dynasty, Sarah Snook was an integral part of one of the most critically acclaimed TV ensembles of recent years. But Snook has gone back to the small screen- in All Her Fault, Snook plays Marisa Irvine, a mother who faces her worst nightmare when her four year old son goes missing. Between 1970 and 1984, BBC1’s experimental drama strand Play for Today created what is now regarded as classic British drama. It helped launch the careers of many celebrated writers, directors and actors including Helen Mirren, Alison Steadman, Ray Winstone and more. Play for Today has now been revived, with four new dramas being broadcast in the coming weeks by Channel 5. We hear from Paul Testar, the commissioner of the new Play for Today strand; Tom May who made Play for Today the subject of his PhD and Margaret Matheson, a producer of the strand in the 1970s.

Presenter: Nick Ahad Producer: Ekene Akalawu