Play for Tomorrow – Shades: Escaping from Real World Shadows into Prescient Virtual Worlds

The speculative science fiction anthology drama series Play for Tomorrow (1982), which was broadcast by the BBC and ran for just one series of six episodes, can be seen as a precursor to the anthology drama series Black Mirror (2016-), as both often explore contemporary worries etc via dystopic near-future science fiction stories and themes: “All the productions cover aspects of life which relate very much to the present day. And the irony is that although they are called Plays for Tomorrow they are really more Plays for Today. They pose questions about the future and how we can shape it, but these are questions that ought to be attended to now.” (Play for Tomorrow producer Neil Zeiger, quoted from Television Today (date and author unknown), reproduced in “Shades (1982)”, Ben Ricketts, curiousbritishtelly.co.uk, 19th February 2025.) Reflecting this the Play for Tomorrow episode Shades, directed by Bill Hays and written by Stephen Lowe, is in part a reflection and exploration of at the…