Hard Labour (Play for Today)

"Hard Labour"
Play for Today episode
Episode no.	Series 3 Episode 20
Directed by	Mike Leigh
Written by	Mike Leigh
Original air date	12 March 1973 (1973-03-12)
Episode chronology
← Previous "Access To The Children" Next → "Man Above Men"

"Hard Labour" is the 20th episode of third season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 12 March 1973. "Hard Labour" was written and directed by Mike Leigh, produced by Tony Garnett, and starred Liz Smith in her first major role.

The episode is the most clearly drawn in all Leigh's work from the background in Higher and Lower Broughton where he grew up. "Though elements of autobiography are buried in all Leigh's films and plays, only Hard Labour is set in Salford, – the scenes in the Stones' house were shot in a house just two doors along from where the Leighs had lived in Cavendish Road."^[1]