Booking is now open for the Screen Two at 40 symposium at BFI Southbank, London, on the 12th November 2025.

Launched by the BBC in 1985 as a successor to Play for Today, Screen Two featured an eclectic range of over 150 single dramas, including The Burston Rebellion, Brothers in Trouble, The Grass Arena, The Firm, Edward II, Persuasion, Priest, O Mary This London, My Sister-Wife, Small Faces and Truly, Madly, Deeply. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, this symposium brings together a range of speakers to assess the contribution of Screen Two to television and film production, examine the more general transition from the single play to the television film that occurred during this period and assess the legacy of both Screen Two and the ‘television film’. In doing so, the symposium will not only seek to reflect on the achievements of Screen Two but also consider their relevance to current UK film and television production.

Participants will include the writer Jimmy McGovern, the producers Ruth Baumgarten, Ruth Caleb, Andrea Calderwood, George Faber and David Thompson, the directors Suri Krishnamma and Lesley Manning, the writer and producer John Wyver, filmmaker and curator Nia Childs, researcher Lillian Crawford and TV scholar Christine Geraghty.

The event is organised by John Hill and Lillian Crawford of the Centre for the History of Television Culture and Production, Royal Holloway, University of London in association with the BFI.

As part of an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with the BBC, Lillian Crawford has curated an overview of Screen Two for BBC Canvas which may be found here.  Her contribution to the Forgotten TV website may also be found here. Should anyone like to contribute to this website, on Screen Two or anything else, do get in touch.

A full programme will be circulated shortly. The event will run from 11am to 5pm on Wednesday 12th November when it will be followed by a screening of Priest at 6pm.

Tickets for the symposium may be purchased here.

Tickets for the screening of Priest may be purchased here.

We look forward to seeing some of you there.