1990

In a dystopian future, Britain is under the grip of the Home Offices Public Control Department (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the populations civil liberties.

1977 HD 55min United Kingdom English

Wilfred Greatorex Edward Woodward Robert Lang Lisa Harrow Yvonne Mitchell Tony Doyle Paul Hardwick

Drama Sci-fi

oppression dystopia

S1E1 - Creed of Slaves 1977-09-18

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves" (William Pitt). Home Affairs correspondent Jim Kyle, a journalist for one of Britains three remaining newspapers, provides secret assistance to people trying to escape the repressive regime. His activities continually bring him into contact with the Public Control Department, its tools of bureaucratic repression and its ruthless Controller Herbert Skardon. However, Kyles current attempts to help a doctor struggling to help his asthmatic daughter leave the United Kingdom may be hampered by Kyles ambiguous personal relationship with Deputy PCD Controller Delly Lomas.

S1E2 - When did you last see your father 1977-09-19

"We dont make laws, we only carry them out". Despite the Home Secretarys abolition of all exit visa appeals, Kyle successfully helps Doctor Vickers leave the United Kingdom, but without his wife and daughter. Dr. Vickers invests his hopes in the international law which states that his family can join him one month later, provided he can attain residency status in another country. However, the Public Control Department are determined to seal up any possible legal loopholes to block Vickers efforts and in so doing put an end to Kyles interference - permanently.

S1E3 - Health Farm 1977-09-26

"...no barbed-wire, no strait-jackets, no padded cells. After all, this is 1990". When the Public Control Department send union leader Charles Wainwright to the United States of America to promote their cause, the plan backfires disastrously when his speech is littered with dissident criticisms of the bureaucratic nightmare the United Kingdom has become under the stewardship. When he returns home, the PCD are quick to repay the compliment by sending him to an Adult Rehabilitation Centre, a place where offenders against the state (political activists, murderers, thieves, etc) are sent for "correction" under a combination of drug therapy and severe treatments which change their way of thinking.

S1E4 - Decoy 1977-10-03

"This is an island prison. Getting us all together is one thing. Getting us out is something else". High-profile political adviser Doctor Sondeberg, a man responsible for the rising fortunes of a variety of presidents, pays a state visit to the United Kingdom on a fact-finding mission to understand the workings of the Public Control Department. However, his motives are far more covert than first appearances. Meanwhile, Dave Brett persuades Kyle to obtain permits to allow them to travel around the country to advance his deal with underworld figure Sammy Calhoun - a deal which involves a motorised caravan as a passport for top academics to flee the oppressive regime of the PCD.

S1E5 - Voice from the past 1977-10-10

"The age of the common man seems to be degenerating into the age of the common denominator". When the Public Control Department take steps to shut down an underground newspaper peddling dissident stories critical of the regime, Kyle provides assistance to its publisher, Avery, in a bid to prevent their interference.

S1E6 - Whatever happened to Cardinal Wolsey 1977-10-17

The Ombudsmans Court supposedly exists to hear and review appeals by citizens and consists of a tribunal of judges, but every appeal is rejected despite the legitimacy of the claim. However, one judge, Philip Carter, is determined to fight the corrupt legal system and continually votes to uphold legitimate claims despite always being outvoted by the Chairperson and a weak-willed third judge. Angered by Carters defiance, the Attorney General demands that Skardon and the PCD find a way to silence Carter. The PCDs plan: a campaign of threats and intimidation against Carters pregnant wife, who has already miscarried twice. With the help of an American news colleague, Kyle tries to find a way to help the Carters, but the PCDs sadistic Inspector Jones may have already struck too hard at Mrs. Carter.

S1E7 - Witness 1977-10-24

Dr. Alan Vickers, whom Kyle and Breet helped escape, has been campaigning throughout the United States to get public and world opinion to force the PCD to let his wife and daughter emigrate. The problem is that in his speeches he may have let clues drop that may lead Skardon and the PCD to Kyle. When the PCD go after Kyles family and a plot to frame Kyle blows up in the PCDs face, Delly Lomas goes to America to persuade Dr. Vickers to return to England to testify against Kyle in return for exit visas for his wife and daughter.

S1E8 - Non-Citizen 1977-10-31

After the Kyle Trial fiasco, Skardon takes his revenge by turning Kyle into a Non-Citizen: stripping Kyle of his ID and Union cards, freezing his bank account and seizing all his assets. With no home, no car, no job, no money, only the clothes on his back and his family missing (and a bugged Non-Citizen ID card so the PCD can track him), Kyle is forced to wander the streets in what seems like a hopeless attempt to survive, especially when he is constantly and sadistically harassed by Skardon and Inspector Nichols. His only hope is that Dave Brett and black marketeer Sammy Calhoun can find him before his mind and will are permanently broken.

S2E1 - Pentagons 1978-02-20

Theres good news and bad news in Britain. The good news: Home Secretary Dan Mellor has been replaced by Kate Smith, and a "pentagon" - one of a growing army of dissident groups - is preparing to take on the hatred PCD. The bad news: the PCDs new Deputy Controller is Lynn Blake, Jim Kyles former romantic interest, and her first job is the exposure of "Faceless", Kyles source within the PCD.

S2E2 - The Market Price 1978-02-27

"This mate of yours is a shark. With his jaws into whole cargoes. Petrol. Fags. Booze. Grub. Its up to us to nanny him?". When food available in the supermarkets steadily evaporates, Kate Smiths government turns their attention to black marketeers profiting from illicit supplies. Ministry of Food MP Peter Greville feeds Kyle information about the matter, but soon both he and his family become the focus of suspicion from the Public Control Department.

S2E3 - Trapline 1978-03-06

"Who are we out to nail? Careguard, the Home Secretary or Skardon and the PCD?" Jim Kyle is in trouble - he has fallen into the hands of Police Commissioner Hallam.

S2E4 - Ordeal by Small Brown Envelope 1978-03-13

"Authorised Systematic Harassment has enormous potential. The slow and noiseless steamroller of the State. The daily brown envelope dropping on the mat". The Public Control Department, in response to more dissident remarks printed in the underground press from Kyle and Tony Doran, devise a plan to turn the heat up on the pair by employing a systematic campaign of Authorised Systematic Harrassment (ASH). Using all the bureaucratic mechanisms at his disposal, Skardon launches a tirade of officialdom against both men, which succeeds in pushing Doran and his wife to breaking-point.

S2E5 - Hire and Fire 1978-03-20

"If Kyle can uncover those extortionists where an expert PCD man failed, he is obviously implicated with them." When workers fall prey to an extortionist network collecting money in exchange for their continued silence, Kyles involvement attracts the attention of PCD controller Skardon, who recognizes an opportunity to eliminate the network and the thorn in his side in one stroke.

S2E6 - You'll Never Walk Alone 1978-03-27

No description

S2E7 - Young Sparks 1978-04-03

"Kylell be back to normal in about an hour. Until then hell probably show an amusing tendency to tell the truth." Groups of dissidents, once-divided in their opposition to the Public Control Department, are putting aside their differences in a bid to bring down the bureaucratic machine in a consolidated movement. Meanwhile, Skardon increases his pursuit of Kyle, whom he believes he can break and thereby shatter the plans of the opposition.

S2E8 - What Pleases the Prince 1978-04-10

"We always said thered be Peace Crimes Trials one day ... Were winning now. Therell have to be a purge of the PCD soon." The dissident assault on the Public Control Department has been successful, but the public suicide of a cell member has resulted in world condemnation of Britains policies and the PCD being plunged into bitter in-fighting.

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