Once it ruled the schedules - but is the end in sight for the 'one-off' drama?

From the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, the 'single play' - one-off dramas (as opposed to series or serials), usually filling a one-hour to two-hour slot - were tentpoles of the TV schedules. The BBC's primetime anthologies The Wednesday Play and its successor Play for Today and their ITV rivals Armchair Theatre and Playhouse served up completely fresh dramas week after week, ranging from romance to social and political drama, comedy to science fiction.

They employed the most accomplished writers and directors, attracted the biggest stars and could command audiences of 10 million or more. Meanwhile, less celebrated strands like Thirty Minute Theatre or Second City Firsts presented quirky, off-the-beaten-track subjects, and helped develop emerging talent. By the end of the 1970s, though, it was clear something was up. Audiences were falling and enthusiasm was waning among broadcasters and even some programme-makers. Could these TV giants be destined to go the way of the dinosaurs?

This edition of ITV's magazine series Look Here presents a surprisingly thorough exploration of the pressures besieging the single drama, including high relative costs, reluctant audiences and - worst of all from ITV's point of view - frustrated advertisers and falling overseas sales.

By 1980, ITV had already axed its venerable Armchair Theatre in favour of genre-based anthologies like Armchair Thriller and Tales of the Unexpected, and was increasingly favouring serials, from The Sweeney to Upstairs, Downstairs. Even some of the masters of the single play, like Dennis Potter, were turning to longer-form drama to express their more ambitious visions.

The programme features interviews with producers Verity Lambert and Kennith Trodd and writer John Bowen (Robin Redbreast), and includes footage of location shooting for the Play for Today drama The Executioner, starring Robert Stephens, and Euston Films' police series The Gentle Touch, both of which first aired later in 1980.

The same edition also includes two more reports: one on a public meeting organised by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA, later replaced by the Independent Television Commission), and the other on the prospects for breakfast television in the UK, with a look at the US landscape.

Look Here was a weekly magazine programme produced by London Weekend Television (LWT), which explored and explained a variety of television issues. It ran in a one-hour slot on ITV from 1978 to 1981, with programmes typically comprising two or three distinct reports, usually presented by Andrew Neil - though this particular edition is presented instead by John Pardoe.