The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.

Some of British television drama's most influential, and controversial, plays were shown in this slot, including Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home.

[1] Newman had been persuaded to join the BBC following the success of the similar programme Armchair Theatre, which he had produced while Head of Drama at ABC Weekend TV from 1958 to 1962.

Armchair Theatre had tackled many difficult and socially relevant subjects in the then-popular 'kitchen sink' style, and still managed to gain a mass audience on the ITV network, and Newman wanted a programme that would be able to tackle similar issues with a broad appeal.

[2] One production, The War Game (1965), was withdrawn from broadcast by a nervous BBC under pressure from the government, while John Hopkins' Fable (20 January 1965),[3] an inversion of South Africa's Apartheid system, was delayed for several weeks over fears that it would incite racial tensions.

In the first half of 1966 a series of 26 Wednesday Plays were produced by Peter Luke, the playwright, and story edited by David Benedictus.

Highlights included The Snow Ball (20 April 1966),[7] adapted from the novel by Brigid Brophy, Toddler on the Run adapted by Shena Mackay from her novella and directed by James MacTaggart, (25 May 1966),[7] Cock Hen and Courting Pit (renamed A Tour of the Old Floorboards, 22 June 1966)[7] by David Halliwell and two plays by Frank O'Connor (which Hugh Leonard adapted)[8] virtually without dialogue[8] and which, renamed Silent Song, won The Prix Italia award[9] in 1967 for 'original dramatic programmes' jointly with a French programme.

Cathy Come Home by Nell Dunn and Jeremy Sandford was offered to the Luke/Benedictus team who passed it on to Tony Garnett.

Garnett was quickly seen as someone capable of delivering plays which would gain much publicity for the BBC and its Drama department.

The 'Clean-Up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse accused the BBC of portraying "promiscuity as normal" in Up the Junction[16] and The Wednesday Play as featuring "Dirt, Doubt and Disbelief".

[17] The writer on television Anthony Hayward quoted Garnett in 2006: "Mary Whitehouse was on the prowl, which was an added frisson, but it was actually very good free publicity and helped the ratings.

In a Sunday Telegraph article published before its first repeat transmission Grace Wyndham Goldie complained that Cathy Come Home "deliberately blurs the distinction between fact and fiction ... [viewers] have a right to know whether what they are being offered is real or invented.