Brimstone and Treacle was recorded by the BBC in 1976 but not shown at the time because Alasdair Milne, then Director of programmes, found the play 'brilliantly written and made, but nauseating'. A slightly edited version was transmitted on 25 August 1987. SInce then it has lost none of its relevance, humour, or power to shock.

Tom and Amy Bates lives were transformed when their beautiful undergraduate daughter Pattie was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Now she is wholly dependent on them - strapped to the sofa, unable to wash or eat by herself and only able to garble unintelligibly. So when a young man claiming to be an old friend of Pattie's offers to look after her - Amy gratefully accepts. But is Martin really the angel she thinks he is?