Lisa Shingler

The Afternoon Play is a British television anthology series of standalone contemporary dramas aired during the afternoons of 2003–07 on BBC One, featuring well-known actors in one-off stories. A daytime drama strand showcasing a variety of genres, from comedy to mystery, it was part of a long tradition of afternoon plays on BBC Radio 4, which would go on to influence the television version.

The Vanishing Man is a 1998 British television programme created by Anthony Horowitz for ITV, and starring Neil Morrissey as Nick Cameron, wrongly imprisoned for smuggling plutonium, who used it for medical research – it turns him invisible when in contact with water. Having escaped from prison, his powers are then utilised by a government agency. The six-episode series is a sequel to the 1997 TV movie of the same name.

While Nick Cameron is returning to England from the continent with mysterious cargo in the cabin section of his small aircraft, he is thrown off-course by a severe electrical storm and loses radio contact. To his surprise and horror, he is arrested upon landing and accused of being a traitor in connection with the cargo he has been carrying - which, unknown to him, contained plutonium. Although he pleads innocent, Nick is not believed and is sentenced to a long term in prison. While in prison, he is subjected to special experimentation at a mysterious laboratory - with one unnerving, and unexpected, side-effect of the experiments being intermittent invisibility. —David McAnally