What if, the drama asks, health and security regulations at such installations were a dangerous joke, tolerated on financial grounds? What if the theft of plutonium to create a nuclear bomb or an accidental leak were both imminent and inevitable disasters? And most chilling of all - what if no one truly cared?

When a lowly power plant worker - Kate (Annis) - realises that the world is hovering close to an accident of cataclysmic proportions, the apathy she encounters is horrifying. Her colleagues are more concerned with job security than world security, and more alarmed by a defective coffee machine than the plant's malfunctioning equipment. Her bosses naturally see her as an irritant and Fleet Street hacks are too preoccupied with booze and book deals to be distracted by little things like the news. Even pressure groups are focused on PR and politics, so while Kate fights to avert disaster the authorities' unseen noose tightens around her neck. Stronger than the Sun suggests that the real threat is not plutonium nor the plutocracy controlling it, but our own apathy towards the big issues and the painful impotency of lone individuals.

Created in 1964, the BBC's Play for Today strand was an innovation which became an institution, teaming up veterans of British film and television with fiery first-timers eager to unleash their passion and develop their skills. Stronger than the Sun remains one of the strand's most revered offerings, deftly exploiting public alarm to fashion a plausible, enthralling thriller with a devastating finale. As such, it works as a reflection of social concern, but this is no Cathy Come Home and would have been out place in the more morally minded Wednesday Play strand.

Taut direction by Michael Apted, who intelligently strips away exposition and irrelevant sub-plots, elevates this to classic status, and an impressive cast includes Francesca Annis, Clive Merrison and the mesmeric Tom Bell. It may be more 25 years old, but Stronger than the Sun remains very much a play for today.

Gavin Collinson