The After-Dinner Joke

Caryl Churchill's short play The After-Dinner Joke is a satire on the charity business, written for television. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 February 1978 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series.

Told in 66 short, episodic scenes, the plot follows Selby, a young woman who quits her secretarial job in a big corporation to pursue her passion for 'doing good'. As a charity worker, she studiously avoids becoming embroiled in political issues, only to discover during the course of the action that this is impossible.