British playwright Stephen Poliakoff's comical teleplay investigates Europe's changing social landscape via three strangers who meet on a train. Peter (Michael Kitchen), an English businessman on an overnight trip through Europe, shares a compartment with a beautiful American woman, Lorraine (Wendy Raebeck). But Peter's hope for romance is soon dampened by Lorraine's xenophobia and the arrival of a haughty Viennese aristocrat (Peggy Ashcroft).

Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.

Caught On A Train is a critically successful British television play written by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Peter Duffell, based on an overnight train journey across Europe, and following the route of a journey Poliakoff had himself made from London to Vienna. It was originally shown on BBC1 on 31 October 1980. The play starred Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Michael Kitchen, with the main supporting cast featuring Wendy Raebeck and Michael Sheard, with a soundtrack by the jazz composer Mike Westbrook. The production won a BAFTA Television Award and other plaudits in 1980, and was re-shown by the BBC in 2001 and 2006. Having previously been available on VHS, the play was released on DVD by BBC Worldwide in 2004, with an audio commentary from Poliakoff and producer Kenith Trodd.