Set in 1999, in a "Youth Unit", where young people have been "bought off" by the government using the "New Wealth" created by micro-chip technology. The "Shades" are dark glasses which enable each youth to pursue their own dream.   

Has anyone got this on video tape who would be willing to make a copy for me? I'd be very grateful if you could get in touch.  Email me - thanks!!

The below extract is taken from The Action TV Online Episode Guide, you can visit the page at:-

Shades

TX : 11th May 1982
Director : Bill Hays
Script : Stephen Lowe

Cast : Tracey Childs (Sheena / Angie), Stuart MacKenzie (Joe / Malcolm), Emily Moore (Kate / Mary), Neil Pearson (Adam / Peter), Shelagh McLeod (Diana / Paula), Francesca Gonshaw (Julie / Sue) and Michael Feldman (Tony).

Synopsis : Time: 1999. Setting: A city tower block converted into a government-run "Youth Unit". The youths, at an age when they might be studying, training, working or protesting, have been "bought off" by the government - this being paid for by the "New Wealth" created by the development of the new microchip technology. The "shades" of the title are dark glasses, the donning of which enables the youths to pursue - each of them - his or her own dream, career or obsession.

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The below extract taken from the cache of www.tv.cream.org 

Shades - with Neil Pearson.  It's 1999 again.  A tower block contains youths 'bought off' by the government, in a climate of microchip-created endless leisure, who experience (often pornographic) virtual reality-style fantasies by donning the titular 'shades', until a 1980s theme party (they predicted that right, at least) leads to ideology and political thought seeping in under the dazed lifestyle.

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The below extract taken from Phantom Frame - "Play for Tomorrow" - click here for full article

An elaborate scheme to neutralise the problem of youth unemployment formed the setting of Shades (1999) by Stephen Lowe. After leaving school, unemployed teenagers are comfortably housed in vast computer controlled skyscrapers. Here they spend their days immersed in virtual reality worlds via their special VR sunglasses. Everything from sport to pornography is accessible. The other main source of entertainment, aside from the age-old past-times of gossip and dating are 'socials', hosted by different floors. When a group decides to base their latest social around early Eighties pop culture and specifically the CND marches, one of them, Sheena, becomes increasingly obsessed by the history of the time and one particular girl protestor in the grainy television footage. It leads her to question the assumptions of herself and her friends. Sheena suspects that the real purpose of the housing project is to condition them all into docility and shallowness, leaving the government to rule without opposition. Unable to find any support for her views amongst her neighbours, she becomes increasingly isolated. Suddenly she wakes up to find herself in a student bed-sit on the day of the CND march, with all her friends now appearing as Eighties versions of themselves. Has she had a breakdown and entered a fantasy past? Or is she a schoolgirl who has been dreaming of a fantasy future? In either reality, can she find any personal happiness?
The most obviously science fiction appearing of the series, with the cast wearing shiny leisuresuits and living in an open plan futuristic environment with wall sized TV screens. Possibly the most successful entry in the season, it's a story about the way good intentions can sometimes have bad consequences. It's about personal problems versus abstract dilemmas and the way either can become an unhelpful refuge from the other. It echoes the likes of Logan's Run and The Stepford Wives but subverts them too. Cleverly, the play remains ambiguous as to whether there really is a deliberate government policy to suppress the teenagers or whether it is more of an unfortunate consequence of their apparent affluence. Science Fiction is full of heroes who wake up and question the world around them, eventually fighting back and bringing down the system. Shades plays with that sub-genre and underminds it by suggesting that such people are in denial about their own problems and are paranoid, seeing conspiracies which are not there. Or if they the ones who can see the truth, unfortunately not enough people are listening. One prediction that has certainly come true is that the issue of nuclear armageddon, which weighed on so many people's minds in the early eighties, has faded into the background noise of public consciousness. As Sheena tries to explain to her friends, the missiles are still there and there are still more than enough of them to finish the human race. But in the world of the skyscraper, and perhaps in our own real world of Trisha and counselling, it is personal happiness and relationships which are the focus. At the play's climax Sheena's genuinely concerned friends hold a conference and suggest that her CND obsession is really a mask for her real fears about growing up and having a mature relationship with someone. She eventually admits she might be wrong about herself. The play ends with the Eighties party, where Sheena thanks her friends for their support and everyone dances the night away, whilst the news footage reels on unnoticed in the background. Her questions have been subdued, ironically not by sinister government agencies but by friendship and the need to belong. Amongst the young cast is future TV regular Neil Pearson as Adam.

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