Early in his career, Read wrote a number of scripts for film and television – "Verbrechen mit Vorbedacht" (1967) for the German director Peter Lilienthal whom he met in Berlin; "Coincidence" (1968), "The House on Highbury Hill" (1971) and "The Childhood Friend" (1974) /as Wednesday Plays for BBC television – the latter starring Anthony Hopkins who would also play the title role in the television adaptation of Read’s "A Married Man" (1984). A short play "The Class War" was staged by the Questors Theatre Company in 1964, and his "Margaret Clitherow" was broadcast by Granada Television in 1977.