1.
British Film Institute
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The British Film Institute is a film and charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI maintains the worlds largest film archive, the BFI National Archive, previously called National Film Library, National Film Archive and National Film, the archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes. The majority of the collection is British material but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world, the Archive also collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and London IMAX cinema, both located on the bank of the River Thames in London. The IMAX has the largest cinema screen in the UK, and shows popular recent releases and short films showcasing its technology, BFI Southbank shows films from all over the world particularly critically acclaimed historical & specialised films that may not otherwise get a cinema showing. The BFI also distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues – each year to more than 800 venues all across the UK, the BFI offers a range of education initiatives, in particular to support the teaching of film and media studies in schools. In late 2012, the BFI received money from the Department For Education to create the BFI Film Academy Network, the BFI runs the annual London Film Festival along with BFI Flare, London LGBT Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival. The BFI publishes the monthly Sight & Sound magazine as well as films on Blu-ray, DVD, SIFT has a collection of about 7 million still frames from film and television. The institute was founded in 1933, the institute was restructured following the Radcliffe Report of 1948 which recommended that it should concentrate on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. Thus control of film production passed to the National Committee for Visual Aids in Education. From 1952-2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental filmmakers via the BFI Production Board, the institute received a Royal Charter in 1983. This was updated in 2000, and in the year the newly established UK Film Council took responsibility for providing the BFIs annual grant-in-aid. As an independent registered charity, the BFI is regulated by the Charity Commission, in 1988, the BFI opened the London Museum of the Moving Image on the South Bank. The Museum was temporarily closed in 1999 when the BFI stated that it would be re-sited and this did not happen, and MOMIs closure became permanent in 2002 when it was decided to redevelop the South Bank site. This redevelopment was itself then further delayed, the BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its chief executive, Amanda Nevill. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chair and a board of up to 14 governors, the current chair is Josh Berger, who took up the post in February 2016. He succeeded Greg Dyke, who took office on 1 March 2008, Dyke succeeded the late Anthony Minghella, who was chair from 2003 until 31 December 2007. The chair of the board is appointed by the BFIs own Board of Governors but requires the consent of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, other Governors are co-opted by existing board members when required
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
4.
ITV Granada
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ITV Granada is the Channel 3 regional service for North West England. The licence for the region has been held by ITV Broadcasting Limited since November 2008 and it is the largest independent television-franchise producing company in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network. It had been held by Granada Television, which was founded by Sidney Bernstein and this was the only surviving company of the original four Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954, Granada Media Group merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004. It covers Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, northwestern Derbyshire, part of Cumbria, on 15 July 2009, the Isle of Man was transferred to ITV Granada from ITV Border. Broadcasting by Granada Television began on 3 May 1956 under the North of England weekday franchise and it was marked by a distinctive northern identity, and used stylised letter G logo forming an arrow pointing north, often with the tagline Granada, from the north. Granada plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004 after a duopoly had developed over the previous decade, Granada Television Ltd still legally exists. Along with most other companies owned by ITV plc, it is listed on www. companieshouse. gov. uk as a Dormant company. Other companies listed are Granada Television International and Granada Television Overseas Ltd, the North West region is regarded as ITVs most successful franchise. The Financial Times and The Independent once described Granada Television, the franchise holder. Nine Granada programmes were listed in the BFI TV100 in 2000, some of its most notable programmes include Coronation Street, Seven Up. The Royle Family, The Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead Revisited, World in Action, University Challenge, notable employees have included Paul Greengrass, Michael Apted, Mike Newell, Jeremy Isaacs, Andy Harries, Russell T Davies and Leslie Woodhead. Granada Television, a subsidiary of Granada Ltd, originated in Granada Theatres Ltd and it was founded in Dover in 1930 by Sidney Bernstein and his brother Cecil. The company was incorporated as Granada Ltd in 1934 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1935 and it is named after the Spanish city of Granada. Channel 59 from Winter Hill and started broadcasting in colour in the Autumn of 1969, the Bernsteins became involved in commercial television, a competitor to the cinema chains. Bernstein bid for the North of England franchise, which he believed would not affect the companys largely southern-based cinema chain, in 1954, the Independent Television Authority awarded Granada the North of England contract for Monday to Friday, with ABC serving the same area on weekends. The North and London were the two biggest regions, Granada preferred the North because of its tradition of home-grown culture, and because it offered a chance to start a new creative industry away from the metropolitan atmosphere of London. Compare this with London and its suburbs—full of displaced persons, and, of course, if you look at a map of the concentration of population in the North and a rainfall map, you will see that the North is an ideal place for television. Bernstein selected a base from Leeds and Manchester, Granada executive Victor Peers believed Manchester was the preferred choice even before executives toured the region to find a suitable site
5.
Diana, Princess of Wales
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Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. Diana was born into a family of British nobility with royal ancestry and was the child and third daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp. She grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, in 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. She came to prominence in February 1981 when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced and her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981, held at St Pauls Cathedral, reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. While married, Diana bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, the marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and she was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was involved with dozens of charities including Londons Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, the Spencer family has been closely allied with the British Royal Family for several generations. Both of Dianas grandmothers had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, on 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, with wealthy commoners as godparents. Diana had three siblings, Sarah, Jane, and Charles and her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The desire for an added strain to the Spencers marriage. Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, the Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with Princes Andrew, Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced. Her mother later had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969, Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents separation in 1967, but during that years Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, in 1972, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Dame Barbara Cartland. They married at Caxton Hall, London in 1976, as an upper-class child at the time, Diana was first educated under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen. She began her education at Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk, and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Diss
6.
1966 FIFA World Cup
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The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from 11 to 30 July. England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final, winning the Jules Rimet Trophy, with this victory, England won their first FIFA World Cup title and became the third World Cup host to win the tournament after Uruguay in 1930 and Italy in 1934. The 1966 Final, held at Wembley Stadium, was the last to be broadcast in black, the tournament held a FIFA record for the largest average attendance, for 28 years, until it was surpassed by the United States in 1994. England was chosen as host of the 1966 World Cup in Rome, Italy on 22 August 1960, over bids from West Germany. Despite the Africans absence, there was another new number of entries for the qualifying tournament. After all the arguments, FIFA finally ruled that ten teams from Europe would qualify, along with four from South America, one from Asia and one from North, Portugal and North Korea qualified for the first time. Portugal would not qualify again until 1986, while North Koreas next appearance was at the 2010 tournament and this was also Switzerlands last World Cup finals until 1994. Notable absentees from this tournament included 1962 semi-finalists Yugoslavia and 1962 finalists Czechoslovakia, the Africans felt that winning their zone was enough in itself to merit qualification for the finals. They also protested against the readmission of South Africa to FIFA in 1963, South Africa was subsequently assigned to Asia and Oceania qualifying group, before being suspended again under pressure from other African nations in October,1964. The format of the 1966 competition remained the same as 1962,16 qualified teams were divided into four groups of four, each group played a round-robin format. Two points were awarded for a win and one point for a draw, the top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage. In the knockout games, if the teams were tied after 90 minutes,30 minutes of time were played. For any match other than the final, if the teams were tied after extra time. The final would have been replayed if tied after extra time, in the event, no replays or drawing of lots was necessary. The 1966 World Cup had a rather unusual hero off the field, in the build-up to the tournament, the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition display. A nationwide hunt for the icon ensued and it was later discovered wrapped in newspaper as the dog sniffed under some bushes in London. The FA commissioned a replica cup in case the cup was not found in time. This replica is held at the English National Football Museum in Manchester, where it is on display
7.
The Wednesday Play
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The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, the series was suggested to the BBCs Head of Drama Sydney Newman, by the corporations director of television Kenneth Adam after his cancellation of the two previous series of single plays. Newman had been persuaded to join the BBC following the success of the similar programme Armchair Theatre, the Wednesday Play succeeded in meeting this aim, and the BBC quickly developed the practice of stockpiling six or seven Wednesday Plays in case there were problems with individual works. Intended as a vehicle for new writers, several careers began thanks to the series, Television programmes had a much shorter lead time in this era, and Dennis Potters first four accepted television plays were shown during the course of 1965. In the first half of 1966 a series of 26 Wednesday Plays were produced by Peter Luke, the playwright, the other OConnor/Leonard work was The Retreat. These two plays starred Milo OShea and Jack McGowran, Cathy Come Home by Nell Dunn and Jeremy Sandford was offered to the Luke/Benedictus team who passed it on to Tony Garnett. Garnett was quickly seen as capable of delivering plays which would gain much publicity for the BBC. Director Ken Loach made ten plays in all for The Wednesday Play series, the latter began Loachs 13 year collaboration with Tony Garnett as his producer, although Garnett had been closely involved with Up the Junction as well. Plays like Up the Junction though were controversial among more conservative viewers, the Clean-Up TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse accused the BBC of portraying promiscuity as normal in Up the Junction and The Wednesday Play as featuring Dirt, Doubt and Disbelief. The writer on television Anthony Hayward quoted Garnett in 2006, Mary Whitehouse was on the prowl, which was an added frisson, the drama documentary approach was criticised by television professionals who thought it was dishonest. In a Sunday Telegraph article published before its first repeat transmission Grace Wyndham Goldie complained that Cathy Come Home deliberately blurs the distinction between fact and fiction, have a right to know whether what they are being offered is real or invented. Loach has admitted that e were very anxious for our plays not to be considered dramas but as continuations of the news which preceded The Wednesday Plays slot. The last three years of the strand were predominantly produced by Irene Shubik and Graeme MacDonald, by time the BBC Drama head Sydney Newman had left the BBC. Highlights from this include several plays by David Mercer such as In Two Minds and Lets Murder Vivaldi and Potters Son of Man. Suffering from declining audience figures, the run of The Wednesday Play ended in 1970 when the day of transmission changed, and it is regarded as one of the most influential and successful programmes to be produced in Britain during the 1960s, and is still frequently referenced and discussed. The Ken Loach material has resurfaced in a Ken Loach at the BBC set, however, as with much British television of this era, many episodes are lost, leaving 76 surviving in the Archives out of 170 transmitted. Oxford, Oxford University Press / British Film Institute, the Wednesday Play site with history and individual episodes listed Encyclopedia of Television TV Cream website The Wednesday Play at BBC Programmes
8.
Frasier
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Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, premiering on September 16,1993, and concluding on May 13,2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, the series was created as a spin-off of Cheers, continuing the story of psychiatrist Frasier Crane as he returned to his hometown of Seattle and started building a new life. Frasier stars Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, John Mahoney, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin, psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane returns to his home town of Seattle, Washington, following the end of his marriage and his life in Boston. Frasier hires Daphne Moon as Martins live-in physical therapist and care giver, Frasier frequently spends time with his younger brother Niles, a fellow psychiatrist. Niles becomes obsessed with, and eventually falls in love with, Daphne, Frasier hosts The Dr. Frasier Crane Show, a call-in psychiatry show on talk radio station KACL. His producer Roz Doyle is very different from Frasier in many ways and she is down-to-earth, has basic tastes and, at least early in the series, has superficial relationships with many men. However, Roz and Frasier share a professional respect and over time they become best friends, Frasier and the others often visit the local coffee shop, Café Nervosa. The Crane sons, who possess fine tastes, intellectual interests, the brothers close relationship is often tense, and their sibling rivalry intermittently results in chaos. Niles Crane, Frasiers younger brother, also a psychiatrist, who works in private practice, Martin Crane, Frasier and Niless father, a police officer who was forced to retire by a gunshot wound to his hip that led to his living with Frasier. Daphne Moon, an English physiotherapist, hired by Frasier to help take care of Martin, Roz Doyle, the producer of Frasiers radio show, who becomes a close family friend. Eddie, Martin Cranes Jack Russell terrier, Bob Bulldog Briscoe, the male chauvinist, horny, boastful host of a sports radio talk show that followed Frasiers daily broadcast at KACL. He became a regular cast member for Seasons 4 through 6, noel Shempsky, KACL technical assistant and avid Star Trek aficionado who speaks Klingon, in love with Roz. Gil Chesterton, KACLs flamboyant, effeminate restaurant critic. Bebe Glazer, Frasiers manipulative, amoral agent, who is loathed by Frasiers family, the main cast remained unchanged for all 11 years. Grammer was briefly the highest paid actor in the United States for his portrayal of Frasier. Grammer had been the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons since 1990, in a 1997 episode, the characters brother, Cecil Terwilliger, was introduced, played by Pierce, as referenced in the episode title, Brother from Another Series. The episode contained numerous Frasier references, Pierce returned as Cecil for the second time alongside Grammer in the 2007 episode Funeral for a Fiend. The episode introduced the brothers father, Dr. Robert Terwilliger, cast member reunions also occurred on four episodes of Hot in Cleveland, which featured Leeves in the main cast along with Wendie Malick. In the Season 2 episode Unseparated at Birth and Season 3 episode Funeral Crashers, Gilpin appears in the episode I Love Lucci, and Tom McGowan appears in Love Thy Neighbor as a casting director
9.
Fawlty Towers
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Fawlty Towers is a BBC television sitcom first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. The show was created and written by John Cleese and Connie Booth and they were married at the time of series 1, but divorced before recording series 2. One of the best loved shows in British popular culture, it was ranked No.1 on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a hotel in the seaside town of Torquay — pronounced taw-key in the English vernacular — on the English Riviera. In May 1970 the Monty Python team stayed at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming on location, John Cleese became fascinated with the behavior of the owner, Donald Sinclair, whom Cleese later described as the rudest man Ive ever come across in my life. Sinclair justified his actions by claiming the hotel had staff problems and he also criticised the American-born Terry Gilliams table manners for not being British. Cleese and Booth stayed on at the hotel after filming, furthering their research of the hotel owner, Cleese later played a hotel owner called Donald Sinclair in the 2001 movie Rat Race. At the time, Cleese was a writer on the 1970s British TV sitcom Doctor in the House for London Weekend Television, an early prototype of the character that became known as Basil Fawlty was developed in an episode of the third Doctor series. In this edition, the character checks into a small town hotel, his very presence seemingly winding up the aggressive. The show was broadcast on May 30,1971, Cleese parodied the contrast between organizational dogma and sensitive customer service in many personnel training videotapes issued with a serious purpose by his company, Video Arts. Cleese said in 2008 that the first Fawlty Towers script he, and Jimmy himself said, Youre going to have to get them out of the hotel, John. You cant do the thing in the hotel. Whereas, of course, its in the hotel that the pressure cooker builds up. Cleese was paid £6,000 for 43 weeks work and supplemented his income by appearing in television advertisements. He said that when he read the first scripts he could see nothing funny in them and he said the commercial channels, with their emphasis on audience ratings, never would have let the program get to the production stage on the basis of the scripts. Although the series is set in Torquay in Devon, no part of it was shot in Southwest England, for the exterior filming, the Wooburn Grange Country Club in Buckinghamshire was used instead of a hotel. In several episodes of the series the entrance gate at the bottom of the states the real name of the location. This listed building later served for a time as a nightclub named Basils after the series ended
10.
BBC Two
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BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It covers a range of subject matter, but tending towards more highbrow programmes than the more mainstream. Like the BBCs other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence and it is a comparatively well-funded public service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched, a high-definition version of the channel launched on 26 March 2013, replacing BBC HD. British television at the time of BBC2s launch consisted of two channels, the BBC Television Service and the ITV network made up of regional companies. Both channels had existed in a state of competition since ITVs launch in 1955, the 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC, prior to its launch, the new BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service, the soon to be renamed BBC1. The animated adverts featured the campaign mascots Hullabaloo, a mother kangaroo, however, at around 18,45 a huge power failure, originating from a fire at Battersea Power Station, caused Television Centre, and indeed much of west London, to lose all power. BBC1 was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at Alexandra Palace, associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBCs behalf, but their gesture was rejected. At 22,00 programming was officially postponed until the following morning, there was believed to be no recording made of this bulletin, but a videotape was discovered in early 2003. By 11,00 on 21 April, power had restored to the studios and programming began. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was successfully shown that evening. In reference to the cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter Denis Tuohy. To establish the new identity and draw viewers to it. The production chosen was The Forsyte Saga, a adaptation of the novels by John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors Kenneth More. Unlike BBC1 and ITV, BBC2 was broadcast only on the 625 line UHF system and this created a market for dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. On 1 July 1967, during the Wimbledon Championships, BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin broadcasts in colour. The thirteen part series Civilisation was created as a celebration of two millennia of western art and culture to showpiece the new colour technology, BBC1 and ITV later joined BBC2 on 625-line UHF band, but continued to simulcast on 405-line VHF until 1985
11.
Cathy Come Home
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Cathy Come Home is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach, about homelessness. A1998 Radio Times readers poll voted it the best single television drama, filmed in a gritty, realistic drama documentary style, it was first broadcast on 16 November 1966 on BBC1. The play was shown in the BBCs The Wednesday Play anthology strand, the play tells the story of a young couple, Cathy and Reg, and their descent into poverty and homelessness. At the start of the film, Cathy leaves her parents overcrowded rural home and hitchhikes to the city, where she finds work and meets Reg and they fall in love, marry, and rent a modern apartment in a building that does not allow children. Cathy soon becomes pregnant and must stop working, and Reg is injured on the job, the loss of income and birth of the baby force them to leave their apartment, and they are unable to find another affordable place to live that permits children. They move in with Regs mother, until tensions develop between her and Cathy in the crowded flat, a kind elderly landlady, Mrs. Alley, rents to them for a while, during which time Cathy has two more children. Mrs. Alley even allows them to stay when they fall behind on the rent, however, she dies suddenly and her nephew and heir has the family evicted by bailiffs. Cathy, Reg and their children are forced to squat in a wrecked, abandoned building. They repeatedly try to get decent housing through the council, but are not helped because of their many moves. Cathy and Reg decide to separate so that Cathy and the children can move into an emergency homeless shelter where husbands are not allowed to stay. Reg leaves the area to seek employment, Cathys loneliness and frustration finally boil over and she becomes belligerent with the shelter authorities, who are often cold and judgmental towards the women living in the shelter. Cathys allotted time at the shelter expires while Reg is away and they go to a railway station, where Cathys children are taken away from her by social services. The play broached issues that were not then widely discussed in the media, such as homelessness, unemployment. It was watched by 12 million people – a quarter of the British population at the time – on its first broadcast and its hard-hitting subject matter and highly realistic documentary style, new to British television, created a huge impact on its audience. One commentator called it an ice-pick in the brain of all who saw it, the play produced a storm of phone calls to the BBC, and discussion in Parliament. For years afterwards Carol White was stopped in the street by people pressing money into her hand, convinced she must be actually homeless. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the BFI TV100 of the 20th century, in 2005 it was named by Broadcast as the UKs most influential TV programme of all time. By coincidence, another charity for the homeless, Shelter, was launched a few days after the first broadcast
12.
BBC One
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BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service and it was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of sister channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997. The channels annual budget for 2012–13 is £1.14 billion, the channel is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBCs other domestic television stations, and therefore shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. It is currently the most watched channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership. As of June 2013 the channel controller for BBC One is Charlotte Moore, the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15,00, Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, Good afternoon everybody. Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh, the Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a reduction in its audience. The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and it therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF. The only way to all channels was to use a complex dual-standard 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, receiver. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect, BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, London between 1960 and 2013. In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it. At midnight on 15 November, simultaneously with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 officially began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark, colour transmissions could be received on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting. In terms of share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%. On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of Breakfast Time was shown on BBC One, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the rating until 1984. The first major overhaul was to axe the deeply unpopular Sixty Minutes current affairs programme and its replacement was the BBC Six OClock News, a straight new programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot
13.
Doctor Who
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Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called The Doctor and he explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by a number of companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations, the show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series, the programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot. The programme was relaunched in 2005, and since then has been produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff, twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The conceit is that this is a Time Lord trait through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body, each actors portrayal differs, but all represent stages in the life of the same character and form a single narrative. The time-travelling feature of the means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The current lead, Peter Capaldi, took on the role after Matt Smiths exit in the 2013 Christmas special The Time of the Doctor, in 2017, Capaldi confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the tenth series. Doctor Who follows the adventures of the character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He fled from Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimension in Space – a machine which allows him to travel across time, the TARDIS has a chameleon circuit which normally allows the machine to take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. However, the Doctors TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box due to a malfunction in the chameleon circuit, the Doctor rarely travels alone and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures. His companions are usually humans, as he has found a fascination with planet Earth, as a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate when his body is mortally damaged, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous reoccurring enemies during his travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master, another renegade Time Lord. Doctor Who first appeared on BBC TV at 17,16,20 GMT, eighty seconds after the programme time,5,15 pm. It was to be a weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year, writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series
14.
ITV (TV network)
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ITV is a commercial TV network in the United Kingdom. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990 its legal name has been Channel 3, to distinguish it from the analogue channels at the time, namely BBC1, BBC2. ITV is a network of channels that operate regional television services as well as sharing programmes between each other to be displayed on the entire network. In recent years, several of companies have merged so currently the fifteen franchises are in the hands of two companies. With the exception of Northern Ireland, the ITV brand is the used by ITV plc for the Channel 3 service in these areas. In Northern Ireland, ITV plc uses the brand name UTV, STV Group plc, uses the STV brand for its two franchises of central and northern Scotland. The origins of ITV lie in the passing of the Television Act 1954, the act created the Independent Television Authority to heavily regulate the industry and to award franchises. The first six franchises were awarded in 1954 for London, the Midlands, the first ITV network to launch was Londons Associated-Rediffusion on 22 September 1955, with the Midlands and North services launching in February 1956 and May 1956 respectively. Following these launches, the ITA awarded more franchises until the country was covered by fourteen regional stations. Following the 1993 changes, ITV as a network began to consolidate with several companies doing so to save money by ceasing the duplication of services present when they were all separate companies. The ITV Network is not owned or operated by one company, since 2016 the fifteen licences are held by two companies, with the majority held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc. The network is regulated by the media regulator Ofcom who is responsible for awarding the broadcast licences, the last major review of the Channel 3 franchises was in 1991, with all operators licences having been renewed between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2014 without a further contest. However, due to amalgamation of several of companies since the creation of ITV Network Limited. Approved by Ofcom, this results in ITV plc commissioning and funding the network schedule, all licensees have the right to opt out of network programming, however many do not due to pressures from the parent company or because of limited resources. The network also needs to produce accessible output containing subtitles, signing, in exchange for this programming, the ITV network is available on all platforms free to air and can be found at the top of the EPG of all providers. Since the launch of the platform in 1998, all of the ITV licensees have received gifted capacity on the terrestrial television platform. At present, the companies are able to broadcast additional channels and all choose to broadcast the ITV plc owned ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV in their region. UTV and STV previously broadcast their own services – UTV2 in Northern Ireland and S2 in central and northern Scotland – until 2002, the broadcasters all make use of the Digital 3&4 multiplex, shared with Channel 4
15.
Thames Television
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Thames Television was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding area on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Formed as a joint company, it merged the interests of British Electric Traction owning 49%. It was both a broadcaster and a producer of programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and for networking nationally across the ITV regions. Thames covered a broad spectrum of commercial television, with a strong mix of drama, current affairs. Consequently, ABC applied for both the Midlands seven-day operation and the contract to serve London at the weekend, preferring the latter and it was widely expected that the company would be awarded the weekend franchise. After an impressive application, it was awarded to what became London Weekend Television in a consortium led by David Frost and this led to a serious problem for the ITA as ABC was a popular station, whose productions earned vital foreign currency. Its station management and presentation style were well-admired, and it could have been controversial to dismiss that as a result of administrative changes. Rediffusion had believed that its renewal was a formality, and its application reflected this complacency. In the early days of ITV, the company had worked hard to keep the network on-air during financial crises that threatened the collapse of other companies, particularly Granada Television. It was reported that Rediffusions chairman Sir John Spencer Wills felt the ITA owed his company a debt of gratitude for this, the outcome proposed by the ITA was a shotgun marriage between ABC and Rediffusion. The combination of two companies, announced ITA Chairman Lord Hill, seemed to the Authority to offer the possibility of a programme company of real excellence. The resultant company was awarded the contract to serve London on weekdays, control of the new company would be given to ABC, a move unpopular with Rediffusion. Questioning the ITAs decision, Rediffusion attempted to slow down the merger, the structure of the new company was also a problem. The answer was found to be a new holding company, Thames Television Ltd, ABC had majority control of the new company and the make-up of its board predominantly came from ABC. The use of ABCs old studios at Teddington meant the workforce was predominantly ex-ABC and this name had been previously considered and rejected by London Weekend Television. On 30 July 1968 Thames began broadcasting to London, from the start of broadcasting on Monday until its handover to London Weekend Television at 19,00 GMT on Friday, the former ABC studios at Teddington became Thames main production base. When Thames was formed the new company acquired other properties of the former franchise holders. Rediffusions main studio complex at Wembley was leased to London Weekend Television by order of the ITA before being sold to Lee International in 1977, ABCs Midlands base in Aston, Birmingham, co-owned with ATV, was sold in 1971 when ATV moved to new colour television facilities
16.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
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Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a British sketch comedy series created by the comedy group Monty Python and broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and it also featured animations by group member Terry Gilliam, often sequenced or merged with live action. The first episode was recorded on 7 September and premiered on 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, the show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated and their comedy is often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his ground breaking series Q5, the team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective Pythonesque was invented to define it and, later, similar material. The Pythons play the majority of the characters themselves, including the majority of the female characters. Regular supporting cast members include Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth, series Producer Ian MacNaughton, Ian Davidson, Neil Innes, and Fred Tomlinson, the title Monty Pythons Flying Circus was partly the result of the groups reputation at the BBC. The group added flying to make it less like an actual circus. The group was coming up with their name at a time when the 1966 Royal Guardsmen song Snoopy vs. the Red Baron had been at a peak. Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I German flying ace known as The Red Baron and they later explained that the name Monty. made us laugh because Monty to us means Lord Montgomery, our great general of the Second World War. The BBC had rejected other names put forward by the group including Whither Canada. A Horse, a Spoon and a Basin, The Toad Elevating Moment, several of these titles were later used for individual episodes. In contrast to many other comedy shows, Flying Circus had only a handful of recurring characters, many of whom were involved only in titles. Continuity for many of these characters was frequently non-existent from sketch to sketch. The Its Man, a Robinson Crusoe-type castaway with torn clothes, before being abruptly cut off by the opening titles and Terry Gilliams animation sprouting the words Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Its was a candidate for the title of the series. A BBC continuity announcer in a jacket, seated at a desk, often in highly incongruous locations. His line, And now for something different, was used variously as a lead-in to the opening titles
17.
Blue Peter
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Blue Peter is a British childrens television programme, shown currently live on the CBBC television channel. A significant part of British culture, it first aired in 1958 and is the longest-running childrens TV show in the world. Although the show has a title and theme, it is a magazine/entertainment show containing viewer and presenter challenges. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time, the current presenters are Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya. The show is produced mainly in a studio, but there is also a garden, often referred to as the Blue Peter Garden. The programme has featured a number of pets, currently a tortoise called Shelly makes appearances from time to time. Most programmes are broadcast live, but usually include at least one filmed report, There will also often be a demonstration of an activity in the studio, or a music or dance performance. Between the 1960s and 2011 the programme was made at BBC Television Centre, and often came from Studio 1 and this enabled Blue Peter to include large-scale demonstrations and performances within the live programme. From the September 2007 series, the programme was broadcast from a fixed set in Studio 2. However, from 2009 the series began to use the studios once more. The show is famous for its makes, which are demonstrations of how to construct a useful object or prepare food. Trace also used the line And now for something completely different, time is also often given over to reading letters and showing pictures sent in by viewers. Over 4,000 editions have been produced since 1958, Blue Peter was first aired on 16 October 1958. The Blue Peter is used as a signal, indicating that the vessel flying it is about to leave. Hunter Blair also pointed out that blue was a favourite colour. The first two presenters were Christopher Trace, an actor, and Leila Williams, winner of Miss Great Britain in 1957, the two presenters were responsible for activities which matched the traditional gender roles. As broadcasting historian Asa Briggs expressed it in 1995, Leila played with dolls and they were supported on occasion by Tony Hart, an artist who later designed the ship logo, who told stories about an elephant called Packi. It was broadcast every Friday for fifteen minutes on BBC TV, over the first few months more features were added, including competitions, documentaries, cartoons, and stories
18.
Boys from the Blackstuff
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Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2. The serial was written by Liverpudlian playwright Alan Bleasdale, as a sequel to a television play, the British Film Institute described it as a seminal drama series. A warm, humorous but ultimately tragic look at the way economics affect ordinary people, tVs most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture. The television play The Black Stuff was originally written by Bleasdale for BBC1s Play for Today anthology series in 1978, after filming however, the play was not transmitted until 2 January 1980. It concerned a group of Liverpudlian tarmac layers on a job near Middlesbrough, the acclaim that The Black Stuff received on its eventual transmission led to the commissioning of the sequel serial, of which Bleasdale had already written a considerable amount. The series Boys from the Blackstuff follows the stories of the five now-unemployed men who lost their jobs following the events of the original play The Black Stuff. Set in Bleasdales home city of Liverpool, and reflecting many of his own experiences of life in the city, the series was highly acclaimed for its powerful and emotional depiction of the desperation wrought by high unemployment and a subsequent lack of social support. By early 1982, unemployment had reached 3,000,000 people as a result of economic recession, the character of Yosser Hughes was widely discussed. Became part of the consciousness of the Eighties, summing up the mood of many who sought desperately for work during the era. Hughes was played by Bernard Hill, who uses his Mancunian accent, the serial also helped to establish the career of Julie Walters, who played the most prominent female role as Angie, the wife of Chrissie, played by Michael Angelis. The serial was made by the English Regions Drama department based at BBC Birmingham and was shot on location in Liverpool, the writer Alan Bleasdale went on to write the scripts for The Monocled Mutineer and G. B. H. The series was so successful upon its original broadcast that only nine weeks after it had finished transmission and it was also transmitted again on BBC2 as part of that stations twenty-fifth anniversary season in 1989. It was also named as one of the forty greatest television shows in a 2003 list compiled by the Radio Times magazines chief television writer Alison Graham. In March 2007, Channel 4 broadcast a Top 50 Dramas programme, based on input from industry rather than the public. It follows the group as they set off from Liverpool to undertake a casual tarmac laying job on a new housing development in Middlesbrough, the episode was produced in 1978 but was not broadcast until 1980. Along the way at a service station, the group encounter a female student who hitch-hikes a lift to Leeds. Part of the group mocks her, but Yossers insecurity and unwillingness to be dominated by women is especially manifested after she taunts him when she is dropped off. In Middlesbrough, the group are approached by two Irish gypsies, Brendan and Dominic, who offer them the chance of a side job, the group manager, McKenna, later discovers this and fires them all
19.
Parkinson (TV series)
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Parkinson is a British television chat show that was presented by Michael Parkinson. It was first shown on BBC1 from 19 June 1971 to 8 May 2004 then on ITV from 4 September 2004 to 22 December 2007, Parkinson began in 1971 when the host was offered a series of eight shows by the BBCs Head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton. It was to be transmitted during the lull in a late-night slot on Saturdays. A parallel series was shown in Australia between 1979 and 1982, Michael Parkinson would eventually return to the BBC for further series. However, in between his work for the BBC he did two series of shows for Yorkshire Television in 1987–1988 as Parkinson One to One, the format being an interview with a single guest. However, in April 2004, ITV announced that it had poached the interviewer from the BBC from the autumn of that year. The ITV version of the programme, produced by Granada, debuted in September 2004, with a set, theme tune. Its audience was around 6m viewers, the most recent Parkinson run on the BBC was one of the few recent British TV programmes that was not made in widescreen. However, his ITV show was recorded in the format with very tight close-ups, initially Bill Cotton was keen on a format more akin to the USAs Ed Sullivan Show, featuring entertainment and chat. However, Parkinson and his producer, Richard Drewett, envisioned a combination of guests whose celebrity had been achieved in different fields and their plan was that the final section of each show would become a conversation rather than a formal interview. The pair wanted to move the style as far as possible from the American prototype, even down to the removal of the hosts desk, at first, Cotton was against this but Drewett convinced him otherwise. A typical programme included three interviews, each lasting around 15 minutes and it was customary for the first two guests to remain after their own chats to observe and occasionally participate in those that followed. Such contributions were usually made respectfully, and when invited, though this policy backfired on occasion, in addition, some Hollywood stars were honoured in receiving a solo spot, Russell Crowe being one example. On occasion, an episode featured a single guest for its entire duration if the subject was deemed to be sufficiently deserving and this was the case in 2005 when Madonna appeared as part of her Hung Up Promo Tour, besides her interview she performed two songs. There was usually a musical interlude at some point, featuring a current recording star, If a solo singer, he/she was accompanied by the shows musicians, who also provided the walk-on music for each guest. In the 1970s, the group was led by organist Harry Stoneham, the role was undertaken by Laurie Holloway in the relaunched show. Michael Parkinson always sought guests who, besides being known, had some sort of story to relate. He then saw his job as allowing them to tell it and did so by being open, relaxed and he researched his subjects thoroughly, and, in the early shows, always had his list of questions to hand
20.
Yes Minister
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Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988, in total there were 38 episodes, of which all but one lasted half an hour, each episode ending with the title of the series as an answer to any question posed by Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio, and a play was produced in 2010. His Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds, is caught between the two. The series received a number of awards, including several BAFTAs and it was the favourite television programme of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher. The series opens in the wake of an election in which the incumbent government has been defeated by the opposition party. His party affiliation is never stated, and his party emblem is clearly neither Conservative nor Labour, the Prime Minister offers Hacker the position of Minister of Administrative Affairs, which he accepts. Hacker goes to his department and meets his Permanent Secretary, Humphrey Appleby, while Appleby is outwardly deferential towards the new minister, he is prepared to defend the status quo at all costs. Many of the episodes revolve around proposals backed by Hacker but frustrated by Appleby, other episodes revolve around proposals promoted by Appleby but rejected by Hacker, which Appleby attempts by all means necessary to persuade Hacker to accept. They do occasionally join forces in order to achieve a common goal, as the series revolves around the inner workings of central government, most of the scenes take place in private locations, such as offices and exclusive members clubs. Lynn says that there was not a scene set in the House of Commons because government does not take place in the House of Commons. Some politics and much theatre takes place there, as in all public performances, the real work is done in rehearsal, behind closed doors. Then the public and the House are shown what the government wishes them to see, the different ideals and self-interested motives of the characters are frequently contrasted. Accordingly, he must appear to the voters to be effective and responsive to the public will, to his party he must act as a loyal and effective party member. To do so, or to at least look as if he is doing so, is what he considers to be a vote-winner. Conversely, Sir Humphrey sees his role as ensuring that politics is kept out of government as much as possible, much of the shows humour thus derives from the antagonism between Cabinet ministers and the members of the British Civil Service. A typical episode centres on Hackers suggesting and pursuing a reform, more often than not, Sir Humphrey prevents him from achieving his goal while mollifying Hacker with some positive publicity, or at least a means to cover up his failure. Sir Humphrey, on the hand, believes that from the Civil Services perspective it makes very little difference who the Minister is
21.
Brideshead Revisited (TV serial)
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Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 British television serial starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, and produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. The serial is an adaptation of Evelyn Waughs novel Brideshead Revisited, the bulk of the serial was directed by Charles Sturridge, with a few sequences filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. In 2000, the serial was 10th on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute, in 2007, the serial was listed as one of TIME magazines 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time. In 2010, it was second in The Guardian newspapers list of the top 50 TV dramas of all time, in 2015, The Telegraph listed it as #1 in the greatest television adaptations, stating that Brideshead Revisited is television’s greatest literary adaptation, bar none. Its utterly faithful to Evelyn Waughs novel yet its somehow more than that, Episode 2, Home and Abroad At Brideshead, Charles is introduced to Sebastians younger sisters Julia and Cordelia and his older brother Brideshead. The two young men decide to accept an invitation to Venice extended by Sebastians father, Lord Marchmain, Episode 3, The Bleak Light of Day Back at Oxford, Sebastian learns his mother has arranged for him to be tutored - and carefully supervised - by Mr. Samgrass. Lady Marchmain visits the university and implores Charles to be an influence on her rowdy son. Invited to a charity ball in London by Julia, Charles, after a drunken Sebastian crashes their car, the political and social power of ambitious MP Rex Mottram and Mr. Samgrass result in Sebastian being let off with only a fine. Episode 4, Sebastian Against the World Sebastians rapid descent into alcoholism leads him into constant trouble, during Easter holiday at Brideshead, Charles tries to reason with a constantly inebriated Sebastian, who accuses him of being a spy for Lady Marchmain. Sebastians failure to reform leads to his dismissal from Oxford, Episode 5, A Blow Upon a Bruise Charles returns from his art studies in Paris and journeys to Brideshead for the 1925 New Years celebration. Sebastian agrees to participate in a fox hunt although he plans to make an escape to a pub, so he asks Charles for money. When Sebastian returns home heavily inebriated at the end of the day, learning he financed Sebastians drinking binge, she rebukes him for enabling him, and Charles leaves Brideshead, fully expecting never to return. Episode 6, Julia Charles returns to Paris, where he is visited by Rex Mottram, who is searching for Sebastian, Rex discusses the financial woes of the Marchmain family and announces he intends to marry Julia nonetheless. Lady Marchmain reluctantly consents to the marriage as long as Rex converts to Catholicism, Episode 7, The Unseen Hook In May 1926, Charles returns to England to volunteer his services during the General Strike. While delivering milk in the East End, he encounters Boy Mulcaster, at a party they encounter Anthony Blanche who tells how Sebastian is living in Fez. Julia tells Charles her dying mother is anxious to make amends with her prodigal son and he discovers Sebastian has been living with Kurt, a German ex-soldier discharged from the French Foreign Legion after deliberately shooting himself in the foot. Sebastian is an alcoholic and has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Charles finds his friend emaciated and dissipated, unwilling to follow doctors orders, before Charles departs Morocco, he learns Lady Marchmain has died
22.
Abigail's Party
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Abigails Party is a play for stage and television devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations. The play developed in lengthy improvisations during which Mike Leigh explored the characters with the actors, the production opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre, and returned after its initial run in the summer of 1977,104 performances in all. A recording was arranged at the BBC as a Play for Today, produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted in November 1977. The stage play was first performed at the Hampstead Theatre on 18 April 1977, enjoying success, leading to a revival over the summer of that year. As José Feliciano became Demis Roussos, so Elvis Presley gave way to Tom Jones, other music used in the BBC production included Love to Love You Baby by Donna Summer and a piece of library music by Robert Farnon entitled Blue Theme. The original play starred Alison Steadman as Beverly, and Tim Stern as her husband Laurence and they are holding a drinks party for their new neighbours, Angela and her husband Tony. They also invite Susan, another neighbour, Abigail herself is never seen – she is Susans 15-year-old daughter, who is holding her first teenage party next door. For the television version the original cast reprised their roles, with the exception of Thelma Whiteley, each of the original cast largely devised the back story to their character. John Salthouse brought his career as a footballer with Crystal Palace to that of Tony. According to Leigh, discussions at the sessions included whether Beverlys name should have a third e or not. The most complex relationship was worked out between Angela and Tony, Beverly Moss An ex-department store cosmetics demonstrator, a quondam beautician, she has failed her driving test three times. During the play, she flirts with Tony and is trying to impress her guests. She considers her taste in music and art to be every bit as good as that of her husband, immensely proud of her home, she nonetheless admits that she cannot use the gadgets in her kitchen. Beverly throughout the night offers her guests drinks and cigarettes, which they usually refuse, despite her sophisticated tastes and carefully groomed appearance, she was described by Alan Bennett as having shoulders like a lifeguard, and a walk to match. According to the critic Michael Coveney, Beverly is undoubtedly a monster, interviewed in 2012, Steadman said of the play, Overnight, that piece was incredibly powerful. They were very strong, identifiable characters and we laugh at them because we say, Oh my God, I know that person, thank goodness I’m not like that, ’ and you cringe, but you know they’re true. We can safely sit in the comfort of our living rooms or theatre seats, but we’ve perhaps all got a bit of Beverly in us
23.
Play for Today
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Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration, a handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey and The Blackstuff, subsequently became television series in their own right. The strand was a successor to The Wednesday Play, the 1960s anthology series, popular works screened in anthology series on BBC2, like Willy Russells Our Day Out, were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of The Wednesday Play, Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, Shubik continued with the series until 1973 while MacDonald remained with the series until 1977 when he was promoted. Later producers included Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, in its time, Play for Today featured contemporary social realist dramas, historical pieces, fantasies, biopics and occasionally science-fiction. Most pieces were written directly for television, but there were also occasional adaptations from other forms, such as novels. Several prominent directors also featured, including Stephen Frears, Alan Clarke, Michael Apted, Mike Newell, Roland Joffe, Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson, and Mike Leigh. Some of the best remembered plays broadcast in the strand include Edna, certain other well known plays, including Pendas Fen, Nuts in May, were commissioned by David Rose of the BBCs English Regions Drama department based in Birmingham. Some installments in the series were spun off into full-blown series, other offshoots were Gangsters, and a single series of science fiction-based plays styled as Play for Tomorrow. Towards the end of the run, three set in Northern Ireland were written by Graham Reid. Known as the Billy Plays, they starred Kenneth Branagh as Billy Martin in his first acting role following his graduation from RADA, scum and Brimstone and Treacle were eventually transmitted, although in the meantime both had circumvented their withdrawal by being re-made as cinema films. The series as a whole was viewed with suspicion by rightwing commentators, of particular note was the criticism of the public expenditure on the Queens Silver Jubilee in the plays The Price of Coal and The Spongers. The programme officially ended in 1984, although there was one further series not broadcast in its name but in its replacement name Screen One. The general trend in 1980s television production was away from one-off plays and towards a concentration on series. A new programme publicised as a return of Play for Today, but under the title of The Evening Play, was announced at the beginning of March 2006. Jan Moir in The Daily Telegraph wrote in support of Spacey, saying the British loved Play for Today once, a good piece of drama looks at the human condition, and tells us something we should know about ourselves. Armchair Theatre ITV Playhouse Play for Tomorrow Theatre 625 The Wednesday Play Evans, oxford University Press / British Film Institute
24.
I, Claudius (TV series)
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I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Among many other productions and adaptations, Gravess Claudius novels have also adapted for BBC Radio 4 broadcast. I, Claudius follows the history of the early Roman Empire, narrated by the elderly Emperor Claudius, from the year 24 BC to his death in AD54. The series opens with Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, attempting to find an heir, an expert poisoner, Livia uses the covert assassination and betrayal of all rivals to achieve her aims, beginning with the death in 22 BC of Marcellus. Claudius enlightened reign is marred by the betrayals of his adulterous wife Messalina, the series was produced by Joan Sullivan and Martin Lisemore, and directed by Herbert Wise in the studios at BBC Television Centre. Production was delayed because of negotiations between the BBC and the copyright holders of Alexander Kordas aborted 1937 film version. This did, however, give the scriptwriter Jack Pulman more time to fine-tune his script, filming was studio based, for artistic rather than budgetary reasons. I, Claudius was made at a low cost of £60,000 for an hour of broadcast material. Considering pound sterling inflation, the show would have cost £3,960,000 in 2013. As discussed in the 2002 documentary I, Claudius, A Television Epic, the deleted shot was only shown twice in 1976 and is now lost since the BBC no longer has a copy of it. Jacobi explained that he secured the role after another prominent British actor who had taken the part proved to be unsuitable. Brian Blessed originally auditioned for the role of Tiberius, but was persuaded to play Augustus instead. He recounted some of director Herbert Wises key pieces of advice on how to play Augustus - Wise told Blessed that he should. Be as you are - full of flannel. and that he should always play Augustus as an ordinary person, john Hurt revealed that he declined the role of Caligula when it was first offered to him. Wilfred Josephs wrote the title music, david Wulstan and the Clerkes of Oxenford ensemble provided the music for most episodes. During its original airing in 1976, the BBC estimated that I, Claudius had an audience of 2,500,000 viewers per episode. Among other awards, the series won three BAFTAs in 1977, director Herbert Wise won Outstanding Contribution Award at BAFTAs in 1978. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, I, the series was subsequently broadcast in the United States as part of PBSs Masterpiece Theatre series, where it received critical acclaim
25.
Dad's Army
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Dads Army is a BBC television sitcom about the British Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on the BBC from 1968 to 1977, the sitcom ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio version based on the television scripts, a feature film and a stage show. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still repeated worldwide, the Home Guard consisted of local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, either because of age or by being in professions exempt from conscription. Dads Army deals almost exclusively with over age men and featured older British actors, including Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Arnold Ridley, younger members in the cast included Ian Lavender, Clive Dunn, Frank Williams, James Beck, and Bill Pertwee. In 2004, Dads Army was voted fourth in a BBC poll to find Britains Best Sitcom and it had been placed 13th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and voted for by industry professionals. The series has influenced British popular culture, with the series catchphrases and it highlighted a forgotten aspect of defence during the Second World War, although it greatly distorted the true history and function of the Home Guard. The Radio Times magazine listed Captain Mainwarings You stupid boy, among the 25 greatest put-downs on TV. A new feature film of Dads Army with a different cast was released in 2016, originally intended to be called The Fighting Tigers, Dads Army was based partly on co-writer and creator Jimmy Perrys experiences in the Local Defence Volunteers. Perry was only 17 years old when he joined the 10th Hertfordshire Battalion and his mother did not like him being out at night and feared he might catch cold, he partly resembled the character of Private Pike. An elderly lance corporal in the often referred to fighting under Kitchener against the Fuzzy Wuzzies and was the model for Corporal Jones. Other influences included the work of such as Will Hay whose film Oh. Featured a pompous ass, an old man and a man which gave him Mainwaring, Godfrey. Another influence was the Lancastrian comedian Robb Wilton, who portrayed a work-shy husband who joined the Home Guard in numerous sketches during WW2. Croft was impressed and sent the script to Michael Mills, the BBCs Head of Comedy, in his book Dads Army, Graham McCann explained that the show owes much to Michael Mills. It was he who renamed the show Dads Army and he did not like Brightsea-on-Sea so the location was changed to Walmington-on-Sea. He also suggested adding a Scot, Jimmy Perry had produced the original idea but needed an experienced man to see it through. Mills suggested David Croft and so their partnership began, when an episode was shown to members of the public, to gauge audience reaction prior to broadcast of the first series, the majority of the audience thought it was very poor. The production team put the report containing the negative comments at the bottom of David Crofts in-tray and he only saw it several months later, after the series had been broadcast and had received great acclamation
26.
Morecambe and Wise
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Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, known as Morecambe and Wise, were an iconic British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambes death in 1984, the show was a significant part of British popular culture, and they have been described as the most illustrious, and the best-loved, double-act that Britain has ever produced. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The Morecambe and Wise Show was placed 14th. In September 2006, they were voted by the public as number 2 in a poll of TVs 50 Greatest Stars and in 2011 their early career was the subject of the television biopic Eric. In 2013, the two were honoured with a plaque at Teddington Studios where their last four series were recorded. Morecambe and Wises partnership began in 1941 when they were booked separately to appear in Jack Hyltons revue. War service broke up the act but they reunited by chance at the Swansea Empire Theatre in 1946 when they joined forces again and they made their name in variety, appearing in a variety circus, the Windmill Theatre, the Glasgow Empire and many venues around Britain. After this they made their name in radio, transferring to television in 1954. Their show, Running Wild, was not well received and led to a newspaper review, Definition of the week, TV set—the box in which they buried Morecambe. Eric apparently carried this review around with him ever after and from then on Eric, in 1956 they were offered a spot in the Winifred Atwell show with material written by Johnny Speight and this was a success. In 1959 they topped the bill in BBC TVs long running variety show The Good Old Days in a Boxing Day edition of the programme, in later years the pair would become a Christmas TV Institution in their own right. It is this period of their careers that is regarded as their glory days. The Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise Show The Morecambe & Wise Show from 1980 and Hills, the pair starred in three feature films during the 1960s—The Intelligence Men, That Riviera Touch, and The Magnificent Two. In 1983 they made their last film, Night Train To Murder, in 1976, they were both awarded the OBE. Together Morecambe, Wise and Braben were known as The Golden Triangle, Morecambe and Wise are considered by many to be one of the UKs all-time favourite comedy acts. John Ammonds was also central to the duos most successful period in the 1970s, as the producer of the BBC TV shows, it was his idea to involve celebrity guests. He also perfected the duos familiar dance, which was based on a dance performed by Groucho Marx in the film Horse Feathers, Ernest Maxin started choreographing the musical numbers in 1970, and succeeded John Ammonds as producer of the BBC TV shows in 1974. The other writers were Barry Cryer, John Junkin, Dick Hills and Sid Green during the ATV Two of a Kind series, Mike Craig, Morecambe and Wises comic style varied subtly throughout their career, depending on their writers
27.
Edge of Darkness
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A mixture of crime drama and political thriller, it revolves around the efforts of policeman Ronald Craven to unravel the truth behind the murder of his daughter Emma. Cravens investigations soon lead him into a world of government and corporate cover-ups and nuclear espionage. First broadcast on BBC2, Edge of Darkness was met with widespread critical acclaim that within days it had earned a repeat on BBC1. Winner of several awards, it remains highly regarded to this day. The series director, Martin Campbell, filmed a remake, released in January 2010, starring Mel Gibson, Yorkshire police officer Ronald Craven is returning home with his daughter Emma having picked her up from a meeting of an environmental organisation at her university campus. On the doorstep of their home Emma is shot dead, the police concentrate their effort on the theory that her murder was a botched attempt on Cravens life by a criminal he had been responsible for convicting. However, as Craven goes through Emmas belongings, he discovers a geiger counter and he also learns that Emmas body and her possessions are radioactive. As he continues his investigations, Craven is visited by Emmas ghost, the fingerprints on the getaway car used by Emmas killer match that of Lowe, a man Craven arrested ten years previously. Meanwhile, Pendleton takes Craven to meet his colleague, Harcourt, a team of six GAIA members, led by Emma, had broken into a low level radioactive waste facility at Northmoor, all are now either dead or missing. After Craven makes an appeal for information about Emmas killer, he is contacted by CIA agent Darius Jedburgh. Jedburgh is played as a professional with a wry sense of humour. Along with Harcourt and Pendleton, he is keen to find the source, the police close in on their suspect, Lowe, who is severely injured in a fall while trying to escape. Dying, he tells Craven he was working with McCroon, a terrorist Craven had had convicted in Northern Ireland, Emmas boyfriend, Terry Shields, tells Craven that she was investigating a hot cell in Northmoor, he is later killed. Pendleton tells Craven that he believes Grogan was behind Emmas death, returning to Yorkshire for Emmas funeral, Craven is refused permission to seek a warrant to enter Northmoor. Returning home, he is observed by McCroon, McCroon breaks into Cravens house intent on killing him. Craven demands McCroon tell him who he is working for but McCroon is shot by a police marksman before he can say anything, through a contact of Mac, a colleague from his time in Northern Ireland, Craven gains access to a terminal connected to the MI5 computer. He checks the MI5 records for GAIA, Northmoor and Emma and he also obtains a three-dimensional map of Northmoor from the computer. Craven contacts Jedburgh and asks him to him inside Northmoor
28.
Blackadder Goes Forth
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Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth and final series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One. The series is noted for its criticism of the British Army leadership during the campaign. In addition, the series is remembered for the poignant ending of the final episode, however, some historians have criticized it for presenting an oversimplified view of the war, reinforcing the popular notion of lions led by donkeys. Blackadder Goes Forth is set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches of World War I, finding himself trapped in the trenches with another big push planned, his concern is to avoid being sent over the top to certain death. The series thus chronicles Blackadders attempts to escape the trenches through various schemes, most of which due to bad fortune, misunderstandings. The aforementioned comrades are his second-in-command, idealistic upper-class Edwardian twit Lieutenant George and their profoundly stupid, despite the two being of equal rank, Blackadder treats Darling with contempt—while the former is on the front line, the latter is folding the generals pyjamas. Their animosity is mutual, largely as a result of Blackadder exploiting the potential of Darlings surname at every opportunity. Blackadder Goes Forth is more satirical in tone than the previous three Blackadder series and most sitcoms, taking the opportunity to present an anti-war message. The dialogue is marked throughout by satirical musings about the nature of the war, its origins, to which Blackadder responds, About 35 miles behind. In the episode Corporal Punishment, Blackadder justifies the shooting for food of a pigeon by saying, With 50,000 men killed a week. This episode sees Blackadder being sentenced to death by firing squad for the act, a reference to the capital sentences carried out under the laws of war in force at the time. Later in the episode, Blackadder describes the Great War as. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, whose orders are alleged to have resulted in hundreds of thousands of British deaths at Passchendaele, Blackadder himself describes Haigs attempts at an advance as no more than another gargantuan effort to move his drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin. The series recalls a number of historical events of the war. Blackadder recalls the event, Both sides advanced further during one Christmas piss-up than they did in the two and a half years of war. References are also made to the culture of the era. The episode Private Plane, sees the return of the characters of Lord Flashheart and Bob from the series episode Bells. In the fifth episode, the sentiment in Britain during the war is repeatedly referenced
29.
Absolutely Fabulous
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Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a BBC television sitcom created by, written by and starring Jennifer Saunders. It is based on a 1990 French & Saunders sketch created by Saunders, the series features Saunders as Edina Monsoon, a heavy-drinking, drug-abusing PR agent who spends her time chasing bizarre fads in a desperate attempt to stay young and hip. The series also stars June Whitfield as Edinas sarcastic and thieving mother, Absolutely Fabulous returned for three special episodes which were originally broadcast on 25 December 2011,1 January 2012 and 23 July 2012 to mark the shows 20th anniversary. The episode broadcast on 23 July 2012 featured the 2012 Summer Olympics which were being held in London that week, a film based on the series was released to theatres on 1 July 2016. On 28 November 2016, Jennifer Saunders announced that the series is finished, the show has had an extended and sporadic run. The first three series were broadcast on the BBC from 1992 to 1995, followed by a series finale in the form of a television film entitled The Last Shout in 1996. Creator Jennifer Saunders revived the show for a series in 2001, after having written and submitted a pilot entitled Mirrorball. The pilot was intended to be turned into a series of episodes, however, Saunders felt the characters were far too rich and interesting to put aside, and were far better suited for her new story ideas. Instead of Mirrorball, a new series of Absolutely Fabulous was proposed to the BBC, which later commissioned the fourth series in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, two series were produced, along with three one-off hour-long specials, Gay in 2002, Cold Turkey, a Christmas special in 2003, and White Box. A Comic Relief sketch was broadcast in 2005, in August 2011, Lumley confirmed the planned filming of three new episodes. In 2011, plans for a 20th anniversary revival were welcomed in The Guardian, the first new special was broadcast on 25 December with the second episode being shown on 1 January 2012. The third, and final special coincided with the 2012 Summer Olympics, a film version of the series was released in summer 2016. In the United States, the first of the three new 20th anniversary specials aired in January 2012 for broadcast by both BBC America and Logo Channel, both channels also co-produced the 20th Anniversary episodes, although Logo removed some scenes for its airings. BBC America broadcast it in full, both channels aired the episode in a 40-minute block to allow for commercial interruptions. Absolutely Fabulous is ranked as the 17th greatest British TV show of all time by the British Film Institute, a scene from the show was included in the 100 Greatest TV Moments programme broadcast by Channel 4. In 1997, the episode, Fashion, was ranked number 47 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time list. In 2004 and 2007, the series was ranked number 24, Absolutely Fabulous evolved from a French & Saunders sketch called Modern Mother and Daughter, which starred Saunders as the mother and French as the daughter, already named Saffron
30.
The Wrong Trousers
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The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his second half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his silent but intelligent dog Gromit, following 1989s A Grand Day Out, and preceding 1995s A Close Shave. As in A Grand Day Out, the film uses sight gags and exaggerated physical comedy and quiet moments. The film premièred in the United States on 17 December 1993, and it won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It was highly successful, and inspired a charity fundraising day, known as Wrong Trousers Day, one of several events organised by the charity Wallace, Wrong Trousers Day falls on the last Friday in June every year. During the day, participants wear the trousers to work or school etc. and donate a pound to help sick children in hospitals. The film begins at 62 West Wallaby Street on Gromits birthday at breakfast, after being tipped out of bed and dressed using several mechanical contraptions, Wallace is greeted with a large pile of overdue bills. Wallace remembers Gromits birthday and presents Gromit with a pair of “ex NASA” robotic Techno Trousers, while Gromit is out on a walk, Wallace realises they are in financial difficulty and decides to let the spare bedroom out. He is answered by a penguin named Feathers McGraw. The penguin comes to stay at the house, pushing Gromit out of his bedroom, into the spare bedroom and keeping him awake at night with loud organ music. On the other hand, Wallace takes a liking to him, Feathers also takes an interest in the Techno Trousers after seeing Gromit use their suction feet to walk on the ceiling while decorating the spare bedroom. Distressed that Feathers has barged in on his relationship with his master, Gromit packs up his belongings, after watching Gromit leave, Feathers secretly modifies the Techno Trousers for his own use. He removes the controls on the trousers and adapts them into a remote control, the next morning, Gromit hunts for suitable lodgings. He notices a poster offering a reward for the capture of a chicken – actually a criminal penguin who disguises himself by wearing a rubber glove on his head. Meanwhile, Wallaces normal morning routine is interrupted when his trousers are replaced with the modified Techno Trousers. Trapped inside the trousers, Wallace is marched out of the house and sent running around town on an extended test run. Gromit witnesses this spectacle and later spies on Feathers as he measures up the exterior of the city museum and he returns home and uncovers Feathers plans to steal a large diamond from the museum. However, Feathers returns and Gromit is forced to hide and he watches as Feathers arrives dressed in the chicken disguise
31.
The World at War
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The World at War is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of the Second World War. At the time of its completion in 1973, it was, at a cost of £900,000 and it was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and included music composed by Carl Davis. The book The World at War written by Mark Arnold-Forster to accompany the TV series was released in 1973, the World at War attracted widespread acclaim and is now regarded as a landmark in British television history. The producer Jeremy Isaacs was considered ahead of his time in resurrecting studies of military history, the World at War was commissioned by Thames Television in 1969. Such was the extent of its research, it took four years to produce at a cost of £900,000, at the time this was a record for a British television series. It was first shown in 1973 on ITV, the series featured interviews with major members of the Allied and Axis campaigns, including eyewitness accounts from civilians, enlisted men, officers and politicians. The most difficult person to locate and persuade to be interviewed was Heinrich Himmlers adjutant Karl Wolff, during the interview he admitted to witnessing a large-scale execution in Himmlers presence. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute during 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The World at War ranked 19th. The series was transmitted on the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 31 October 1973 and 8 May 1974, and has subsequently been shown around the world. It was first shown in the US in syndication on stations in 1975. WOR in New York aired the series in the mid-1970s, although episodes were edited both for content and to include sufficient commercial breaks. PBS station WGBH broadcast the series unedited and in its entirety in the late 1980s, the Danish channel DR1 first broadcast the series from August 1976 to February 1977 and it was repeated again on DR2 i December 2006 and January 2007. The History Channel in Japan began screening the series in its entirety in April 2007 and it repeated the entire series again in August 2011. The Military History Channel in the UK broadcast the series over the weekend of 14 and 15 November 2009, the Military Channel in the United States aired the series in January 2010, and has shown it regularly since. BBC Two in the UK transmitted a repeat run of the series since 5 September 1994 at teatime and has been shown continuously to this day at various times, in 2011, the British channel Yesterday started a showing of the series. Each episode was 52 minutes excluding commercials, as was customary for ITV documentary series at the time, the Genocide episode was screened uninterrupted. The series was released in various territories on VHS video as well as on 13 Laservision Longplay videodiscs by Video Garant Amsterdam, in 2001–2005 DVD box sets were released in the US and UK. In 2010 the series was restored and re-released on DVD
32.
The Singing Detective
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The Singing Detective is a BBC television serial drama, written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were Skin, Heat, Lovely Days, Clues, Pitter Patter, the serial was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in 1986 on Sunday nights from 16 November to 21 December with later PBS and cable television showings in the United States. It won a Peabody Award in 1989 and it ranks 20th on the British Film Institutes list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, as voted by industry professionals in 2000. It was included in the 1992 Dennis Potter retrospective at the Museum of Television & Radio and became a permanent addition to the Museums collections in New York, there was co-production funding from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was released on DVD in the US on 15 April 2003, mystery writer Philip E. Dennis Potter suffered from this disease himself, and he wrote with a pen tied to his fist in much the same fashion Marlow does in the last episode. Although severe, Marlows condition was intentionally understated compared to Potters whose skin would sometimes crack, the real Marlow also experiences flashbacks to his childhood in rural England, and his mothers life in wartime London. The rural location is presumably the Forest of Dean, Potters birthplace and the location for filming, but this is never stated explicitly. The suicide of his mother is one of recurring images in the series, Marlow uses it in his murder mystery. This perhaps reflects Marlows view that fiction should be all clues, the use of Binney as a villain stems from the fact that Binney committed fornication with Marlows mum and simultaneously cuckolded Marlows dad, who Marlow loved. The innocent Binney is brutally beaten in front of the classroom, all of these events haunt Marlow, and one of the shadowy villains who apparently is determined to kill Marlow looks very much like an adult version of the real child, Mark Binney. The real Mark Binney eventually ends up in a mental institution, the villainous Binney/Finney character is killed off in both realities. However, in the end, Marlow chooses a killer, who looks more like adult Binney, to live, janet Henfrey has previously played the same character in Potters earlier TV play Stand Up, Nigel Barton. Some members of the cast play multiple roles, Marlow and his alter-ego, the singing detective, are both played by Gambon. Marlow as a boy is played by Lyndon Davies, Mark Binney is played by William Speakman. Davies and Speakman were contemporaries at Chosen Hill school in Gloucestershire, steadman plays both Marlows mother, and the mysterious Lili, one of the murder victims. At the end of the serial Marlow and Nicola appear to have repaired their relationship, in Potters original script, the hospital scenes and noir scenes were to be shot with television and film cameras respectively, with the period material filmed in black-and-white. However, all scenes were shot on film, over Potters objections. Potter wanted the scenes to maintain the sensibility of sitcom conventions
33.
The Jewel in the Crown (TV series)
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The Jewel in the Crown is a British television serial about the final days of the British Raj in India during World War II, based upon the Raj Quartet novels by British author Paul Scott. Granada Television produced the series for the ITV network, the serial opens in the 1940s in the fictional Indian city of Mayapore, against the backdrop of the last years of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement. Hari Kumar is a young Indian man who was educated at Chillingborough, the bankruptcy of his father, a formerly successful businessman, forces him to return to India to live with his aunt. Working as a journalist, Kumar sees that his position is lower in India and he becomes involved with a British woman, Daphne Manners, who does not share the prejudices of most of her people. Hari is beaten and Daphne is raped showing that not only the British opposed relationships across ethnic boundaries, the local Indian Police superintendent is Ronald Merrick, a young Englishman who is intelligent, hardworking, and from a lower-class background. He had made advances to Daphne during her first months in India and he arrests Hari for her rape, holding him in the local jail, where he beats and sexually humiliates him. Merrick resents Haris privileged education and he resents Daphnes preferring the young Indian to him, because Daphne refuses to cooperate with the investigation, the police do not prosecute Hari for rape. Word that Hari was tortured causes outrage in the Indian community, Merrick is transferred from Mayapore to a smaller and less important town in the province. She chooses to believe the father is Hari, though she cant know whether it is he or one of the rapists who is the father, the mixed-race child, a girl, is taken in by Daphnes aunt, Lady Manners, widow of a former provincial governor. While Lady Manners takes the infant to the area of Srinagar, she meets Sarah Layton. Sarah and Susans father is the colonel of the Indian Army regiment in Pankot and he is being held as a prisoner of war in Germany, where his unit was captured. Susan and their mother prefer to stay away from Lady Manners due to the scandal of her great-nieces illegitimate birth, but Sarah pays a call on Lady Manners, Sarah and her family soon encounter Merrick, who has left the police and procured a commission in the Indian Army. Teddie Bingham, an Indian Army officer and the fiancé of Sarahs sister Susan, is stationed in the princely state of Mirat, Merrick, also assigned there. Because the unit is soon to leave for the border with Burma, Teddie, when Teddies best man for the ceremony becomes ill, he asks Merrick to step in. Merrick, seeing a relationship with the upper-class Teddie and the Laytons as a means to advancement, is pleased to help. While Merrick and Teddie are driving to the ceremony a stone is thrown at their car, soon after the wedding Teddie and Merrick leave for the Burma front with their unit. Teddie is soon killed in an ambush by soldiers of the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army, Merrick is badly wounded trying to get Teddie to safety and is evacuated to a hospital in Calcutta. When Sarah visits him to him, she learns that his arm is to be amputated
34.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)
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One contestant played at a time and originally had no time limit to answer questions. Contestants were presented with the question and possible answers before they decided whether to attempt an answer, use one of their lifelines, the show first aired on 4 September 1998 and aired its final episode on 11 February 2014. It was presented by Chris Tarrant and produced by Victory Television for the ITV network. It was based on a format devised by David Briggs, who, along with Steven Knight and Mike Whitehill, the original working title for the show was Cash Mountain. One of the most significant shows in British popular culture, it was ranked 23rd in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, the show has been exported to many other countries, all of which follow the same general format. Rights to both the format and all UK episodes of the show were put up for sale by Celador in March 2006 and these were acquired by the Dutch company 2waytraffic. 2waytraffic was in turn acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2008, on 22 October 2013, it was announced that Tarrant had decided to quit the show after 15 years. Because of this, ITV decided to cancel Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, after the contract finished, stating that there would not be any further specials beyond the ones that had already been planned. Tarrants final live celebrity edition aired on 19 December 2013, on the day before, Tarrant pre-recorded two other celebrity episodes to be shown in early 2014. The final episode, a show entitled Chris Final Answer. Originally broadcast on evenings for around ten days, the series later appeared weekly on ITV in a primetime slot on Saturday evenings. The episodes lasted for one hour, the first contestant was Graham Elwell, who won £64,000. At its peak in 1999, the show pulled in up to 19 million viewers, often when it only had a half-hour timeslot, before declining to around 8 million by 2003. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Tarrants catchphrases on the show include Is that your final answer. But we dont want to give you that, more recently at the end of the show, But the cashpoint is now closed for tonight or when a contestant is relieved, he sometimes says Quite pleased, then. Variants on the format were screened from time to time as special episodes were produced, such as playing for charity, couples games, Mothers Day specials. The Clock Format is still used during live celebrity shows, however, during Series 29 in 2012, there were three The People Play specials that were broadcast live for three consecutive nights between 9 and 11 July. These specials featured non-celebrity contestants and allowed viewers to play along at home, a fourth The People Play special aired on 7 May 2013 with a further two broadcast the following Tuesday nights with the last ever Peoples Play episode for the contestants on 21 May 2013
35.
Hancock's Half Hour
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Hancocks Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, the version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone, the series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development. The radio version was produced by Dennis Main Wilson for most of its run, after Main Wilson departed for his television career, his role was taken by Tom Ronald. The television series was produced by Duncan Wood, the distinctive tuba-based theme tune was composed by Angela Morley, then known by her original name, Wally Stott. The radio series broke with the variety tradition which was dominant in British radio comedy, highlighting a new genre. Instead of the traditional variety mix of sketches, guest stars and musical interludes, the comedy gradually shifted to observation, with a less strong emphasis on a narrative. Hancocks character had various addresses, but by the radio series he had arrived at 23 Railway Cuttings. Sometimes this was portrayed as a house, but occasionally there was a private landlord. In a few early episodes Hancock owned the house, and later became the norm. In others she came round each day, presumably from her own domicile, Railway Cuttings and East Cheam were fictitious, but Cheam is a real town, once in Surrey, today part of Greater London. In those days recordings of the shows were not commercially available. Commissioning of series in the UK were then closer to the American practice with extensive runs not unknown, continuity in the idiom was yet to develop, and details changed to suit each episode. With the notable exception of Drop the Dead Donkey decades later, the comedy actor Sidney James played Sid, a criminally inclined confidant of Hancock, who usually succeeded in conning him each week. Bill Kerr appeared as Hancocks Australian lodger, a character who became noticeably dim-witted in the later shows, Kenneth Williams, taking his first job in comedy, provided the funny voices for all the minor characters in the show each week. Williams left after the first recording session for the sixth series, Moira Lister appeared in the first series, before being replaced by Andrée Melly for the next two, both women played love interest for Hancocks character, in essentially straight roles. In the fourth and fifth series Hattie Jacques provided comedy in the role as the harridan Griselda Pugh. By this time, Hancocks difficulties with women had become part of the characterisation, among the well-known actors who appeared in the series were Hugh Lloyd, Dick Emery, Warren Mitchell, John Le Mesurier and Richard Wattis
36.
Up Series
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The Up Series is a series of documentary films produced by Granada Television that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. So far the documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49 years, in a 2005 Channel 4 programme, the series topped the list of The 50 Greatest Documentaries. The children were selected to represent the range of backgrounds in Britain at that time. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films material from those of the fourteen who choose to participate, the aim of the series is stated at the beginning of 7 Up as, Why do we bring these children together. Because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000, the shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old. 56 Up premiered on British TV on 14 May 2012, its release in the USA came on 4 January 2013, Apted has said, I hope to do 84 Up when I’ll be 99. The first film in the series, Seven Up. was directed by Paul Almond, from 7 Plus Seven onward the films have been directed by Michael Apted, who had been a researcher on Seven Up. and chose the original children with Gordon McDougall. The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man, the 1998 programme was commissioned by BBC One, although still produced for them by Granada Television. The subjects are first seen on a visit to London Zoo. The participants were chosen in an attempt to represent different social classes in Britain in the 1960s, Apted states in the commentary track of the 42 Up DVD that he was asked to find children at the extremes. Because the show was not originally intended to become a repeating series, each subject is filmed in about two days and the interview itself takes more than six hours. In an interview with the BBCs Will Gompertz shortly before the broadcast of 56 Up, Andrew Brackfield was one of three boys chosen from the same pre-preparatory school in the wealthy London district of Kensington. The three are introduced in Seven Up, at the age of seven, when asked what newspaper he reads, if any, Andrew stated that he reads The Financial Times. All three could say which prep schools, public schools and universities they planned to attend, two named the specific Oxbridge college they intended to join, andrews academic career culminated in his studying at Trinity College, Cambridge. Andrew subsequently became a solicitor, married and raised a family and he is the only one of the three Kensington boys to have appeared in all the Up films. Both Andrew and his wife are most satisfied with how their children have turned out, Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and in the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void. He chose not to appear in the series after 21 Up, Apted also commented on the irony that as a documentary maker himself, Charles was the only one who refused to continue. By the time of 56 Up, all references to Charles had been removed other than in fleeting glimpses of joint shots with Andrew, John Brisby, who was vocal on politics by 14, attended Oxford and became a barrister
37.
The War Game
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The War Game is a 1965 television drama, filmed in a documentary style, that depicts a nuclear war. The corporation said that the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting and it will, however, be shown to invited audiences. Despite this decision, it was screened and shown abroad. The film was eventually broadcast on 31 July 1985 on the BBC, during the week before the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Filmed in black-and-white with a time of just under 50 minutes, The War Game depicts the prelude to, and the immediate weeks of the aftermath of. The narrator says that Britains current nuclear deterrent policy threatens a would-be aggressor with devastation from Vulcan, a Chinese invasion of South Vietnam starts the war, tensions escalate when the United States authorises tactical nuclear warfare against the Chinese. In order to turn the tide, President Johnson authorises the NATO commanders to use their nuclear weapons. An escalating nuclear war results, during which larger Russian strategic IRBMs are launched at Britain, the film remarks that many Soviet missiles were, at the time, believed to be liquid-fueled and stored above ground, making them vulnerable to attack and bombings. In the chaos just before the attack, towns and cities are evacuated, on September 7 at 9,15 a doctor visits a family with an ill patient. As he finishes checking up on her and steps outside the air-raid sirens start to wail in the distance, the doctor rushes back in with two civil defence workers and starts bringing tables together to create a makeshift shelter. The missiles explosion causes instant flash blindness of those nearby, followed by a firestorm caused by the blast wave, the air in the centre of the firestorm is replaced by methane and carbon dioxide and monoxide and the temperature rises to about 500 degrees. The firemen soon pass out from the heat in the chaos and they head to their counter value targets, civilian cities. Later, society collapses due to overwhelming radiation sickness and the depletion of food, there is widespread psychological damage and consequently a rising occurrence of suicide. The countrys infrastructure is destroyed, the British Army burns corpses, the provisional government becomes increasingly disliked due to its rationing of resources and use of lethal force, and anti-authority uprisings begin. Civil disturbance and obstruction of government officers become capital offences, two men are shown being executed by firing squad for such acts, several traumatised and bewildered orphan children are briefly featured, questioning whether they have any future and desire to be nothing. The film ends bleakly on the first Christmas Day after the nuclear war, the closing credits include an instrumental version of Silent Night. The story is told in the style of a magazine programme. The film also features a narration that describes the events depicted as plausible occurrences during
38.
The Magic Roundabout
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The Magic Roundabout was a French-British childrens television programme created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot, with the help of Ivor Wood and Woods French wife, Josiane. The series was originally broadcast from 1964 to 1971 on ORTF, having originally rejected the series as charming. Although the characters are common to both versions, they were different names and personalities depending on the language. The main character is Dougal who was a variety of the Skye Terrier. In the French version, Pollux is a British character who speaks somewhat broken French with an outrageous English accent as a result of Ivor Woods role as co-creator. His sweet tooth, shown through his fondness for sugar lumps, was based on a French belief that one of the traits of the English is a liking for sweets. Other characters include Zebedee, a jack-in-the-box, Brian, a snail, Ermintrude, a cow, and Dylan a rabbit, there are two notable human characters, Florence, a young girl, and Mr Rusty, the elderly moustachioed operator of the roundabout. Other less well known characters, only seen on the roundabout itself during the credits, are Basil, Paul. There is also a character, old Mr McHenry the gardener who is seen only a couple of times. He is the bearded character in the show and, despite his name and appearance, is Irish. The show has a visual style. The set is a coloured and stylised park containing the eponymous roundabout. The programmes were created by stop motion animation, which meant that Dougal was made without legs to make him easier to animate, Zebedee was created from a giant pea which was available in the animation studio and was re-painted. The look of these characters was the responsibility of British animator Ivor Wood, the British version was especially distinct from the French version in that the narration was entirely new, created by Eric Thompson from just the visuals, and not based on the script by Serge Danot. A former BBC employee, interviewed on BBC Radio in 2008, the first British broadcasts were shown just before the 5.55 pm news every weekday on BBC1, This was the first time an entertainment programme had been transmitted in this way in the UK. The original series, which was a serial, was made in black-and-white, from the second series onwards it was made in colour, although the series was still broadcast in black-and-white by the BBC, the first colour episode of the show was transmitted on 5 October 1970. Fifty-two additional episodes, not previously broadcast, were shown in the United Kingdom during 1991 on Channel 4s News Daily, Thompson had died by this time, and the job of narrating them in a pastiche of Thompsons style went to actor Nigel Planer. The English version of Dougal was generally grumpy and loosely based on Tony Hancock, Ermintrude was rather matronly and fond of singing
39.
That Was the Week That Was
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That Was the Week That Was, informally TWTWTW or TW3, was a satirical television comedy programme on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost, an American version by the same name aired on NBC from 1964 to 1965, also featuring Frost. The programme is considered a significant element of the boom in the UK in the early 1960s. It broke ground in comedy through lampooning the establishment and political figures and its broadcast coincided with coverage of the politically charged Profumo affair and John Profumo, the politician at the centre of the affair, became a target for derision. TW3 was first broadcast on Saturday,24 November 1962, the last two were also singers and the programme opened with a song – That Was The Week That Was – sung by Martin to Ron Grainers theme tune and enumerating topics in the news. Frankie Howerd also guested with stand-up comedy, the programme opened with a song sung by Millicent Martin, referring to news of the week just gone. Lance Percival sang a topical calypso each week, satirical targets, such as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Home Secretary Henry Brooke were lampooned in sketches, debates and monologues. Other targets were the monarchy, Britains declining status as a power, racism, sexual and social hypocrisy, the class system. Well-remembered sketches include a guide to religion, which discussed relative merits of faiths in the manner of a Which. The germ of the joke was that Watson was only 25 when he helped discover DNA, TW3 was broadcast on Saturday night and attracted an audience of 12 million. It often under- or overran as cast and crew worked through material as they saw fit. At the beginning of the season in the autumn of 1963, in an attempt to assert control over the programme. Frost suggested a means of sabotaging this tactic to Sherrin, for three weeks, Frost read out the plot of The Third Man, until the repeats were abandoned following the direct intervention of the BBCs Director General Hugh Greene. Frost often ended a satirical attack with the remark But seriously, at the end of each episode, Frost usually signed off with, That was the week, that was. At the end of the programme he announced, That was That Was The Week That Was. that was. For the edition on Saturday,23 November 1963, the day after the assassination of United States President John F and this edition was screened on NBC in the US the following day, and the soundtrack was released by Decca Records. A clip, featuring Roy Kinnear, was shown in the David L. Wolper documentary film Four Days in November, after two successful series in 1962 and 1963, the programme did not return in 1964. The reason given by the BBC was that 1964 was election year, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was initially supportive, chastising the Postmaster General Reginald Bevins for threatening to do something about it
40.
The Royle Family
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The Royle Family was a British television sitcom produced by ITV Studios for the BBC, which ran for three series from 1998 to 2000, and specials from 2006 to 2012. The series features simple production values and a portrayal of low income family life at the turn of the millennium. It therefore has something in common with kitchen sink drama, almost all of the episodes take place in the Royles home, largely in the telly-centric living room, with the humour derived from the conversations held therein. Aherne and Cash co-wrote every episode, along with Henry Normal, Carmel Morgan, a sixth special episode was set to be written but writer and actress who played Denise, Caroline Aherne died on 2 July 2016 effectively ending the series. In a list of the 100 greatest British television programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and voted on by industry professionals, in a 2004 poll to find Britains best sitcom, The Royle Family was placed 19th. The series has won several BAFTA awards. Most episodes appear to place in real time and all action takes place within the Royles council house home. The producer Glenn Wilhide is on record as saying, It was a big fight to make sure it had no laughter track. The one-off specials take a traditional sitcom structure, though many scenes still run longer than standard in line with the real time nature of the original series. The 2006 special episode The Queen Of Sheba was partly set in a hospital and its narrative moves forward in time in a more typical manner. 2008s Christmas special, The New Sofa, is set two days. In it the characters spend Christmas Eve at the Royle household in the manner, followed by Christmas Day at Dave. Much of the 2009 Christmas special takes place in a caravan at a holiday park and it also features intermediate scenes of Dave driving Twiggys car there. All of 2010 and 2012s Christmas special takes place at the Royles house, there were lots of rumours if it would return after the 2012 special. In 2016 Tomlinson said that there would probably be one year but Aherne died in July 2016. The shows theme song is Half the World Away by Oasis, when Aherne died, ex Oasis member Noel Gallagher performed a tribute to Aherne by playing it during a concert in America. The Royle Family have broadcast three series between 1998 and 2000, each consisting of 6 episodes, a Christmas special followed the second series in 1999, while another Christmas special followed the third series in 2000. A further four Christmas specials were included between 2008 and 2012, the final episode, Barbaras Old Ring, was screened on Christmas Day 2012
41.
Life on Earth (TV series)
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Life on Earth, A Natural History by David Attenborough is a television natural history series made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros. and Reiner Moritz Productions. It was transmitted in the UK from 16 January 1979, like the earlier series, it was divided into 13 programmes. The executive producer was Christopher Parsons and the music was composed by Edward Williams, highly acclaimed, it is the first in Attenboroughs Life series of programmes and was followed by The Living Planet. It established Attenborough as not only the foremost television naturalist, several special filming techniques were devised to obtain some of the footage of rare and elusive animals. One cameraman spent hundreds of hours waiting for the moment when a rare frog. Another built a replica of a mole rat burrow in a horizontally mounted wheel, so that as the mole rat ran along the tunnel, to illustrate the motion of bats wings in flight, a slow motion sequence was filmed in a wind tunnel. The series was also the first to include footage of a live coelacanth, the cameramen took advantage of improved film stock to produce some of the sharpest and most colourful wildlife footage that had been seen to date. Continuity was maintained, despite such sequences being filmed several months, the best remembered sequence occurs in the twelfth episode, when Attenborough encounters a group of mountain gorillas in Dian Fosseys sanctuary in Rwanda. The primates had become used to humans through years of being studied by researchers and their sight, their hearing, their sense of smell are so similar to ours that they see the world in much the same way as we do. We live in the sort of social groups with largely permanent family relationships. They walk around on the ground as we do, though they are more powerful than we are. So if there were ever a possibility of escaping the human condition and living imaginatively in another creatures world, the male is an enormously powerful creature but he only uses his strength when he is protecting his family and it is very rare that there is violence within the group. So it seems really very unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolise everything that is aggressive and violent, when that is the one thing that the gorilla is not — and that we are. When Attenborough returned to the site the day, the female. In his memoirs, Attenborough describes this as one of the most exciting encounters of my life. He subsequently discovered, to his chagrin, that only a few seconds had been recorded, the cameraman was running low on film and wanted to save it for the planned description of the opposable thumb. In 1999 viewers of Channel 4 voting for the 100 Greatest TV Moments placed the gorilla sequence at number 12 — ranking it ahead of Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation and the wedding of Charles and Diana. The series was an international success, it was sold to 100 territories and watched by an estimated audience of 500 million people worldwide
42.
The Old Grey Whistle Test
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The Old Grey Whistle Test was a British television music show. It was commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988 and it took over the BBC2 late night slot from Disco 2, which ran between September 1970 and July 1971, while continuing to feature non-chart music. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, the original producer, involved in an executive capacity throughout the shows entire history, was Michael Appleton. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before, when they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys - doormen in grey suits. Any song they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test. As with many BBC productions, this was as much a matter of money as of style, other late night shows of the time, having only minority appeal, also had to be content with spartan sets. The studio was only 32 by 22 feet which left room for a set once the cameras. The original opening credits were played over a dancing woman painted in green to Santanas Jingo. When Richard Williams was replaced by Whispering Bob Harris, the opening titles theme was changed to the now more famous animation of a male figure made up of stars dancing. The programmes title music, with its theme, was a track called Stone Fox Chase by a Nashville band. The first host was Richard Williams, features editor of Melody Maker, from 1972, the programme was presented by disc jockey Bob Harris. He later became notorious among the younger generation for calling the New York Dolls mock rock, after Harriss departure, Anne Nightingale took over as host. In December 1980, Nightingale presented the show in the aftermath of the shooting of John Lennon. This particular episode consisted almost entirely of interviews with people about Lennons life. Following the departure of Nightingale in 1982, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, in 1983, the programme was moved to a live mid-evening slot. The title was abridged to Whistle Test and the title credits, andy Kershaw joined the series as a presenter in 1984. The same four presenters co-presented the BBCs television coverage of Live Aid in 1985, the series was cancelled in the spring of 1987 by Janet Street-Porter, who had been appointed head of Youth Programmes at the BBC. The executive producer of The Old Grey Whistle Test was Mike Appleton, tom Corcoran, Derek Burbidge and Kate Humphreys directed, including the series location inserts
43.
University Challenge
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University Challenge is a British quiz programme which first aired in 1962. University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, the BBC revived the programme on 21 September 1994 with Jeremy Paxman as the quizmaster. The current holders are Peterhouse, Cambridge, who won the 45th series in 2016, the 46th series is being shown on the BBC. The show is produced by Granada Television, under licence from Richard Reid Productions and it was recorded at Granada Studios in Manchester from its inception until the studios closed down in 2013, it is now recorded at MediaCityUK in Salford. Despite periodic changes to the sets, studio layout, and presentation, some commentators have cited this as an essential element of its success. College Boy was originally scored for an ensemble of tubular bells, Flugelhorn, harpsichord, brushed Hi-hat, bass drum, the original theme returned for the early Paxman era episodes, and was later replaced by a string quartet arrangement of the theme recorded by the Balanescu Quartet. The programme had its beginnings in an American television quiz show called College Bowl, cecil Bernstein, brother of Sidney Bernstein who founded Granada Television in 1954, had seen the programme in the United States and liked the format. It was decided that Granada would produce a programme with competing teams from universities across the United Kingdom. From its inception in 1962, University Challenge was hosted by Bamber Gascoigne, the show was a cult favourite with a small but loyal core audience, and was one of a select few ITV shows that were transmitted without any advertising breaks. In the absence of a regular networked slot, audience figures would often fall, in October 1983 LWT decided to broadcast the series no longer, with Thames following suit, which resulted in no broadcasts in the London area. The series was given a rest for the whole of 1985, before returning in April 1986, the final series was also network but broadcast around 11am during the summer holiday period. Even so, the new networked time did little to save the series from the axe and this was one ostensible inspiration for an unusual 1975 protest. It did, however, get broadcast, although portions of the episode still exist in the archives of Granada TV. Granada banned the University of Manchester for several years and it was eventually revived in 1994 by the BBC, although still produced by Granada Television, using the original format with minor differences and presented by Jeremy Paxman. During the shows hiatus, an edition of the show was made, not by Granada but by BBC Television. It was presented by Bamber Gascoigne, and screened on BBC2 on 28 December 1992 and this show was preceded by a short documentary about the shows history. Bamber Gascoignes final appearance as host was in Universe Challenge in 1998, the show has, since its revival in 1994, featured a number of very high standard teams of postgraduate and mature students, who perhaps have a greater breadth of general knowledge. The Open University won the 1999 series with a team whose ages averaged 46, in the quarter-final, they beat a slightly younger team from part-time and mature student specialist Birkbeck, University of London, by only one question
44.
Porridge (TV series)
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Porridge is a British sitcom first broadcast on BBC One from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film also titled Porridge. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker, doing porridge is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. Porridge was critically acclaimed and is considered to be one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time. The series was followed by a 1978 sequel, Going Straight, on Sunday 28 August 2016, a one-off episode revival of the original series, also titled Porridge, was broadcast on BBC One. It stars Kevin Bishop as Nigel Norman Fletcher, Norman Stanley Fletchers grandson, Porridge originated with a 1973 project commissioned by the BBC Seven of One, which would see Ronnie Barker star in seven different situation comedy pilot episodes. The most successful would then be made into a full series, Barrowclough and the stern Mr. Mackay. It was broadcast on 1 April 1973 on BBC2, despite Barkers initial preference for another of the pilots, a sitcom about a Welsh gambling addict, Prisoner and Escort was selected. It was renamed Porridge, a term for prison, Barker, Clement. In their research, Clement and La Frenais spoke to Jonathan Marshall, a prisoner who had written a book, How to Survive in the Nick. The BBC was forced to look around for locations because the Home Office refused permission for any production filming inside or outside a real prison, instead the main gatehouse of the disused St Albans Prison was used in the opening credits. Exteriors were first filmed at a hospital near Watford. However, after the completion of the series, the hospital withdrew permission for more filming following complaints from patients families. Another institution near Ealing was then used for the third series, scenes within cells and offices were filmed at the BBCs London studios. But for shots of the wider prison interior, series production designer Tim Gleeson converted an old tank, used at Ealing Studios for underwater filming. The first episode, New Faces, Old Hands, was aired on BBC1 on 5 September 1974, attracting an audience of over 16 million. Two further series were commissioned, as well as two Christmas special episodes, the final episode of Porridge, Final Stretch, was broadcast on 25 March 1977. The producers and the writers were keen to make more episodes, Barker did, however, reprise his role as Fletcher in a sequel, Going Straight, which ran for one series in 1978. A feature-length version of the show was made in 1979 and in 2003 a follow-up mockumentary was aired, the central character of Porridge is Norman Stanley Fletcher, described by his sentencing judge as an habitual criminal from Muswell Hill, London
