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Geordie Racer

Geordie Racer was an educational BBC Look and Read production, which was first aired on BBC Two in 1988 and has been shown regularly ever since. The story was set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the surrounding area, and featured pigeon racers and runners competing in the Great North Run. The main character is Spuggy Hilton, who isn't a runner like the rest of his family, but is a keen pigeon fancier and owns 'Blue Flash' - one of the best birds in Newcastle. He and his friend Janie observe some suspicious activity, and link a spate of local art robberies with obscure messages they find on some of the pigeons, but find they have even more problems when they go to spy on the crooks. Geordie Racer was praised for attempting to bring a grittier edge to educational programmes shown in primary schools. The series also featured Geordie actor Kevin Whately as Spuggy's father. Whately, who went on to star in Inspector Morse, was joined on screen by his real-life wife, Madelaine Newton, who played his on-screen wife. This was not an intentional decision, but merely an accidental coincidence. It also featured the classic tune, 'Build yourself a wall with -ed'.

Geordie Racer

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Creepy Crawlies

Creepy Crawlies was a stop motion animation series created by Cosgrove Hall. The series consisted of 52 ten-minute episodes, which were broadcast on Children's ITV between 1987 and 1989. All episodes were written by Peter Reeves and directed by Franc Vose and Brian Little; narration and character voices were provided by Paul Nicholas. The series was based upon the daily goings-on of a group of common invertebrate creatures that lived at the bottom of a garden around an old sundial. And so another bright new day dawns upon the home of the Creepy Crawlies, Mr Harrison the snooty snail, Suppose the lowly red-nosed worm, Ariadne the spider, the irksome woodlouse-come-pill-bug called Anorak, meek Ladybird, Lambeth the brawny-but-brainless beetle and Ancient the aged caterpillar dwell right down at the bottom of the garden, near the shed, on and around an old broken sundial. Classic Cosgrove Hall stop-motion animation.

Creepy Crawlies

8.5 N/A
Crime Inc.

With archive film including home movies and FBI surveillance material, the award-winning Crime Inc. tells the true story behind the world's most powerful crime syndicate, the Mob, La Cosa Nostra or The Mafia. Interviews with mob members turned informants, including former boss Jimmy 'The Weasel' Fratianno, reveal the inner workings of the mafia, from the ritual of becoming a "made" man and their code of honor, to the harrowing and detailed descriptions of their work, accompanied by equally graphic images and film footage.

Crime Inc.

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The Labours of Erica

The Labours of Erica was a 1989/90 British sitcom starring Brenda Blethyn as self-made businesswoman Erica Parsons. The premise of the show was that Erica found a list she had made as a young girl of everything she wanted to do before turning 18. Realising she hasn't done any of them, she resolves to achieve all her aims before her 40th birthday instead. The series premiered on ITV in the United Kingdom at 8:00pm on Monday 13 March 1989 and ran for two series until the 9 April 1990.

The Labours of Erica

8.0 N/A
Emu's World

In 1981, Rod Hull was offered the opportunity to make a series for younger children by the newly-awarded ITV franchise Central Independent Television. This led to the birth of the Pink Windmill in which Rod and Emu lived, the green witch named Grotbags (played by the singer and comedienne Carol Lee Scott), and her hopeless assistant Croc. The premise of the show was simple: each week Grotbags attempted to steal Emu so that, once captured, (in Grotbags's own words) she would be able to use its "special powers" to control all the "brats" in the world. Children from the Corona Theatre School—referred to collectively as the Pink Windmill Kids—were on hand to offer protection and break into one or two song and dance routines per episode. The show featured Rod Hull's chanted catchphrase "There's somebody at the door, oh, there's somebody at the door" every time a visitor rang the doorbell of the Pink Windmill—which 'sneezed' loudly when pressed.

Emu's World

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Holding the Fort

Holding the Fort is an ITV situation comedy starring Peter Davison, Patricia Hodge and Matthew Kelly. It was an early product of the writing team of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. Three series were recorded, a total of twenty episodes, first aired between 1980 and 1982, concurrent with Davison also starring in Doctor Who. It was made for the ITV network by LWT The situation was a role-reversal comedy, in which the premise was that Russell Milburn becomes a "house-husband" to raise his baby daughter while his wife, Penny a captain in the Women's Royal Army Corps, goes out to work. Russell's friend Fitzroy, or "Fitz", adds to the comic tension by encouraging Russell's enthusiasm for football, pacifism and beer.

Holding the Fort

5.5 N/A
Pigeon Street

The shows featured the everyday adventures of a group of characters living on Pigeon Street, an area of flats and terraced housing in a British city, also home to several pigeons which appeared in each show but only occasionally featured in the plot. Characters included Clara the long distance lorry driver, her husband Hugo the chef, Mr Baskerville the detective, Mr Jupiter the astronomer, Mr Macadoo the petshop owner, and twins Molly and Polly, who were only distinguishable by the letter M and P on their jumpers.

Pigeon Street

7.0 N/A
Tales From Fat Tulip's Garden

Tales from Fat Tulip's Garden was a children's TV program in the mid-1980s, starring Tony Robinson. It was produced by Debbie Gates for Central Independent Television and aired on British TV network ITV from 1985 to 1987, in a 4:00pm timeslot, with each episode lasting about 10 minutes. Robinson would tell children's stories directly to camera in an English garden setting, and would put on all the voices himself. The show was written by Debbie Gates and Robinson and carried by Robinson's unique and engaging storytelling style, which was semi-improvised. Robinson hoped to provoke the imagination and produce a sense of immediacy in contrast to the shortcomings he saw in children's television at the time. The majority of the programme was filmed in the house and garden of Little Monkhams, a property in Woodford in the Redbridge Borough of London. Further scenes were filmed in the part of Epping Forest facing the house

Tales From Fat Tulip's Garden

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The Monocled Mutineer

The Monocled Mutineer follows the rebellion that took place at the notorious Etaples Training Camp in northern France on the eve of "The Battle of Passchendaele" in 1917. After the mutiny, the dashing Percy Toplis takes flight, dressed as a British officer, soon to embark on a love affair with beautiful young widow, Dorothy. A solder in the First World War, the real Percy Toplis was a rake, rogue and master of disguise who became the most wanted man in Britain. This controversial BBC dramatisation of high romance, hilarious impudence and savage retribution was adapted by Alan Bleasdale from the book by William Allison and John Fairley.

The Monocled Mutineer

7.7 N/A
Kinvig

Kinvig is a sci-fi comedy television series made for British television in 1981. Ineffectual dreamer Des Kinvig (Tony Haygarth) runs a rundown little electrical repair shop in the small town of Bingleton where he lives with his mumsy, scatterbrained wife Netta (Patsy Rowlands) and oversized pet dog Cuddly. One day his shop is visited by the beautiful, sharp-tongued Miss Griffin (Prunella Gee) who seems at first just another dissatisfied customer. However, after encountering a flying saucer while walking the dog one night, Kinvig discovers she is actually a scantily-clad alien from the planet Mercury who desperately needs the help of the scruffy, bearded Des' "exceptional brain" to stop an invasion of the evil ant-like Xux who are replacing people with robot duplicates. (information obtained from Wikipedia)

Kinvig

6.8 N/A
Q.E.D

Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum, Latin for "that which was to be demonstrated") was the name of a series of BBC popular science documentary films which aired in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1999. Running in a half-hour peak-time slot on the BBC's primary mass-audience channel BBC1, the series had a more populist and general interest agenda than the long-running Horizon series which aired on the more specialist channel BBC2. Horizon could often be difficult for a scientific novice, requiring a modicum of background knowledge beyond the reaches of many viewers, so Q.E.D. was a more approachable way of introducing scientific stories.

Q.E.D

6.0 N/A
A Small Problem

A Small Problem is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. Intended as a satire on prejudice, the show was set in a Britain starring Christopher Ryan who had previously played Mike in The Young Ones, with a form of apartheid based on people's height. Anyone below 5ft tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. However, many viewers appeared not to understand the satirical aspect of the show, and the BBC was flooded with complaints. It was written by comedy writers Tony Millan and Mike Walling. The theme tune was written by Mo Foster and Mike Walling.

A Small Problem

5.0 N/A
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World is a thirteen part British television series looking at unexplained phenomena from around the world. It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and first broadcast in September 1980. Each program is introduced and book-ended by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in short sequences filmed in Sri Lanka. The bulk of the episodes are narrated by Gordon Honeycombe. The series was produced by John Fanshawe, John Fairley and directed by Peter Jones, Michael Weigall and Charles Flynn. It also featured a unique soundtrack composed by British artist Alan Hawkshaw. In 1981, Book Club Associates published a hardcover book with the same name, authored by Fairley and Welfare, where the contents of the show were further explored. It featured an introduction written by Clarke as well as his remarks at the end of each chapter or topic. In 1985, a paperback of this book was released by HarperCollins Publishers. The series was followed by Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers in 1985 and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe in 1994.

Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World

7.6 N/A