Explore TV Series

O.T.T. was a late-night adult version of the anarchic ATV children's show Tiswas, but made by its ITV franchise successor Central Independent Television. It was broadcast at 11.00pm on Saturday nights for one series in 1982. It was created and presented by Chris Tarrant, and also starred ex-Tiswasians John Gorman, Lenny Henry and Bob Carolgees. Helen Atkinson-Wood was the female sidekick replacement for Sally James, who stayed behind to present the concurrent and final series of Tiswas alone.

Anyone for Denis? is a British video-taped television version of the stage play of the same name broadcast by the ITV network on 28 December 1982. The original play, first performed at the Whitehall Theatre in 1981, was written by satirist John Wells. It is based on Private Eye's 'Dear Bill' letters, purportedly written by Denis Thatcher, the husband of Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister at the time. Set in Chequers, the play parodies the couple's relationship. The title is a punning reference to the more familiar question "Anyone for tennis?" The television production, for Thames Television was directed by Dick Clement and stars John Wells, Angela Thorne, John Cater and Nicky Henson.

The three brothers Robin, John and Harold spend their vacations in 1925 on the country estate of their aunt Ellen. But instead of fun and games, the young men are expected to be extremely disciplined. And it gets worse: Harold falls ill and his brothers are to be quarantined. That's enough for the young adventurers! So they escape and hide in the forest. This is the beginning of a life they have always dreamed of. But it is not as easy as they had imagined. So the boys have to find shelter in a hollow tree trunk, their aunt worries and, on the advice of the vicar, calls in the police in the form of Sergeant Bunting. While the latter is searching, an unscrupulous journalist starts a hard-nosed hunt for Robin and John. The sergeant joins the hunt when Harold, who has fallen ill, also disappears...

Odd One Out is a weekly quiz programme that was hosted by Paul Daniels and was broadcast on BBC1 from 16 April 1982 to 19 April 1985.

Seven-part series about steeplejack Fred Dibnah

Wood and Walters is a British BAFTA nominated comedy sketch show starring Julie Walters and Victoria Wood for Granada Television and written entirely by Wood. The show was short-lived, with just one pilot in 1981 and seven episodes broadcast in 1982.

A long-running late night television show on ITV which was made first by LWT and then Granada Productions. It featured a number of clips from unusual or (often unintentionally) amusing television programmes and commercials from around the world.

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.

After an earthquake causes some damage to a nuclear power station, one of the chief nuclear physicists, Paul Brack, starts to investigate the safety procedures and policies of the station. He is dismayed to discover that there is a lack of real safety processes at the station, and quits his job in disgust. His disillusionment puts a strain on his relationship with his wife, Pat, a fellow researcher and academic. Through a mutual friend, Brack meets and begins to work for energy consultant Harold Harlan, with hopes that Harlan can highlight the issue of nuclear safety, and explore alternative energy sources. Unfortunately Harlan has his own plans for how he can use Brack.

Richard Briers stars as layabout journalist Travis Kent who weasels his way into lodging at Victoria (Hannah Gordon's) house.

Rise of a London hairdresser in the swinging sixties.

A middle-aged professor's young bride and his assistant plan to commit a double murder disguised as a "Crime Passionel", but discover too late that one of their intended victims has become a fellow conspirator.

A J Wentworth, BA is a British sitcom that aired on ITV in 1982. Set in the 1940s, the programme was shown posthumously following the death of its lead actor Arthur Lowe, who died on 15 April 1982. Based on the writings of H. F. Ellis, A J Wentworth, BA was written by Basil Boothroyd. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television.

Gran is a children's stop motion animation television series narrated by Patricia Hayes and directed by Ivor Wood. There were only two main characters, namely Gran and her grandson, Jim. The programme was made by Woodland Animations and was written by Michael and Joanne Cole. Ivor Wood created thirteen five-minute episodes in 1982. The series was broadcast on the BBC between 17 February 1983 and 12 May 1983, and was repeated in both 1986 and 1992. A children's book based on the series was also released in 1983. The shorts were also shown in the U.S. as part of the Nickelodeon series Eureeka's Castle. Despite moderate popularity with young audiences in the mid-1980s, the series has not been seen on UK television since being repeated in 1992, and no further episodes were made. Series 1 was released on Region 2 DVD in the U.K. on 7 March 2005 but has since been deleted.

Spike Milligan sketch series created after the BBC apparently thought another 'Q' would confuse people - continues in the same anarchic & often politically incorrect vein.

Worshipped as a national savior, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson masterminded the naval victories that thwarted Napoleon's plans to invade Britain. Yet, in the midst of public adulation, rumors swirled about his private life. Nelson took a friend's wife as a mistress and even fathered a child by her in secret. Starring Kenneth Colley (Monty Python's Life of Brian), Geraldine James (The Jewel in the Crown), and Tim Pigott-Smith (V for Vendetta), this lavish historical drama examines Nelson through the eyes of four people close to him: his wife, who feels bitter and betrayed but ultimately loving; his friend, who helplessly loses his wife to a hero; his captain, who admires Nelson's bold leadership but disdains his lifestyle; and an ordinary seaman, who turns to his commander for inspiration while facing death. What emerges is an unconventional portrait of a complex figure and a study in the effects of fame. Seen on Masterpiece Theatre.

A group of talented children from all nations try to entertain people with their great songs.

Foxy Lady was a television comedy series made between October 1982 and February 1984 by Granada Television. It was set in the 1960s and revolved around a young female reporter, Daisy Jackson, who worked for a newspaper and encountered sexism from her colleagues.

Dead Ernest was a 1982 UK TV supernatural sitcom set in heaven starring Andrew Sachs in the role of Ernest Springer. It was broadcast on ITV from 15th February 1982 and was the first sitcom made by the newly formed Central Television. Ernest wins half a million pounds on the football pools. Unfortunately he is killed by a blow to the head from a stray champagne bottle cork. He subsequently ascends to heaven. Although the authorities in heaven admit that his death was an administrative error, as his kidneys have already been donated he cannot go back down to earth. The notion of a sitcom set in the afterlife was an intriguing one, but despite the original idea, some promising comic setpieces, Sachs' undoubted comedic abilities, and support from other seasoned comic actors such as Ken Jones, it was regarded as a disappointing effort, and only lasted for one series of seven episodes.

Legacy of Murder (aka Emery Presents: Legacy of Murder) is a British comedy television series which originally aired on BBC One in six half-hour episodes between 16 February and 23 March 1982. A struggling London private detective and his assistant are hired by a lawyer to locate six people concerned with the inheritance of an eccentric aristocrat. As on The Dick Emery Show, Emery portrays several different characters.

The tranquillity of a small west country town is destroyed by the misfortunes of local driving instructor Lester Small.

Carrott's Lib is a British satirical comedy series broadcast between 9 October 1982 and 30 December 1983. It starred Jasper Carrott and a cast of many comedians. The show was not just a satirical comedy, it was also a sketch show with many comedians of the future, most famously Chris Barrie & Jan Ravens. Unlike most comedy series it was broadcast live, albeit with some pre-recorded elements.

The series is based on the lives of three single girls living in bed-sit land in London W11. It follows their relationships – with each other, their families and boyfriends – and their progress in their chosen careers.

Examines the professional and personal lives of a Welsh lifeboat crew and their tight-knit community in a small seaside village.

Police was a BBC Television documentary television series about Thames Valley Police, first broadcast in 1982. Produced by Roger Graef and directed by Charles Stewart, it won the BAFTA award for best factual series. Graef was given access to film Thames Valley Police by the Chief Constable, Peter Imbert, who went on to be Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Filming was based in Reading police station and took place in 1980 and early 1981. The series had a significant impact on debate about the role of the police. The most influential episode was the third, A complaint of rape, in which a woman who claimed to have been raped by three men was treated harshly and dismissively by three male police officers. The public reaction led to changes in the way in which the UK police handled rape cases. In less than a year, Reading police station had a new dedicated rape squad consisting of five female police officers.

Series showcasing the best of travel across the globe. The current incarnation was launched in February 2014 and is the immediate successor of long standing travel programme, Fast Track.

Opinions is a British talk programme broadcast on Channel 4 television in the 1980s and 1990s. According to Time magazine, Opinions gave "a public figure 30-minutes of airtime each week to expound on a controversial topic ". "A speaker could express his or her own views straight to camera for 30 minutes", "an earnest of Channel 4's faith and mission to bring edgy, alternative fare to the public and to excite reaction". "Individuals like the novelist Salman Rushdie and the historian EP Thompson each spoke to the camera for half an hour on a subject that interested them".

Tom, Dick and Harriet is a British sitcom that aired for two seasons from 1982 to 1983. It was created by the sitcom writing team of Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, and it starred veteran actor Lionel Jeffries in one of his very few television roles, only seven months after his previous TV sitcom role in Father Charlie, Ian Ogilvy, and Brigit Forsyth. It was made by Thames Television for the ITV network.

The Computer Programme was a TV series, produced by Paul Kriwaczek, originally broadcast by the BBC in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of. The BBC wanted to use their own computer, so the BBC Micro was developed as part of the BBC Computer Literacy Project, and was featured in this series. The series was successful enough for two series to follow it, namely Making the Most of the Micro in 1983 and Micro Live from 1984 until 1987.

Ragdolly Anna was a British children's television series, produced by Yorkshire Television. The show was broadcast between 1982-1987 on the ITV network during its CITV strand. The show starred Pat Coombs and was about a small stuffed doll named Ragdolly Anna that used to spring into life when nobody was watching and would go on many wild and fantastic adventures.

An anthology series of psychological thriller stories covering such subjects as obsession, paranoia, incest, adultery, guilt, and morality.

This programme is the original version of the popular Channel 4 words and numbers show, Countdown Countdown.Yorkshire Television purchased the format and commissioned a series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which were to be a spin-off of the regional news programme Calendar. As the presenter of Calendar, Richard Whiteley was the natural choice to present Calendar Countdown his daily appearances on both shows earned him the nickname "Twice Nightly."

Drama serial about the lives of trainee jockeys.

In 1975, the BBC hired Mike Leigh to create a series of Five-Minute Films. Leigh, a master of kitchen sink naturalism, explained his garrulous bursts of plot and character: ‘I thought it was a cracking idea, and I would have done forty of them or fifty ‘ so you’d see them all the time, and sometimes you might see a character you never saw again, sometimes you might see somebody popping up for a moment and then be a main character in another one, or there’d be a couple of ones that would run on to a narrative. It would be a whole microcosm of the world. There was debate about whether they should be shown at the same time or they should be dotted around the channel, like currants in the pudding, as Tony Garnett, the producer, called it.’ Although these were made in 1975, they were not broadcast until 1982. Mike Leigh had originally intended to make around 50 of these five-minute stories, but only these five pilots ended up getting made.

Adaptation of a series of novels by Antonia White about a young girl challenging her authoritarian Catholic environment as she grows up.

Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in November 1982.

In each episode of this series, noted painting instructor and infamous forger Tom Keating examines the work of a famous artist. Through painting exact replicas of well-known works, Keating offers viewers insight into the creation of these masterworks and offers tips to add to their own painting arsenals. In each, biographical sketches of each artist are also offered.

ITV News Central is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Central, serving the English Midlands.

TSW Today was the news programme on Television South West, the ITV licensee for South West England. The programme began as Today South West in 1982, then in the mid-1980s was renamed Today and subsequently, in 1989, became TSW Today. When Television South West lost its licence to broadcast on Channel 3 and Westcountry Television took over the South West franchise, TSW Today was replaced by Westcountry Live.

Coast to Coast was the flagship regional news programme produced by Television South, covering the south and southeast of England with separate news services for both parts of the dual-region between January 1982 and December 1992.