Explore TV Series

Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe was a four-part BBC television series hosted by Francesco da Mosto and originally shown on BBC2 from 18 June to 2 July 2006. In the series, da Mosto drives his Alfa Romeo Spider the length of Italy, from North to South, exploring the architecture and traditions in different regions. This series was rebroadcast by The Travel Channel in January 2007 and repeated on BBC2 in May 2007 and BBC Four in October-November 2007. The series was rebroadcast in Canada on the Knowledge channel during July and August 2011. During Episode 1, "The Romantic North", da Mosto left his native Venice and his family, and visited the Fiat Factory in Turin, Romeo and Juliet's balcony in Verona and the city of Milan. During Episode 2, "The Garden of Italy", da Mosto visited a 19th century reproduction of Michaelangelo's David in Florence, the city of Siena and the town of Assisi. In Episode 3, entitled "The Heart of Italy" da Mosto visited the Trevi Fountain, explores Italians love/hate relationship with Mussolini, visiting the city of Sabaudia, Rome and Naples, its underground secrets and the beautiful Chapel of St. Severo. In the fourth episode, "The Land of My Mother", da Mosto travelled to Sicily where he climbed to the summit of Mount Etna, visited the Trulli buildings and explored the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo with its array of mummified bodies – before being reunited with his family at last.

Lab Rats is a 2008 BBC 2 situation comedy set in a university science laboratory starring Chris Addison, who co-wrote the series with Carl Cooper. The series was produced by regular collaborator Simon Nicholls and directed by Adam Tandy. Its executive producer was Armando Iannucci with whom Addison worked in The Thick of It. Iannucci stated that the programme would be a traditional-style sitcom recorded in front of a live audience. He hinted that it will be a "very cartoony" show featuring "lots of giant snails". A pilot was announced as part of a series called "Behind Closed Doors" in Autumn 2006, but was never aired. A series of six episodes was broadcast in 2008, although the show was not recommissioned for further series.

For over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. But how did India come to be? What is India? These are the big questions behind this intrepid journey around the contemporary subcontinent. In this landmark series, historian and acclaimed writer Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting expedition through today's India, looking to the present for clues to her past, and to the past for clues to her future. The journey takes the viewer through majestic landscapes and reveals some of the greatest monuments and artistic treasures on Earth. From Buddhism to Bollywood, from mathematics to outsourcing, Michael Wood discovers India's impact on history - and on us.

Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible is an American documentary television series on Science which first aired in the United States on December 1, 2009. The series is hosted by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku and is based on his book Physics of the Impossible. In each episode, Dr. Kaku addresses a technological concept from science fiction and designs his own theoretical version of the technology using currently-known science. He also visits scientists developing technology related to the episode's concept.

Guesstimation is a BBC National Lottery game show that was broadcast on BBC One from 11 July 2009 to 29 August 2009. The programme was hosted by Nick Knowles and was based on the Dutch show Wat Schat je?.

Conquistadors is a documentary retelling of the story of the Spanish expeditions of conquest of the Americas. In this 4-part series historian Michael Wood travels in the footsteps of the Spanish expeditions, from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Macchu Picchu.

My Life as a Popat follows the lives of a British-Indian family, through the eyes of their eldest son, Anand. The first series revolves around the teenager fighting the embarrassment his family causes him. The second series brings a change in the storyline, with Anand's genius brother Chetan Popat sometimes taking centre stage. Milli Patel also joins the family's adventures in this series.

The contestants all under 30 have to survive in a remote area of the Australian jungle. They are able to receive email from viewers. Their numbers are augmented each week by a newcomer selected by the viewers. In the latter part of the series the newcomer then has to select candidates for eviction.

Mister Eleven is an ITV romantic drama starring Michelle Ryan and Sean Maguire. The two-part series was broadcast on 11 and 18 December 2009. It also stars Adam Garcia, Lynda Bellingham, Olivia Colman and Denis Lawson. It is written by Shameless writer Amanda Coe. Mister Eleven was released on DVD in February 2010.

The Russell Brand Show is a chat show presented by Russell Brand. It aired on the British terrestrial TV channel Channel 4 and was broadcast on Friday nights. The programme featured Brand's take on current topics of conversation, a sketch on current topics, guest interviews and live music.

Basil & Barney's Swap Shop is a British children's television series that was produced for CBBC and ran on Saturday mornings on BBC Two and CBBC Channel from 5 January 2008 to 25 September 2010. Based on the original BBC children's Saturday morning show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which ran on BBC One from 1976 to 1982, it was hosted by Barney Harwood, along with veteran puppet character Basil Brush, from whom the show takes its title.

Griff Rhys Jones takes a startlingly honest look at anger in himself and others

It's Only a Theory is a British television panel game show, first aired on BBC Four in 2009. It was conceived by and starred Andy Hamilton and featured Reginald D. Hunter as a regular panelist. Announced by the BBC in April 2009, the eight episode series was produced by Hat Trick Productions. The panelists discuss theories "about life, the universe and everything" submitted by professionals and experts. The panel debates each theory and decides whether it is worth keeping.

The Space Place storylines centre around eight central characters, all space vehicles from a lunar display in a museum gallery. All have their own personalities, function and behaviours.

The British-American thriller Armadillo stars James Frain as Lorimer Black, a slick, well-spoken insurance loss adjuster whose supremely confident and aristocratic public image is a smokescreen for the insecurities stemming from his Gypsy background. Black finds himself straddling his past, present, and future as he investigates a suspicious hotel fire which may be linked with a large-scale fraud involving his own company. Along the way, he romances Flavia (Catherine McCormack), a very married -- and very miserable -- actress.

Travelogue of England, Ireland and Wales, presented by Billy Connolly, including clips from his stand-up performances.

Kerching! was a children's comedy drama on CBBC. It follows the lives of teenagers Taj, Danny and Seymour. The programme revolves around Taj's website, Rudeboy, and his money-making schemes. The fictional Rudeboy website sells ringtones, computer games, concert tickets, designer clothes and other merchandise and is central to the plot of the programme. The title of the show comes from Taj, Danny and Seymor's catchphrase "Kerching!", used when they make money through their business schemes. Taj aims to make one million pounds for his hard-working mother, which he finally does in the last episode of the show.

Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life is a dance show created for Living as a tribute to Dirty Dancing's 20th anniversary in 2007. Due to the success of the show, a second series was shown in 2008.

Quiz show hosted by Marcus Du Sautoy who poses the trickiest puzzles to bend the minds of the team members Kathy Sykes, Irving Finkel, Jim Al-Khalili and Richard Vranch.

Journey through the long-vanished corners of prehistoric North America, beginning when man first entered the vast, unspoiled continent some 14,000 years ago, in this appealing BBC documentary. Witness ancient beasts, mammoths, mastodons, giant bears, and sabre-toothed cats, and see the legacies each has passed to their modern successors. Computer animation and digital effects bring to life mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, short-faced bears, glyptodonts, and a plethora of smaller animals in a lush Ice Age mosaic. Discoveries from sites across America are the basis for the reconstructions. The BBC team behind "Blue Planet" and "Walking with Dinosaurs" now takes you back to an 'early America' beyond imagination. Travel back 14,000 years as humans were first entering the continent, sharing it with ancient beasts.

A back-to-basics live music show where the focus is on the music, the artists and their performances.

Cat Deely hosts the epic 'live' final of Britain's Got the Pop Factor, where musical acts R Wayne, 2 Up 2 Down and Geraldine battle it out for their own record deal and an automatic entry to the show Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice. Nicki Chapman, Neil Fox and Pete Waterman will judge their efforts, but who wins?

Popstars The Rivals was a British television talent show series that was broadcast on ITV in late 2002. It was the second UK series of the international Popstars franchise. Unlike Popstars, which resulted in the formation of one winning group – Hear'Say – Popstars: The Rivals created two rival groups, Girls Aloud and One True Voice, who competed against each other for the Christmas Number One spot on the UK Singles Chart. Popstars The Rivals aired on ITV on Saturday nights from 7 September 2002, beginning with three pre-recorded episodes of preliminary audition rounds, before switching to live broadcasts of studio performances. During the rounds of live show, viewers voted for their favourite performers by telephone and the Red Button on digital television remote controls. In the final weeks, five females and five males were chosen by the British public to form the two groups, boy band] One True Voice, and girl group Girls Aloud. The final episode of Popstars: The Rivals aired live on 22 December 2002. During the broadcast, Pepsi Chart Show presenter Neil Fox revealed in a live link-up that "Sound of the Underground" recorded by Girls Aloud had reached Number one on the Singles Chart, thereby becoming the Christmas Number One. One True Voice's double A-side single, "Sacred Trust/After You're Gone" entered the chart at Number Two.

Instinct is a two-part drama serial which premièred on ITV on 26 February 2007. It was created and written by Lizzie Mickery, and produced by Tightrope Pictures for ITV. The serial follows Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Flynn, played by Anthony Flanagan, as he hunts a serial killer in the Lancashire Pennines, while dealing with a troubled personal life.

Dare To Believe is a surreal TV sketch show that was shown on ITV in the UK. The programme was shown during the early hours of the mornings, and ran for 2 series between 2002 and 2004, each with thirteen 30 minute episodes. The show gained a cult following amongst students and insomniacs. It largely consisted of dada-inspired comedy sketches, interspersed with periods of hypnotic visuals. During these hypnotic visuals, its much-used catchphrase was often recited: "Fly like a mouse, run like a cushion, be the small bookcase". It was written and directed by Tim de Jongh, who also acted in the show. Tim Firth and Michael Marshall Smith who both co-wrote some of the material were better known for their work on the BBC Radio 4 show, And Now, In Colour. Tim Scott won a BAFTA in 2003 for co-writing and directing the children's show Ripley and Scuff. Dare To Believe was commissioned and then re-commissioned by David Liddament. The show was abandoned upon Liddament's exit from ITV. The show notably contained voice-over work and appearances by the late Patrick Allen.

The Passions of Girls Aloud is a four-part television series starring girl group Girls Aloud. The series premiered on ITV2 on 14 March 2008.

Men from all over the world have left their pasts to start a new life as elite soldiers in the French Foreign Legion.

Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief – known in the United States as A Brief History of Disbelief – is a 2004 television documentary series written and presented by Jonathan Miller for the BBC and tracing the history of atheism.

The Fuse was a British game show, broadcast on ITV. It was hosted by Austin Healey.

Mouth to Mouth is a 2009 comedy-drama television series written by Karl Minns and broadcast on BBC Three. A successful pilot episode of the programme had been broadcast in 2008, starring the same female cast as the full series but no males and with a significantly different story. Each of the six episodes follow a monologue structure where each of the main characters describe their life around the same date. As the series progresses the viewer discovers how each of the lives are interwoven. On the surface the script has some fine humorous moments but underlying it deals with some serious issues.

High-profile conflicts within the music industry.

A reboot of the wonderful British sketch show "Alas Smith and Jones", where the creators and lead actors of go over some of there favorite sketches and episodes throughout the show's 10 season history.

Sitcom set on a precarious caravan campsite which strives to represent the best of the great British holiday - less palm trees and pina coladas and more puggymachines and lukewarm pints. Owner Colin Holliday promotes himself as a standard bearer for the virtues of the old-fashioned British holiday but in reality his true interest lies in wringing as great a profit from his holidaymakers as possible. Days on the caravan site are spent doing what Colin sees as the essential tasks of the hospitality business - driving costs down and avoiding difficult customers. The staff on the park include alcoholic entertainer Joyce 'the voice' Mullen; trainee manager and ladies man Dean Bullock; and Debbi, the bar maid.

Hello, Goodbye is a Dutch airport reality television show produced by Dutch broadcaster NCRV and hosted by Joris Linssen. A British version of the show, aired on Sky 1, started on Thursday 19 February 2009 and is hosted by Kate Thornton, former presenter of Don't Try This at Home (TV series) and more prominently The X Factor, and was commissioned for 6 episodes airing over 6 weeks.

Sky One introduces the start of a new ongoing documentary series that highlights the potential extinction of some of the world's most famous species. Working with Tiger Aspect Productions, the series follows a team of experts assisted by a wellknown personality. Each documentary will highlight the plight of the world's most endangered animals including the tigers of India, Aye-Ayes and Gorillas. Presenters include Sanjeev Bhaskar, Bill Bailey, Miranda Richardson and Joe Simpson. Each of the presenters will draw on the expertise of local teams campaigning to save the endangered species and work with conservationists to develop and implement strategies to help in their fight for survival.

The Experiment was a documentary series broadcast on BBC television in 2002 produced by Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam in which 15 men are randomly selected to be either "prisoner" or guard, contained in a simulated prison over an eight-day period. “The BBC Prison Study explores the social and psychological consequences of putting people in groups of unequal power. It examines when people accept inequality and when they challenge it”. The documentary presented the findings of what subsequently became known as The BBC Prison Study

Series revealing the lives of the Dragons' Den Dragons

Having it Off is a one-off TV comedy series for BBC Choice made by Red Production Company in 2002. It was set at a cheap hairdressing salon in Eccles, Greater Manchester. It was shown only once and is not available yet on DVD. Out gay bitchy stereotype Guy La Trousse, desperately tries to escape the drudge of daily wash and crop and change the fortunes of the salon - and his career. This is all thwarted by April, nymphomanic loud-mouthed wife of the hairdressers owner. The BBC website describes it as "rude, crude, strongly working-class sitcom on the lesser-seen BBC Choice, Having It Off promised much yet fell curiously short of the mark, lacking the key that would have propelled it to a higher level". However, tapes have been known to change hands on eBay for high prices.

Profiling people who are exceptional in various ways.

Big Brother Panto is a special series of Big Brother that brought together ten housemates from previous Big Brothers to produce the pantomime Cinderella. It aired from 20 December 2004 to 5 January 2005 on the Channel 4 network. The pantomime performed, Cinderella, was written by Jonathan Harvey, who wrote the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme. It was performed at a theatre near to The Lodge.

Commercial breakdown is a BBC/Celador light entertainment television programme which shows humorous television advertisements from around the world.

Series on mankinds myths and mysticisms.

Holidays in the Danger Zone: Places That Don't Exist is a five-part BBC Four series on breakaway states and unrecognised nations, devised, written and presented by Simon Reeve. The series producer was Will Daws. The producer was Iain Overton. The series took the team to little-known parts of the world including Somaliland, recognised as part of Somalia; Transnistria of Moldova; Taiwan; Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijan; Ajaria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, all recognized by the United Kingdom as parts of Georgia. The program and its team were awarded a One World Award in June 2005 for best popular feature.

Gina's Laughing Gear was a special programming slot which was presented by Gina Yashere. It was shown on Friday afternoons on BBC One and repeated on Saturday on the CBBC Channel. The purpose was to showcase new CBBC comedy at the time. The running gag in the slot was that Gina "hacks" the CBBC transmission in her claim to try to be a CBBC presenter. She often made desperate attempts to win over the audience, none of which were very effective.

The program examines various actual incidents or disasters in which victims were trapped on the site.

Grease: the School Musical is a reality TV programme that appeared on TV at the end of August 2009 following on from the popular Hairspray: The School Musical. It was the result of a competition that started in 2008. The 1,000 schools were whittled down to 10 schools, then at this point filming started with the three judges. There was then a competition and dance off with the final 3 schools. Ray Quinn and Arlene Phillips appeared on the show as guests as well as Seth Rudeski. In the end Wallasey school on the Wirral won. The school went to London's West End to perform a shortened rehearsed version of Grease in the Novello theatre. They showed a series of one hour shows and two added half hour shows. The performance took place on the 9 August 2009. Many of the cast then went on to receive promotions to drama schools. The final show was viewed by 1 million people.

The Real Football Factories is a documentary series shown on the Bravo TV channel in the UK and created by Zig Zag Productions. The show looks at the in-depth life of football hooligans and hooligan firms. Interviews are conducted with past and present hooligans. The presenter of the show, Danny Dyer, also starred in the film The Football Factory. During the series Dyer visits Yorkshire, Scotland, The Midlands, North West England and London to meet up with and interview hooligans. On 25 May 2007 Bravo broadcast a new show, The Real Football Factories International, which looks at football firms worldwide. In September 2007 Virgin Media released a spoof version of the show starring comedian Terry Alderton as Danny Dire.

Cracked is a Scottish comedy drama, which was broadcast on STV. Created and written by Clare Hemphill and Kate Donnelly, the drama series is set in a Scottish countryside residential rehab clinic, a place where people with various mental and emotional problems check themselves in for some professional tender loving care. Over six episodes, the series deals with issues that are difficult and dark, but also more light hearted and comical situations. Cracked was produced by STV Productions in 2005, but due to the lack of appropriate regional time-slots, the series wasn't broadcast until 2008, where it was shown on Thursday nights at 10:40pm, taking the place of popular comedy-drama High Times.