Explore TV Series

297 Matches Found

Fabian of the Yard

Fabian of the Yard is a British police procedural television series based on the real-life memoirs of Scotland Yard detective Robert Fabian, produced by the BBC and broadcast between November 1954 and February 1956. It is considered the earliest plice procedural made for British TV, sharing many points of commonality with the U.S. series Dragnet. There were 36 episodes in total, of 30 minutes each. The first thirty were broadcast consecutively on Saturday evenings between 13 November 1954 and 22 June 1955, with the exceptions of Christmas Day and New Year's Day which happened to fall on a Saturday. For unknown reasons, the final six were held back, and later broadcast intermittently between November 1955 and February 1956.

Fabian of the Yard

NR N/A
Son of Fred

Son of Fred was the successor series to The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d and A Show Called Fred. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in the London area, Midlands and Northern England. It was the third and final in a series of sketch comedy shows attempting to translate the humour of The Goon Show to television. Spike Milligan concentrated on writing and only made small walk on appearances, leaving the lead acting to Peter Sellers. The series was produced and directed by Richard Lester.

Son of Fred

NR N/A
A Show Called Fred

A Show Called Fred was the successor series to The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in London area. It was 25 minutes plus adverts. It was predominantly a sketch comedy attempting to translate the audio antics of the The Goon Show into visual antics in bizarre and often surreal comedy sketches which just suddenly ended with a new sketch beginning. Many performers played small parts in the shows like Ernest Clark, Jon Jon Keefe, Patricia Driscoll, etc. Famous people of the day like Hans and Lotte Hass were parodied. Canadian star, Patti Lewis had a singing spot about the middle of the show, and Max Geldray a music spot later on. There were few taboos with sketches showing people in various states of undress, cameramen, behind the scenes workers and the studios. The Ying Tong song was sung for no apparent reason at various times. The series was written by Spike Milligan and produced and directed by Richard Lester. It was followed by Son of Fred later in 1956. A half hour special Best of Fred was broadcast on 18 September 1963 combining surviving sketches from A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred. The 1995 convention of the Goon Show Preservation Society was billed as A Weekend Called Fred.

A Show Called Fred

NR N/A
The Gallery of the Great Detectives

This is a 7-part German crime series by Peter A. Horn. In self-contained and unconnected episodes, the great detectives of crime literature solve various cases. Sherlock Holmes (Ernst Fritz Fürbringer) and Dr. Watson (Harald Mannl) start things off, followed by Auguste Dupin, David Wilson, Father Brown, Inspector Bucket, Sergeant Cuff and Hercule Poirot. Every episode of this early crime series in the early days of television was still broadcast live. It could hardly have been more irregular: it was broadcast in loose succession on different days at different start times in prime time, and the length of the broadcast varied between 25 and 50 minutes.

The Gallery of the Great Detectives

6.0 N/A
Grandstand

Grandstand was a British television sport programme. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of the BBC's longest running sports shows, alongside BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Its first presenter was Peter Dimmock. There were only four main presenters of the programme during its long history: David Coleman, Frank Bough, Des Lynam, and Steve Rider. Changes in the structure of the programme during its last few years, however, meant it did not have a regular main presenter during this time. Among the more occasional hosts were Alan Weeks, David Icke, Clare Balding, Hazel Irvine, Bob Wilson, David Vine, Barry Davies, Dougie Donnelly, Harry Carpenter, Harry Gration, John Inverdale, Tony Gubba, Helen Rollason, Ray Stubbs and Sue Barker. The last editions of Grandstand were broadcast over the weekend of 27–28 January 2007.

Grandstand

8.3 N/A
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d

The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d was the first serious attempt to translate the humour of The Goon Show to television. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion during 1956 and was broadcast only in the London area. It combined elements of a sitcom and sketch comedy with Peter Sellers as the editor of a tatty Victorian newspaper, The Idiot Weekly. The headlines of the paper were used as links to comedy sketches. Although written mainly by Spike Milligan, there were many contributions from members of the writers' co-operative Associated London Scripts, including Dave Freeman and Terry Nation, with Eric Sykes credited as the script editor. The series was produced and directed by Richard Lester. It was followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred. The title was revived by Spike Milligan for the Australian radio series The Idiot Weekly.

The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d

NR N/A
Juke Box Jury

Juke Box Jury was a musical panel show which originally ran on BBC Television from 1 June 1959 until December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series. Throughout its run the series featured celebrity showbusiness guests on a rotating weekly panel judging the hit potential of recent releases. By 1962 the programme attracted 12 million viewers weekly on Saturday nights. The concept was later revived by the BBC for one series in 1979 and a further two series in 1989/1990.

Juke Box Jury

8.0 N/A