A satirical comedy-drama exploring the absurdities of modern life, politics, and society through a series of sketches and parodies.
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The Human Body is a seven-part documentary series that looks at the mechanics and emotions of the human body from birth to death.
The Human Body
Bodyguards is a British television series that focuses on the cases of a specialized bodyguard unit called the Close Protection Group in service of the UK government. The lead cast members were Sean Pertwee as Ian Worrell and Louise Lombard as Liz Shaw. Sean Pertwee's Father, Jon Pertwee, also starred next to a character called Liz Shaw in one of the television shows he is best known for - Dr. Elizabeth Shaw was his first companion when he played the Third Doctor in Doctor Who. A pilot episode, featuring Josette Simon as a visiting dignitary, was broadcast in 1996. One series of six episodes followed, in 1997.
Bodyguards
Big Cat Diary, also known as Big Cat Week or Big Cat Live, is a long-running nature documentary series on BBC television which follows the lives of African big cats in Kenya's Maasai Mara. The first series, broadcast on BBC One in 1996, was developed and jointly produced by Keith Scholey, who would go on to become Head of the BBC's Natural History Unit. Eight further series have followed, most recently Big Cat Live, a live broadcast from the Mara in 2008. The original presenters, Jonathan Scott and Simon King, were joined by Saba Douglas-Hamilton from 2002 onwards. Kate Silverton and Jackson Looseyia were added to the presenting team for Big Cat Live.
Big Cat Diary
13 part series starring award-winning Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead; Hot Fuzz) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at No 42). The fast paced sketch show was originally broadcast in 2000, and although the sketches have no overall theme, they are for the time, very cutting edge using such devices as security camera footage and hidden miniture cameras. The show also features, Fiona Allen (Gladiatress; Smack The Pony), Ella Kenion (The Catherine Tate Show), Jeremy Fowlds & Amanda Holden (The Grimleys; Wild at Heart).
We Know Where You Live
Dissects the complex relationships between artists, managers and labels, with help from Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Michael Hutchence and a host of hopefuls. Musicians, managers and people in the industry talk about the deals which can make, and break, musicians.
The Music Biz
Stella Street is a British television comedy programme, originally screened in four series on BBC Two between 1997 and 2001. It takes the form of a mockumentary filmed on a camcorder, based on the fantastical premise that a group of British and American celebrities who have all decided to move into Stella Street in Surbiton. The show was conceived and written by John Sessions, Phil Cornwell and Peter Richardson. The main characters are played by Sessions, Cornwell and Ronni Ancona. The characters themselves are impressions of famous celebrities such as Marlon Brando, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson and, idiosyncratically, UK football pundit Jimmy Hill.
Stella Street
Prophet John Wroe preaches of the coming Apocalypse and appeals for seven virgins to 'serve' him in his home. This series is their story. Based on the novel by Jane Rogers.
Mr. Wroe's Virgins
Andrew and Maggie Prentice have taken early retirement and plan to move to France, however when tragedy strikes they are left to care for their three grandchildren: Georgia, Jake and Michael and are going nowhere fast.
Next of Kin
Animated World Faiths tells the stories of the world's major faiths and their founders. Gloriously animated in studios in India, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the UK, these programmes have been produced by a team of the worlds best childrens television producers.
Animated World Faiths
A multi-volume documentary on the history of horror movies. Hosted by veteran horror star Christopher Lee, this video series brings together footage from many notable (and some less notable) films from the silent era up to the 90's. Also included are interviews with many of the leading horror actors and filmmakers, in which they share their stories, opinions, and techniques on how to make the world scream.
100 Years of Horror
Byron Flitch is not enjoying his anniversary party. Instead of making him a partner in their classic car business, his father Burke has demanded he work harder. His mistress Judith could arrive to gate crash the celebrations at any moment and to top things off midway through the line 'I'm going to live forever' from his karaoke Fame rendition, Burke keels over with a heart attack. Amidst this chaos, Burke's wife Lili sees a chance to make her escape and ducks out of the party to leave for an impromptu holiday in Tenerife. When she returns, she is a changed woman and intent on taking up marathon running. With Burke critically ill and Lili off guard, the rest of the family squabble for control of the business.
Born to Run
The National Television Awards (often shortened to NTAs) is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public.
The National Television Awards
The trials and tribulations of the staff at Hatley railway station, who are all wondering if Dr Beeching will close them down.
Oh, Doctor Beeching!
Harry Enfield's Television Programme was a British sketch show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC Two in 1990 in the Thursday 9 pm slot, which became the traditional time for alternative comedy on television. Enfield was already an established name due to his 'Loadsamoney' character, but the series gave greater presence to his frequent collaborators Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke – so much so, that in 1994 the show was retitled Harry Enfield and Chums.
Harry Enfield's Television Programme
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, two young clerks at the stuffy Foreign Office in Whitehall display little interest in the decline of the British Empire. To their eyes, it can hardly compete with girls, rock music, and the intrigue of romantic entanglements.
Lipstick on Your Collar
No Kidding
Set in rural Ireland of the 1930s, the story begins when 19-year-old Elizabeth has a brief fling with an actor and falls pregnant. Community pressure forces her to marry a dull middle-aged man, but maybe there is hope on the horizon.
Falling for a Dancer
Life Support is a 1999 British medical drama series aired across six episodes on BBC Scotland. Katherine Doone works as a clinical ethicist at Glasgow's Caledonian hospital. Her job is to make the big decisions about what's best for the patient's long-term treatment.
Life Support
A particularly vicious serial killer is stalking the Norfolk coast in the vicinity of the Larksoken nuclear power station. The press have branded him 'The Whistler' because witnesses have heard a hymn being whistled in the vicinity of the murders. His trademark is the letter 'L' carved on the forehead of his victims. L for Larksoken? At first, his victims seem to be chosen entirely at random - women in the wrong place at the wrong time - but then two women employed at the nuclear power station are murdered in quick succession...
Devices and Desires
Chewin' the Fat is a Scottish comedy sketch show, starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. Comedians Paul Riley and Mark Cox also appeared regularly on the show. Chewin' the Fat first started as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland. The later television show, which ran for four series, was first broadcast on BBC One Scotland, but series three and four, as well as highlights from the first two series, were later broadcast to the rest of the United Kingdom. Although the last series ended in February 2002, 6 Hogmanay specials were broadcast and offered on DVD when purchasing the Scottish Sun between 2000 to 2005, one every year. Chewin' the Fat gave rise to the spin-off show Still Game, a sitcom focusing on the two old male characters Jack and Victor. The series was mostly filmed in and around Glasgow and occasionally West Dunbartonshire. The English idiom to chew the fat means to chat casually, but thoroughly, about subjects of mutual interest.
Chewin' the Fat
A middle-aged writer returns to London after years abroad. Soon, his headlong pursuit of pleasure upsets the lives of all those around him.
A Sense of Guilt
Fantomcat was an animated series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films. It was first broadcast in 1995 and was animated after Avenger Penguins in 1994 by Alfonso Productions, a Spanish animation studio. It aired largely on Children's ITV. The series also had a brief run on Pop and on Network Ten in Australia. It was produced and directed by Ben Turner. Fantomcat centres on the character Phillipe Lentheric Guerlain de Givenchy, the Duke of Fantom, a masked swashbuckling hero who thrived in 1699, in mortal combat with his archnemesis Baron Von Skeltar. De Fantom was treacherously cast into a painting within the halls of his house, Castle De Fantom, and became trapped for centuries. As time passed, the area around Castle De Fantom became a bustling metropolis called Metro City, a city submerged in crime rings led by the fiendish arachnid Marmagora.
Fantomcat
Frank Sandford has big hopes for his pop duo, Blue Heaven, but his home life is less than satisfactory. His father, Jim, is a local hard man whose favourite son is in prison, while his mother can only be described as the perfect match. Despite the lack of parental support he is determined that he should succeed as a pop star and that his favourite football team, West Bromwich Albion, will win the cup!
Blue Heaven
The lives of a seemingly unconnected group of Londoners are strangely affected by the murder of a young woman. While some are able to take a newfound hope from the remains of the tragedy, others, including food critic Gary Rickey, simply watch on as despair begins to unravel in the light of the aftermath.
Holding On
Employees of an Edinburgh ad agency that thrived in the 1980s are trying to keep it afloat 20 years later with some new creative ideas.
The Creatives
Gagtag
Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally aired on BBC Radio 4 from 1996 to 1998 and later televised on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001. The ensemble cast were four British Indian actors, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. The show explored the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some sketches reversed the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective, and others poked fun at Indian stereotypes. In the television series most of the white characters were played by Dave Lamb and Fiona Allen; in the radio series those parts were played by the cast themselves. The show's title and theme tune is a bhangra rearrangement of a hit comedy song of the same name. The original was performed by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren reprising their characters from the 1960 film The Millionairess. The show's original working title was "Peter Sellers is Dead", but was changed because the cast generally liked Peter Sellers. In her 1996 novel Anita and Me, Syal had referred to British parodies of Asian speech as "a goodness-gracious-me accent". One of the more famous sketches featured the cast "going out for an English" after a few lassis. They mispronounce the waiter's name, order the blandest thing on the menu and ask for twenty-four plates of chips. The sketch parodies often-drunk English people "going out for an Indian", ordering chicken phall and too many papadums. This sketch was voted the 6th Greatest Comedy Sketch on a Channel 4 list show.
Goodness Gracious Me
Down-and-out American comedian Johnny Lazar tries to regain his status as an international superstar by embarking on a tour of working men's clubs and universities in England. But on his first night, Johnny is witness to a gangland murder and finds himself having to go on the lam as he becomes the target of hitmen out to eliminate any chance of them being identified.
Comics
Is It Bill Bailey? is a stand up/sketch comedy series written by and starring Bill Bailey. Each episode features stage performances, interspersed with skits starring himself and other actors. As well as parodies of pop songs or artists, he deconstructs music from popular television shows.
Is It Bill Bailey?
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Great Expectations
The greenhouse effect has plunged the near-future world into recession and the Stark Corporation is making billions from the crisis; an eco protester ends caught up in a global conspiracy involving some Australian land, toxic waste, and a mysterious beauty called Rachel. Based on the novel Stark by Ben Elton.
Stark
Oakie Doke was a children's television programme that was broadcast from September 1995 until December 1996 on the BBC. It was produced by Cosgrove Hall Productions and was shown in stop motion animation. The show ran for two series, each containing 14 episodes.
Oakie Doke
Five programmes that trace a remarkable decade in British film-making through interviews with its stars and directors.
Hollywood U.K.: British Cinema in the Sixties
TECX
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of pancreatic cancer. Forming the second half of a pair with the television serial Karaoke, it is Potter's sole science fiction work. In a bleak, synthetic 24th-century dystopian Britain, scientists work on reviving the mind of 20th-century writer Daniel Feeld, whose head was frozen after Feeld's death shortly after the events of 'Karaoke'. Progress has not been made, so discontinuation is considered, but media mogul David Siltz, who has been spying on the project, envisages a fortune from broadcasting Feeld's memories on TV.
Cold Lazarus
In a heroic journey of epic proportions, everyman Charlie McFell wrestles with his demons — including a coldhearted wife, economic hardship, the horror of the world's first Great War, and a painful secret he'd rather forget.
The Cinder Path
The Peter Principle is a BBC television show about the Aldbridge Branch of the fictional County & Provincial Bank. It originally aired in the late 1990s and is now a part of the PBS program lineup at some PBS stations, which call it The Boss. The program takes its name from the Peter Principle, that In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
The Peter Principle
Comedy set in an English Tuberculosis sanatorium in 1947.
Get Well Soon
Dolly Rawlins is free again. She has served the eight year prison sentence for her husband's murder and is now set to collect the six million pounds worth of diamonds that she stashed before she was sent down. The money will enable her to follow her dreams and start a new life. But her former cell mates have their own ideas...
She's Out
Oscar's Orchestra is a British children's animated TV series that ran from 1994 to 1996 comprising a total of three seasons and 39 episodes. The series was produced by the popular British animation studio Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment in association with Warner Music Vision and Europe Images and was originally shown on the BBC as part of the children's block CBBC. It has also aired on the British children's cable networks The Children's Channel and Nickleodeon, France 2 in France and ABC in Australia. It is set in the distant future, in the year 2743 in a city called New Vienna, and was about a talking piano called Oscar, who rebels against the evil dictator of the world, Thaddius Vent, who has banned music. Oscar and his fellow musical instruments plot against Vent and his henchmen, Lucius and Tank, and his soothsayer, Goodtooth, who always says: 'You screamed, master!'. The voice of Oscar was provided by Dudley Moore.
Oscar's Orchestra
Health and Efficiency is a British situation comedy that was originally broadcast from 30 December 1993 to 10 February 1995 on BBC1 for a total of 12 episodes over 2 series. It was written by Andrew Marshall, writer of the sitcom 2point4 children. The show starred Gary Olsen and Roger Lloyd Pack who both starred in 2point4 children, as well as Victor McGuire and Deborah Norton. The setting was a hospital and each episode was 30 minutes in length.
Health and Efficiency
Post-grad Joshua Penny investigates the murder of his mother in Brighton, who was killed after witnessing another murder. He delves into the local underworld to find the real killer, as police suspect his father.
Resort to Murder
Ian George, the head of an exclusive school, is asked to take a look at Hope Park Comprehensive School, which is in special measures, and asked to confirm its closure. The outgoing head breaks down during his farewell speech and delivers an emotional rant against the students, telling them how worthless they are. After meeting staff and pupils, George believes there is some hope for the school. The show was inspired by a real head teacher named William Atkinson.
Hope and Glory
The classic docusoap that made singer Jane McDonald a star. Set sail with the crew of the luxury cruise ship Galaxy as it glides across the Caribbean Sea.
The Cruise
Ten years in the making, PORNOGRAPHY: THE SECRET HISTORY OF CIVILISATION is a six-part series, which tells for the first time on British television the history of pornography. This landmark series charts the changes in imagery prompted by the advent of new technologies over thousands of years: from ancient times to print, photography, film, video and the Internet.
Pornography: The Secret History Of Civilization
Roger and the Rottentrolls is a children's comedy television series made for ITV by The Children's Company, which combined puppets with live action human actors. It was first broadcast on 1 January 1996. Written by Tim Firth, it was based on characters created by Gordon Firth directed by Julian Kemp and executive produced by Robert Howes. The first series won the 1997 BAFTA for "Best Children's Entertainment Show", beating the Ant and Dec Show. Later series were nominated for awards from both BAFTA and the Royal Television Society.
Roger and the Rottentrolls
Smillie's People
Harry's Mad was a children's television programme that was shown in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on CITV from 4 January 1993 to 11 March 1996. It is based upon a book written by Dick King-Smith.
Harry's Mad
Child of Our Time is a documentary commissioned by the BBC, co-produced with the Open University and presented by Robert Winston. It follows the lives of 25 children, born at the beginning of the 21st century, as they grow from infancy, through childhood, and on to becoming young adults. The aim of the series is to build up a coherent and scientifically accurate picture of how the genes and the environment of growing children interact to make a fully formed adult. A large portion of the series is made up of experiments designed to examine these questions. The main topic under consideration is: "Are we born or are we made?". The nature of the family in contemporary Britain is also addressed. The project is planned to run for 20 years, following its subjects from birth until the age of 20. During the first half of its run a set of about three or four episodes was produced annually. After 2008 new episodes became less frequent, and in 2011 there was some doubt about the future of the programme, including from Winston himself. In February 2013 it was announced that the series would resume, with two new episodes presented by Winston. Rather than the psychological experiments of previous series, these episodes focused on the first interviews with the participating children themselves and their families.
Child of Our Time
Two Fat Ladies was a BBC Two television cooking programme starring Clarissa Dickson Wright, and Jennifer Paterson. It originally ran for four series, from 1996 to 1999. The show was produced by the BBC and has also appeared on the Food Network and Cooking Channel in the U.S. and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia.
Two Fat Ladies
Joshua Jones is a Welsh stop-motion children's television series made by Bumper Films. It was originally shown on S4C in the Welsh language in 1991, then it was translated into English and sold to the BBC in 1992. The series was about a cheerful fellow named Joshua Jones who lives on a canal boat with his canine companion Fairport and together they take trips up and down Clearwater Canal, delivering items and carrying out tasks for the folks at Biggott's Wharf and generally having a fun time on the water. Joshua's bosses are: Baboo Karia, a retired Indian Admirable, Datsa Karia, Mr Cashmore's co-worker and Baboo's daughter-in-law, and the get-rich-quick Wilton Cashmore. Joshua's friends are: Joe Laski, the Hungarian farmer who takes a care of his horse Trojan, Ravi Karia, the Indian Boy who is Mrs. Karia's son and Admirable's grandson, and Fiona, Mr. Cashmore's not-so-money-hungry daughter.
Joshua Jones
The Phoenix and the Carpet is a six-part British miniseries based on E. Nesbit's 1904 fantasy novel of the same name. Produced by HIT Entertainment for BBC One, it aired from 16 November to 21 December 1997. Four Edwardian children find a strange egg in their newly-arrived Persian carpet. It hatches into a Phoenix bird that grants wishes and also transforms the rug into a magic carpet, which takes them on a series of adventures all over the world and at home.
The Phoenix and the Carpet
This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ is a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2. The name was a satirical reference to ITV's This Morning which was at the time popularly referred to as This Morning with Richard and Judy. The show was a reworking of old material from their previous work together along with new characters. The show was hosted in a daytime chat show format in front of a live studio audience, although it featured a small proportion of pre-recorded location inserts. It was structured by the often strange obsessions of Richard Herring; examples include his rating of the milk of all creatures and attempting to popularise the acronym of the show. The show featured repetition, with regular and vigilant viewers being rewarded by jokes that would make no sense to casual viewers. The show seemed to oscillate between the intellectual and puerile. However, irony was often used, even though the citing of irony as an excuse was mocked by the show's stars in one of many self-referential jokes.
This Morning with Richard Not Judy
From the Irish countryside to London to New York and back again, Maggie reenters the world as a countess and shady art dealer. With her panache and charisma, she finds more than an auction, a rekindled interracial love affair, helpful relatives and a painting of great price. She finds more than she bargained for in the labyrinth and milieu of stolen art.
Painted Lady
A fiftysomething English banker falls for and has an affair with an Irish waif from the wrong side of the tracks, causing him grief both professionally and personally.
A Time to Dance
BBC comedy-drama series about the life of Reg Toomer (Tim Healy), an ex-pat Briton living in Australia and running Melbourne Confidential, a failing private detective agency with his shifty business partner Dennis Tontine. His estranged young cousin Leslie arrives in Melbourne from the United Kingdom after a painful divorce looking for fun and excitement in the new world, instead he finds himself used as a drone for Melbourne Confidential.
Boys from the Bush
Alone and without her parents, Judith Dunbar spends her school days in a boarding school. When her friend Loveday invites her to Gut Nancherrow one day, it is love at first sight for Judith. The elegant lady of the house Diana, her husband Colonel Cary-Lewis and Loveday's siblings Edward and Athena immediately fall in love with her and treat her like family. But the outbreak of the Second World War put an end to the idyll on Nancherrow overnight. A long, thorny road lies ahead of Judith until she finally finds happiness in a family of her own...
Coming Home
Sir Oswald Mosley was a man who should have ranked with the heroes of the century... Instead his personal life and public career ended in disgrace and Mosley is now remembered as the leader of a dictatorial populist movement in the decade before WWII.
Mosley
A BBC Sunday afternoon drama serial aimed at family audiences, telling the Arthurian tale from the point of view of Merlin, from his youth to old age.