Explore TV Series

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

A secret, high-technology international agency called SHADO defends Earth from alien invaders.

A medieval wizard (though not a very good one) Catweazle is transported to the modern age... A British television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for London Weekend Television under the LWI banner, and screened in the UK on ITV in 1970. A second season in 1971 was directed by David Reid and David Lane. Both series had thirteen episodes each, with Geoffrey Bayldon playing the leading role. The series was broadcast in Ireland, Britain, Gibraltar, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua and Quebec. The first episode is available to view in full at the BFI Screenonline site.

A British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s, combining surreal sketches and situation comedy.

Sporting quiz show, with regular captains leading teams of celebrities.

Pan Tau always had a gentle expression and a friendly smile, he was elegantly dressed in a stroller, with an umbrella and a white carnation in the lapel. Foremost, he was famous for his magic bowler hat. By tapping on his hat, Pan Tau was able to change his appearance into a puppet, to conjure up miscellaneous objects or to do other magic. His most characteristically behavior is that he would help children who were experiencing some sort of difficulties in-between their dreams and reality, like finding a place for skiing, settling family problems on Christmas, and even give a boy a good time at a fair when he is supposed to have piano lessons. To adults, he usually remained invisible.

Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.

Manhunt is a World War II drama series consisting of 26 episodes, produced by London Weekend Television in 1969 and broadcast nationwide.

Hamburg Transit was a German crime television series that first aired in 1970. It ran for 52 episodes over four series until 1974. It depicts the officers of the Hamburg CID. It was a successor to the show Polizeifunk ruft which ran between 1966 and 1970.

Ace of Wands is a fantasy-based British children's television show broadcast on ITV between 1970 and 1972, created by Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale and produced by Thames Television. The title, taken from the name of a Tarot card describes the principal character, called "Tarot" who combined stage magic with supernatural powers. Tarot has a pet Owl named Ozymandias, played by Fred Owl. The series ran for two seasons of thirteen episodes and a third season of twenty, with fourteen story arcs, in a similar manner to early Doctor Who. Many, if not all, of the first 26 episodes are believed to have been wiped, although the final season is intact.

An anthology of eleven dramas using confessions as a central theme.

The Mad Adventures of Don Quixote of La Mancha, a knight-errant of sad countenance, devoted to protecting the weak and fighting injustice alongside his faithful squire Sancho Panza, in a five-part series that brings together the staging, actors, audience, musicians, and “behind-the-scenes” elements, blending documentary and fiction.

A six-episode dramatisation of Henry VIII's relationships with each of his six wives. Each episode, with a different writer, is devoted to one wife, and is a complete play in itself.

The Misfit is an ATV sitcom created by Roy Clarke, broadcast from 1970 to 1971 on ITV. Basil Allenby-Johnson returns from Colonial Malaya to an England just emerging from the swinging sixties, a home he no longer recognises.

This is a series of thrillers designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Anthology series in which characters find themselves in weird and scary situations. Not evoked by the supernatural but by other people.

A series of plays which examine if 1970s society is heading towards the dystopian world predicted in the book '1984'.

A Family at War is a British drama series created by John Finch and produced by Granada Television for ITV. It broadcast from 14 April 1970 to 16 February 1972. 52 episodes were made, all but eight in colour. Episodes numbers 25 to 32 were recorded in black and white because of the ITV Colour Strike (November 1970 — February 1971). The Ashton family struggles to deal with the harsh realities of the Second World War as their sons are sent away to fight. Those who remain at home in Liverpool live in constant fear of a knock on the door with a telegram from the War Office or the Luftwaffe bombs overhead as they sleep at night.

Little Women is a 1970 BBC television miniseries, based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868-69 two-volume novel of the same name about four sisters who come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War. The third BBC adaptation of the novel, the nine-part series is often considered—while not particularly widely acknowledged—one of the more faithful adaptations.

Codename, which premiered in April 1970, was about the secretive MI17 Spy Organisation of the same name based in the residential hall of a Cambridge College. Eventually the series attained a more international flavour, although its base was always in Great Britain. Primarily Codename dealt with the themes of espionage and counter-espionage at the time of the Cold War of the sixties. Its cast contained many of Great Britain's most versatile and talented actors.

Set in Chelsea, London, an agony aunt named Kate Graham works as a newspaper columnist where she gives advice to readers dealing with personal problems, but sometimes she can't help getting personally drawn towards the people that write to her.

The Adventures of Don Quick is a science fiction comedy television series broadcast from October–December 1970, on ITV. Starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, six 50 minute episodes were made, shown in a 60 minute time slot. Based on the characters of Don Quixote, astronaut Captain Don Quick and Sergeant Sam Czopanser (i.e. "Sancho Panza") are members of the Intergalactic Maintenance Squad. On each planet they visit, Quick attempts to right imaginary wrongs, often upsetting the inhabitants of whatever society he's in. As of 2008, only the first episode exists, the other five are now missing. A technologically impressive 30 foot model spaceship was built in the studio for the series. However the first three episodes in a primetime slot failed to draw the required ratings so the last three were in a much later slot before the show was cancelled.

Follows the problems of foreman Charlie Cattermole, top man Gussie Sissons, and the team of characters who are building a upmarket housing estate.

From a Bird's Eye View is a 1970 ATV and ITC Entertainment co-produced sitcom. In the United States it aired on NBC, which had originally ordered the series as an entry in the 1969-70 TV season but pushed it back to the 1970-71 season as a mid-season replacement. The series followed two International Airlines stewardesses, a scatterbrained Briton and a savvy American, as they flew the London-European routes. The series ran for 16 25-minute colour episodes. The series was not a big success in either the UK or the US, but ITC re-used the format for the Shirley MacLaine series Shirley's World. That show also flopped, but ran to one more episode than From a Bird's Eye View.

The Tomfoolery Show is an American cartoon comedy television series made and first broadcast in 1970, based on the works of Edward Lear. The animation was done at the Halas and Batchelor Studios in London and Stroud. Though the works of other writers were also used, notably Lewis Carroll and Ogden Nash, Lear's works were the main source, and characters like The Yongy Bonghy Bo and The Umbrageous Umbrella Maker were all Lear creations. Some original material was also written based on characters created by Lear, although much of the material was a straight recital of poems and limericks or songs using Lear's poems set to music. A recurring joke had a delivery boy running around trying to deliver a large plant and shouting 'Plant for Mrs Discobolus!'. The series was produced by Rankin/Bass, who also made the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.

Ivanhoe was a BBC television series from 1970. The script was by Alexander Baron, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel of the same name. The director was David Maloney. It was shown on the Sunday tea-time slot on BBC1, which for several years showed fairly faithful adaptations of classic novels aimed at a family audience. It was later shown on US television. It consisted of five 50-minute episodes. It is not widely remembered nowadays, but is remembered favourably by some who do remember it, as one of the better BBC Sunday adaptations, and possibly more accessible to a late 20th-century audience than Scott's original novel.

A.T.V's hour-long drama series. Crime of Passion is based on true cases. The series, written by Lord Ted Willis and set in modern France, contains six love stories that do not end happily, but in violence and death. The action of each play moves between the courtroom at the trial and flashbacks, which show the events leading up to the crime.

The lives and, often illegal, activities of the residents of a tower block in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire, with the brassy matriarch, Queenie Shepherd, ruling the roost over her neighbours.

Taboo-busting adaptation for television of Jean-Paul Sartre's trilogy.

Telematch was the name of a German television show broadcast during the 1970s till 1979, based on its French counterpart Intervilles. It first consisted of a match between teams from two German towns, except for the last matches, which were between five towns. The match was composed of several games. For each game the participants would typically dress up in costumes. Often the costumes were elaborate and designed to increase the challenge of the game by making movement awkward. Games were played against the clock, or as a race. Telematch was produced by Transtel. It was dubbed into English, Hindi, Arabic, French and Spanish. It was shown in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Costa Rica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Middle East, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Uruguay as well as in various South East Asian and Caribbean nations and probably other places as well. A total of 43 episodes were made before production was halted. In Spain between 1995 to 2007 TVE broadcast a show like Telematch called El Gran Prix del Verano with the same format. Currently, it is being shown again in Paraguay. Also, it is still being shown in India and receives a good viewership.

The ups-and-downs of a young courting couple's relationship.

For the Love of Ada is an ITV sitcom broadcast from April 1970 to December 1971. Created by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, the series stars Irene Handl and Wilfred Pickles as senior citizens Ada Cresswell and Walter Bingley, who find that as romance blossoms, so does emotional turmoil.

A series of feature-length and classic short films by the legendary comedy team.

Der Fall von nebenan is a German television series.

Here Come the Double Deckers was a 17-part British children's TV series from 1970-71 revolving around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-decker London bus in an unused works yard.

Der Kurier der Kaiserin is a German Television series.

Upon his return from Louisiana in 1865, Maxence de Mettray decides to use the profits from his last commercial trip to buy the castle of Mauregard in Touraine, the castle of his ancestors. From there, his story and that of his descendants is told over six different periods. A French mini-series in six 60-minute episodes.

Simon Randall and Liz Skinner discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables them to travel in time to different historical periods in alternate pasts and futures.

Disappearing World is a British documentary television series produced by Granada Television, which produced 49 episodes between 1970 and 1993. The episodes, each an hour long, focus on a specific human community around the world, usually but not always a traditional tribal group.

Possibly lost adaptation of the 1853 Charlotte Brontë novel of the same name.

Ben Travers' Farces is a British comedy television series which originally aired on BBC 1. It ran for a single series of seven episodes between 19 September and 31 October 1970. Each was a stand-alone adaptation of a farce by Ben Travers. The first six episodes were adaptations of Aldwych Farces beginning with Rookery Nook while the seventh She Follows Me About was based on his wartime play of the same title.