Explore TV Series

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Role-reversal sitcom about a freelance magazine writer and house-husband, Rupert, and his high-flying City worker wife, Kay. Stars Ronald Lewis, Sue Lloyd, Barbara Murray, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Madeline Smith and more.

When her husband dies, Mrs Adele Gereth quarrels with her carefree son Owen over the family estate and his desire to marry for love, not money.

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

The city of Haarlem, Netherlands, has set a prize of ƒ100,000 to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the Tulip Mania thirty years prior, and the citizens throw themselves into the competition. The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded but is suddenly thrown into the Loevestein prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who will be his comfort and help, and eventually become his rescuer.

Albert and Victoria is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1971. Starring Alfred Marks, it was written by Reuben Ship. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television. In Albert and Victoria, Marks plays Albert Hackett, a middle-class man in late 19th century England. He and his wife, Victoria, have nine children, and he is used to getting his own way.

Man at the Top was a British television series originally aired on ITV lasting for 23 episodes between 1970 and 1972 . The series depicted the character of Joe Lampton, the protagonist of John Braine's novel Room at the Top and two films Room at the Top and Life at the Top. In 1973 a spin-off film from the series, Man at the Top, was released.

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

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.

Never Say Die is a British television series, which aired in 1970. It was a comedy produced by Yorkshire Television.

The Ed and Zed Show was a BBC children's television programme which ran briefly around 1970. It was presented by the disc jockey Ed Stewart, nicknamed "Stewpot", and was co-hosted by Zed, the "rebel robot". Zed was often cheeky to the sometimes bad-tempered Stewart. This programme is now of very minor significance, except for one point. While the theme of robots rebelling against their masters is a common one in culture, this is quite possibly the only case where the audience were supposed to be on the robot's side. One feature of the robot was that at the end of every show except the last, he would overload himself by going into hysteric laughter causing smoke to billow out of his back.

After seven years each of marriage, two thirty-something women of contrasting outlooks decide that it's high time their husbands took more notice of them.

Bachelor Father is a British sitcom starring Ian Carmichael that aired for two series from 1970 to 1971. It was written by Richard Waring.

The six-episode comedy series chronicled the humorous, isolated lives of two lighthouse keepers stationed on Bachelor Rock, though all of the original episodes are now believed to be lost.

That's Your Funeral was a BBC sitcom from 1971. The show was about a North of England funeral director called Basil Bulstrode. It used numerous urban legends about the funeral industry in its storylines. The show only lasted for one series before being axed. A very similar theme was used far more successfully in the ITV sitcom In Loving Memory.

Relaxed Irish crooner Val Doonican sits in a rocking chair, wearing cardigans or jumpers, and playing the guitar, performing easy listening and country material – and often comedic Irish songs. Comedy newcomer Dave Allen was a frequent regular in 1965-66. Guests included Lulu, Marianne Faithfull, Lonnie Donegan, Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Adam Faith, Sandie Shaw, Julie Felix, The Bachelors, Kathy Kirby, Cilla Black, The Alan Price Set, Frank Ifield, Rolf Harris, The Beverley Sisters, Nana Mouskouri, David Nixon, Les Dawson, Arthur Askey, Roy Castle, Norman Vaughan, Derek Nimmo, Des O’Connor, Kenneth McKellar, Sheila Hancock, Ray Alan, and Matt Monro.

Seven stories based around the comings and goings of a computer dating agency.

The story of a young student in Budapest during the 1900s.

Show presented by Cliff Richard

The Adventures of Parsley was a 32-episode children's television series animated in stop motion. Produced by FilmFair, The Adventures of Parsley was a spin-off of The Herbs. Its opening credits featured either Parsley the lion roaring or Dill the dog barking with their head in a circle, in parody of MGM's logo. The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley were created and written by Michael Bond, directed by Ivor Wood, and distributed by BBC1. BBC1 premiered The Adventures of Parsley on 6 April 1970. The five-minute-long episodes concluded the day's broadcast of children's programming, and preceded the early evening broadcast of BBC News..

The Woman in White is a British drama television series which originally aired on BBC 1 in six 25 minute long episodes between 2 October and 6 November 1966. It was adapted from the 1859 novel The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

As Good Cooks Go was a black-and-white British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1970. Written by John Warren and John Singer, it starred Tessie O'Shea and Frank Williams.

The Adventures of Rupert Bear was a live-action/puppet television series, based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, produced by ATV Network, and aired from 28 October 1970 to 24 August 1977 on the ITV network, with 156 11-minute episodes produced over four series. Of the 156 episodes made only 74 are known to exist in their original colour film format, while there are a further 16 duplicated on black & white 16mm film. The remaining episodes are currently missing, whereabouts unknown. The characters were all puppets, although the opening sequence memorably featured a toy version of Rupert Bear sitting in a live-action child's bedroom. Rupert's friends and flying chariot appeared straight from the Daily Express pages, although he was joined by some new friends including a sprite called Willy Wisp.