Explore TV Series

Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.

Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.

Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.

A magazine-style television series on BBC1 which was broadcast from May 1973 to June 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen, with various changes of co-presenters. The show presented hard-hitting investigations alongside satire and occasional light entertainment.

Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries is a British television anthology series produced by Anglia Television for the ITV network and broadcast between 1973 and 1974. The series presents standalone adaptations of classic mystery, crime, and supernatural stories drawn from literary sources including Dickens, Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Balzac, Maugham, O. Henry, and others. Each episode is framed by original introductory and closing sequences performed by Orson Welles, who serves as the series’ host and sole recurring on-screen presence. These segments, written and directed by Welles (uncredited), function as stylized narrative framing devices rather than dramatic participation in the stories themselves. The dramatic content of each episode is performed by separate casts and directors, with no continuing characters or serialized narrative, establishing the series as a unified television anthology rather than a collection of standalone films.

A documentary series that gives a historical account of the events of World War II, from its roots in the 1920s to the aftermath and the lives it profoundly influenced.

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is a British sitcom which was broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 9 April 1974 on BBC1. It was the colour sequel to the mid-1960s hit The Likely Lads. It was created and written, as was its predecessor, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. There were 26 television episodes over two series; and a subsequent 45-minute Christmas special was aired on 24 December 1974. The cast were reunited in 1975 for a BBC radio adaptation of series 1, transmitted on Radio 4 from July to October that year. In 1976, a feature film spin-off was made. Around the time of its release, however, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam fell out over a misunderstanding involving the press and have not spoken since. This long-suspected situation was finally confirmed by Bewes while promoting his autobiography in 2005. Unlike Bewes, Bolam is consistently reluctant to talk about the show, and has vetoed any attempt to revive his character.

Written and filmed to reflect the reality of life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in the 1970s, most stories focus on the Captain and his fellow officers, with subplots dealing with life on the lower decks. Episodes typically featured a variety of events at sea (the Cold War, smuggling, the evacuation of civilians from crisis-hit places, etc.), as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties.

Pipkins was a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981.

Man About the House is a British sitcom created and written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer, and starring Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Richard O'Sullivan, Brian Murphy, and Yootha Joyce. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 April 1976. It was considered daring at the time because it featured a man sharing a London flat with two single women. Single roommates Chrissy and Jo search for a third tenant to help pay the rent, they intend on finding another female. But then they encounter Robin Tripp... who's looking for a place to stay. Two spin-offs were produced: George and Mildred (1976–79) and Robin's Nest (1977–81). A film adaptation was released in 1974 and, in 1977, the series was remade for American audiences as Three's Company.

Meet Frank Spencer, an eager young man trying to find his way in the world. He's enthusiastic, well-meaning... and disaster-prone.

Born to human parents, an apparently normal child might at some point between childhood and late adolescence experience a process called 'breaking out' and develop special paranormal abilities. These abilities include psychic powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. However, their psychological make-up prevents them from intentionally killing others.

A series of plays from Birmingham by new writers.

Black and Blue was a BBC TV comedy-drama series, first broadcast in 1973. The show consisted of six 50–60 minutes episodes, each a separate self-contained playlet. The only connection was the Black and Blue humour theme. The first episode was broadcast on 14 August 1973, with the finale on 18 September 1973. The first, Secrets, was wiped, only surviving thanks to a domestic videotape copy made from the master by producer Mark Shivas.

Hunters Walk – devised by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis – was about crime on a smaller – but no less dramatic – scale, and featured a police force in the fictional Midlands town of Broadstone (the series was actually filmed in Rushden, Northants). Sharing several similarities with the classic 1950s police drama, in particular a small-town settingband storylines encompassing the more human aspects of police work, Hunters Walk offered a contrasting alternative to the 1970s more hard-hitting, action-led urban crime dramas. The small, idiosyncratic team of officers faced a typically broad spectrum of cases, from neighbours’ disputes and hooliganism to suspected murder.

Whoops Baghdad is a BBC television comedy programme first broadcast from 25 January to 1 March 1973. The series stars Frankie Howerd, and was similar to his earlier programme Up Pompeii!, with the setting moved from Ancient Rome to mediaeval Baghdad. However, it was significantly less successful than its predecessor, only running for six episodes and is little remembered, although all episodes survive. The original proposed title, Up Baghdad, was rejected because it was felt that it might have been seen as supportive of the then-current Iraqi regime.

Sam is a drama set in the coalfields of Yorkshire in the inter-war period.

An anthology series based on the Wessex Tales, a collection of short stories by novelist Thomas Hardy.

The misadventures of a small community dedicated to cleaning up litter and putting it to their own use.

The adventures of David Caulder and his crew stationed on Moonbase 3.

Seven of One is a 1973 BBC2 comedy anthology starring Ronnie Barker. 7 of 1 is a series of seven separate comedies that would serve as possible pilots for sitcoms, three of which were picked up for a full series run. Originally called Six of One, which Barker planned to follow up with another series called Half Dozen of the Other.

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.

Sutherland's Law is a British television series created by Lindsay Galloway and produced by BBC Scotland for BBC One, aired from 6 June 1973 to 31 August 1976. The drama deals with the duties of the Procurator Fiscal in a small Scottish town. The series had originated as a standalone edition of the portmanteau programme Drama Playhouse in 1972 in which Derek Francis played Sutherland and was then commissioned as an ongoing series with Iain Cuthbertson as Sutherland.

Barry Ovis is Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for European Affairs, Sir William Mainwaring-Brown. Sir William has a very active libido and often gets up to non-portfolio activities. Ovis has to cover for him (usually very badly), and misunderstandings then pile on top of misunderstandings.

Whodunnit? is a British television game show, broadcast between 1972 and 1978 for ITV by Thames Television. It was written by Lance Percival and Jeremy Lloyd, and hosted first by Edward Woodward. One of the panelists in the first series was Jon Pertwee, who took over as the show's presenter from season two. Each week it featured a short murder-mystery drama enacted in front of a panel of celebrity guests who then had to interview the remaining characters to establish who the murderer was. Patrick Mower and Anouska Hempel became the permanent panelists from season three onwards, with two guest celebrities each episode. The only clue was that only the murderer could lie. Whodunnit? originally adopted a conventional panel-game studio layout, but from series three onwards utilised the murder scene itself as the set. It was similar in format, although not officially connected to, the popular board game Cluedo. The theme to the show was written by Tony Hatch

Contemporary thriller series set in a parallel Britain where the country is ruled by a fascist dictatorship.

The dissolution of an 18-year marriage, seen first from his point-of-view and then from hers.

Armchair 30 is an anthology drama series of short plays produced by Thames Television and broadcast in 1973. The series was a spin-off from Armchair Theatre.

Oh, Father! is a British sitcom produced by Graeme Muir for BBC One. A follow-up to the 1968–70 series Oh, Brother!, Derek Nimmo reprises his role as Brother Dominic, who finds himself promoted to Father, but that's as far as his luck goes. He's just as clumsy and accident-prone as ever.

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

The Ascent of Man is a thirteen-part documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first transmitted in 1973, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. Intended as a series of "personal view" documentaries in the manner of Kenneth Clark's 1969 series Civilisation, the series received acclaim for Bronowski's highly informed but eloquently simple analysis, his long unscripted monologues and its extensive location shoots.

Two undercover army operatives infiltrate an activist group working towards an independent Scotland by illegal means.

Chéri is a 1973 British drama television series produced and aired by the BBC. The five-episode miniseries is an adaptation of the acclaimed French novels by Colette, following the turbulent romantic entanglement between an older courtesan and a much younger, spoiled man.

Aristocrat Robin Seacroft lives carefree with his wife Phyllida, and their children Gareth and Davina, but all of this changes when he goes shooting with his father, the aged Lord Seacroft, who leaves his gun unattended. A curious rabbit sets off the gun and bang goes the former Lord Seacroft. Robin inherits his late father's title, but precious little else.

When General Fentiman is found dead in his chair a the posh Bellona Club, the cause seems straightforward: a heart attack brought on by old age. The Lady Dorland, the General's sister, dies on the same day. Is it a startling coincidence or something more sinister? Called in to investigate, Lord Peter becomes suspicious of the general's grandson, whose peculiar behavior and whereabouts on the night of the deaths seem incriminating. But these suspicions are overshadowed by the discovery that Miss Dorland, Lady Dorland's niece, has an abiding interest in poisons.

Topical arts magazine introduced by Melvyn Bragg.

Norman Wisdom played 'Nobody', a loser with no personality of his own. But when he puts any hat on, he adopted the characteristics of its owner. He had a girlfriend, Grace (Priscilla Morgan) and lived with his domineering mother (Natalie Kent), who didn't like Grace. Weekly, Nobody found himself in a different situation, playing a variation on his character. One episode had him as a character called Joe Nobody doing a brilliant impersonation of Peter Falk's Columbo; in another, he was seriously beaten by gangsters.

16-year-old Terry Connor uncovers a secret government plot involving mind control and espionage at a Ministry of Defence facility near his Outward Bound camp.

Released from prison after serving a prison sentence, Stanley Bowler sets about trying to 'better' himself. The basic premise of the series revolves around Bowler's attempts to develop a more cultured personality, as he tries to understand the fine arts, and to move into higher social circles.

Michael Bentine's Potty Time was a long-running British children's show, starring Michael Bentine, and directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television on ITV. It ran from 1973 to 1980. The episodes consisted largely of distinctive, bearded puppets, comically re-enacting famous historical situations. The Potties' faces were always obscured by facial hair, with only their noses protruding. They were operated from beneath and had two distinct sizes - approximately two feet and one foot tall. All of the Potty characters were designed by Bentine, who also provided all of their voices. Their operators were from The Barry Smith Theatre of Puppets. In 2001, it was voted into 71st place in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows poll. Several Region 2 DVDs of the series have been released by Network DVD.

Casanova '73 was a short-lived British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 in 1973. It was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson and starred Leslie Phillips as Henry Newhouse.

After her father’s death, young Pollyanna moves east to live with her aunt Polly. Once there, the “Glad Game” her father taught her, begins to change the lives of the town’s residents. Based on the classics children’s book by Eleanor H. Porter.

Dramatized biography of the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily.

ITV sitcom about an imaginative young man. 26 episodes (2 series), 1973 - 1974. Stars Jeff Rawle, George A. Cooper, Pamela Vezey, May Warden and others.

Six plays adapted from English short stories written in the nineteen-twenties and thirties.

A 1973 BBC series featuring seven films about there aspects of their past made by seven European countries. Out of all seven episodes produced for the series six of them are believed now to be lost with episode one being the only surviving episode that is known to exist.

An anthology of self-contained plays focused on the personal experiences of characters who find themselves taking a break from their normal lives—such as going on holiday, taking a retreat, or travelling.

Marked Personal was a British daytime television drama created by Charles Dennis and starring Stephanie Beacham and Heather Chasen. The series was made by Thames Television and consisted of 90 episodes, shown twice weekly on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons during 1973-74. It is set in the fictional personnel department of a large company called B.Y.A.

Six new plays showcasing female writers, three set in the 1930s and three in the 1970s.

This comedy series lets you in on the secrets of industrial relations and management-workers consultations. Or at least how they happen at the Midlands factory of Cockers Components Ltd. They mainly center on the dealings between managing director Dicky Bligh, shop steward Sid Stubbins and labor relations officer Bernard Peck.

Lizzie Dripping was a British television children's programme produced by the BBC in 1973 and 1975. It was written by Helen Cresswell and set in the country village of Little Hemlock, where a young girl, Penelope, with a vivid imagination encounters a local witch whom only she can see and hear. This singular ability is further complicated by the fact that Penelope has established a reputation for being an imaginative liar, making it even more difficult for her to convince others that her witch is real.

Beryl's Lot is a British comedy drama about a woman approaching middle-age and embarking on a programme of personal development. It was written by Kevin Laffan, produced by David Cunliffe and Peter Willes, and directed by Derek Bennett and David Reynolds for Yorkshire Television and broadcast on ITV between 1973 and 1977. Beryl's Lot ran for 3 series and 52 episodes in total before its cancellation. The first two series each consisted of 13 one hour-long episodes, the third series of 26 episodes of 30 minutes.

Sir Yellow was a British TV sitcom aired on ITV from 15 July - 19 August 1973. It starred Jimmy Edwards in the title role and also featured Melvyn Hayes, Alan Curtis, and Michael Ripper. The show was set in the 13th century and followed the misadventures of a cowardly, womanising, alcoholic knight. The programme was axed after just one series following bad reviews and was never brought back for a second; in 2003 the TV critic Mark Lewisohn named it "the 20th worst British sitcom of all time" in his book The Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy.

The Gathercole family live in number 47A, a flat in a small block. When the widowed mother is suddenly taken to hospital and hurried plans for an aunt to look after the children fall through, they decide to take care of themselves. When the Welfare authorities learn what is happening, a constant battle to prove they can take care of themselves, and avoid being but in the care of the local council commences.

Robert Sommerby is a brilliant but eccentric inventor who lives in the country with his Aunt Millie and a number of humanoid robots. One, Katie ( KT ), talks like a child and has a propensity for walking through doors without opening them.

The highly popular detective pair from the series Softly, Softly, Barlow and Watt, try to solve the old mystery of Jack The Ripper in this documentary series.