Explore TV Series

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Tiswas was a Saturday morning children's British television series which ran from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV Network Limited. It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson following a test period in 1973 when he tried out a few competitions and daft stuff between the programmes.

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs).

A BBC documentary film strand, with the focus on investigative journalism.

Based on the short stories by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown is a Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective.

Set in a seedy bedsit, the cowardly landlord Rigsby has his conceits debunked by his long suffering tenants.

This sprawling BBC saga follows an aristocratic family through three generations of power, wealth, intrigue, and scandal in Victorian England. Based on Anthony Trollope’s “political” novels .

Porridge is a British situation comedy broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film also titled Porridge. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. "Doing porridge" is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. The series was followed by a 1978 sequel, Going Straight, which established that Fletcher would not be going back to prison again. Porridge was voted number seven in a 2004 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British sitcoms.

Within These Walls is a British television drama programme created and written by David Butler. Produced by London Weekend Television for ITV, broadcast between 1974 and 1978, the series portrays life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison. Unlike the later women-in-prison series Prisoner and Bad Girls, Within These Walls tended to centre its storylines around the staff rather than the inmates. Plots typically revolve around well-groomed, genteel governor Faye Boswell's attempts to liberalise the regime while managing her private life.

In 1945, during the final months of the Second World War, a group of soldiers perform for the Royal Artillery concert party, with comic acts and musical numbers for others prior to their departure for the frontlines. The party avoids partaking in combat duty; thus, the soldiers love being part of the outfit. Some even daydream of becoming world-famous actors when they leave the army.

Napoleon and Love is a British television miniseries produced by Thames Television for ITV, lasting for nine episodes from 5 March to 30 April 1974. The series stars Ian Holm in the title role as Napoleon and depicts his relationships with the women who featured in his life as a backdrop to his rise and fall.

Six resistance fighters, known by their animal-based code names, fought during World War II. Their efforts came to a stop when one of their number, "the Wolf", betrayed them to the Gestapo. In their interrogation, one of their number, Claude Roget, the husband of Manouche was shot before her eyes. Thirty years later, Thomas Devon spots the Wolf in his shop. The surviving members of the Zoo Gang drop what they are doing and rendezvous for vengeance. The series follows the adventures of the remaining gang of four resistance fighters reunited 30 years later to scam habitual con artists and criminals in order to take their money and use it for good causes. Despite their ages, they put their skills and experience to use to raise enough money to construct a hospital in the memory of Claude. The gang is aided by the son of Manouche and Claude, an inspector in the French police.

Headmistress Sarah Burton, a left-wing feminist, is disgusted by the social injustices faced by her pupils. In spite of her beliefs, she reluctantly finds herself falling in love with a Tory landowner whose wife is suffering from insanity.

Rooms is a 1974–77 British afternoon soap created by John Finch and produced by Thames Television for ITV. Each story is two parts, concerning the various drifters who rent rooms in a lodging-house at 35 Mafeking Terrace.

The Family was a 1974 BBC television series made by producer Paul Watson, and directed by Franc Roddam. It was a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, seen by many as the precursor to reality television. It was similar to an American documentary which had aired the previous year in 1973, called An American Family. It followed the working-class Wilkins family of six of Reading, through their daily lives, warts and all, and culminated in the marriage of one of the daughters, which was plagued by fans and paparazzi alike.

...And Mother Makes Five is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1974 to 1976. Starring Wendy Craig, it is the sequel of ...And Mother Makes Three and aired for four series. ...And Mother Makes Five was written by Richard Waring, Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. Wendy Craig also wrote some episodes under the pseudonym Jonathan Marr. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television.

Zodiac was a six-part series transmitted by ITV in 1974. Starring Anton Rogers and Anouska Hempel as cynical detective David Gradley and his astrologer associate Esther Jones, the unusual astrological premise set this show apart from the humdrum detective dramas of the time. Little seen since its original broadcast, the series has garnered something of a cult status.

Daily soap featuring the fictional residents of the village of Cwmderi.

Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series.

Anthology series of thirteen one-hour love stories based on the short stories of Henry James.

An anthology of six plays, contemporary twists on well-loved tales with dark endings.

Middle-aged, middle-class couple Terry and June Fletcher expect to settle down in domestic bliss when their children leave home and they are left with a quiet, peaceful house. Their peace, however, is short-lived when ditzy Aunt Lucy decides she’s moving in.

This short-lived sequel to On the Buses (1969) saw Blakey move to Spain with his sister.

The Squirrels is a British television sitcom, written by Eric Chappell, who went on to create the Yorkshire Television sitcoms Rising Damp and Only When I Laugh. It ran for 3 series and 28 episodes and was made and broadcast from 1974 to 1977 on the ITV network, by ATV. Phil Redmond, the creator of now defunct Soap-Opera Brookside, was also a writer for the series.

The adventures of a 12-year-old boy's struggles in Victorian Yorkshire, after his father, Captain Charles Bulman, is lost, presumed drowned off the coast of Africa.

Orphaned Heidi lives with her reclusive grandfather in the Swiss Alps, where she befriends goatherd Peter. She eventually moves to the city, where she's taken to be a companion to a sickly girl named Clara.

A six-part BBC2 drama about the Honourable Greville Carnforth, an aristocratic solicitor based in a small village community in the Lake District.

The Aweful Mr Goodall is a six-episode 1974 British television drama produced by Richard Bates and starring Robert Urquhart as Jack Goodall, a retired MI5 agent who investigates various mysteries, often involving smuggling and international intrigue, with help from travel agent Alexandra Winfield.

Two schoolboys, Czech refugee Pavel 'Soldier' Szolda and local lad Jim Woolcott, get caught up in an international assassination plot after witnessing a crime, leading to a tense cat-and-mouse chase across Northern England.

A series of occurrences launch Norman Wisdom on a succession of remarkable and unpredictable adventures.

A short-lived studio discussion programme about television. Originally presented by Paul Barnes and Chris Dunkley, from the second series onwards the programme was chaired by William Hardcastle.

British television drama anthology series of single plays.

Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! is an ITV sitcom that ran from 1974 to 1977 starring Bill Maynard as the council labourer, Scarsdale Working Men’s Club secretary, hapless handyman and all-round public nuisance Selwyn Froggitt. It was created by Roy Clarke, who wrote the pilot episode transmitted in 1974, though the series was mostly written by Alan Plater. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television With outdoor location filming of the series filmed in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire and Elvington, North Yorkshire

Village Hall is a drama anthology series made by Granada between 1974 and 1975. It is entirely set in a village hall, with each episode highlighting a different use to which the space is put by local people. Writers include Jack Rosenthal and the actor Kenneth Cope.

A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships. A co-production with Time-Life Television Productions, the miniseries was first broadcast on BBC 1 in weekly parts from 1 December 1974 to 5 January 1975. It is the earliest BBC adaptation to exist in its entirety; the 1956 adaptation is completely lost, whilst only four of the 1966 adaptation's eight episodes are known to exist.

Anthology of crime stories in which the telephone plays a key role.

Notorious Woman is a 1974 BBC miniseries about the life of French novelist George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), starring Rosemary Harris in the title role, and focusing on her scandalous life, career, and relationships, particularly with composer Frédéric Chopin. The seven-episode drama, written by Harry W. Junkin and directed by Waris Hussein, won a Primetime Emmy for Harris's performance and explored Sand's defiance of 19th-century conventions, including her male attire and public cigar smoking.

Skiboy tells the story of Bobby Noël, known as Ski-Boy, an American teenager striving to meet Olympic skiing standards under the guidance of his older brother, who is a member of the mountain rescue team.

A land-owning father and son clash over the future of their large estate in Wales.

Wodehouse Playhouse is a British television comedy series based on the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. From 1974 to 1978, three series and a pilot were made, with 21 half-hour episodes altogether in the entire series.

A television series consisting of five original plays, all set at parties.

When Jed Pickersgill finds himself too ill to run his Chelsea pub, The Brown Cow, he calls upon his middle-aged daughter Nellie for help. Nellie moves from Bolton to London to help, despite being a teetotal.

The Top Secret Life Of Edgar Briggs was a 30-minute British television comedy series created by Bernard McKenna & Richard Laing and produced by Humphrey Barclay for LWT. It was transmitted on the ITV network 15 September - 20 December 1974 and featured David Jason as the inept Edgar Briggs, personal assistant to the Commander of the British Secret Intelligence Service who, in spite of his cluelessness, manages to solve case after case. It has been likened to the earlier American series Get Smart.

Wealthy local personality Malcolm Winfield was mugged walking through a park late at night with Ronald Hamilton whom he had met at a club earlier in the evening. Hamilton was unharmed in the attack. The victim's wallet was found later on at the home of Derek Clark and Sharon Cox, tucked inside a record player. Winfield says that Clark and Cox attacked him that evening. Hamilton is also accused of the same crime - the prosecution argue he was a male prostitute who willingly took part in a plan to entice Winfield to the park where his former house-mates could rob him. All the defendants deny the charges. Clark and Cox say this is a case of mistaken identity - they simply found the wallet in the park and were going to hand it in to police the next day; Hamilton says he was forced to assist the others who would have made public his sexuality had he not done so.

Shoulder to Shoulder is a 1974 BBC drama serial created through the collaboration of actress Georgia Brown, filmmaker Midge Mackenzie, and producer Verity Lambert. A dramatisation of the history of the women's suffrage movement in Britain, focusing on the Pankhurst family and their fight for women's right to vote, the six-part series, starring Siân Phillips as Emmeline Pankhurst, is considered a landmark in feminist television drama.

My Old Man was a popular but short-lived British comedy programme starring Clive Dunn as retired and embittered engine driver Sam Cobbett. Set in London, England, Sam Cobbett is the last tenant to leave an old house on a council-condemned road. He goes to live with his daughter, her posh husband, and their young teenage son, in a flat nearby.

Series of plays examining various aspects of contemporary woman at different ages. The theme song, sung by Charles Aznavour, was a big hit in the summer of 1974.

British ITV sitcom starring John Thaw and Bob Hoskins as two friends in a love triangle.

In BBC sitcom No Strings mismatched Leonara (Rita Tushingham) and Derek (Keith Barron) share a flat. This early Carla Lane series began life as a Comedy Playhouse entry. Guest stars included Michael Staniforth, Jessica Benton, Robert Gillespie and Tommy Godfrey. Cast: Rita Tushingham as Leonora; Keith Barron as Derek Writer: Carla Lane / Producer: John Howard Davies UK / BBC One / 7×30 minute episodes / Pilot: 16 April 1974 Season: 4 October – 8 November 1974 Fridays at 7.45pm

Moody and Pegg was a bittersweet British comedy-drama, produced by Thames Television for ITV between 1974 and 1975. Derek Waring and Judy Cornwell starred in this series that accented comedy but also had moments of drama. Waring played Roland Moody, a newly divorced 42-year-old junk/antique dealer greatly anticipating freedom from matrimonial ties. Cornwell was cast as Daphne Pegg, plain spinster and dedicated civil servant in her early thirties who leaves her home in Bolton after realising that her office boss will never agree to marry her. She heads for London and a clean break, but, owing to a rogue estate agent's dealings, finds that a man - Moody - also has a valid lease arrangement for the property she acquires. Unable to work out who is the squatter, they agree to be feuding partners and share, forging a very uncomfortable situation that is exacerbated by Moody's prodigious line of visiting girlfriends. With hilarious consequences. Eventually, Moody loses in a winner-takes-all poker game and leaves, only to return in the second series. The title theme is The Free Life by prolific library music composer Alan Parker.

No, Honestly is a British sitcom that was originally produced in 1974. No, Honestly featured the real-life married couple of Pauline Collins and John Alderton respectively as Clara and Charles Danby, a newlywed couple living in London. The character of Clara was a ditzy dreamer who hoped to write books for children. Charles Danby by contrast was a struggling actor with a more serious streak. At the start of each episode, the couple appeared in front of an audience telling stories about their first meeting, courtship and life as newlyweds. The entire programme, therefore, was a series of flashbacks as the couple recounted the earlier days of their romance. Filled with witty and sparkling banter, the episodes featured comic situations ranging from problems with mistaken identity to decorating and makeover mishaps. In homage to George Burns and Gracie Allen, CD would end each episode with the phrase "Say goodnight, Clara." The series is based on the novels Coronet Among the Weeds and Coronet Among the Grass written by Charlotte Bingham, who was co-creator of the TV series with her husband Terence Brady. The theme song for No, Honestly was written and performed by Lynsey De Paul. It peaked on the UK charts at number 7.

The Nearly Man was a UK TV series from the mid-1970s created by Arthur Hopcraft about a middle-class Labour MP. Originally screened on ITV on 4 August 1974, the series won the Broadcasting Press Guild award for the best single play on British television in 1974. The series was filmed in London by Granada Television, in black and white. Some episodes were directed by British director John Irvin. The main cast included Tony Britton as the lead character, Anne Firbank, John Leyton, and Ian McCulloch.

Do-gooder Angie Botley is a ministering angel whose mission in life is to help people become happier and better human beings.

Roobarb is a British animated children's television programme, originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon, written by Grange Calveley and animated by Bob Godfrey, was about five minutes long. Thirty episodes were made, and the show was first shown on 21 October 1974. The theme is that of the friendly rivalry between Roobarb the green dog and Custard the pink cat from next door. The narration of the series was provided by the actor Richard Briers. On 18 February 2013, Briers died, followed four days later by animator Godfrey.

Ronnie and Laura Corbett have embarked on a new future - this time in the company of the Prince of Denmark, a public house that she has inherited. Ronnie's initially rather put out by Laura's being technically in charge; something which the brewery's delivery men are swift to pick up on! Her prior experience working behind a bar soon begins to rub off, but it's a slow learning curve for the diminutive busybody as he attempts to keep his pride in tact, his eye over everything, and his hand firmly on the tiller.

The Mr Men are a whole host of brightly colored characters that live in Misterland. All of them have names like Mr Happy, Mr Clumsy and Mr Greedy and their appearance and personality match their name. Based on the books by Roger Hargraves.