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Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses.... Is a British sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally transmitted on BBC One from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until 2003. In working-class Peckham in south-east London, ambitious market trader Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter and his younger half-brother Rodney, explore their highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich. Initially not an immediate hit and receiving little promotion early on, it later achieved consistently high ratings, and the 1996 episode "Time on Our Hands" (originally billed as the series finale) holds the record for the biggest UK audience for a sitcom episode, attracting 24.3 million viewers. The series bears a significant influence on British culture, contributing several words and phrases to the English language.

Only Fools and Horses

8.1 N/A
Private Schulz

Private Schulz is a six-part 1981 television comedy-drama serial written by Jack Pulman and produced for BBC Two. It stars Michael Elphick in the title role, with Ian Richardson, Tony Caunter, Billie Whitelaw, Billy Murray, and Mark Wingett. Set primarily in Germany, during and immediately following World War II, fraudster and petty criminal Gerhard Schulz is forced to serve in the SS. In a story based on the real, though unrealised, plot by the Germans known as Operation Bernhard, Schulz tricks the Nazis into making counterfeit British £5 notes, millions of which will be used to destroy the British economy.

Private Schulz

5.3 N/A
Never the Twain

Never the Twain is a British sitcom that ran for eleven series from 7 September 1981 to 9 October 1991. It was created by Johnnie Mortimer, and was the only sitcom he ever created without his usual writing partner, Brian Cooke. Mortimer wrote the entirety of the first two series and four episodes out of six of the eighth, with the rest being mainly written by Vince Powell and John Kane. It starred Windsor Davies and Donald Sinden as rival antique dealers, and also starred Derek Deadman, Zara Nutley, Robin Kermode, Tacy Kneale, Julia Watson, Honor Blackman, Teddy Turner and Maria Charles. The title is taken from the Rudyard Kipling poem; The Ballad of East and West.

Never the Twain

7.0 N/A
Triangle

Triangle was a BBC Television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed from Felixstowe to Gothenburg and Gothenburg to Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam and Felixstowe to justify the programme title, but this was not operated by the ferry company. The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced". The scripts involved clichéd relationships and stilted dialogue, making the show the butt of several jokes - particularly on Terry Wogan's morning Radio 2 programme - which caused some embarrassment to the BBC. In 1992, the BBC screened TV Hell, an evening of programming devoted to the worst television had to offer, and the first episode of Triangle was broadcast as part of the line-up. The ferry used in the first series was the Tor Line's MS Tor Scandinavia. In the second and third series this was replaced by the DFDS vessel Dana Anglia probably because she had a less intensive schedule and the longer time she spent in port made on-board filming easier.

Triangle

5.8 N/A
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in 1995 when he quoted a number of Churchill's wartime speeches in character.

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

6.3 N/A
Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984. The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1. Captain Emily Ridley has been posted there, having been an active member of the Salvation Army for 42 years. Despite the town and residents being seemingly pleasant, Emily is determined to flush out sin from behind the net curtains. Assisting Emily are her niece Alice Meredith. The programme was a repeat collaboration between Hird and the creator Dick Sharples, having worked together on the comedy series In Loving Memory between 1979 and 1986. The show even featured guest appearances from guest stars like Hird's Last of the Summer Wine co-star actor Michael Aldridge and television presenter & Countdown Legend Richard Whiteley Himself.

Hallelujah!

6.2 N/A
Three of a Kind

Three of a Kind was a British comedy sketch show starring comedians Tracey Ullman, Lenny Henry and David Copperfield. Three series were made by the BBC between 1981 and 1983. The show bolstered the careers of Ullman and Henry, as well as being an outlet for young writers including Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, Ian Hislop and Nick Revell. Ullman and Henry went on to greater success after the show, with Ullman initially launching a brief but successful pop career in 1983 before starring in the ITV sitcom Girls On Top in 1985 and then going on to a high profile career on American television. Henry was given his own BBC series The Lenny Henry Show in 1984 and he remains a semi-regular fixture on British television to this day. Copperfield, however, garnered less success and has been seen relatively little since the series ended.

Three of a Kind

6.8 N/A
Razzamatazz

Razzamatazz was a music based children's television programme which ran on ITV between 2 June 1981 and 2 January 1987. Singer Lisa Stansfield found fame as a presenter on Razzamatazz at the age of 16. Brendan Healy played keyboards for the show. Other regulars involved included compere Alistair Pirrie, and Teenage Correspondent Zoe Brown who had previously been televised in 1982, climbing the Old Man of Hoy with her father, the mountaineer Joe Brown. Razzamatazz was produced by Tyne Tees Television for Children's ITV.

Razzamatazz

7.0 N/A
Oxford Road Show

Oxford Road Show was a pop music magazine show broadcast on BBC2 from the BBC's New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester between 1981 and 1985. The show featured music, pop music news and competitions. Later it was known as "ORS 84" and "ORS 85". The show was presented as addressing issues for young adults by young adults. Many bands and artists popular at the time performed on the show including The Cure, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Simple Minds Marillion and The Smiths. The show had several presenters including Peter Powell, Jackie Spreckley, Janice Long, Timmy Mallett, Richard Witts, Rob Rohrer and Victoria Studd. The show was later parodied as "Nozin' Aroun'" in the first episode of The Young Ones.

Oxford Road Show

7.0 N/A
A Fine Romance

A Fine Romance is a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes over four series; the final episode being broadcast on 17 February 1984. The series takes its name from a song in the 1936 film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which Dench recorded as the theme music. The series was nominated for nine BAFTA British Academy Television Awards and a winner of two, both for Dench's performance in 1982 and 1985.

A Fine Romance

5.4 N/A
Shillingbury Tales

Shillingbury Tales is a 1980–81 British sitcom produced by Associated Television for ITV. Comprising a single feature length pilot and six one-hour episodes, the series deals with life in an idealised fictional English village and stars Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Nigel Lambert, Jack Douglas, John Le Mesurier, Bernard Cribbins and Trevor Howard. The series was written by Francis Essex and directed by Val Guest. Unusual for the time, it was shot entirely on location in the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire on 16mm and consequently there was no laugh track. The show ended when ATV lost their licence to broadcast and their replacement Central declined to continue production.

Shillingbury Tales

7.2 N/A
The Flame Trees of Thika

Elspeth and her unconventional parents decide to settle down in Kenya and begin a coffee plantation. This is a time of discovery for Elspeth, as she encounters the incredible beauty and cruelty of nature, and new friendships with both Africans and British expatriates. A side plot involves the beautiful and bored British Lettice Palmer who enters into an affair with a handsome safari guide. Eventually, however, the excitement of Elspeth's life is disrupted by the onset of WW I, and the changes it brings.

The Flame Trees of Thika

7.7 N/A
Punchlines

Punchlines was a comedy game show series hosted by Lennie Bennett that was produced by LWT and aired on the ITV network from January 3, 1981 until December 22, 1984. The show was based on an unsold U.S. pilot hosted by Bill Cullen which was made for daily syndication on December 30, 1979 as an attempt to revive Eye Guess which ran on NBC from January 3, 1966 to September 26, 1969 and, like Punchlines, was created by Bob Stewart and hosted by Cullen. An Australian pilot was also made for the Seven Network on August 20, 1986 - hosted by Jeremy Kewley but it failed to sell.

Punchlines

NR N/A
K-9 and Company

A one-episode television pilot for a proposed 1981 spin-off of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen, and K9, a robotic dog voiced by John Leeson. Both characters had been companions of the Fourth Doctor but they had not appeared together before. The single episode, A Girl's Best Friend was broadcast by BBC1 as a Christmas special on 28 December 1981 but was not taken up for a continuing series.

K-9 and Company

6.5 N/A
Kinvig

Kinvig is a sci-fi comedy television series made for British television in 1981. Ineffectual dreamer Des Kinvig (Tony Haygarth) runs a rundown little electrical repair shop in the small town of Bingleton where he lives with his mumsy, scatterbrained wife Netta (Patsy Rowlands) and oversized pet dog Cuddly. One day his shop is visited by the beautiful, sharp-tongued Miss Griffin (Prunella Gee) who seems at first just another dissatisfied customer. However, after encountering a flying saucer while walking the dog one night, Kinvig discovers she is actually a scantily-clad alien from the planet Mercury who desperately needs the help of the scruffy, bearded Des' "exceptional brain" to stop an invasion of the evil ant-like Xux who are replacing people with robot duplicates. (information obtained from Wikipedia)

Kinvig

6.8 N/A