Explore TV Series

Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

Taggart is a Scottish detective television program. The series revolves around a group of detectives initially in the Maryhill CID of Strathclyde Police, though various storylines have happened in other parts of the Greater Glasgow area, and as of the most recent series the team have operated out of the fictional John Street police station across the street from the City Chambers.

Centred on the cases of P. D. James' gentleman detective Adam Dalgliesh. In addition to his career as a policeman, Dalgliesh is also a published poet and an intensely private man.

Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatising the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the British. Among his exploits, in the early 20th-century, were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of the Bolsheviks in 1918. His reputation with women was as legendary as his genius for espionage.

Brass is a British comedy-drama series created by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, and produced by Granada Television for ITV and eventually Channel 4. Satirising the working-class period dramas of the 1970s and the American supersoaps such as Dallas and Dynasty, Brass was unusual for ITV comedies of the time, as there was no laugh track and the humour deliberately kept extremely dry, using convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. Set primarily in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s, two feuding families—the wealthy Hardacres and the poor, working-class Fairchilds, who lived in a small terraced house rented from the Hardacre empire.

Dramarama is the name of a British children's anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. It tended to feature drama of a science fiction or supernatural bent. The series was created by Anna Home, then head of children's and youth programming at TVS, however production responsibilities were divided amongst most of the regional ITV franchise holders. Thus, each episode was in practice a one-off production with its own cast and crew, up to and including the executive producer. Dramarama was largely a place for new talent to prove themselves and was a launching pad for the likes of Anthony Horowitz, Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor, Janice Hally, Tony Kearney, David Tennant and Ann Marie Di Mambro. It was one of Dennis Spooner's last credits. One of Dramarama's episodes, "Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest", gained so much popularity that it was turned in to its own series the following year. It starred Lee Ross and was based around a large foster home. The episode "Blackbird Singing In The Dead of Night" was developed by Granada into the TV series Children's Ward. It was also repeated for the first time since its original broadcast on 5 January 2013, during CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend. The Series 7 episode "Back To Front" – notable for featuring a mirror image of the Yorkshire Television logo card at the end – was repeated on 6 January 2013, again as part of CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend.

Seven British construction workers escape Britain's ever growing dole queues and travel to Germany to work on a site in Dusseldorf. We follow their trials and tribulations of working away from home and away from the women they left behind.

Mansfield Park is a British six-part television drama serial based on Jane Austen's 1814 novel of the same name. Produced by the BBC and adapted by Kenneth Taylor, it stars Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny Price, who is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.

Spirited dialogue, posh Roaring '20s style, and devious mysteries abound as Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mix marriage and mystery solving.

Armed robbers Harry, Terry, and Joe die when the security van that they're robbing catches fire in the Kingsway Tunnel in London. Their widows–Dolly, Shirley, and Linda–find their husbands' schematics and decide to stage it themselves.

SuperTed is a Welsh fictional anthropomorphic bear character created by Mike Young. Originally created by Young as a series of stories to help his son overcome his fear of the dark, SuperTed became a popular series of books and led to an animated series produced from 1982 to 1986.

TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise. Its daily broadcasts were between 6:00 am and 9:25 am.

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?

Highway is a British television series, broadcast from 1983 until 1993. Presented by Sir Harry Secombe, the show was a mixture of hymns and chat from various locations across Britain, produced by their respective regional ITV franchise holders. The programme was administered by Tyne Tees Television in Newcastle upon Tyne, who had a track-record for organising cross-franchise series for the ITV network. Guests sang religious songs, gave readings or talked about their lifestyles and spiritual feelings. The series was broadcast on Sunday evenings. The final series was moved to Sunday afternoons. Highway was replaced by Sunday Morning with Secombe in which he would broadcast from the venue of the following Morning Worship service.

One Summer is a 1983 British television drama serial written by Willy Russell and directed by Gordon Flemyng. It stars David Morrissey and Spencer Leigh as two 16 year old Liverpool boys from broken homes who escape from their lives by running away to Wales one summer. It also starred James Hazeldine and Ian Hart. The series was shown in five 50-minute episodes on Channel 4 from 7 August to 4 September 1983. It was later repeated on ITV in April 1985.

A bored British barrister's affair with a rich American, discovered by his wife, ends in murder.

Philip Marlowe, Private Eye is a British mystery series that aired on ITV in the United Kingdom under the shorter title 'Marlowe, Private Eye' and on HBO in the United States from April 16, 1983 through June 3, 1986. The series features Powers Boothe as Raymond Chandler's titular character, and was the first drama produced for HBO.

Starring Paul Shelley in a role reminiscent of his Secret Army character in all but name, this 12-part serial follows a team of secret agents parachuted into occupied Europe during World War II, exploring their recruitment, training, and first mission behind enemy lines.

A sketch comedy show featuring some of Britain's great comedic talents of the 1980s and 1990s in one of their earliest TV appearances.

Gerry Anderson & Christopher Burr's Terrahawks, simply referred to as Terrahawks, was a 1980s British science fiction television series produced by Anderson Burr Pictures and created by the production team of Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr. The show was Anderson's first in over a decade to utilize puppets for its characters, and also his last. Anderson's previous puppet-laden TV series included Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Set in the year 2020, the series followed the adventures of the Terrahawks, a taskforce responsible for protecting Earth from invasion by a group of extraterrestrial androids and aliens led by Zelda. Like Anderson's previous puppet series, futuristic vehicles and technology featured prominently in each episode.

A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth.

A bittersweet sitcom about a couple who meet again five years after he jilted her at the altar.

The Cleopatras is a 1983 BBC Television historical drama serial created and written by Philip Mackie. Set in Ancient Egypt during the latter part of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the eight-part series follows the lives of a series of queens belonging to the Ptolemaic Dynasty of ancient Egypt, culminating in its final active ruler Cleopatra VII. Intended to be the I, Claudius of the 1980s, The Cleopatras met with a decidedly negative critical reaction, and was regarded and portrayed as a gaudy farce. It also produced a number of complaints due to scenes of nudity.

This classic period drama series follows the fortunes of the aristocratic Lacey family, living peacefully in Arnescote Castle until the onset of the English Civil War in 1640. Sir Martin Lacey, the head of the family, is steadfastly loyal to the King. However the family is torn apart when his eldest daughter Anne weds John Fletcher - son of a merchant family who support the forces of Cromwell.

Follows the private lives of seven British PMs who lived at Number 10 Downing Street between the 1780s and the 1920s: William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd-George, Herbert Henry Asquith and James Ramsay MacDonald.

With Norma West, Annette Wilkie-Miller, Francesca Annis, Eileen Atkins. An anthology of short mysterious dramas, each with a supernatural twist.

The Irish R.M. refers to a series of books by the Anglo-Irish novelists Somerville and Ross, and the television comedy-drama series based on them. They are set in turn of the 20th century west of Ireland.

Animated parody of famous superheroes about a young boy called Eric, who found out that when he eats bananas he transforms into the super strong Bananaman!

Doctor Tom Latimer splits from his wife Helen. Simultaneously, his father Toby, also a doctor, announces his intention to divorce his wife of 32 years, Angela. Father and son move in together and frequently quarrel about politics and medical practices, Toby being more of a 'Harley Street' type and well to the right of the more liberal Tom. The latter tries to get his parents back together, while beginning a romance with Toby's secretary Madeleine, whom he later marries.

In the early 1800s, Mary Yellan's life is changed after her father is murdered by shipwreckers. When her mother dies of a broken heart not long afterwards, Mary is forced to go live with her Aunt Patience at her inn on Bodmin Moor. It's there that she discovers her slightly mad Uncle Joss is the wreckers' ringleader and that Jamaica Inn is their headquarters. Mary is determined to bring Joss and his gang to justice and calls upon Joss' younger brother Jem to help.

Dombey and Son is a television mini-series produced by the BBC in 1983. It was based on the book Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. It was adapted by James Andrew Hall and directed by Rodney Bennett.

Tales Out of School is a British anthology of television plays by David Leland: Birth of a Nation, Flying Into the Wind, R.H.I.N.O.: Really Here in Name Only, and Made in Britain.

An incompetently managed zoo becomes a metaphor for the state of Britain as a nuclear crisis looms over Europe.

No Place Like Home is a BBC situation comedy written by Jon Watkins and stars William Gaunt and Patricia Garwood as Arthur and Beryl Crabtree, a middle-aged couple who plan for a quiet life once their children have left home. Sadly, it is not to be. No Place Like Home was broadcast for five series between 1983 and 1987, with an early appearance by Martin Clunes.

Tucker's Luck was a British television series made by the BBC between 1983 and 1985. The series is a spin-off from the school drama Grange Hill and capitalised on the popularity of one of the series' original characters — Peter "Tucker" Jenkins, played by Todd Carty. Tucker's Luck followed the exploits of Tucker and his friends, Alan Humphries and Tommy Watson, after they had left school and their attempts to find employment and cope out there in the "real world". Three series were made, with several former Grange Hill cast members reprising their roles for the spin-off, although the programme never came close to matching the popularity of Grange Hill. The third and final series saw the first appearances of Tucker's younger sister, eight-year old Rhona, and Tucker's elder brother Barry.

The Crystal Cube was a spoof science program, based on shows such as Tomorrow's World. The show was hosted by Jackie Meld (Dame Emma Thompson).

The Family Tree is an American 1983 television series. Its pilot episode was a made-for-television movie called The Six of Us, broadcast a year before.

When a family come into possession of a statue called The Grinnygog, a trio of benevolent witches are summoned to the village where they live.

A four-part drama adaptation about the life of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. Based on Shackleton’s own journals. In 1914 Ernest Shackleton chooses to lead a team on their famous journey aboard the Endurance. When the ship is trapped and crushed by pack-ice, Shackleton and five of his men embark on a desperate 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

A young Englishman becomes convinced that his friend and guardian has been murdered by his mysterious second wife.

Affairs of the Heart is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1983 to 1985. Starring Derek Fowlds, it was written by Paul Daneman. It was made for the ITV network by Granada Television.

No Problem! is a Channel 4 sitcom which ran from 1983 to 1985, created by the Black Theatre Co-operative. The show was written by Farrukh Dhondy and Mustapha Matura. 27 episodes were broadcast of the programme which focused on a family of Jamaican heritage, the Powells, living in a council house in Willesden Green, London. It was voted Britain's 100th best sitcom in a poll carried out by the BBC.

During the Second World War, a group of youth in the Northeast England town of Garmouth regularly suffer from bomb attacks by the German forces. One of the children raids a crashed German aircraft and takes a fully operational machine gun, intending to set up their own fortress. Playing with it causes a German plane to crash-land; the kids befriend the pilot, who is unaware that they had caused him to crash.

Chessgame is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1983. Based on a series of novels by Anthony Price, the series dealt with the activities of a quartet of counter-intelligence agents: David Audley, Faith Steerforth, Nick Hannah and Hugh Roskill. One series of six episodes was made. ⁕The Alamut Ambush ⁕Enter Hassan ⁕The Roman Collection ⁕Digging up the Future ⁕Flying Blind ⁕Cold Wargame The series was rebroadcast as three TV movies in 1986 called The Alamut Ambush, The Deadly Recruits, and The Cold War Killers.

Live from Her Majesty's was a Sunday night live variety show which was produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network and ran from 1982 to 1988. It was broadcast live from Her Majesty's Theatre in London and was very much in the tradition of earlier variety spectacles such as Sunday Night at the London Palladium. The series was presented by Jimmy Tarbuck, produced by the then Head of Light Entertainment at LWT David Bell and directed by Alasdair Macmillan. In its day, the programme attracted a large audience and regularly featured in the TV top ten. A further series of six shows followed in 1986 from London's Piccadilly Theatre, airing simply as Live From the Piccadilly. 1987 witnessed yet another change of venue with a further three series airing as Live From the Palladium until the programme's eventual cancellation in 1988. During the 15 April 1984 show, comedian Tommy Cooper died after suffering a massive heart attack with the audience thinking that it was a joke.

The Bob Monkhouse Show was an entertainment show presented by Bob Monkhouse. The show celebrated the art of comedy and comedian guests were invited to perform a stand-up. The programme began in 1983 and ran for three series until 1986. A number of notable guests appeared on the show, such as Joan Rivers, Janet Brown, Jim Carrey and Peter Cook.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the special edition of your favourtie comedy show to fill the gap between the staggeringly huge Christmas dinner and the Queen's speech, and the ITV network have rolled hours of Christmas's into one with their latest DVD set of ITV comedy. With almost ten hours of classic, festive merriment featuring some of the channel's most memorable Christmas specials the whole family can relive the joys of Christmas past.

When Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, a forensic scientist working at a private laboratory is found killed, Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate. Dalgliesh had been in the area a few months previously investigating the murder of a young woman found in an abandoned car. There are several suspects: Lorrimer's subordinate, Clifford Bradley, who despises him; the new head of the laboratory, Maxim Howarth, who is jealous of his sister's relationship with him; a colleague, Paul Middlemass, who had a fight with Lorrimer. There is also a gruff and likely unethical policeman who was on the grounds of the laboratory at the time of the killing and a local pathologist who is raising his two young children after his wife leaves him for another man. When one of the suspects is also murdered, Dalgliesh learns a key piece of information.

Luna was a children's science fiction TV comedy show produced by Central Television for the ITV Network in the United Kingdom and which ran for two series in 1983 and 1984. The first series was recorded at the former ATV studios at Elstree, the second at their Nottingham facility.

A tale of supernatural terror, concerning the discovery of a secret brotherhood of international financiers and politicians meeting clandestinely on Rhodes. The head of the brotherhood, Raoul Lavalliere, had his own secret concerning his ancestor Tibald de Montrefort, a particularly unpleasant individual from the middle ages when the Knights Templar settled on Rhodes.

Victor is a big white bear who wears a hat and tie, and Maria is the girl who plays with him. And that's it. Together, these two share a lot of fun and games, just like friends do. On occasion, they are joined by Victor's cousin Otto, who is a brown bear, and Matilda, who is Maria's human friend.

Highly regarded anthology from the 1980s presenting a diverse range of high-quality single dramas that would serve as pilots for possible future series.

The lady is a tramp is a television programme in the situation comedy format that was one of the first series to be shown on the then-new British television channel, Channel 4, between 1983 and 1984. Written by Johnny Speight, the programme lasted for two series, and totalled 13 episodes.

When an ordinary British fishing vessel and its 36-man crew mysteriously disappears off the coast of Norway, journalist Martin Taylor is determined to find out why.

A French visitor to Scotland smuggles her cat into the country, sparking a terrifying outbreak of rabies which threatens to engulf an entire community.

Cuffy was a British sitcom from 1983. It spawned off from the 1980-1981 ATV comedy-drama Shillingbury Tales, and both series were created by Francis Essex. In Shillingbury Tales, the character of Cuffy appeared in two episodes and was played by Bernard Cribbins, who reprised this role, now given centre stage, for this series, alongside with the rest of the main Shillingbury cast: Jack Douglas as farmer Jake, Linda Hayden as his daughter Mandy, Nigel Lambert as the Reverend Norris, and Diana King as the local spinster Mrs. Simkins. In as much the Shillingbury Tales were made by ITC Entertainment and seen on the ITV network via its parent company ATV, Cuffy was made by ATV's successor company Central Independent Television also for the ITV network.

Following on from the hugely popular Out of Town, Old Country saw Jack Hargreaves continue his exploration of rural life in Thomas Hardy country – reflecting on its character, traditions, history and folklore, and the skills that had passed from generation to generation.

A faithful ten part BBC adaptation of A.J. Cronin's book of the same name published in 1937 about a young Scottish doctor (Ben Cross) trying to find a place for himself in the dysfunctional medical system of Wales and England in the 1920s and early 1930s.