100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best British television programmes of any genre that had been screened up to that time. Selection and criteria The British Film Institute television programme poll was conducted in the year 2000, and its results are reflected in the list that appears in a following section. Initially, a 'big list' of 650 programmes was drawn up by BFI personnel. Television programmes no longer extant in the archives were excluded from consideration. The provisional list was split into six categories: Single Dramas, Drama Series and Serials, Comedy and Variety, Factual, Children's/Youth, and Lifestyle & Light Entertainment. Some programmes were represented in the list by an entire series; however, for some series—e.g., the anthology ''The Wednesday Play'' and the current affairs programme '' T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Purpose It was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom. BFI activities Archive The BFI maint ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Naked Civil Servant (film)
''The Naked Civil Servant'' is a 1975 made-for-television biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jack Gold and produced by Verity Lambert. It was adapted for film by Philip Mackie, based on Quentin Crisp's 1968 book of the same name. The movie stars John Hurt, Patricia Hodge and John Rhys-Davies. It was produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on 17 December 1975 on the British channel ITV. In 1976, it was shown on the US channel WOR and later PBS when Thames Television and WOR exchanged programming for one week. For his performance, Hurt won the BAFTA for Best Actor in 1976 and the production also won the 1976 Prix Italia. The title of the book and the film is derived from Crisp's time working as a nude model in a government-funded art school. In 2000, the film was placed fourth in a poll by industry professionals to find the BFI TV 100 of the 20th century, and was the highest ITV production on the list. The film was released on DVD in 2005. In 2009, Hurt re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC One, BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran for nine series and 80 episodes in total; a Dad's Army (1971 film), feature film released in 1971, a stage show and a radio version based on the television scripts were also produced. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still shown internationally. The Home Guard consisted of local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, either because of age (hence the title ''Dad's Army''), medical reasons or by being in Reserved occupation, professions exempt from conscription. Most of the platoon members in ''Dad's Army'' are over military age and the series stars several older British actors, including Arnold Ridley, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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I, Claudius (TV Series)
''I, Claudius'' (stylized as ''I·CLAVDIVS'') is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' 1934 novel ''I, Claudius'' and its 1935 sequel ''Claudius the God''. Written by Jack Pulman, it stars Derek Jacobi as Claudius, with Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Margaret Tyzack, John Hurt, Patricia Quinn, Ian Ogilvy, Kevin McNally, Patrick Stewart, and John Rhys-Davies. The series covers the history of the early Roman Empire, told from the perspective of the elderly Emperor Claudius who narrates the series. Among many other productions and adaptations, Graves' Claudius novels have also been adapted for BBC Radio 4 broadcast (2010) and for the stage (1972). Plot summary and episodes ''I, Claudius'' follows the history of the early Roman Empire, narrated by the elderly Roman Emperor Claudius, from the year 24 BC to his death in AD 54. The series opens with Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, attempting to find an heir, and his wife, Livia, plotting to elevat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Play For Today
''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 (with a few exceptions noted below) between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including '' Rumpole of the Bailey'', subsequently became television series in their own right. History The strand was a successor to ''The Wednesday Play'', the 1960s anthology series, the title being changed when the day of transmission moved to Thursday to make way for a sport programme. Some works, screened in anthology series' on BBC2, like Willy Russell's ''Our Day Out'' (1977), were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of ''The Wednesday Play'', Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, transferred to the new series. Shubik continued with the series until ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abigail's Party
''Abigail's Party'' is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. The play developed in lengthy improvisations during which Mike Leigh explored the characters with the actors, but did not always reveal the incidents that would occur during the play. The production opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre, and returned after its initial run in the summer of 1977, for 104 performances in all. A recording was arranged at the BBC as a ''Play for Today'', produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted in November 1977. Performances The stage play was first performed at the Hampstead Theatre on 18 April 1977, enjoying great success, leading to a revival over the summer of that year, which was another sellout. The television version was abridged from over two hours to 104 minutes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ITV Granada
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc. Granada Television was particularly noted by critics for the distinctive northern and "social realism" character of many of its network programmes, as well as the high quality of its drama and documentaries. In its prime as an independent franchisee, prior to its parent company merging with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc, it was the largest Independent Television producer in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network. Granada Television was founded by Sidney Bernstein at Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester and is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brideshead Revisited (TV Serial)
''Brideshead Revisited'' is a 1981 British television serial starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. It was produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. Most of the serial was directed by Charles Sturridge, with certain sequences directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who handled the initial phases of the production. The serial is an adaptation of the novel ''Brideshead Revisited'' (1945) by Evelyn Waugh. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder—including his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle. The screenplay was written by Derek Granger (the series' producer) and others. Although the credits attribute the screenplay to John Mortimer, Mortimer's script was not used.Jones, Alice"Life after Brideshead" ''The Independent''. 1 October 2008. Charles Sturridge declared that 95% of the dialogue was from Waugh's original t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yes Minister
''Yes Minister'' is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on Gold (UK TV channel), Gold in 2013. Set principally in the private office of a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, ''Yes Minister'' follows the Minister (government), ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are op ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parkinson (TV Series)
''Parkinson'' is a British television chat show that was presented by Michael Parkinson. It was first shown on BBC1 from 19 June 1971 to 10 April 1982 and from 9 January 1998 to 24 April 2004. Parkinson then switched to ITV on which the show continued from 4 September 2004 to 22 December 2007. A parallel series was shown in Australia on the ABC between 1979 and 1982. A series entitled ''Parkinson One to One'' was produced by Yorkshire Television from 28 March 1987 to 23 July 1988. Background ''Parkinson'' began in 1971 when the host was offered a series of eight shows by the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton. It was to be transmitted during the "summer lull" in a late-night slot on Saturdays (which continued throughout its run), plus from 1979 a second mid-week edition when the series was on air. A parallel series was shown in Australia between 1979 and 1982. That year, 1982, Parkinson left the BBC to be co-founder and presenter on the ITV breakfast television stati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Boys From The Blackstuff
''Boys from the Blackstuff'' is a British drama television series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2. The serial was written by Liverpudlian playwright Alan Bleasdale, as a sequel to a television play titled ''The Black Stuff''. The British Film Institute described it as a "seminal drama series... a warm, humorous but ultimately tragic look at the way economics affect ordinary people… TV's most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture." ''The Black Stuff'' The television play ''The Black Stuff'' was originally written by Bleasdale and directed by Jim Goddard for BBC1's ''Play for Today'' anthology series in 1978. After filming however, the play was not transmitted until 2 January 1980. It concerned a group of Liverpudlian tarmac layers (hence the slang for tarmac: 'the black stuff') on a job near Middlesbrough. The acclaim that ''The Black Stuff'' recei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blue Peter
''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Television Centre in London until September 2011, when the programme moved to dock10 studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is currently shown live on the CBBC television channel on Fridays at 5pm. The show is also repeated on Saturdays at 11:30am, Sundays at 9:00am and a BSL version is shown on Tuesdays at 2:00pm. Following its original creation, the programme was developed by a BBC team led by Biddy Baxter; she became the programme editor in 1965, relinquishing the role in 1988. Throughout the show's history there have been 41 presenters; currently, it is hosted by Richie Driss, Mwaksy Mudenda and Joel Mawhinney. The show uses a nautical title and theme. Its content, which follows a magazine/entertainment format, featur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |