John Halifax, Gentleman is a British drama television series which originally aired on the BBC in five episodes in 1974. It was an adaptation of the novel John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Craik. It was screened on the Sunday tea time slot on BBC One, which usually showed adaptations of classic novels.
A family variety series presented by the Krankies which also featured magic from the Great Soprendo and live music from pop bands. The series was their third solo programme since Crackerjack, this time on the BBC. Featured in a total of three series.
To Shatter the Sky, subtitled Bomber Airfield at War, is a book and also BBC Television programme of the same name by the military historian, author and screenwriter Bruce Barrymore Halpenny.
The book was already being worked on when the author was approached by the BBC to produce a related theme for a history programme, hence the programme and book sharing the same name. The programme was aired on BBC 1 in late 1983 and the book launched in early 1984.
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life is a 2009 television documentary about Charles Darwin and his revolutionary theory of evolution through natural selection, produced by the BBC to mark the bicentenary of Darwin's birth. It is part of the BBC Darwin Season. The presenter, David Attenborough, outlines the development of the theory by Darwin through his observations of animals and plants in nature and in the domesticated state, visiting sites important in Darwin's own life, including Down House, Cambridge University and the Natural History Museum, and using archive footage from Attenborough's many nature documentaries for the BBC. He reviews the development of the theory since its beginnings, and its revolutionary impact on the way in which humans view themselves - not as having dominion over the animals as The Bible says, but as part of the natural world and subject to the same controlling forces that govern all life on Earth.
Full Swing was a game show that combined general knowledge questions and the game of golf which aired on BBC1 for one series from 25 May to 27 July 1996. The programme was hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck with voice overs by Rosemarie Ford. The show was inspired by the BBC's popular Big Break, which was based around snooker. However, unlike the long-running Big Break, Full Swing did not catch on and only ran for one series.
Superstars is an all-around sports competition that pits elite athletes from different sports against one another in a series of athletic events resembling a decathlon. Points are awarded for the position in which the competitor places in each event. The competitor with the most points at the end of all ten events is declared the champion.
On the original ABC version, an athlete could compete in up to seven events, but no athlete was permitted to compete in the sport of his or her profession. In the World, International, European and British versions of the contest, athletes would compete in 8 out of 10 events, with no-one generally allowed to take part in their own sport, although some handicapping rules did apply.
The idea was developed by 1948 and 1952 Olympic figure skating champion Dick Button. He shopped the idea to all three U.S. television networks, and ABC bought it as a special for the winter of 1973. The first Superstars competition was held in Rotonda West, Florida in March 1973 and was won by pole va
Brainstorm was a British comedy quiz programme about science. It originally aired on BBC1 for one series in 1988, hosted by Kenny Everett and co-hosted by Cleo Rocos.
Sixty Minutes was a news and current affairs programme which ran each day at 5:40pm between 24 October 1983 to 27 July 1984 on BBC1. It replaced the Nationwide programme, and like Nationwide, it also integrated the BBC regional news programmes into a single magazine programme.
However, the BBC's News department stoutly maintained its independence from colleagues in Current Affairs, and the first 15 minutes of news was almost a separate programme, followed by 20 minutes from BBC regional news before the final 25 minutes of national current affairs. Accordingly the format was unwieldy, with neither the conciseness of a bulletin nor the softness of the show's predecessor, Nationwide.
The editor, David Lloyd, poached Nick Ross from the highly popular Breakfast Time to front the show, along with Desmond Wilcox, Sarah Kennedy, and Sally Magnusson. Sarah Kennedy was unable to join the team at the programme's launch but eventually began to present the show after Wilcox was dismissed early in the show's run. The news bull
Finders Keepers is a children's game show broadcast by the BBC from 1981 to 1985. The show combined a quiz element with a computerised version of the game Battleships.
Two teams of three primary school-aged pupils would compete against each other. On scoring a "hit" at the Battleships game, the team had to answer a question to gain the associated points.
The show was also notable for host Richard Stilgoe playing the theme on a synthesiser live in the studio at the beginning, as well as the use of the phonetic alphabet to indicate the square on the battleship grid.
The game of Battleships was played on a 7x7 grid and ran on a BBC Microcomputer.
According to the Kaleidoscope Children's Guide, some editions of the series were wiped from the BBC archives in 1993.
Star Spell is a BBC game show which put celebrities against each other in spelling related games, each one was subsequently eliminated until there was one Star Spell Champion. It was presented by Eamonn Holmes and was a spin off from the BBC programme Hard Spell.
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.
The show was the basis for two parodies: Monty Python's Flying Circus, in their very last episode which aired 5 December 1974, featured a sketch called "The Most Awful Family in Britain 1974"; and Benny Hill, on one of his 1975 specials, did a takeoff called "That Family."
Margaret re-married and became Margaret Sainsbury; she died of a reported heart attack in Berkshire on 10 August 2008, aged 73.
The format was revived in 2008.
The Disorderly Room was a very early British television comedy production, written by Eric Blore and starring Tommy Handley. Blore was also an actor who played roles such as butlers in various Hollywood films, while Handley later found greater fame in the BBC radio comedy show It's That Man Again.
The Disorderly Room was first performed on stage at the Victoria Palace Theatre, in 1919 and starred Blore, Stanley Holloway, Tom Walls, Leslie Henson and Jack Buchanan. The show was a one-off piece which consisted of a single sketch, wherein army disciplinary proceedings were put to the tunes of various popular songs of the day. It was first performed live on the BBC Television Service on Saturday 17 April 1937, in a fifteen-minute form at 3.45pm. Such was its popularity, however, that the production was re-staged on various occasions before the suspension of the flegdling television service for the duration of the Second World War in September 1939.
The later performances on 30 August 1937; 23 December 1937; 15 August
Sin on Saturday was a British live, late-night chat show based on the theme of the seven deadly sins. It was produced by BBC Scotland, but it was pulled from the schedules after only three broadcasts. Originally, the show was to broadcast eight episodes. The first seven were to be based on each of the deadly sins, and the eighth one intended to round off the series by talking about being caught sinning.
The show was hosted by Bernard Falk and also featured comedy sketches and musical interludes. It included a memorable appearance by the actor Oliver Reed who interrupted an interview with a nun on the edition entitled ‘lust’.
In 1992 the show was featured on a 'TV Hell' theme night broadcast on BBC Two.
John's Not Mad is a QED documentary made by the BBC in 1989. It was ranked, in a British public poll, as one of the 50 Greatest Documentaries. The film shadows John Davidson, a 15-year-old from Galashiels in Scotland, who had severe Tourette syndrome. John's life was explored in terms of his family and the close-knit community around him, and how they all coped with a misunderstood condition.