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.
Missing, titled Missing Live from 2008–2010, is a BBC One morning television series which has been running since 2005. It is currently presented Louise Minchin and Rav Wilding, who replaced Sally Magnusson in 2008. The fifth series adopted a live studio style as opposed to the pre-recorded, docu-drama, style of the previous series. The seventh series returned to the original style and was pre-recorded and presented solely by Louise Minchin.
Runaway is the story of a young boy who takes to the streets to get away from the torment he suffers at school and daily problems at home. Life at home is rife with daily doses of scoldings from his half-drunk mother, and his two younger brothers Dean and Jack pay him scant attention until noticing he is missing. On his journey, Sean meets a girl named Molly who takes him to a crumbling mill where her family lives. The series follows the police search for Sean, and how his disappearance affects his family.
Runaways was part of a short season on CBBC about children and homelessness, along with a 5-part documentary "Sofa Surfers". The program was first shown as three separated half-hour episodes in March 2009, and later as an 82-minute film.
It'll Never Work was a television programme for children showcasing new inventions and developments in scientific technology. Produced by Roy Milani for BBC Children's, the show ran for seven series between 9 November 1993 and 23 August 1999 on weekdays within the Children's BBC, later CBBC, strand on BBC One. It'll Never Work was presented throughout its run by children's television presenter Sally Gray, who would go on to present children's quiz 50/50, Jez Nelson, who would go on to front the related primetime BBC technology series Tomorrow's World, and science presenter Angela Lamont. This team was augmented during later series by presenters Adrian Johnson and Rick Adams.
For each episode the presenters travelled worldwide to discover new gadgets and to test out whether new inventions worked or not, hence the show's title. Depeche Mode's 1984 hit single "People Are People" was used as the theme music.
The show was critically and commercially lauded, winning the 1994 BAFTA TV Award in the category of 'Best Chil
Breakfast News was a breakfast news show which first aired on BBC1 on 2 October 1989. The programme was previously known as Breakfast Time. It was planned to launch on 4 September 1989 and again on the 18 September but was held back due to technical issues with its new studio
The programme went through three main visual changes. The initial look lasted from launch in 4 September 1989 to 12 April 1993. The 13 April 1993 revamp saw the programme presented from the same set as the One, Six and Nine O'Clock News bulletins. A further and final revamp took place in June 1997 when 'BBC' was shorn from its title, and on-screen it became known as simply Breakfast News. It was during this final period that the tone began to shift, with the return of a sofa set, alongside more features, and more interaction between the presenting team.
The final edition of Breakfast News aired on 15 September 2000, and on 2 October 2000 it relaunched as BBC Breakfast.
Coming Down the Mountain is a 2007 British television film which was shown on BBC One, written by Mark Haddon and directed by Julie Anne Robinson. The television film was based on a radio play also written by Haddon.
Whizz Whizz Bang Bang is a BBC television series that started 5 March 2007. The show is presented by Greg Foot. It features a different child in each programme who has an invention idea and then the team, with the help of Ralph, tries to build it. Most attempts have been successful, although all ideas have had to be slightly changed to make them practical. Inventions have included a hover scooter, a hydraulic off road wheel chair, basketball launcher, jet engine bed and an Air Guitar.
The Chinese Puzzle is a British six-part children's adventure series, first broadcast on BBC1 in 1974. It was the brainchild of prolific British television writer, Brian Finch, and features "two friends who stumble into a complex plot involving kidnapping and blackmail".
Monster Café is a Children's BBC comedy programme about three monsters working in Monster Café, where they meet weird monsters, serve weird food and battle with their evil boss, the baroness. The series aired from 1994 - 1995.
The Series started to be aired on Cbeebies in November 2007, but after complaints on BBC Message Boards and direct to the BBC regarding how the programme scared young children, it was pulled from the schedule.
Breakfast with Frost was a BBC current affairs television programme hosted by Sir David Frost on Sunday mornings. The programme covered the main political news of the day while analysing the coverage of the week's news events.
The General was a BBC fly-on-the-wall Television series hosted by Yvette Fielding, Chris Serle and Heather Mills. Based at Southampton General Hospital, the programme tracked the progress of selected patients, including outpatients, at the hospital. The series was broadcast live every weekday on BBC One, in a daytime slot. 61 episodes of the programme were aired in total; 58 of them in 1998, and the other three in 2002. The original director of the series was Dave Heather.
As well as the presenting team tracking patients and staff in the hospital, the programme also featured Heather Mills abseiling down the side of the hospital and demonstrating various uses for her prosthesis. However, it was alleged some years after the series finished that Mills was appointed to the presenting role under false pretences, having claimed that newspaper articles written by a journalist namesake were written by herself.
The show also featured occasional celebrity guest appearances, including a visit from endurance expert Mike Stro