Keith Smith

The Beiderbecke Tapes is a two-part 1987 British television comedy-drama serial written by Alan Plater. The second installment in The Beiderbecke Trilogy, it stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne. When a tape recording of a conversation about nuclear waste inadvertently falls into Chaplin's hands, he and Swinburne find themselves being pursued by national security agents.

Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records but this leads to meeting a 'dazzlingly beautiful platinum blond'.

Spike Milligan sketch series created after the BBC apparently thought another 'Q' would confuse people - continues in the same anarchic & often politically incorrect vein.

Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need.

Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.

Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.

Worzel Gummidge is a children's comedy series, produced by Southern Television for ITV, based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd. Starting in 1979, the programme starred Jon Pertwee in the title role and ran for four series in the UK until 1981. Channel 4 reprised the show in 1987 as Worzel Gummidge Down Under, which was set in New Zealand.

Home to Roost is a British television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television in the 1980s. Written by Eric Chappell, it starred John Thaw as Henry Willows and Reece Dinsdale as his 18-year-old son Matthew. The premise is that Henry Willows is forty-something, who has been divorced from his wife for seven years and is perfectly happy living alone in London. That is, until his youngest child, Matthew arrives to live with him, after being thrown out by his mother. The plots generally revolved around Henry's annoyance at having his solitude disturbed, and the age gap clash. Henry employed two cleaners throughout the show's life; first Enid Thompson, and, in the third season, Fiona Fennell.

A harassed secretary at a private golf club steeped in bigotry faces challenges amidst its desperate financial straits. Key events unfold in the club's bar, The Nineteenth Hole. The series was widely condemned as racist, sexist and homophobic. TV producer Paul Stewart Laing, then-controller of programmes for the Plymouth based TSW (Television South West) ITV region, stopped after only three episodes.

Andy Capp is a British sitcom based on the cartoon Andy Capp. It starred James Bolam and ran for one series in 1988. It was written by Keith Waterhouse. Unusually, for a sitcom, there was no studio audience during the filming of Andy Capp. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television. Andy Capp is a slothful man from Hartlepool, whose life consists of drinking, sleeping, watching TV, betting, going to the pub and occasionally playing football. His wife, Flo, is constantly annoyed by her lazy husband and frequently uses a rolling pin as a weapon.

Zodiac was a six-part series transmitted by ITV in 1974. Starring Anton Rogers and Anouska Hempel as cynical detective David Gradley and his astrologer associate Esther Jones, the unusual astrological premise set this show apart from the humdrum detective dramas of the time. Little seen since its original broadcast, the series has garnered something of a cult status.

Based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, The World of Wooster, broadcast on BBC One from 1965 to 1967, followed the farcical adventures of young upper-class twit Bertie Wooster and his invaluable manservant Jeeves. It starred Ian Carmichael as Wooster and Dennis Price as Jeeves. Wodehouse initially felt that Carmichael would be fine as Wooster, but later believed that Carmichael overacted; however, Wodehouse was satisfied enough with to later ask Carmichael to portray Bertie or Jeeves in a musical comedy. Carmichael declined, feeling too old to play Bertie again and that public perception prevented him from playing Jeeves. Wodehouse was far more positive about Price's Jeeves, stating that Price was the best Jeeves he had ever seen. Like many other series of the time, much of the episodes were wiped, leaving all but two now lost. In 2018, it was included at #51 in a list of the top 100 most wanted missing television programmes by TV archivist organisation Kaleidoscope.

Oh, Father! is a British sitcom produced by Graeme Muir for BBC One. A follow-up to the 1968–70 series Oh, Brother!, Derek Nimmo reprises his role as Brother Dominic, who finds himself promoted to Father, but that's as far as his luck goes. He's just as clumsy and accident-prone as ever.

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

The Hello Goodbye Man is a short-lived 1984 British sitcom, starring Ian Lavender as Denis Ailing, a nervous salesman struggling with his job and romantic life, particularly with his colleague Jennifer. The series follows his disastrous attempts to succeed, including using pep pills and adopting unethical sales tactics, leading to awkward social and professional situations.

The Beiderbecke Connection is a four-part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne. Now with a baby in tow, Jill and Trevor are asked by Big Al to look after a refugee called "Ivan".

Shoestring is a BBC detective drana set in Bristol and starring Trevor Eve as private detective Eddie Shoestring, who operatee his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 hour-long episodes. Eve opted not to return after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre, so the production team changed the setting to Jersey and created Bergerac, also following a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.

The Duchess of Duke Street is a British television period drama created and written by John Hawkesworth, loosely based on the real-life career of Rosa Lewis, and produced by the BBC and Time-Life Television Productions for BBC One. The programme ran for two series from 1976 to 1977. In Victorian London, Louisa Leyton works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietress of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St James's.