Acting
Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Classic sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques as brother and sister twins who have to tackle the trials and tribulations of suburban life.
Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.
Middle-aged Terry and June Medford are beginning to find the trials of life more difficult as they try to succeed in their daily lives. The couple have just moved to Purley, south-east London... Aunt Lucy and the mynah bird have disappeared, as had the occasionally visiting daughters. Terry and June now mixed with friendly next door neighbour Beattie; Terry's chatty work colleague, Malcolm; and their gruff boss Sir Dennis Hodge. Otherwise, things were much as before, with Terry's pigheaded childishness causing no end of problems, usually thwarting June's attempts at leading a cosy life.
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father and son played by Wilfred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett who deal in selling used items. They live on Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the US as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert and in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon. In 1972 a movie adaptation of the series, Steptoe and Son, was released in cinemas, with a second Steptoe and Son Ride Again in 1973.
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.
Tom and Barbara Good escape the rat race and pursue a self-sufficient lifestyle in Surbiton, much to the concern, frustration and sometimes envy of their neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter. Entitled ‘Good Neighbors’ when shown in the USA.
Ria Parkinson is a bored housewife and mother. She spends her time daydreaming, and meets regularly with wealthy businessman Leonard to relieve the monotony. Husband Ben, a dentist and avid butterfly collector is oblivious to it all, and her unemployed grown up sons, who both live at home also have other things on their minds, especially girlfriends.
Middle-aged, middle-class couple Terry and June Fletcher expect to settle down in domestic bliss when their children leave home and they are left with a quiet, peaceful house. Their peace, however, is short-lived when ditzy Aunt Lucy decides she’s moving in.
Sharon and Elsie is a British sitcom that aired for two seasons from 1984 to 1985. It starred Brigit Forsyth and Janette Beverley. Elsie Beecroft is a middle-aged, middle-class office administrator in a printing firm. Her world is perfectly ordered until young working-class Sharon Wilkes is hired as the new office secretary. Initially prone to be snobbish, Elsie soon learns to appreciate Sharon and the two become friends. Many episodes revolve around the family life of either Sharon or Elsie, with Sharon's brother Elvis, her boyfriend Wayne, and Elsie's husband Roland making regular appearances. Factory scenes would usually involve lecherous floor manager Stanley Crabtree and Sharon and Elsie's prickly responses to his womanising. Grumpy tea lady Ivy would also make appear regularly.
The Legend of Robin Hood was a 1975 BBC television serial that told the story of the life of Robin Hood.
The Psammead is an 'it', an ancient, ill-tempered sand-fairy with a spider-shaped body, bat-like ears, and snail-like eyes. It is grumpy but has the power to grant one wish a day, which must be made before sunset. Five siblings—Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and infant Hilary—encounter It and experience the highs and lows of frivolous wish-making.
Queen Elizabeth I visits late 1970s England to find a depressing landscape where life has changed since her time.
Sink or Swim is a BBC TV sitcom starring Peter Davison as Brian Webber, who lives in a flat above a London petrol station, and trying to make his way in the world, thus far with limited success. His girlfriend, Sonia, is a very practical young woman who is passionate only about things like vegetarianism and ecology. When Brian's younger brother, Steve, arrives seeking a place to stay, his lazy, cynical, noisy "Northern lout" attitude disrupts Brian's already messy life. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. It ran for three series between 4 December 1980 and 14 October 1982, and was written by Alex Shearer, who later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom 'The Two of Us' (1986-90, LWT). The first two years of production overlapped as Davison was also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on recording schedules.
By chance the perfume creators Mike and Al produce a scent that makes women go wild for sex. While they desperately try to find the recipe for their product of chance, they use it on random women they meet in the train and fuck their brains out in a hut in the forest. A central problem is to explain their absence from work to wives and colleagues.
A young boy runs away from an approved school to meet up with his father in the hope that he can persuade his dad to allow him to travel to Canada with him. He also meets up with two local children and discovers that his father is instead planning a bank heist.
