Comedy G-L
George & Mildred1976 Thames Television Created by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, this popular spin-off sitcom from 'Man About The House' saw landlord and landlady George and Mildred Roper (Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce), move from their ground-floor flat to middle-class suburbia. The posh Fourmile family, Jeffrey (Norman Eshley), Ann (Sheila Fearn) and young Tristram (Nicholas Bond-Owen) lived next door.
George & Mildred1977 Thames Television The comedy live-action opening titles from series 2, first shown in November 1977.
George and the Dragon1966 ATV
A brilliant sitcom with top scripts by Vince Powell and Harry Driver. Sid James cackles and letches as chauffeur George, Peggy Mount waves her battle-axe as housekeeper Gabrielle Dragon, while John le Mesurier, as Colonel Maynard, ambles about the place as a prototype Sergeant Wilson.
The Good Life1975 BBC Television The Good Life ran from 1975 to 1978. Tom and Barbara Good decide to try their hand at self sufficiency whilst their friends and neighbours Jerry and Margo Ledbetter look on. The series starred Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith. The writers were John Esmonde and Bob Larbey.
The Goodies1970 BBC Television The Goodies ran from 1970 to 1977 with the BBC. The series starred Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie.
The Goodies1981 London Weekend Television LWT blew a fortune on lavish props when Graeme, Bill and Tim switched to ITV for their ninth series. Executives believed that spending so much money on what was deemed to be "just a kids programme" was not a viable option, and just six episodes were made, plus a Christmas special in 1981. The theme is funkier than the Beeb version, and the titles show the chaps larking about in the Festival gardens on the South Bank.
Hardware2003
Written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, Hardware centres around Mike (Martin Freeman) and his mate Kenny (Peter Serafinowicz) who work in a small hardware shop. In charge of the shop is boss Rex (Ken Morley), but you wouldn't know it.
Have I Got News For You2001
The satirical quiz based on the news, Have I Got News For You began in 1990. With comedian Paul Merton and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop as team captains, the show takes a light hearted look at current events, often sailing close to the wind in matters of libel.
Angus Deayton hosted the show until 2002, but following newspaper headlines surrounding his private life, Deayton was fired, and has been replaced with a guest host ever since. These have included Anne Robinson and Jeremy Clarkson.
Harry Hill1997
Running for three series on Channel 4, The Harry Hill Show was a showcase for Harry's surreal humour. Harry's brother Alan (Al Murray) and Pink Panther star Bert Kwouk regularly featured on the show, along with strange looking blue rubber glove puppet Stouffer the Cat.
Harry Worth1966-1970 BBC Television In the opening credits of Harry Worth, Harry raises one arm and one leg which were reflected in the window, giving the illusion of levitation.
The shop window sequence was filmed at St. Anne's Square, Manchester.
Here's Harry1960-1965 BBC Television
Here's Harry sees him living at 53 Acacia Avenue, Woodbridge. The series focussed on his bumbling manor, creating chaos with officialdom wherever he went. The series ran for 60 30 minute episodes over 7 series, starting 11th Oct 1960 and ending 10th Dec 1965. Written by Eddie Maguire, Vince Powell, Harry Driver & Frank Roscoe.
Hi-de-Hi1981 BBC Television Hi-de-Hi! ran from 1981 to 1988. The series was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. It was set in 1959 and featured the antics of the entertainment staff at Maplin's Holiday Camp. It starred Simon Cadell, Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland, Su Pollard, Leslie Dwyer, Felix Bowness, Dianne Holland, Barry Howard and latterly David Griffin.
Hippies1999
Created by Father Ted writing duo Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, Hippies is set in the 60s in Swinging London, where Ray Purbss (Simon Pegg) creates subversive magazine Mouth from his flat in Notting Hill, aided and abetted by Alex Picton-Dinch (Julian Rhind-Tutt), Jill Sprint (Sally Phillips) and Hugo Yemp (Darren Boyd). Intended as a parody of the 1960s, it was savagely mauled by critics, and never returned for a second series.
Hot Metal1988
A very funny comedy by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, who had previously given us "Whoops Apocalypse". Robert Hardy and Geoffrey Palmer starred in this satire of trashy tabloid journalism, as seen in the Daily Crucible. A second series replaced Palmer with Richard Wilson. This clip from part 6, voiced by Christopher Timothy, neatly summarises the crazy events of series one. (tx 23/03/1986)
The IT CrowdWritten by Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Big Train), and set in the dingy basement of a modern office block, The IT Crowd follows Roy (Chris O'Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), two socially inept IT technicians who are joined in IT support by Relationship Manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson), despite her having little or no knowledge of computers.
Just Good Friends1986 Another superb comedy from John Sullivan about the on/off relationship of Vince Pinner and Penny Warrender. The series which ran from 1983 to 1986 starred Paul Nicholas, Jan Francis, Sylvia Kay, John Ringham, Ann Lynn and Shaun Curry.
The Ken Dodd Show1966 BBC Television The Ken Dodd Show ran from 1959 to 1966. Ken also had other series with the BBC, ABC, ATV and Thames.
Kenny Everett Video Show1978
In 1978, Thames Television brought Kenny Everett together with writers Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron, to create the groundbreaking The Kenny Everett Video Show. Everett had made initial forays into television in the 1960s and 1970s, but this was his most successful series by far. Packed with innovative visuals, and featured outrageous characters such as ageing rocker Sid Snot, Angry of Mayfair, a city gent in women's underwear, and lecherous Frenchman Marcel Wave. Stars from the world of TV and music such as Rod Stewart, Terry Wogan and Billy Connolly made cameo appearances on the show each week.
Kenny Everett Video Show1978
The Kenny Everett Video Show was a big ratings hit and ran for four series on ITV. Unusually for the time, the show was filmed in a small studio normally used for news programmes, and with no studio audience. The crew were kept on their toes by Kenny's ad libs and deviation from the script, and much of this appeared in the aired programmes. Following disagreements with management at Thames, Everett left Thames for the BBC and The Kenny Everett Television Show began with a Christmas special in 1981.
KYTV1990
A spoof of low budget satellite television stations around in the early 1990s. KYTV was written by Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins, and starred Deayton, Perkins, Helen Atkinson-Wood, Michael Fenton-Stevens and Phillip Pope. Named after its owner, Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer, inept presenters and links were the order of the day.
The show was effectively the TV version of Radio Active which had appeared on Radio 4 in the 1980s.
The Likely Lads1964-1966 BBC Television
The Likely Lads ran from 1964 to 1966. The series was written by Dick Clements and Ian La Fresnais. It starred James Bolam and Rodney Bewes.
The Likely Lads (Christmas Special)1974 BBC Television The Likely Lads returned as Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads from 1973 to 1974. This is the final episode, the Christmas Special from 1974.
