Television can break taboos by giving voice to issues that are often considered off-limits in society. TV shows can normalize conversations around these issues and reduce stigma or expose wrongdoing. These 5 programmes have done just that
Known in the short form as PIFs, they were government-commissioned television commercials mainly, but not exclusively, aimed at children that had begun on television in the 1960s. But the 70s were most definitely their heyday, and you may even have found yourself recently quoting them without even realising it
The Seventies were truly the Golden Age of Public Information Films. In a poll organised by the BBC in 2006 to celebrate 60 years of the Central Office of Information, 40%, voted the Charley Says films the Nation's Favourite PIFs
The iconic red squirrel created by Elsie Mills in 1953 played a crucial role in teaching millions of children about road safety from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the 1970s, a series of 6 short television films bought him into the nation's homes
In spite of all the major domestic news stories of 1963; The Great Train Robbery, The Profumo Affair, everything else was eclipsed by the world shattering events in Dallas Texas on 22nd November.
Andrew Cobby takes a humorous look at 1970s daytime TV: Crown Court, A Handful of Songs and Nancy Kominski - who wouldn't want to skip school for that?
John Winterson Richards chooses his own personal choice of ten classic television shows that had a major influence on our viewing habits and the type of programmes that followed them.
Andrew Cobby remembers 1983: VCRs, Columbo and Top of the Pops.
British television in the 1980s welcomed the first new national television service for twenty years, breakfast TV was launched and cable and satellite were established. For many, it was the last golden decade, for others it was best forgotten
It's not all about television - okay, it is really. But let's take a commercial break for quick look back at the decade that became known as Cool Britannia. As we plunged headlong towards the new millennium and the Y2K Bug, what were the stories that formed the nineteen-nineties?
Quintessentially the epitome of 60s cool, charm and fashion, The Avengers owes as much to British culture as British culture does to it
A look at how episodes of 'Danger Man' influenced 'The Prisoner' "From its beginning to its end, there is a near-palpable, mythological aura surrounding this cult series."
Long before it became a cult favourite, Adam Adamant Lives! faced one of the rockiest roads to broadcast in BBC history. The dashing Victorian adventurer with a swordstick and disdain for modern manners was never meant to exist
We open the file on unwilling British government assassin David Callan.
In its psychological depth, its use of long story and character arcs, and, above all, its political cynicism, Callan was decades ahead of its time.
As Raffles - The Amateur Cracksman, Anthony Valentine gave one of his finest performances. A role that was seemingly tailor-made for him began in 1975 as a single play by Philip Mackie before becoming a major drama series in 1977
Another article on the best examples of our favourite television shows picks out a classic episode of a fondly remembered series that is, in the words of our reviewer, 'charged unapologetically with testosterone and raw masculinity'
Find out why Brian Slade has chosen 'The Public Relations Course' as his favourite episode of this classic British sitcom featuring the hapless Frank Spencer, as brilliantly played by the incomparable Michael Crawford...
Author Brian Slade chooses his favourite episode of the classic sitcom in our 'Best Of' series. Peggy’s impromptu and unofficial audition for being a yellowcoat is a scene stealing performance from Su Pollard
Everyone, who is a fan of Fawlty Towers, has their favourite episode. There's certainly a case for any particular episode to be at the top of your list as nearly all of them were equally hilarious. In this article, writer Brian Slade selects his
Remembering a classic episode of the US sitcom 'Taxi' - 'Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey' in which 'we get to see the best of the characters at their most eccentric'
In the second in a series of articles recalling the best episodes of a TV show, Dan Tessier picks his favourite Red Dwarf episode.
Andrew Cobby takes an affectionate and sometimes tongue-in-cheek look at Kojak's best characters and episodes.
Andrew Cobby is on the trail of his favourite three Columbo episodes.
Lost was one of the biggest television shows of the 2000s, starting with a two-part pilot that does a remarkable job of setting the stage to come, instilling tension, and keeping the viewer glued to their seat
John Winterson Richards chooses a single episode of the epic series that ticked all the boxes. It had drama, humour, violence...and one very tough Russian...
Rod Serling had struggled to get his scifi anthology idea off the ground for some time. But this 1959 pilot episode helped establish what would become an iconic series that is still regarded as the benchmark of science fiction from a golden era
Writer Sunday Simmons chooses her favourite TNG episode, describing it as an 'outstanding 45 minutes of sci-fi brilliance'
A macabre monster in outer space, eerie graveyards of lost spaceships are they real or imagined? Years of mental torment reach a terrifying climax for Tony Cellini - is this the best episode of Space: 1999? Daniel Tessier thinks so...
After an accident in the engine room of the Defiant apparently claims the life of Benjamin Sisko, Jake lives out his life in an endless quest to locate his father.