Latest reviews

The Flame Trees of Thika

Elspeth Huxley's autobiographical account of her childhood when, at just six years of age, she left London with her parents, Tilly and Robin Grant, who set out to establish a coffee plantation in Kenya.

The Flaxton Boys

This fondly remembered epic children’s drama created by Sid Waddell, set over four series, each featuring a different generation of the Flaxton boys, was inspired by a lunch-time meeting in a pub and an offer that an upcoming writer couldn't refuse.

About the Home

Long-running 1950s afternoon programme designed to help women improve their domestic skills with tips on everything they could wish to know about from cookery to soft furnishings and needlework to bringing up baby and doing their own DIY.

Fabian of Scotland Yard

The first ever British made filmed series, shot by Trinity Productions for the BBC and consisting of 39 black and white episodes, Fabian of Scotland Yard has been described as Britain's first generation of the TV detective.

Faces of Jim

Jimmy Edwards series of one-off sitcoms that introduced a minor supporting character actor who would go on to become 'the guv'nor' of British comedy...Ronnie Barker.

Family Solicitor

Naylor and Freeman is the name of a firm of solicitors. There are five partners and each handles a variety of cases.

Fanny's Kitchen

Phyllis Cradock and her third husband Major John Cradock were quickly poached from the BBC's Kitchen Magic in 1955 to present ITV's first cookery programme.

Farscape

Astronaut John Crichton is on a test flight of his module, Farscape 1, when a spatial wormhole opens directly in his path.

Father Brown

TV's first sleuth in clerical clothing was adapted in 1974 from the novels of G.K. Chesterton.

Father, Dear Father

Generation gap comedy starring middle-aged divorcee Patrick Glover, the author of a series of pulp fiction novels, who is left to bring up his two teenage daughters (Anna and Karen) in trendy Hampstead when his wife, Barbara, runs off to marry his best friend.

Fireball XL5

Following the exploits of Colonel Steve Zodiac as he piloted the 300ft rocket propelled spaceship Fireball XL5, this puppet series captured the imagination of the public at a time when the space race between the USA and Russia was at its height.

Firecrackers

1960s comedy that was heavily influenced by the classic Will Hay comedy Where's That Fire? that had been shot twenty-five years earlier at the same Elstree studio.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Sitcom about a man falling headlong into the calamity of mid-life-crisis who fakes his own suicide.

The Fall

Hard hitting and somewhat bleak drama series about a cold but passionate policewoman who goes head to head with a cold serial killer in Belfast.

The Feathered Serpent

Studio-bound Children's drama series set in the Aztec period starring former Doctor Who Patrick Troughton; formerly the hero of millions - but here the villain of the piece.

The First Churchills

Lavish 17th century costume drama full of political intrigue, manipulating women and sexual promiscuity.

The First Lady

A female official takes her seat on a local council. But the no-nonsense councillor has to face up to the bureaucracy of both local and central government.

Edward and Mrs Simpson

This seven part, £1 million drama series from Thames Television faithfully reconstructed the events of the affair between Edward and Mrs Simpson that, in 1936, caused a constitutional crisis and Edward VIII's eventual abdication.

Elizabeth R

"...Glenda Jackson totally submersed herself in the role by reading everything she could find about Elizabeth in order to get a deep understanding of the Queen. And this shines out from her performance as she delivers each line with an authority of a true monarch."

Ellen

US sitcom starring Ellen DeGeneres

Emergency-Ward 10

Britain's first medical soap, which was also the first of the country's twice-weekly serials, went on to become one of the nation’s best loved programmes, reaching an average audience of 16 million people a week and 24 million at its peak.

Enemy at the Door

Drama set around the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War

ER

ER first hit the television screens with all the speed and force of an express train in 1994, and immediately earned the label of 'rock 'em - sock 'em' television, hardly giving the viewer a chance to catch breath as each story-line unfolded.

Errol Flynn Theatre

British-produced anthology series along similar lines to Douglas Fairbanks Presents; both were made to cash in on the growing US and British television markets.

Ever Decreasing Circles

Although very popular in its day this BBC sitcom now seems to be curiously overlooked.

Executive Stress

Two of British comedy's most popular stars came together for this highly original and cleverly written series.

Exile

Emotional drama about living with the effects and heartbreak of Alzheimer's

F Troop

Set at the fictional Fort Courage after the American Civil War — “somewhere west of the Missouri River” — the series delivered a hearty mix of physical gags, visual silliness and irreverent humour

The Equalizer

After retiring from a life of espionage Robert McCall goes into business as a private investigator - a modern-day Robin Hood acting as a righter of wrongs.

The Eric Barker Half Hour

"He was a pioneer", wrote Nicholas Parsons, "the first person to do 'topical satire' on television, but as the phrase had not yet been coined, and as the sketches were part of conventional variety shows, he never received the credit he deserved for originality."