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1950s series based on Alexander Dumas' masterpiece of mystery and intrigue, Le Comte de Monte Cristo, first published in 1845.

Shabby looking homicide detective uses his criminal knowledge and eye for detail to pit his wits against criminals.

Unquestionably the longest running reality/talent/entertainment and gameshow on television, Come Dancing went through a number of format changes over the years...

Compact was the BBC's third adult soap opera.

Ray Saxon has a nose for sports racketeers. Working for the Sunday Globe he investigates corruption and murder.

Introducing the most bizarre characters on television...

An alien 'agent', Simon King, sent to Earth by an intergalactic council posing as a journalist in order to unmask refugees from a dying planet, who wanted to take over the world.

1950s gameshow based on noughts and crosses

Possibly the starkest, darkest, popular drama series to have emerge from a British Television company since the classic Edge of Darkness, Granada Television's Cracker was an instant success.

Sid James in his first TV series after Hancock. Written by Galton and Simpson.

Scientists are being kidnapped and taken to an undersea world.

Unfairly described as an English version of Friends, Granada's comedy/drama Cold Feet rose from humble beginnings to become an award winning ratings winner with a healthily average audience of 10 million viewers.

Hollywood screen legend Boris Karloff as a determined police officer heads Scotland Yard's department for seemingly unsolvable cases.

The Cisco Kid was nominated in 1953 for an Emmy Award for children's programming. By 1955 it was the most popular filmed television series among American children.

One of the most significant TV shows of 1963, this five part John Boorman documentary, made by BBC West filmed five individuals as they confronted and conformed to the problems and pressures of everyday life in Britain in 1963.

Any no-gooder underestimating the tweed-suited detective would do so at their own cost because Cluff's slow methodology belied a skilfully perceptive insight into human nature and behaviour, particularly in the criminal mind.

Ronnie Barker plays a short sighted delivery man who falls in love with a maid and moves to the country with her.

John Sullivan's television scriptwriting debut concerned the exploits of would-be Marxist, Wolfie Smith, and the activities of his four-man revolutionary party, the Tooting Popular Front.

War drama about the infamous German POW camp and the prisoner's attempts to escape it.

Children's fantasy/paranormal drama series. When the Clare family moves into an old Bristol townhouse, the children discover a mysterious sealed room - and the skeleton inside.

Lavish historical drama from BBC Television which was much derided by critics and viewers alike.

Forerunner to the multitude of 'makeover' shows that constantly occupy our screen time today, Challenge Anneka was devised by Anneka Rice and proved to be hugely popular with the British public, even though it was not without its problems.

One of the very earliest situation comedy successes for the fledgling Channel 4, Chance in a Million chronicled the misadventures of one Tom Chance, a slightly eccentric, but decent ordinary man with an unnatural ability to warp probability to ludicrous proportions.

This much maligned series from the late seventies has, believe it or not, reached cult status in more recent times and spawned a blockbuster movie starring four brand new stars as well as the original Charlie himself.

A trio of sisters, known as The Charmed Ones, the most powerful good witches of all time use their combined "Power of Three" to protect innocent lives from evil beings.

An expensive investigative agency operating in San Francisco protects the lives of people who had become targets of the criminal underworld.

US medical drama and five-time Emmy Award winner.

Pre-school puppet series about a dragon and his companions.

The multi-talented Burnett could play everything from a cleaning woman to a femme fatale, thanks to her lithe body, incredible facial expressions and that wonderful booming voice.

Charlie Chester's most successful television series ran for 11 years on BBC television from 1949, but ended just as perhaps TV's first golden age was about to start.