Big band, big sound and big big personality - with a rousing call of "Wakey-Wakey" Billy Cotton introduced an inexhaustible 50 minutes of non-stop music, dancing and comedy in the essential weekend variety revue that was a stalwart of BBC programming for 12 years.
Gently thoughtful, amusing and well observed eighties situation comedy series for the BBC about a seemingly ordinary, contented, middle class suburban housewife who suddenly find herself plunged into the middle of a disorienting, emotionally tumultuous, mid-life crisis.
A firm Saturday night favourite for many years The Black and White Minstrel Show, a mixture of American deep South music previously popularised by internationally famous vaudeville stars such as the great Al Jolson.
Spin-off from 'The Army Game' - Private 'Excused Boots' Bisley and his bullying Sergeant, Claude Snudge, return to civvy life where they find employment in a Pall Mall gentleman's club called The Imperial.
Series set in four eras centred round Edmund Blackadder, a treacherous, selfish and devious rogue.
Compelling and hugely successful BBC drama series about boardroom strife and family conflict endured by three brothers.
Alan Bleasdale's hugely acclaimed series echoes the misery and despair of long-term unemployment. Set in Liverpool, these profoundly moving human dramas follow in turn the attempts of five working-class heroes to survive.
US action / adventure series
Animated sci-fi series in which a team of youngsters are tasked with a mission to save the Earth.
One of the most unusual and charming fantasy romances ever to reach prime time US screens, Beauty and the Beast was a modern day gothic romance set against the often violent, always bustling backdrop of New York City.
A one-off special featuring a series of sketches portraying the eccentricities of the British courtesy of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Detective/thriller series set on the offshore millionaire's paradise of Jersey in the Channel Islands
Television's first attempt to poke fun at the world of politics from within the Houses of Parliament in a situation comedy...
Peter Egan stars as Hogarth, a ruthlessly ambitious, flash and violent small-time criminal who has visions of being king of London's criminal underworld.
Crack pilot James "Biggles" Bigglesworth leads a team of investigators who solve crime around the world.
Immensely popular Canadian series concerning the adventures of a professional lumber salvager and his friends in British Columbia.
Set in California's San Joaquin Valley, The Big Valley was what the series 'Dallas' may have looked like if it had been set in the 1870s.
It is unlikely that any supernatural beings are more overrepresented in fiction than vampire, werewolf and ghost (although zombies are currently making a play for it). Being Human steered clear of clichés for the most part, and frequently poked fun at those it did entertain.
Short lived sketch comedy starring Eleanor Bron and John Bird
Set in the East End of London, the series followed the exploits of the officers of the fictional Sun Hill Police Station as they set about their daily task of keeping law and order.
Classic US sitcom following the adventures of Jed Clampett and his family who, after discovering oil at the back of their Ozark ranch, pack up their things and move to Beverly Hills, much to the consternation of the local populace.
Ted Danson starred as John Becker, an extremely dedicated and very talented doctor, who tends to a medical practice in New York's Bronx. And while a brilliant doctor, he tends to fare rather less well in the traditional bedside manner stakes.
Heart warming French series about an orphan boy who befriends a dog.
A witch marries a 'mortal' in 1960s America - and her family do not approve!
A black mare is found with life-threatening wounds and nursed back to health by a caring family.
This spin-off of the Susan Harris-created farce Soap sent the Tate family's insolent African-American butler Benson to the mansion of Jessica Tate's bumbling cousin, Governor James Gatling. In other words, Benson went from one dysfunctional family to another.
Based on the real-life exploits of William Bartholomew Masterson, a Dodge City lawman who preferred to use his wits instead of his fists and his cane instead of his Colt.
A band of humans who, fleeing the destruction of their twelve homeworlds by the implacable cybernetic alien race the Cylons, strike out in their rag-tag fleet protected by the last surviving Battlestar, the Galactica, in search of their mythical lost colony.
Animated series featuring 'The Fab Four'
Comedic stories of a gluttonous, lazy, deceitful, self-important and conceited schoolboy that was all the rage in the 1950s.