The Black and White Minstrel Show was a British light entertainment show that ran on BBC television from 1958 to 1978 and was a popular stage show. It was a weekly light entertainment and variety show presenting traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show and music hall numbers, usually performed in blackface, and with lavish costumes. The show was created by George Mitchell.
A British sketch comedy show broadcast on the BBC from 1963 to 1981, with frequent performers including Pat Coombs, Deryck Guyler, Roy Kinnear, Joan Sims and Josephine Tewson.
The Flower Pot Men is a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years, which was produced in a new version in 2001. The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
'Storyboard' is a BBC drama anthology series of 30 minute plays, each written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, the first series created by the prolific screenwriter. The series was followed by Studio 4
The story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.
The Sooty Show is a British children's Puppet series which aired on the BBC from 1955 to 1967 and ITV from 1968 to 1992. It follows the adventures and comedic day to day life of puppets Sooty, Sweep and Soo with their owner Harry Corbett, and in later years, his son Matthew.
Anthology series telling suspenseful tales.
Studio 4 is a BBC drama anthology series, filmed at the BBC TV Centre's Studio Four, and screening over two seasons in 1962. The series was envisaged as a sequel to Storyboard, an anthology series which had been transmitted the previous year.
Crackerjack was a British children's comedy/variety BBC television series. It started on 14 September 1955 and ran for over 400 shows, first in black and white and later in colour, until 21 December 1984. It was revived in 2020 on CBBC.
Telecrime was a British drama series that aired on the BBC Television Service from 1938 to 1939 and in 1946. One of the first multi-episode drama series ever made, it is also one of the first television dramas written especially for television not adapted from theatre or radio. Having first aired for 5 episodes from 1938 to 1939, Telecrime returned in 1946, following the resumption of television after World War II, and aired as Telecrimes.
A whodunit crime drama, Telecrime showed the viewer enough evidence to solve the crime themselves. Most episodes were written by Mileson Horton. All 17 episodes are lost. Aired live, their preservation was not technically possible at the time.
Set in 1970, a team of scientists decipher a mysterious signal from space and discover that it provides instructions to build a powerful super-computer. Once built, this computer provokes argument between two of leading team members, Fleming and Dawnay, over the machine's real intentions as it provides further instructions to create a living organism, which Dawnay starts to develop. Later it appears to compel lab assistant Christine to commit suicide, and when the organism is fully developed, it appears in the exact form of Christine, and named Andromeda. But what is the purpose of this "creature" ...?
Ann and Harold is a very early BBC television programme, and ran for five episodes, all broadcast in 1938. It is known to be the world's first drama serial ever transmitted, and explained the trials of a couple named Ann and Harold respectively, and starred Ann Todd. Little else is known about this programme.
No material exists of the show today, as it was aired live before any means of recording programmes existed. In fact, it is unknown if even any photographs survive of this programme.
Sherlock Holmes was a 1951 television series produced by the BBC featuring Alan Wheatley as Sherlock Holmes and Raymond Francis as Dr. Watson. This was the first series of Sherlock Holmes stories adapted for television.
Performances from much-loved music stars, alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios.
The story of two newly qualified nurses on their first assignment in the West Indies.