Terence Christopher Gerald Rigby was an English RADA trained actor with a number of film credits including Get Carter, Tomorrow Never Dies, Essex Boys and Watership Down. On television, he memorably played police dog-handler PC Snow in the long-running 1970s Z Cars spin-off series Softly, Softly: Taskforce, as well as starring in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Crossroads, Common as Muck and The Beiderbecke Affair.
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty. ...
Crossroads is a British television soap opera set in a fictional motel near Birmingham, England. Created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, the commercial ITV network originally broadcast the series between 1964 and 1988. Produced by ATV and later by Central it became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. The series was revived in a glossier version by Carlton Television in 2001, but was again cancelled in 2003. The original theme tune was composed by Tony...
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines....
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes....
Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need....
Callan is the title of a British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972. The series starred Edward Woodward as David Callan, a reluctant professional killer for a shadowy branch of the British Government's intelligence services known as 'the Section'....
The Beiderbecke Connection is a four-part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne. Now with a baby in tow, Jill and Trevor are asked by Big Al to look after a refugee called "Ivan"....
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries....
The Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the United Kingdom by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits to British Television since the 1960s included the preceding 4 part mini series Get Lost! for ITV in 1981. The Beiderbecke Affair has a similar style to Get Lost!, where Neville Keaton and Judy Threadgold played in an ensemble cast. Although The Beiderbecke Affair was intended as a sequel to Get Lost!, Alun Armstrong proved to be unavailable ...
While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her....
Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972....
Adaptations of mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's contemporary rivals in the genre....
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
Airline is a British television series produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in 1982. The series starred Roy Marsden as Jack Ruskin, a pilot demobbed after the end of the Second World War who starts up his own air freight business. Airline was created by Wilfred Greatorex and lasted for one series of nine episodes broadcast in January & February 1982, with a repeat in the summer of 1984. Other leading cast members were Polly Hemingway, Richard Heffer, Sean Scanlan and Terence Ri...
Anyone for Denis? is a British video-taped television version of the stage play of the same name broadcast by the ITV network on 28 December 1982. The original play, first performed at the Whitehall Theatre in 1981, was written by satirist John Wells. It is based on Private Eye's 'Dear Bill' letters, purportedly written by Denis Thatcher, the husband of Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister at the time. Set in Chequers, the play parodies the couple's relationship. The title is a punning referen...
George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears....
When a young heir inherits a noble title that apparently has a deadly curse to it, Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate. A British television serial based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel....
Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force....
Created by Ted Willis. Dixon of Dock Green was a BBC television series following the activities of police officers at a fictional Metropolitan Police station in the East End of London from 1955 to 1976. Some episodes were later remade as a BBC radio series in 2005 and 2006....
Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force....
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
An epic tale of a changing Britain over four decades, seen through the eyes of four friends....
A young actress gathers three former school friends to find out which one is her natural mother, who gave her up for adoption as a newborn....
Created by Ted Willis. Dixon of Dock Green was a BBC television series following the activities of police officers at a fictional Metropolitan Police station in the East End of London from 1955 to 1976. Some episodes were later remade as a BBC radio series in 2005 and 2006....
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television. The format was of a twice weekly 25 minute episodes, usually scre...
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Common As Muck is a gritty BBC comedy drama serial focusing on the lives of a crew of bin men and their management staff. It ran for two series. The first series was screened in 1994 and the second in 1997. Both were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama....
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968....
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversar...
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversar...
A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now James Bond must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium....
Anyone for Denis? is a British video-taped television version of the stage play of the same name broadcast by the ITV network on 28 December 1982. The original play, first performed at the Whitehall Theatre in 1981, was written by satirist John Wells....
A young boy called Pip stumbles upon a hunted criminal who threatens him and demands food. A few years later, Pip finds that he has a benefactor. Imagining that Miss Havisham, a rich lady whose adopted daughter Estella he loves, is the benefactor, Pip believes in a grand plan at the end of which he will be married to Estella. However, when the criminal from his childhood turns up one stormy night and reveals that he, Magwitch, is his benefactor, Pip finds his dreams crumbling. Although initially...
Billy has just scored an entry-level position with the local crime cartel. His first job is to mind Jason, a newly released thug with a vicious temper. Jason thinks it's his job to teach Billy about crime, drugs and women. Little does he know that Billy has his eyes on Jason's own wife, Lisa. When an ecstasy deal goes bad, Jason vows revenge on the boss, while Billy looks to take out Jason. Before long, bodies start turning up...
In a dreary North London flat, the site of perpetual psychological warfare, a philosophy professor visits his family after a nine-year absence and introduces the four men - father, uncle and two brothers - to his wife....
Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead....
'No Man's Land' is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first performed in 1975. In this 1978, TV adaptation, a seedy poet shows up at the home of a rich writer and they start reminiscing about the 'past,' in a menacing, Pinteresque fashion....
In 1945, the new Polish government asked for the heart of Chopin previously buried in Paris. A woman called Paulina Czernika approached the government claiming to have some love letters from the composer to her great-grandmother, the Countess Delfina Potocka....
Will Plunkett and Captain James Macleane, two men from different ends of the social spectrum in 18th-century England, enter a gentlemen's agreement: They decide to rid the aristocrats of their belongings. With Plunkett's criminal know-how and Macleane's social connections, they team up to be soon known as "The Gentlemen Highwaymen". But when one day these gentlemen hold up Lord Chief Justice Gibson's coach, Macleane instantly falls in love with his beautiful and cunning niece, Lady Rebecca Gibso...
When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven....
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world....
While in the first part, Lili searched for her mother, she now questions her mom on the identity of her father....
Docudrama film exploring the efforts of World in Action researchers Ian MacBride and Chris Mullin in proving that the "Birmingham Six" only admitted to the bombing under extreme duress, and that the five IRA members were in fact responsible for the deadly attacks...
The Queen's youngest son is off to university, mainly because "I'm hopeless at anything else". Barry, his new bodyguard, has no time for the royal family and left school at fifteen. He certainly didn't volunteer for this job, and is damned if he's going to enjoy it. Yet he can't help liking the hopelessly unworldly young prince, at least, until they both set their eyes on the new American student!...
Experienced New York Police Detective John Harris is sent to London to help a local task force investigate a series of gangster killings organized by a new player in town, an American. With the help of a young teen wronged by gangsters, Harris navigates London's seedy, drug-fuelled underworld in order to take down its new criminal empire....
Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why....
Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life in both academia and marriage. One of his students, William, is engaged to the beautiful Anna, and Stephen becomes enamored of the younger woman. These three people become linked together by a horrible car crash, with flashbacks providing details into the lives of each person and their connection to the others in this brooding English drama....
Ian McShane stars as Peter Curtis, who has just been released from prison after serving four years for manslaughter. His victim's mysterious last words lead him on a frantic quest for answers in the tidal estuaries of the West of England, where he finds himself on a collision course with other parties who are as eager to solve the mystery as he is, and are seemingly even prepared to kill to find the answer....
The story of Henry Purcell....
An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom....
Memphis cop Lieutenant McKenzie is called in to investigate a series of strange deaths and wierd sightings following the resurrection of a murder victim from the 1950s(a local boy) who is brought back to life in modern times and tries to find his teenage sweetheart who is now aged 62 and also to seek revenge for his death....
After her husband's death, A woman starts looking for independence....
Tommy Fawkes wants to be a successful comedian. After his Las Vegas debut is a failure, he returns to Blackpool where his father—also a comedian—started, and where he spent the summers of his childhood....
The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him....
The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin....
Danny Duggan runs a failing building contractors, and resorts to sub-gangster thuggery to keep the business afloat. However, with the bottom falling out of the building game, Duggan finds that playing at gangster is only fun when you're on the winning side....
Simon is an outcast from his Jewish community because he claims that the devil talks to him and he has the ability to put curses on crops. When Dovid asks the 'Squire' to sell him some land so he can build a railway station, a ruthless businessman from the neighbouring gentile community uses Simon to find out who wants to buy the land so he can 'persuade' him otherwise...
Olive Major is determined that her year of office as Mayor will be a happy and successful one. But her appointment of Ex-Warrant Officer Higham as Attendant and Mace-bearer causes the storm-clouds to gather over Medburgh Town Hall....
Is there nothing new under the sun? 1770. The South Atlantic. A fleet sets sail from Buenos Aires to expel the British forces and reconquer the Falkland Islands. A major international crisis explodes. What follows may sound strangely familiar, but is firmly based on the historical record and the actual speeches and writings of the time....