Channel 4

Clive Anderson Talks Back

Clive Anderson mixes comedy and his legal training to conduct a series of irreverent interviews with various guests. Also included is a satirical look at topical events.

Behaving Badly

Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4. The series was released on DVD in 2005. The plot focuses on Bridget Mayor, a middle-aged housewife and part-time teacher who is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband of twenty years abandons her for a younger woman.

Desmond's

Desmond's was a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. With 71 episodes, Desmond's became Channel 4's longest-running sitcom. The first series was shot in 1988, with the first episode broadcast in January 1989. The show was made in and set in Peckham, London, England and featured a predominantly Black British Guyanese cast. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, this series starred Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose. Desmond's shop was a gathering place for an assortment of local characters.

Park Avenue

Park Avenue was a daily teletext based soap opera on ITV's ORACLE Teletext service, which was written by Robbie Burns. It was launched in 1988, and 1,445 episodes were written during its time on air. It later moved to Channel 4 after ORACLE was reorganised, before ending when the service lost its franchise at the end of 1992.

The Secret Life of Machines

The Secret Life of Machines is an educational television series presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod, in which the two explain the inner workings and history of common household and office machinery. According to Hunkin, the show's creator, the programme was developed from his comic strip The Rudiments of Wisdom, which he researched and drew for the Observer newspaper over a period of 14 years. Three separate groupings of the broadcast were produced and originally shown between 1988 and 1993 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, with the production subsequently airing on The Learning Channel and the Discovery Channel.

This Is David Lander

This Is David Lander was a TV show that parodies Roger Cook style door-stepping investigative journalism shows, starring Stephen Fry as David Lander and written by Tony Sarchet. It began as the BBC Radio 4 show Delve Special, which became this six part Channel 4 series in 1988.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

An un-scripted comedy show in which four guest performers improvise their way through a series of games, many of which rely on audience suggestions.

A Very British Coup

A Very British Coup is a British political thriller series based on the novel by Chris Mullin. It stars Ray McAnally as the newly elected left-wing prime minister Harry Perkins, who soon finds himself up to his neck in conspiracy.

Chelmsford 123

Chelmsford, Britain in the year AD 123; there is a power struggle between Roman governor Aulus Paulinus and the British chieftain, Badvoc. Britain is a miserable place, cold and wet – just the place to exile Aulus for accidentally insulting the Emperor's horse, but also give him something useful to do. Aulus, probably a play on Aulus Platorius Nepos, the governor of Roman Britain between 122 and 125, was a rather delicate Roman, who was usually outwitted by the scheming Badvoc, who hadn't had a haircut for twenty-five years.

The Management

Smash Hits Poll Winners Party

Dispatches

Dispatches is the British TV current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, and often features a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.

Worzel Gummidge Down Under

Worzel Gummidge Down Under, adapted from the books written by Barbara Euphan Todd and the children's television programme produced and broadcast in the United Kingdom named Worzel Gummidge, starring Jon Pertwee. The story continued in New Zealand when Aunt Sally was sold to a Museum owner.

Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow

A series about the life, career and works of the movie comedy genius.

Showtime at the Apollo

Rising comics and singers are showcased in this long-running variety show from the Apollo Theater in New York City's Harlem neighborhood.

Porterhouse Blue

Cambridge, Great Britain, 1980s. When the headmaster of Porterhouse College dies without naming a successor, the government appoints a former graduate whose ideas clash with the extreme conservatism that reigns at the institution.

Dick Spanner

Dick Spanner, P.I. is a 1986 British stop-motion animated comedy series which parodied Chandleresque detective shows. The title character and main protagonist was Dick Spanner, voiced by Shane Rimmer, a robotic private detective who works cases in a futuristic urban setting. The show made frequent use of puns and visual gags. The series consisted of 22 six-minute episodes, covering two story arcs of equal length: "The Case Of The Human Cannonball" and "The Case Of The Maltese Parrot". The programme was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom as a segment of the Sunday morning show Network 7 on Channel 4, and was later repeated on the same channel in a late night spot. Produced by Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, the series was created and written by Terry Adlam, who had previously worked on effects for Anderson's Terrahawks. It was also the basis for the Anderson-created Tennants Pilsner advertising campaign using the Lou Tennant character.

After Dark

After Dark was a British late night live discussion programme broadcast on Channel 4 television between 1987 and 1997, and on the BBC in 2003. Inspired by an Austrian programme called Club 2, Roly Keating of the BBC described it as "one of the great television talk formats of all time". In 2010 the television trade magazine Broadcast wrote "After Dark defined the first 10 years of Channel 4, just as Big Brother did for the second".

The Last Resort

Groundbreaking and influential British talk show hosted by Jonathan Ross.

Six of Hearts

A series which looks at the diversity of gay life through a mixture of documentary, drama, music and comedy.