Channel 4
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Zastrozzi: A Romance
In a heady tale of revenge and obsession, the outlaw Zastrozzi, assisted by courtesan, Matilda, abducts his half-brother, Verezzi, and torments him into believing his lover, Julia, has been murdered. His campaign of vicious psychological abuse signals a grisly bloodbath of greed, envy, betrayal, retribution, and eternal damnation.
Channel 4 TV Shows
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Zastrozzi: A Romance
In a heady tale of revenge and obsession, the outlaw Zastrozzi, assisted by courtesan, Matilda, abducts his half-brother, Verezzi, and torments him into believing his lover, Julia, has been murdered. His campaign of vicious psychological abuse signals a grisly bloodbath of greed, envy, betrayal, retribution, and eternal damnation.
0The Chart Show
The Chart Show is a music video programme which ran in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 between 1986 and 1988, then on ITV between 1989 and 1998. The production company was Video Visuals, and was credited as "A Yorkshire Television Presentation" from 1993 and 1998. The show has lived on through a Channel 4 revival in 2003 and a more recent revival on the digital music channel Chart Show TV, which ran sporadically from 2008 and 2009.
Mr Pye
Mr Pye travels to the Channel Island of Sark to spread the love of God. But doing good deeds means something strange starts to happen to him, he starts to grow wings.
Prospects
Prospects is a British television comedy drama series that was written by Alan Janes and originally shown on Channel 4 in 1986. Created by Euston Films who had a pedigree of producing successful, gritty drama such as The Sweeney and Minder, it followed the exploits of two East End 'geezer' characters - Jimmy 'Pincy' Pince played by Gary Olsen and Billy played by Brian Bovell and their trials and tribulations of making a living in London's Isle of Dogs. Comprising 12 episodes Prospects - with a comic slant, dealt with many of the major issues affecting British society at the height of the "Thatcherite" '80's including unemployment, crime, poverty, regeneration, social change and racism. Prospects gained a cult following and ratings wise it performed well above expectation for Channel 4. At that time Channel Four received a large subsidy from the rival commercial network ITV in exchange for the right to sell airtime; this gave ITV a significant input into the management of the station. The success of Prospects and the fact that it was produced by a subsidiary of the ITV network's largest station Thames Television meant it was moved to a 9pm prime-time repeat slot on ITV in the Spring/Summer of 1987. This fuelled rumours that the network wanted to develop Prospects into a long-running comedy drama series. However despite seeing potential ITV declined the opportunity to develop it beyond the original first series.
Saturday Live
Saturday Live was a British television comedy and music show broadcast by Channel 4 from 1985 to 1987, and in 1988 as Friday Night Live. Influenced by the American show Saturday Night Live, it was produced by Paul Jackson. The series made stars of Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and featured appearances by Patrick Marber, Morwenna Banks, Chris Barrie, Emo Philips, Craig Ferguson, Craig Charles and many others. The show featured comic duo Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall in their act The Dangerous Brothers. All episodes were transmitted live, although some material was pre-recorded. Recordings of shows were edited into compilation repeats, retitled Saturday Almost Live. The show was succeeded by Friday Night Live, a shorter and slightly more tightly-formatted show with Elton as the permanent host, which ran for a single series in 1988. The show's titles consisted of reforming clay animations, highly comparable to early MTV idents.
The Mind of David Berglas
David Berglas is psychological illusionist and mentalist. In the UK he caused a sensation with his Channel 4 series The Mind of David Berglas, aired in 1986, where he interviewed and entertained celebrity guests including Omar Sharif, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Peter Cook and Max Bygraves.
0The Mysteries
National Theatre Cottesloe production filmed for Channel 4
Tandoori Nights
Tandoori Nights is a Channel 4 sitcom broadcast in two six-episode series from 1985 to 1987. The programme focuses on the rivalry between two Indian restaurants in East London: The Jewel in the Crown and The Far Pavilions.
0End of Empire
End of Empire chronicles the last days of British rule around the globe, through the remarkably candid reminiscences of both colonisers and the colonised. The series, a Granada Television production, uses old newsreel film and interviews with former British and colonial officials. Narrated by Robin Ellis.
Mapp & Lucia
Mapp & Lucia is a British television comedy, based on E. F. Benson's novels, beginning with the eponymous 1931 entry for series 1, with Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia for series 2. Mrs Emmeline Lucas (nicknamed Lucia) has just moved to the small English town of Tilling where she comes into conflict with the social ambitions of Miss Elizabeth Mapp. Until now, Miss Mapp has led (and controlled) the social life of Tilling, but that was before they met Lucia.
The Max Headroom Show
The Max Headroom Show started life in the UK in 1985. The show featured actor Matt Frewer playing the role as computer-generated talk-show host Max Headroom.
Quo Vadis?
Drama about love and intrigues in ancient Rome during the times of Nero.
Assaulted Nuts
Assaulted Nuts was a short-lived TV comedy series which ran in early 1985. The show was constructed as a fast-paced succession of short, unconnected sketches. It was a co-production between Cinemax in the US and Channel 4 in the UK. The US-UK nature of the show was demonstrated in the unusual nature of its casting: American performers like Elaine Hausman, William Sadler and the soon-to-be-famous Wayne Knight acted alongside the familiar British comic actors Cleo Rocos, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Daniel Peacock and Barry Cryer. In the UK the show was broadcast in a late-night slot and seen by relatively few people. In spite of the quality of its writing and the abilities of its performers, it made little impact. Seven 30-minute eposodes were made before the show was cancelled. The original broadcasts were weekly between 17 January and 28 February 1985.
The Price
English computer millionaire Geoffrey Carr and his wife have plans for a country house in Ireland. Irish terrorists have plans for the wealthy couple.
A Woman of Substance
The life of Emma Harte, from kitchen maid at the beginning of the 20th-century, to respected businesswoman and grandmother in the 1980s. From humble beginnings, Emma Harte starts her business with a small shop, but over the next twenty years, she expands her stores and invests in the growing textile industry in Leeds.
Pushing Up Daisies
British sketch show with parodies, impressions, satire, songs and plenty of recurring characters and motifs.
Fairly Secret Army
Fairly Secret Army is a British sitcom which ran to thirteen episodes over two series between 1984 and 1986. Though not a direct spin-off from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, the lead character, Major Harry Truscott, was very similar to Geoffrey Palmer's character of Jimmy in that series, and the scripts were written by Reginald Perrin's creator and writer David Nobbs. Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott is an inept and slightly barmy ex-army man intent on training a group of highly unlikely people into a secret paramilitary organisation. This idea first emerged in an episode of Perrin when Jimmy confided the plan to Reggie and was based on persistent though unsubstantiated rumours in the 1970s press that right wing generals were secretly planning a coup to rescue Britain from union militancy. The character's name was changed due to Fairly Secret Army being broadcast on Channel 4, and the television rights to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and its characters being held by the BBC. The first series was script edited by John Cleese, whose training films company was responsible for the series. The series did not have a laughter track. Nobbs only started work on the show when he turned down an offer to write a spin-off sitcom for Manuel of Fawlty Towers.
Chance in a Million
Chance in a Million is a British sitcom broadcast between 1984 and 1986, produced by Thames Television for Channel 4. The series was co-written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen and starred Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn. The producer and director of the series was Michael Mills.
0Play At Home
A one-off series of sixty minute shows where a band were given total control over the programme's content with no input from the production company or Channel 4.
Scully
Scully was a British television drama with some comedy elements set in the city of Liverpool, England, that originated from a BBC Play For Today episode "Scully's New Years Eve". Originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour final episode. It was written by playwright Alan Bleasdale. The drama is notable for featuring many of the Liverpool football club first-team squad of that era. Francis Scully is a teenage boy who has his heart set on gaining a trial match for Liverpool to hopefully fulfil his ambition of playing for the club. Francis, in everyday situations during his waking hours, occasionally "sees" famous Liverpool players such as Kenny Dalglish when they are not really there. These dream-like sequences recur throughout the episodes. The main plotline is the efforts of Scully's school teachers to persuade Scully to appear in the school pantomime which they attempt by promising him a trial with his beloved Liverpool if he will cooperate. When Scully and his friends are not in school making trouble for the teachers and the school caretaker, they are seen roaming the local streets upsetting the neighbours and getting into trouble with the police. Scully sometimes has visions of the school caretaker appearing as a vampire due to the caretaker's nickname being Dracula. These frequent waking dream sequences give the show a somewhat surreal atmosphere.