BBC Two

The Canterbury Tales

Animated adaptation of Chaucer's famous narrative poems, using a variety of groundbreaking animation techniques. On a pilgrimage from London to the tomb of Thomas Becket in Canterbury, a group of travellers from all walks of medieval society recount tales and stories to each other to provide amusement on the journey.

Rex the Runt

Rex the Runt is an animated claymation television show produced by Aardman Animations for BBC Bristol in association with EVA Entertainment and Egmont Imagination. Its main characters are four plasticine dogs: Rex, Wendy, Bad Bob and Vince. The series began with a short, Ident, in 1989 directed by Richard Goleszowski. After a long gestation period this developed into two unaired shorts and then thirteen ten-minute episodes that first aired over two weeks on BBC2 from December 1998. A second thirteen episode series aired from September 2001 on the same channel. As well as the core cast guest voices included Paul Merton, Morwenna Banks, Judith Chalmers, Antoine de Caunes, Bob Holness, Bob Monkhouse, Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton, Arthur Smith, June Whitfield, Kathy Burke, Pam Ayres and Eddie Izzard.

Science At War

Six programmes that show how science has changed the way in which wars are fought.

dinnerladies

Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.

Big Train

Twisted and original sketch show from the minds of Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, starring Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon and Mark Heap.

Clarkson

Chat show in which Jeremy Clarkson and guests sound off on subjects other than cars.

Earth Story

Earth Story is a 1998 BBC documentary series on geology presented by Aubrey Manning.

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The WebStory.com

Series exploring the birth, development and future of the World Wide Web, asking what it holds for its users.

The Cops

Set in and around Stanton, a faceless and grim Northern enclave, The Cops depicts the daily grind for a group of policemen and women out on the beat as they interact, and sometimes clash, with the local community.

The Creatives

Employees of an Edinburgh ad agency that thrived in the 1980s are trying to keep it afloat 20 years later with some new creative ideas.

The Royle Family

The Royle Family is a British sitcom created by Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, and produced by Granada Television for BBC Two (series 1) and BBC One (series 2 and 3). It centres on the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, comprising lazy patriarch Jim, his hard-working wife Barbara, their entitled daughter Denise, their put-upon son Antony, and Denise's lad fiancé–later husband–David.

Amongst Women

Based on the novel by John McGahern and set in Ireland in the 1950s, the series tells the story of Moran and his children. Especially the girls find it difficult to get away from the influence of their despotic father and start living their own lives.

In The Footsteps of Alexander the Great

In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great was a BBC documentary television series first shown in 1998. It was written and presented by British historian and broadcaster Michael Wood. Wood retraced the travels of Alexander the Great, from Vergina in Macedonia, where his father Philip II of Macedon died and Alexander was proclaimed king, through seventeen present-day countries to the borders of India and back to Mesopatamia, where he died. Whereas most of Wood's documentary series had titles beginning "In Search of...", the title of this series reflected a slightly different approach. The series was directed by David Wallace.

Lost In France

This brief series (12 episodes of 10 or 15 minutes each screened over a three week period) followed the adventures of a family pursuing the English football team around France during the World Cup. The series was written during filming to acknowledge the success or failure of the team in the competition.

Heart Bypass: Birmingham

Jonathan Meades offers an affectionate critique of Birmingham - home of Balti, ELO, heavy metal, conferences, 'Crossroads' and Cadbury's - from its architecture and canals to the Brummie accent and humour.

Windrush

Windrush is a 4-part series of one hour television documentaries originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival in Britain of the Empire Windrush, the ship which brought the first wave of post-war West Indian immigrants.

In the Red

In the Red is a three-part BBC Two black comedy crime miniseries adapted by Malcolm Bradbury from Mark Tavener's novel of the same name, which had been inspired by the writer's early experiences working for the BBC and the Liberal Party. The serial stars Warren Clarke as BBC Reporter George Cragge and Alun Armstrong as Police Superintendent Frank Jefferson, investigating a series of murders of London bank managers, a small political party contesting a by-election, and a plan to overthrow the Director-General of the BBC.

The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs

Decision-makers from Israel, the Arab states, Russia, and the U.S. tell the inside story of the Arab-Israel conflict. Charts the evolution of tensions, violence, and peace efforts from 1948 to 1998.

Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round

Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round was a comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 6 episodes over one series in 1998. Alexei Sayle's final series was almost identical in format to The All New Alexei Sayle Show except with yet another change of writers.. Unusually, there was no studio audience. Sketches included the talents of Noel Fielding, Lee Hurst, Paul Putner, Gemma Rigg, Reece Shearsmith, Jessica Stevenson, David Walliams and Peter Serafinowicz The continuing adventures of Bobby Chariot were chronicled. Now free from any obligation to be Alexei's warm-up man, he traversed a series of other career cul-de-sacs under the appalling management of the repulsive "Edna" Denise Coffey. In one episode, the joke was turned on its head as Chariot performed for an audience of students, who enjoyed his act ironically and responded to his catchphrase "How ya diddling?" with an enthusiastic reply of "We're diddling fine!". Meanwhile Alexei Sayle himself was depicted as living in a Teletubbies-style burrow somewhere in the posh part of North London.