BBC Two

The Glittering Prizes

The Glittering Prizes is a six-part British television drama written by Frederic Raphael, broadcast on BBC Two in 1976. From the 1950s to 1970s, a group of Cambridge University students explore their changing lives and the 'glittering prizes' of success, academia and personal fulfillment in a shifting Britain.

How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley is a six-part television miniseries adapted by Elaine Morgan, based on Richard Llewellyn's eponymous 1939 novel. The serial is produced by the BBC and 20th Century Fox Television for BBC Two—the latter's involvement is due to their ownership of the rights to the novel and its subsequent Oscar-winning 1941 film. Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.

North and South

Serialisation of the novel by Mrs Gaskell.

Trinity Tales

On their way to London for the Rugby League final, a group of northerners start telling each other stories, in the manner of Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.

Arena

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Madame Bovary

In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.

Fawlty Towers

Owner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, a chambermaid Polly, and Spanish waiter Manuel attempt to run their hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding guests.

The Tribal Eye

David Attenborough explains the enormous growth of interest in tribal art, and explores the emotions which lie behind the masks and decorations of primitive people.

Looking for Clancy

Frank Clancy goes from penniless working-class idealist in the 1930s to superstar journalist and editor in the London of the swinging '60s — but at what cost to his integrity?

Rutland Weekend Television

Comedy sketch series purporting to show the programming of a low key regional television service. Written by Eric Idle of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' fame. A popular feature was the music of Neil Innes (one time member of the eccentric Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band), especially his Beatles parody The Rutles. They later featured in their own film: 'The Rutles (All You Need Is Cash)'.

The Girls of Slender Means

The Girls of Slender Means is a 1975 BBC television mini-series based on Muriel Spark's novel. The drama, aired in three parts, follows a group of young women living in a London boarding house in 1945, and is framed by a death that occurs in 1960.

The Fight Against Slavery

Late Call

Elderly couple Sylvia and Arthur Calvert are forced to move in with their widowed son and his children in Carshall New Town.

The Love School

The Love School is a BBC television drama miniseries originally broadcast from 22 January to 26 February 1975 about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The series was written by John Hale, Ray Lawler, Robin Chapman, and John Prebble, and directed by Piers Haggard, John Glenister and Robert Knights. The drama was a significant influence on the subsequent 2009 series Desperate Romantics. It was also the basis of the historical novel of the same name by Hale.

The End Of The Pier Show

Notorious Woman

Notorious Woman is a 1974 BBC miniseries about the life of French novelist George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), starring Rosemary Harris in the title role, and focusing on her scandalous life, career, and relationships, particularly with composer Frédéric Chopin. The seven-episode drama, written by Harry W. Junkin and directed by Waris Hussein, won a Primetime Emmy for Harris's performance and explored Sand's defiance of 19th-century conventions, including her male attire and public cigar smoking.

Microbes and Men

Dramatised stories of the founders of modern medicine. Until the 1840s, medicine had remained basically unchanged since the days of the ancient Greece. In the 60 years following it was transformed into a modern science.

Wodehouse Playhouse

Wodehouse Playhouse is a British television comedy series based on the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. From 1974 to 1978, three series and a pilot were made, with 21 half-hour episodes altogether in the entire series.

The Carnforth Practice

A six-part BBC2 drama about the Honourable Greville Carnforth, an aristocratic solicitor based in a small village community in the Lake District.

In Vision

A short-lived studio discussion programme about television. Originally presented by Paul Barnes and Chris Dunkley, from the second series onwards the programme was chaired by William Hardcastle.