BBC Two
Featured Show:
The Old Grey Whistle Test
The Old Grey Whistle Test is an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys—doormen in grey suits. The songs they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test.
BBC Two TV Shows
2022 shows • Page 94 of 102
The Old Grey Whistle Test
The Old Grey Whistle Test is an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys—doormen in grey suits. The songs they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test.
Cousin Bette
In 19th century Paris, Bette Fischer, a poor and homely spinster, forms an alliance with the seductive courtesan Valerie Marneffe to orchestrate revenge on her handsome and wealthy relatives.
Birds on the Wing
Birds on the Wing is a 1971 BBC Two television comedy written by Peter Yeldham and produced by Graeme Muir, originally aired in a single series of six episodes. A businessman becomes enamoured of an attractive young woman, whom he finds out is trying to con him with her friend. The three form an unlikely alliance.
Bel Ami
Georges Duroy cynically exploits women - and his position as a journalist - to gain power in 19th-century France.
Sunset Song
A young woman in rural Scotland faces hardship after hardship as she struggles to keep her family farm going through personal losses and the devastation of World War I.
Mr. Benn
Popular British children's animation series. Mr Benn is the ordinary, bowler-hatted office worker who lives in the ordinary suburban street of Festive Road. However, when he tries on a costume in a mysterious shop, he steps out of the changing room into a different time and place, appropriate to his apparel. His adventures include him being a spaceman, a pirate and a cowboy.
Elizabeth R
This historical mini-series documents the reign of Elizabeth I with each episode focusing on one dramatic period in the lengthy reign of the Virgin Queen, including her ascension to the throne, her various marital intrigues, her problems with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada.
Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure is a British television serial directed by Hugh David and dramatised by Harry Green, based on Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel of the same name. Born into poverty, young Jude Fawley refuses to accept his lot in life. As his dreams are shattered one by one, his life gradually descends into tragedy.
Dave Allen at Large
David Tynan O'Mahony, better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian. Initially becoming known in Australia during 1963–64, Allen made regular television appearances in the United Kingdom in the later 1960s and 1970s.
Sense and Sensibility
A story of two sisters attempting to find happiness in the tightly structured society of 18th century England. Elinor, disciplined, restrained and very conscious of the manners of the day, represents sense. Outspoken, impetuous, emotional Marianne represents sensibility.
0Craftsmen
A series of short-form documentaries portraying various independent craftspeople.
The Goodies
A British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s, combining surreal sketches and situation comedy.
The Roads to Freedom
Taboo-busting adaptation for television of Jean-Paul Sartre's trilogy.
0Oh In Colour
A 1970s comedy television sketch programme, written by and featured Spike Milligan, who was accompanied by different stars every week. It was shown after the thoroughly more popular Q5, also written by Milligan and Neil Shand. It is likely the programme was written to bridge the long production gap between Q5 and the next series, Q6, which did not appear on TV screens until 1975.
The Spoils of Poynton
When her husband dies, Mrs Adele Gereth quarrels with her carefree son Owen over the family estate and his desire to marry for love, not money.
Codename
Codename, which premiered in April 1970, was about the secretive MI17 Spy Organisation of the same name based in the residential hall of a Cambridge College. Eventually the series attained a more international flavour, although its base was always in Great Britain. Primarily Codename dealt with the themes of espionage and counter-espionage at the time of the Cold War of the sixties. Its cast contained many of Great Britain's most versatile and talented actors.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Series of television plays written by six different authors. Each play is a lavish dramatization of the trials and tribulations surrounding Henry and his wives. Keith Michell ties the episodes together with his dignified and magnetic performance as the mighty monarch.
The First Churchills
The First Churchills is a 1969 twelve-part BBC television serial starring John Neville as John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Susan Hampshire as his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Written and produced by Donald Wilson, and directed by David Giles, the series is notable as being the first programme shown on PBS's long-running Masterpiece series in the United States.
0Eye on Life
A Horizon presentation of seven programmes on animal life.
World in Ferment
A British send-up of news magazine programmes, celebrities, and broadcasters that proudly declared “no matter where in the world news is being made, we will be somewhere else – poised to bring you the facts without fear or favour about something totally different and to bring them to you late, wrong, and garbled.”