BBC One

The Search for the Nile

The Nile's source was the last great mystery for European explorers in the 19th century. The story of its discovery is one of heroism in the service of faith, greed, and obsession.

Barlow

Barlow at Large is a British television programme broadcast in the 1970s, starring Stratford Johns in the title role. Johns had previously played Barlow in the Z-Cars, Softly, Softly and Softly, Softly: Taskforce series on BBC television during the 1960s and early 1970s. Barlow at Large began as a three-part self-contained spin-off from Softly, Softly: Taskforce in 1971 with Barlow co-opted by the home office to investigate police corruption in Wales. Johns left Softly, Softly for good in 1972, but returned for a further series of Barlow at Large in the following year, Barlow having gone on full-time secondment to the Home Office. This second series, rather than telling one story in serial form, as the 1971 series had, was instead ten 50-minute episodes, each with a self-contained story. In this series, Barlow was supported by Norman Comer as Detective Sergeant Rees, who had been helpful to him during the first series. He also had to deal with the political machinations of the senior civil servant Fenton. In 1974 the series was renamed Barlow and a further two series of eight episodes each followed, introducing the character of Detective Inspector Tucker, played by Derek Newark. The final episode was transmitted in February 1975. The Barlow character was seen again in the series Second Verdict in which he, along with his former colleague John Watt, looked into unsolved cases and unsafe convictions from history.

Nairn's Journeys

Writer and journalist Ian Nairn presents a series of travels, examining architecture and culture across Europe.

6.1

Parkinson

Parkinson (1971) is a British television Interview show that was presented by Michael Parkinson.

Look - Mike Yarwood!

The original BBC TV series that ran for six series from 1971 until 1976, when later that year he returned with a new series Mike Yarwood In Persons. He performed sketches impersonating famous faces of the day. At its height the show regularly drew audiences of up to 18 million viewers.

5.0

Brett

Brett, a journalist with a taste for the high life and a penchant for trouble. a powerful and ambitious man who would become a tycoon, but with his shady past catching up with him, brings him conflict with people he had crossed.

7.6

The Two Ronnies

The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show which aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.

Now Take My Wife

Now Take My Wife was a BBC situation comedy which ran for only one series of 14 episodes in 1971. It starred Sheila Hancock and Donald Houston as a suburban middle-class couple, Claire and Harry Love. He would start each episode by turning to the camera and saying "Now ... take my wife". They had a teenage daughter, played by Liz Edmiston. Their next-door neighbour was an eccentric German woman, who also had a daughter. Of the 14 episodes, two are currently missing from the BBC archives; they were either wiped to reuse the tapes or possibly lost at one stage after their first broadcast. Several years later, in a Guardian interview, Hancock indicated that she was not very happy with the programme, seeing it as an example of the sort of stereotyped role for women actors she landed. However, her character often got the better of her husband during each episode.

4.7

The Last of the Mohicans

The adventures of Natty 'Hawkeye' Bumppo and his Indian companions, caught in a war between the French and English in upstate New York in 1757.

Little Women

British adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel.

6.3

Play for Today

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

Bachelor Father

Bachelor Father is a British sitcom starring Ian Carmichael that aired for two series from 1970 to 1971. It was written by Richard Waring.

5.0

The Black Tulip

The city of Haarlem, Netherlands, has set a prize of ƒ100,000 to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the Tulip Mania thirty years prior, and the citizens throw themselves into the competition. The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded but is suddenly thrown into the Loevestein prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who will be his comfort and help, and eventually become his rescuer.

Nairn's Europe

A series of programmes in which Ian Nairn contrasts the urban civic style of Britain and the Continent.

Doomwatch

Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.

As Good Cooks Go

As Good Cooks Go was a black-and-white British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1970. Written by John Warren and John Singer, it starred Tessie O'Shea and Frank Williams.

5.8

A Question of Sport