BBC One

The Flame Trees of Thika

Elspeth and her unconventional parents decide to settle down in Kenya and begin a coffee plantation. This is a time of discovery for Elspeth, as she encounters the incredible beauty and cruelty of nature, and new friendships with both Africans and British expatriates. A side plot involves the beautiful and bored British Lettice Palmer who enters into an affair with a handsome safari guide. Eventually, however, the excitement of Elspeth's life is disrupted by the onset of WW I, and the changes it brings.

Now Get Out Of That

Summertime Special

A BBC light entertainment holiday series, following on from the success of their Seaside Special shows, featuring comedy, music and variety guest stars.

Six Fifty-Five Special

Sally James and guest presenters invite established stars and newcomers to contribute to a lively half-hour of music and conversation.

Pop Quiz

A British television quiz programme hosted by Mike Read that originally aired on BBC1 from 4 July 1981 to 28 December 1984, with a Top of the Pops special on 4 January 1994. It was then revived from 21 May to 9 July 1994 on the same channel but this time with Chris Tarrant in charge.

Three of a Kind

Three of a Kind was a British comedy sketch show starring comedians Tracey Ullman, Lenny Henry and David Copperfield. Three series were made by the BBC between 1981 and 1983. The show bolstered the careers of Ullman and Henry, as well as being an outlet for young writers including Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, Ian Hislop and Nick Revell. Ullman and Henry went on to greater success after the show, with Ullman initially launching a brief but successful pop career in 1983 before starring in the ITV sitcom Girls On Top in 1985 and then going on to a high profile career on American television. Henry was given his own BBC series The Lenny Henry Show in 1984 and he remains a semi-regular fixture on British television to this day. Copperfield, however, garnered less success and has been seen relatively little since the series ended.

Private Schulz

Private Schulz is a BBC television comedy drama serial set mostly in Germany, during and immediately after World War II. It stars Michael Elphick in the title role and Ian Richardson playing various parts. Other notable actors included Tony Caunter, Billie Whitelaw, Billy Murray and Mark Wingett. Over six one-hour episodes, it tells the story of a German fraudster and petty criminal who is forced against his will to serve in the SS. In a story based on the real, though unrealised, plot by the Germans known as Operation Bernhard, he tricks the Nazis into making counterfeit British five pound notes, millions of which will be used to destroy the British economy. However, Schulz is primarily interested in stealing them. Other elements of the story based on the history of the period include the Venlo incident, when two British intelligence officers were abducted from the Netherlands at the very start of the war, and Salon Kitty. This was a Berlin brothel which was secretly run by the SD, for the purpose of spying on its wealthy clients, who were often prominent German government officials or military officers. Additionally, many of the main characters are real people.

The Nightmare Man

The population of a small Scottish island is gripped with fear following a strange discovery and a series of savage murders. Adapted from David Wiltshire's 'Child of Vodyanoi'.

The Chinese Detective

Chinese British Detective Sergeant John Ho solves cases in the East End of London. Ho fits the pattern of the maverick detective, prepared to use unorthodox methods to solve his cases, which emerged in series like Z Cars and The Sweeney.

The Children's Royal Variety Performance

The Children's Royal Variety Performance was devised by entertainer Rod Hull in 1981 and took place in London until 1994 in aid of NSPCC.

Sorry!

Sorry! is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1981 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1988. Starring Ronnie Corbett, it was written by Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, both of whom had previously written for The Two Ronnies, of whom Corbett was one half. The theme music was composed by Gaynor Colbourn and Hugh Wisdom, and arranged and conducted by Ronnie Hazelhurst. The outdoor scenes were filmed in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

Children of Fire Mountain

Children of Fire Mountain was a 13 part miniseries from New Zealand.

Pigeon Street

The shows featured the everyday adventures of a group of characters living on Pigeon Street, an area of flats and terraced housing in a British city, also home to several pigeons which appeared in each show but only occasionally featured in the plot. Characters included Clara the long distance lorry driver, her husband Hugo the chef, Mr Baskerville the detective, Mr Jupiter the astronomer, Mr Macadoo the petshop owner, and twins Molly and Polly, who were only distinguishable by the letter M and P on their jumpers.

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.

Solo

Gemma Palmer is 30 years old, and fed up with being betrayed and taken for granted. She's just found out her boyfriend, Danny, has been having sex with her friend, Gloria, and this is the last straw. She throws Danny out, tells Gloria to go jump in a lake, tells off all the people who have been treating her like a doormat, and quits her boring job at an estate agent's. From now on, she's going solo. At least, that is her firm intention.

Nanny

A divorced woman decides to train as a Nanny in 1930s England.

Triangle

Triangle was a BBC Television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed from Felixstowe to Gothenburg and Gothenburg to Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam and Felixstowe to justify the programme title, but this was not operated by the ferry company. The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced". The scripts involved clichéd relationships and stilted dialogue, making the show the butt of several jokes - particularly on Terry Wogan's morning Radio 2 programme - which caused some embarrassment to the BBC. In 1992, the BBC screened TV Hell, an evening of programming devoted to the worst television had to offer, and the first episode of Triangle was broadcast as part of the line-up. The ferry used in the first series was the Tor Line's MS Tor Scandinavia. In the second and third series this was replaced by the DFDS vessel Dana Anglia probably because she had a less intensive schedule and the longer time she spent in port made on-board filming easier.

Olivier Awards

Annual awards ceremony presented by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London.

The Flipside of Dominick Hide

The Flipside of Dominick Hide is a British television play first transmitted by the BBC on 9 December 1980 as part of the Play for Today series. Peter Firth stars in the title role as a time traveller from Earth's future who illegally visits the London of 1980 to search for an 'ancestor' and finds a world very different from the one he left behind.

Sink or Swim

Sink or Swim is a BBC TV sitcom starring Peter Davison as Brian Webber, who lives in a flat above a London petrol station, and trying to make his way in the world, thus far with limited success. His girlfriend, Sonia, is a very practical young woman who is passionate only about things like vegetarianism and ecology. When Brian's younger brother, Steve, arrives seeking a place to stay, his lazy, cynical, noisy "Northern lout" attitude disrupts Brian's already messy life. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. It ran for three series between 4 December 1980 and 14 October 1982, and was written by Alex Shearer, who later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom 'The Two of Us' (1986-90, LWT). The first two years of production overlapped as Davison was also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on recording schedules.