The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best British television programmes of any genre that had been screened up to that time.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. It starred Peter Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence and André Morell.
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. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted regularly from October 1965 to May 1979, before returning for the summer seasons of 1982 and 1983. The producer most associated with the Play of the Month series was Cedric Messina. Thirteen productions were also shown previously or subsequently on BBC2 in the period 1971-73 under Stage 2. Productions were broadcast in colour from November 1969.
Coral Edith Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress. Her extensive theatre credits included Broadway productions of Macbeth (1956), The Rehearsal (1963) and The Right Honourable Gentleman (1965). She won the 1984 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the BBC TV film An Englishman Abroad (1983). Her film appearances included Auntie Mame (1958), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Ruling Class (1972) and Dreamchild (1985). She was actor Vincent Price's third wife.
Anthony Samuel Selby was an English actor. He was best known for his roles as Clive Mitchell in EastEnders, Corporal Percy Marsh in Get Some In!, and Sabalom Glitz in Doctor Who.
Victoria Wicks is a British actress. She is known for her role as Sally Smedley in Channel 4's comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998), Mrs. Gideon in The Mighty Boosh (2004), and the College Director in Skins (2007–08). Her film appearances include The Imitation Game (2014) and High-Rise (2015). She is an associate of Howard Barker's theatre company, The Wrestling School.
Breakfast with Frost is a Sunday morning BBC current affairs programme hosted by Sir David Frost. It covered the main political news of the day, with Frost interviewing key figures in the world of politics, and celebrity guests reviewing the Sunday papers. The programme was broadcast on BBC One from 1993 to 2005.
Michael Darbyshire was an English actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for his role as Hubert Davenport, the Victorian ghost, in the long running BBC TV children's comedy series Rentaghost.
Julia Foster is an English stage, screen, and television actress.
Joanna McCallum is an English theatre, film and television actress.
Michael Spice was a British character actor who appeared in television roles.
André van Gyseghem was an English actor and theatre director who also appeared in many British television programmes.
Elsie Noël Dyson was an English character actress.
Thirty-Minute Theatre was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was produced initially by Harry Moore, later by Graeme MacDonald, George Spenton-Foster, Innes Lloyd and others. Thirty-Minute Theatre began on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parson's Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9 (1966), which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective (1986). In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.
Theatre Night is the umbrella title under which adaptations of classic and contemporary stage plays were usually broadcast on BBC 2 between 15 September 1985 and 21 July 1990.
BBC2 Playhouse is a UK anthology television series of one-hour episodes produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Among its many performers were Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Paul Scofield, Deborah Kerr, Ben Kingsley, Donald Pleasence, Brenda Blethyn, Peggy Ashcroft, Peter Sallis and Margaret Whiting.
Performance is a UK television anthology series produced by Simon Curtis for the BBC. Twenty-six episodes aired on BBC2 between 5 October 1991 and 21 March 1998, almost all of which were productions of classic and contemporary plays, including Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, King Lear by William Shakespeare, and The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan.
