John Bardon

The Best of EastEnders

Join Adam Woodyatt, who has played the long suffering Ian Beale since the very first episode of EastEnders, as he takes the viewer on a special trip down memory lane. Adam re-lives the very best of the drama: the bust-ups and shocks, the cliffhangers (or "duff-duffs" as Adam calls them), the moments that made us laugh and the ones that made us cry.

East Is East

In 1971 Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

Giving Tongue

Jessie Fielding is a young MP who is trying to get an anti-hunting bill through the two Houses of Parliament, which is a little surprising as she hunted as a teenager with friend Barb Gale. Matters are complicated when she rekindles her friendship with Barb, who still works for a hunt. The plot thickens further when it becomes aparent that the House of Lords is likely break with convention and block the bill, an event which the Prime Minister hopes to use for his own ends.

Seasick

Eco-terrorists attack a ship carrying toxic waste.

Further Up Pompeii!

This one-off was shown on ITV in 1991, and by different writers, then the original Talbot Rothwell & Sid Colin. In my opinion a brilliant come-back for Howerd, with a new cast, and funny script. This could have seen a good return as a series on ITV, although Howerds own death in 1992 limited this. The cast in this one-off feature some regulars from other sitcoms from the 1970's including Roy Evans who now stars in Eastenders. The set was more like a theatre than a TV set, no reality at all which, was actually quite a good move. In summing up they successfully bought a true classic back to life with Further Up Pompeii. It's well worth watching at least 2.

Max Miller: I Like The Girls Who Do

A celebration of Max Miller , comedian and star. Presented by Gerald Scarfe with Max Bygraves Charlie Chester , Doris Hare Jean Kent , Alec McCowen, Tommy Trinder , Max Wall, Bernie Winters and Max Miller 'I'm ready for bed - anybody?' Max Miller , dazzling in chintz and gaudy plus-fours, one foot on the footlights, leering and howling with delight, confronted his audience. Sexual innuendo was his game. He trod a dangerous line, just this side of respectability, across the Music Halls of the 30s and 40s. On the stage of the Hackney Empire, with chorus girls and full supporting acts, Gerald Scarfe re-creates Max Miller 's rise from the back streets of Brighton to the top of the bill. The most outrageous comedian of his day, Max was banned by the BBC, in trouble over the Royal Command Performance, admired and hated by the comics of his age - and ours

Thin Air

Set in a commercial radio station in an enterprise zone called ‘Riverside’, Thin Air involved property development on a massive scale, the disruption and forced exodus of a local community, the stripping away of local authority powers, left-wing activism, designer drugs, media hacks.

84 Charing Cross Road

When a humorous script-reader in her New York apartment sees an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature for a bookstore in London that does mail order, she begins a very special correspondence and friendship with Frank Doel, the bookseller who works at Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road.

Clockwise

School headmaster Brian Stimpson is obsessed with timeliness, order, and discipline. Brian misses his train after meticulously preparing a speech for an education conference. With no one else to turn to, he asks young former student Laura Wisely for a ride. Laura, upset over a break-up, agrees to drive him in her parents' car - which alarms her mother and father, who worry that she has run away with a married man and subsequently alert the police.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

When Pericles discovers the dread answer to Antioch's riddle, he flees for his life straight into famine, shipwreck, love, fatherhood, and another shipwreck; he loses his wife and daughter, and doesn't find them again until the story moves us through resurrection, attempted murder, pirates, prostitution, and divine revelation.

Fords on Water

Influential, cult classic, UK buddy road movie about two friends, one white and one black, who bond over their desire to escape from boredom and unemployment in Thatcher's Britain.

Here's a Funny Thing

John Bardon performs his acclaimed stage show tribute to the comedian Max Miller for Channel 4. Miller's story is told as a part of his act, weaving biographical details amongst the gags and songs.

Friend or Foe

Two evacuated children in wartime rural England find two German airmen hiding out in the woods. An adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's 1977 novel from writer/director John Krish .

Murphy's Stroke

The horse Gay Future is at the centre of an Irish betting syndicate in 1974 which saw trainer Antony Collins present a poor performing horse at his stables. The betting stakes were subsequently raised, before the real horse was entered in the race.

Dinner at the Sporting Club

Vinny Mathews is a small time boxing promoter who struggles with his conscience over what to do with a fighter he knows is unfit to face his opponent. However, Mathews needs sponsorship and this would be the ideal opportunity to mix with the "frilly shirted" sportsmen who enjoy their lavish lifestyle as fighters slug it out as the steak is served!

Affront

A car mechanic faces prejudice at work because of his ethnicity.

The Chauffeur

Joe, the chauffeur to an unnamed South American embassy, enjoys the small prks of privilege that his job provides him. When a coup in the country results in the ambassador's recall, his halycon life is upended.

One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

Escaping from China with a microfilm of the formula for the mysterious "Lotus X", Lord Southmere, a Queen's Messenger, is chased by a group of Chinese spies.

S*P*Y*S

Two CIA bunglers botch a Soviet defection, then both sides mark them for termination.