John Lyons

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.

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.

The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.

Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.

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.

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.

A secret, high-technology international agency called SHADO defends Earth from alien invaders.

Classic sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques as brother and sister twins who have to tackle the trials and tribulations of suburban life.

Public Eye is a British television drama broadcast from 1965 to 1975 on ITV1. Produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four, the programme follows the investigations and cases handled by the unglamourous enquiry agent Frank Marker.

The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this central theme are the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner, shop owner Robert, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore. The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steam ships. It shows the role that ships played in affairs like international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.

United! was a British television series which was produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967, and was broadcast twice-weekly on BBC1. The series followed the fortunes of a fictional second division football team, Brentwich United. The football scenes were filmed on the grounds of Stoke City with Jimmy Hill acting as a technical advisor, and the efforts to achieve authenticity saw the show being criticised by the then management of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who complained that the series was based on their team.

On the Buses is a British comedy series created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to a friend, Frank Muir, Head of Entertainment at London Weekend Television, who loved the idea; the show was accepted and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers.

A crime drama set in Southampton following a team of detectives and the cases they solve.

Man About the House is a British sitcom created and written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer, and starring Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Richard O'Sullivan, Brian Murphy, and Yootha Joyce. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 April 1976. It was considered daring at the time because it featured a man sharing a London flat with two single women. Single roommates Chrissy and Jo search for a third tenant to help pay the rent, they intend on finding another female. But then they encounter Robin Tripp... who's looking for a place to stay. Two spin-offs were produced: George and Mildred (1976–79) and Robin's Nest (1977–81). A film adaptation was released in 1974 and, in 1977, the series was remade for American audiences as Three's Company.

The Fosters is a British sitcom created and written by Jon Watkins and Eric Monte. It showcases the early work of Lenny Henry as the budding artist son of easygoing family man Samuel Foster (Norman Beaton). The series follows the day-to-day trials of Samuel, his lively wife Pearl (both immigrants from Guyana) and their three children on a South London housing estate.

Jeremy Brown, a language teacher, tries to make a living by teaching English to immigrants. With pupils from India, France, China, and many other countries, his lessons do not always go as planned.

Romany Jones is a British sitcom created and written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe for LWT. Broadcast between 1973 and 1975, the programme follows the comic misadventures of two layabout families living on a caravan site. Originally designed as a starring vehicle for James Beck (Dad's Army), the 1972 pilot and 1973 first series centred on Bert and Betty Jones (Jo Rowbottom), newlywed after seven years, who spend their wedding night in their rickety caravan, natural to Bert but distinctly alien to Betty, born and bred in Streatham. Most of the humour focused on life in theirs and a neighbouring caravan housing Lily and Wally Briggs (Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard, although Arthur English was cast in the pilot). Following Beck's death after completion on the second series, Bert and Betty were written out, and replaced with a city gentleman and his debutante wife, both of whom remain blissfully oblivious to the Briggs' antics.

David Deacon is a football mad milkman working at Dawsons Diaries, The laughs circle around the fact that he is constantly trying to deliver to the local housewives, and not just dairy products. His misfit work colleagues also seem to interested in doing anything but their job.

Follows the daily antics of Woodley police station, where officers are more interested in taking bribes and doing little work than catching criminals. Inspector Spooner lives alone in a flat above the station and often had to deal with the messes created by his junior staff.

A harassed secretary at a private golf club steeped in bigotry faces challenges amidst its desperate financial straits. Key events unfold in the club's bar, The Nineteenth Hole. The series was widely condemned as racist, sexist and homophobic. TV producer Paul Stewart Laing, then-controller of programmes for the Plymouth based TSW (Television South West) ITV region, stopped after only three episodes.

Finally released from prison, Elwood Blues is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. Hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops.

In foggy London Dr Jekyll experiments on newly deceased women determined to discover an elixir for immortal life. Success enables his spectacular transformation into the beautiful but psychotic Sister Hyde who stalks the dark alleys of Whitechapel for young, innocent, female victims, ensuring continuation of the bloodstained research. With each transformation Sister Hyde becomes the more dominant personality, determined to eventually suppress the frail, ineffectual Dr Jekyll forever.

The chilling true story of the "two of a kind" killing cousins, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, better known as the Hillside Stranglers.

Early adaption of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as part of the Theatre 625 series.

Spies force two British con men to pose as look-alike scientists peddling cheap-energy fusion.

A Japanese cop is sent to join the London police force on a secret investigation.

Second theatrical spin-off from the popular 1970's police series. Regan and Carter head a Flying Squad investigation into a series of bank raids by a team of well-armed villains who are flying in from the continent.

One Christmas, a knight garbed all in green appears in King Arthur's Court and challenges any knight to hew off his head on the proviso that he be allowed to return the axe stroke afterwards. All of King Arthur's other knights being frightened, Sir Gawain takes up the challenge and hacks off the green knight's head. The green knight then gives Gawain a year to find his home and live a little before the cut is returned.

Erwin van Haarlem is a man of mystery. Living in London in 1986 and ostensibly a Dutch art dealer, he is in fact spying for Czechoslovakia with a mission to track down supporters of the dissident group, Chapter 77.

Based on the book "Spend, Spend, Spend" by Vivian Nicholson and Stephen Smith. Story of pools winner, Vivian Nicholson.

TV play by Bernard Kops. Moss is a miser whose only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes and Moss is "reborn".