Michael Parkhouse

As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.

Pie in the Sky is a British offbeat police comedy drama programme starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and first broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997 as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series departs slightly from other police dramas in that the protagonist, Henry Crabbe, while still being an on-duty policeman, is also the head chef of the title restaurant set in the fictional town of Middleton and county of Westershire.

The story of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne at a time of great economic turbulence and resurgent republicanism – and died 64 years later the head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, having revitalised the throne’s public image and become “grandmother of Europe”.

Black Books centres around the foul tempered and wildly eccentric bookshop owner Bernard Black. Bernard’s devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and wilful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny, his assistant. Bearded, sweet and good, Manny is everything that Bernard isn’t and is punished by Bernard relentlessly just for the crime of existing. They depend on each other for meaning as Fran, their oldest friend, depends on them for distraction. Black Books is a haven of books, wine and conversation, the only threat to the group’s peace and prosperity is their own limitless stupidity.

Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers and other modern technology. It was originally broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One, and was produced for the BBC by the independent production company Carnival Films.

Chandler and Co is a British television programme written by Paula Milne and produced by Ann Skinner for the BBC. Aired with two series from 1994 to 1995, it follows private detective Elly Chandler, alongside her sister-in-law Dee Tate. In the second series, Tate is replaced by Kate Phillips, a former client turned employee.

In 1934, four brilliant Cambridge students are recruited to spy for Russia. Fueled by youthful idealism, a passion for social justice and a talent for lying, they take huge personal risks to pass Britain's biggest secrets to Moscow.

This classic period drama series follows the fortunes of the aristocratic Lacey family, living peacefully in Arnescote Castle until the onset of the English Civil War in 1640. Sir Martin Lacey, the head of the family, is steadfastly loyal to the King. However the family is torn apart when his eldest daughter Anne weds John Fletcher - son of a merchant family who support the forces of Cromwell.

In a heroic journey of epic proportions, everyman Charlie McFell wrestles with his demons — including a coldhearted wife, economic hardship, the horror of the world's first Great War, and a painful secret he'd rather forget.

Stalky & Co. is a faithful adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book of the same name (less one chapter and the afterstory chapter). Kipling was telling tales based on his own public school experiences as a boy (he is 'Beetle' in the book), and he did an excellent job of capturing the tenor of life in 'the Coll,' a school that catered to boys who would go on to govern and defend the British Empire in the Civil Service, Foreign Service and the military.

To Serve Them All My Days is a 1980-81 British television drama serial, adapted by Andrew Davies from R. F. Delderfield's 1972 novel of the same name. David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, becomes a teacher at an elite English boarding school, Bamfylde. The drama explores his personal growth, relationships, and evolving views on society over his 20-year career at the school.

At a Catholic boys' school, domineering disciplinarian Father Goddard rules over his pupils with an iron hand. When one of his teenage charges confesses to murder, the dogmatic but deeply repressed Goddard finds his faith challenged and his life spiralling dangerously out of control.

In this sophomoric comedy, a lusty adolescent British hockey team heads for Holland where they find something far more interesting than tulips and windmills: gorgeous, lusty women. They are so busy pursuing romance that they forget all about their upcoming match.

The bizarre tale of Fanny Cradock, Britain's famous and maligned TV chef from 50s to the 70s.