Classic British television shows

[Dannyalcatraz]

The first two series were excellent. The third was pretty terrible.

I didn’t like some of the changes- especially in the cast. But it still had its moments.

 

[Richards]

Ooh, here's another one I thought of: Trigger Happy TV, featuring absurdities performed in public specifically to get a reaction from unsuspecting passersby. Stuff like two people in dog costumes fighting it out in the park, or fixing up an elevator interior like a bathroom and having some unsuspecting soul looking to head downstairs see an aggravated-looking guy sitting on the toilet when the doors open.

I still do a pantomime of the "sad penguin" from that show whenever my wife turns down any of my romantic impulses. (She used to watch the show with me, so she gets the reference. And since she enjoys my "sad penguin" performances, I suspect continuing to do them is not particularly working in my own best interests as it's only encouraging her to turn me down....)

Johnathan

 

[CarolynDenton]

Just found this great topic. Thank you all guys for so many great show suggestions. I have many hours of joy to come

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Anyone remember Brittas Empire?

 

[Nagol]

Ghosts of Motley Hall -- a troupe of ghosts from different times confined to a manor house
Sapphire and Steel -- a sort of Twilight Zone-ish show about two probably non-human agents who "repair" temporal/dimensional problems often to the detriment of those caught up in them
Not the Nine O'clock News -- an ensemble comedy skit show

 

[Dioltach]

Sapphire and Steel -- a sort of Twilight Zone-ish show about two probably non-human agents who "repair" temporal/dimensional problems often to the detriment of those caught up in them

I saw one series of that, when I was 5 or 6. It gave me nightmares for years.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Tonight, on Masterpiece Theatre ...

 

[Tonguez]

Sapphire and Steel -- a sort of Twilight Zone-ish show about two probably non-human agents who "repair" temporal/dimensional problems often to the detriment of those caught up in them

I saw one series of that, when I was 5 or 6. It gave me nightmares for years.

"As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there, He wasn't there again today, I wish I wish he'd stay away"
- Sapphires quotes that in "Man With Out a Face" which is still one of the most disturbingly creepy stories ever told on TV and still gives me nightmares some 40 years after I first saw it

 

[Dioltach]

"As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn't there, He wasn't there again today, I wish I wish he'd stay away"
- Sapphires quotes that in "Man With Out a Face" which is still one of the most disturbingly creepy stories ever told on TV and still gives me nightmares some 40 years after I first saw it

For me, it was the series about a house where time portals opened up whenever someone sang a nursery rhyme. So with Ring-a-ring-a-roses it led to the Great Plague, and so on. The one scene that still gives me the willies was with two Civil War soldiers carrying a coffin down a flight of stairs, to whispered chants of "Upstairs and downstairs, upstairs and downstairs". Like you said, disturbing and creepy.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another couple of good ones: Absolutely Fabulous and Vicious.

AbFab’s lampooning of vapid, dissolute, shallow, vain, wealthy women declining from their peaks into the lower ends of the high fashion industry is one of the funniest I’ve seen. One of my all-time faves.

In Vicious , Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are Freddie and Stuart, aging partners who have lived together in a London flat for close to 50 years. Freddie is a C-list actor with an overdeveloped ego, and Stuart is he formed bar manager who loves/hates/loves him.