the Wilde Wood

These should be in roughly chronological order. Any judgement on how good these programmes are is purely subjective, as concepts of 'good' and 'bad' are in all things. Oh, and many of these are series I liked when they were still being shown for the first time, but that I haven't seen since, but believe might still be good. But I saw an episode of Battle of the Planets around two decades after I'd last seen it (very late seventies, early eighties - more recently saw an episode in 2000) and was greatly disappointed, so I don't stand by many of these, at least not until I see them again.

• Doctor Who
• The Prisoner (1967) 17 episodes
  !!!!!!!Buy The Prisoner Box Set from amazon.co.uk!!!!!!!!!!
  I would have first seen this in the early nineties, on late night TV (probably in the same schedule which showed the unrelated Prisoner: Cell Block H). Some people only remember the weirdness but don't understand what it was actually about. Simply - a secret agent resigns his post and is then kidnapped. He is taken to a specially constructed village where attempts are made to subjugate him, find out what secrets he holds, why he resigned and maybe to indoctrinate him back in to his old job. The series starts off with a series of escape attempts, but after none of these succeed, Number 6 turns his attention to finding out about the Village itself, and trying to bring the structure down, with behaviour on the part of Number 6 and his jailers becoming more extreme.
  But that's only the surface - it's really an examination of British and Western society in the 1960s, with post-Imperial imagery (all those blazers, penny farthings and the like). The majority filmed in the one-man project town of Portmeirion, Snowdonia, Wales it has a unique visual appearance which still sets it out today.
  There are a few inspirations from real-life espionage. The Village is based on estates for Soviet agents, kept under guard by MI5 to protect them from reprisals from their old bosses. The idea that once you start you have to keep going on joins the concepts of the penny farthing and the spying game.
  Other concepts and references involve an election, the peerage (the last Number 2 uses the Peers entrance to the Palace of Westminster).
  There are a few clues that Number 6 is as McGoohan's character from Danger Man, though nothing overt or explicit. McGoohan himself has stated that they are different characters, though this may be to avoid licensing hassles. George Markstein (the other co-creator with McGoohan) has stated he is John Drake.
  1. Arrival
  2. The Chimes of Big Ben
  3. A, B and C
  4. Free for All
  5. The Schizoid Man
  6. The General
  7. Many Happy Returns
  8. Dance of the Dead
  9. Checkmate
  10. Hammer Into Anvil
  11. It's Your Funeral
  12. A Change of Mind
  13. Do not Forsake me oh my Darling
  14. Living in Harmony
  15. The Girl who was Death
  16. Once Upon a Time
  17. Fall Out
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Ripping Yarns (1975, 1977, 1979) 10 episodes Buy Ripping Yarns at amazon.co.uk Buy Ripping Yarns - The BOx Set at amazon.co.uk
  1. Tomkinson's Schooldays (retroactively considered a pilot episode)
  1. The Testing of Eric Olthwaite
  2. Escape from Stalag Luft 112 B
  3. Murder at Moorstones Manor
  4. Across the Andes by Frog
  5. The Curse of the Claw
  1. Whinfrey's Last Case
  2. Golden Gordon
  3. Roger of the Raj
• Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979) 12 episodes Buy the Complete Fawlty Towers from amazon.co.uk
  1. A Touch of Class
  2. The Builders
  3. The Wedding Party
  4. The Hotel Inspectors
  5. Gourmet Night
  6. The Germans
  1. Communication Problems
  2. The Psychiatrist
  3. Waldorf Salad
  4. The Kipper and the Corpse
  5. The Anniversary
  6. Basil the Rat
• The Goodies (but it was a long time ago, and hasn't been repeated, so I don't know if I would still like it)
• Monkey
• Porridge (1974) Buy Porridge Series 1 from amazon.co.uk Buy Porridge Series 2 from amazon.co.uk Buy Porridge Series 3 from amazon.co.uk Buy Going Straight from amazon.co.uk Buy Porridge the Christmas Specials from amazon.co.uk Buy Porridge (the film) from amazon.co.uk
• Not the Nine O'clock News
• The Young Ones (1982, 1984) 12 episodes
  1. Demolition
  2. Oil
  3. Bomb
  4. Boring
  5. Interesting
  6. Flood
  1. Bambi
  2. Cash
  3. Nasty
  4. Time
  5. Sick
  6. Summer Holiday
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Buy Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy at amazon.co.uk
• Danger Mouse
• Count Duckula
• Yes Minister (1980-1982) Buy Yes Minister series 1 from amazon.co.uk Buy Yes Minister series 2 from amazon.co.uk Buy Yes Minister series 3 from amazon.co.uk Buy Yes Prime Minister series 1 from amazon.co.uk Buy Yes Prime Minister series 2 from amazon.co.uk Buy Yes Prime Minister series 3 from amazon.co.uk
• To the Manor Born (partly because I was born and raised in the country, partly because there's something of the Victorian / Edwardian in this series and partly because (I think) it was sampled by Kate Bush in Waking the Witch).
• Trapdoor
• Blackadder Buy Blackadder: Complete Series 1-4 from amazon.co.uk
• Threads - apparently from 1984, I can barely remember this, but may get to see part of it within the next few weeks, so I'll update when I've decided whether it was any good or not.
• V - aliens invade Earth, and all so we don't have to watch the Los Angeles Olympics if we don't want to. Five two-hour long installments, every night for a week, and an excuse to stay up late!
• Tripods - two out of three books adapted, pity they never made the third one.
• Chocky
• Rentaghost
• Stig of the Dump (the 'original' adaptation, not the more recent one)
• Max Headroom
• The Tube
• Spitting Image
• Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982) 39 episodes
  
• Battlestar Galactica (1978, 1979)
  Note: I haven't seen the new series at all, so am not going to comment on it's merits (or lack thereof). Surprisingly few episodes of the original series were made, considering how much I remember having watched it as a kid - must have been lots of repeats.
  1. Saga of a Star World
  2. Lost Planet of the Gods
  3. The Lost Warrior
  4. The Long Patrol
  5. Gun on Ice Planet Zero
  6. The Magnificent Warriors
  7. The Young Lords
  8. The Living Legend
  9. Fire in Space
  10. War of the Gods
  11. The Man With Nine Lives
  12. Murder on the Rising Star
  13. Greetings from Earth
  14. Baltar's Escape
  15. Experiment in Terra
  16. Take the Celestra
  17. The Hand of God
  Battlestar Galactica was proceeded by a follow-up series, Galactica 1980.
  1. Galactica Discovers Earth (three parts)
  2. The Super Scouts (two parts)
  3. Spaceball
  4. The Night the Cylons Landed (two parts)
  5. Space Croppers
  6. The Return of Starbuck
• Network 7
• The Muppet Show
• Star Fleet (1982) 24 episodes
  It was set in the year 3000, when the planets were about to align and rocked! Originally called X-Bomber, it was dubbed (and slightly re-edited) from a Japanese puppet-based series. Visually similar to Terrahawks, but with a plot.
• Fraggle Rock
• Club X (the last of the Channel 4 yoof programmes to treat you like you had a brain, in the before the dark days, before The Word)
• Red Dwarf
• Who Dares Wins
• The Comic Strip Presents
• The New Statesman
  Buy The New Statesman Complete Box Set from amazon.co.uk
  1. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
  2. Passport to Freedom
  3. Sex is Wrong
  4. Waste Not, Want Not
  5. Friends of St. James
  6. Three Line Whipping
  7. Baa Baa Black Sheep
  1. Fatal Extraction
  2. Live From Westminster
  3. A Wapping Conspiracy
  4. The Haltemprice Bunker
  5. California Here I Come
  6. May The Best Man Win
  7. Piers Of The Realm
  1. Comic Relief
  2. Who Shot Alan B'Stard?
  1. Labour Of Love
  2. The Party's Over
  3. Let Them Sniff Cake
  4. Keeping Mum
  5. Natural Selection
  6. Profit Of Boom
  1. Back From The Mort
  2. H*A*S*H
  3. Speaking In Tongues
  4. Heil And Farewell
  5. A Bigger Splash
  6. The Irresistible Rise of Alan B'Stard
  1. A B'Stard Exposed
• Alexei Sayle's Stuff
• Chelmsford 123 (1988, 1990) 13 episodes
  1. Arrivaderci Roma
  2. What's Your Poison?
  3. The Girl of my Dreams
  4. One for the Road
  5. Vidi Vici Veni
  6. Peeled Grapes and Pedicures
  1. Heads you Lose
  2. Get Well Soon
  3. Bird Trouble
  4. Odi, et Amo
  5. The Secret War
  6. Mine's a Double
  7. Something Beginning With 'E'
• Aeon Flux
• Paul Merton - had his own programme on Channel 4, probably had Show after his name in the title.
• Nightingales
• Simpsons
  Shorts (48 episodes) - I would have seen the first of these when it was shown on British TV, though wouldn't have realised how big they would eventually become (and the Tracey Ullman Show wasn't as good as Three of a Kind, so I didn't see many episodes).
  1. Good Night
  2. Watching TV
  3. Jumping Bart
  4. Babysitting Maggie
  5. The Pacifier
  6. Burping Contest
  7. Dinner Time
  8. Making Faces
  9. The Funeral
  10. Maggie's Brain
  11. Football
  12. House of Cards
  13. Bart and Homer's Dinner
  14. Space Patrol
  15. Bart's Haircut
  16. World War III
  17. The Perfect Crime
  18. Scary Stories
  19. Grampa and the Kids
  20. Gone Fishin'
  21. Skateboarding
  22. The Pagans
  23. Closeted
  24. The Aquarium
  25. Family Portrait
  26. Bart's Hiccups
  27. The Money Jar
  28. The Art Museum
  29. Zoo Story
  30. Shut up, Simpsons
  31. Shell Game
  32. The Bart Simpson Show
  33. Punching Bag
  34. Simpson Christmas
  35. The Krusty the Clown Show
  36. Bart the Hero
  37. Bart's Little Fantasy
  38. Scary Movie
  39. Homer Hypnotism
  40. Shoplifting
  41. Echo Canyon
  42. Bathtime
  43. Bart's Nightmare
  44. Bart of the Jungle
  45. Family Therapy
  46. Maggie in Peril (Chapter One)
  47. Maggie in Peril (The Thrilling Conclusion)
  48. TV Simpsons
  The first series
  1. Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
  2. Bart the Genius
  3. Homer's Odyssey
  4. There's no Disgrace Like Home
  5. Bart the General
  6. Moaning Lisa
  7. The Call of the Simpsons
  8. The Telltale Head
  9. Life on the Fast Lane
  10. Homer's Night Out
  11. The Crepes of Wrath
  12. Krusty Gets Busted
  13. Some Enchanted Evening
• Drop the Dead Donkey
  Season 1 1. 1-1 09-Aug-1990 A New Dawn 2. 1-2 16-Aug-1990 Sally's Arrival 3. 1-3 23-Aug-1990 A Clash of Interests 4. 1-4 30-Aug-1990 A Blast from the Past 5. 1-5 06-Sep-1990 Old Father Time 6. 1-6 13-Sep-1990 Special Branch Raid the Newsroom 7. 1-7 20-Sep-1990 Stress Therapy 8. 1-8 27-Sep-1990 The Root of All Evil 9. 1-9 04-Oct-1990 Animal Rights 10. 1-10 11-Oct-1990 The Big Day Season 2 11. 2-1 26-Sep-1991 The Gulf Report 12. 2-2 03-Oct-1991 The Trevorman Cometh 13. 2-3 10-Oct-1991 Henry and Dido 14. 2-4 17-Oct-1991 Baseball 15. 2-5 24-Oct-1991 The Drunken Cabinet Minister 16. 2-6 31-Oct-1991 Alex and the Intrepreter 17. 2-7 07-Nov-1991 Hoax 18. 2-8 14-Nov-1991 Don't Mention the Arabs 19. 2-9 21-Nov-1991 Damien Down and Out 20. 2-10 28-Nov-1991 The Evangelist 21. 2-11 05-Dec-1991 George's Daughter 22. 2-12 12-Dec-1991 Dave's Day 23. 2-13 19-Dec-1991 The Christmas Party Season 3 24. 3-1 07-Jan-1993 In Place of Alex 25. 3-2 14-Jan-1993 Sally's Accountant 26. 3-3 21-Jan-1993 Henry's Lost Love 27. 3-4 28-Jan-1993 Helen'll Fix It 28. 3-5 04-Feb-1993 Sally's Libel 29. 3-6 11-Feb-1993 Lady Merchant 30. 3-7 18-Feb-1993 The New Newsreader 31. 3-8 25-Feb-1993 Joy 32. 3-9 04-Mar-1993 Paintball 33. 3-10 11-Mar-1993 George and His Daughter 34. 3-11 18-Mar-1993 Awards Season 4 35. 4-1 29-Sep-1994 The Undiscovered Country 36. 4-2 06-Oct-1994 Quality Time 37. 4-3 13-Oct-1994 The Day of The Mum 38. 4-4 20-Sep-1994 Births and Deaths 39. 4-5 27-Sep-1994 Helen's Parents 40. 4-6 03-Nov-1994 Sally in T.V. Times 41. 4-7 10-Nov-1994 Crime Time 42. 4-8 17-Nov-1994 No More Mr Nice Guy 43. 4-9 24-Nov-1994 Henry's Autobiography 44. 4-10 01-Dec-1994 The Strike 45. 4-11 08-Dec-1994 The Wedding 46. 4-12 15-Dec-1994 Damien and the Weather Girl Season 5 47. 5-1 01-Oct-1996 Inside the Asylum 48. 5-2 08-Oct-1996 The Godless Society 49. 5-3 15-Oct-1996 The Bird of Doom 50. 5-4 22-Oct-1996 What are Friends For 51. 5-5 29-Oct-1996 The Path of True Love 52. 5-6 05-Nov-1996 Charnley in Love 53. 5-7 12-Nov-1996 George's Car 54. 5-8 19-Nov-1996 Henry's Diary 55. 5-9 26-Nov-1996 Dave and Diana 56. 5-10 03-Dec-1996 Luck 57. 5-11 10-Dec-1996 The Graveyard Shift 58. 5-12 17-Dec-1996 Sex 'n Death Season 6 60. 6-1 28-Oct-1998 The Newsmakers 61. 6-2 04-Nov-1998 Episode 61 62. 6-3 11-Nov-1998 Episode 62 63. 6-4 18-Nov-1998 Episode 63 64. 6-5 25-Nov-1998 Episode 64 65. 6-6 02-Dec-1998 Episode 65 66. 6-7 09-Dec-1998 The Final Chapter
• Bottom (18 episodes)
  1. Smells
  2. Gas
  3. Contest
  4. Apocalypse
  5. 's Up
  6. Accident
  1. Digger
  2. Burglary
  3. Culture
  4. Parade
  5. Holy
  6. 's Out
  1. Hole
  2. Terror
  3. Break
  4. Dough
  5. Finger
  6. Carnival
  Guest House Paradiso (not really part of the series, but not dissimilar either)
• Frasier
• Have I got News for You
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks
• Men Behaving Badly
• Futurama - even better than the Simpsons, but Fox didn't want it to eclipse Groenig's other show, so killed it in the schedules. A testimony to how good it is that it manages to last four seasons with no real backing from the production company.
• South Park
• The League of Gentlemen
• Father Ted Buy Father Ted: Complete Box Set from amazon.co.uk
  1. Good Luck, Father Ted
  2. Entertaining Father Stone
  3. The Passion of St Tibulus
  4. Competition Time
  5. And God Created Woman
  6. Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest
  1. Hell
  2. Think Fast, Father Ted
  3. Tentacles Of Doom
  4. The Old Grey Whistle Theft
  5. Song For Europe
  6. The Plague
  7. Rock-a-Hula Ted
  8. Cigarettes And Alcohol And Rollerblading
  9. New Jack City
  10. Flight Into Terror
  1. A Christmassy Ted
  2. Comic Relief (hosted one hour)
  3. various Inland Revenue ads featuring Mrs Doyle
  1. Are You Right There, Father Ted?
  2. Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep
  3. Speed 3
  4. The Mainland
  5. Escape From Victory
  6. Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse
  7. Night Of The Nearly Dead
  8. Going To America
• Spaced Buy Spaced Series 1 from amazon.co.uk Buy Spaced Series 2 from amazon.co.uk
  1. Beginnings
  2. Gatherings
  3. Art
  4. Battles
  5. Chaos
  6. Epiphanies
  7. Ends
  1. Back
  2. Change
  3. Mettle
  4. Help
  5. Gone
  6. Dissolution
  7. Leaves
• Coupling
  1. Flushed
  2. Size Matters
  3. Sex, Death and Nudity
  4. Inferno
  5. The Girl With two Breasts
  6. The Cupboard of Patrick's Love
  1. The Man With two Legs
  2. My Dinner in Hell
  3. Her Best Friend's Bottom
  4. The Melty man Cometh
  5. Jane and the Truth Snake
  6. Gotcha
  7. Dressed
  8. Naked
  9. The End of the Line
  1. Split
  2. Faithless
  3. Unconditional Sex
  4. Remember This
  5. The Freckle, the key, and the Couple who Weren't
  6. The Girl With One Heart
  7. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
  1. Nine and a Half Minutes
  2. Night Lines
  3. Bed Time
  4. Circus of the Epidurals
  5. The Naked Living Room
  6. Nine and a Half Months
• Black Books Buy Black Books series one from amazon.co.uk Buy Black Books series two from amazon.co.uk Buy Black Books series three from amazon.co.uk
  1. Cooking the Books
  2. Manny's First Day
  3. The Grapes of Wrath
  4. The Blackout
  5. The Big Lock-Out
  6. He's Leaving Home
  1. The Entertainer
  2. Fever
  3. The Fixer
  4. Blood
  5. Hello Sun
  6. A Nice Change
  1. Manny Come Home
  2. Elephants and Hens
  3. Moo-Ma and Moo-Pa
  4. A Little Flutter
  5. Travel Writer
  6. Party

Who said I don't have wide tastes?
And, because it doesn't really belong on any other page, and I'm not prepared to make an entirely new page for this purpose - the bits that came between all the programmes above - my favourite adverts.

• McEwans - featuring peasants, Escher's perpetual staircase, boulders and eighties bars (thanks to CJ for providing me with a better remembered description of this once, and what it was actually for).
• Lowenbrau (I think) - featuring pencil-shaded animation, by the looks of it of a prehistoric landscape, caveman sabre-toothed tiger riders and other nifty stuff like that.
• Strongbow - the archer remember the marketting boys who gave birth to him.
• Guinness - An extended campaign, ending around the time that Rutger Hauer sent out psychic messages (some of the time).