Barbara Kellerman

BBC Play of the Month

Jacqueline Maingot

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

The Professionals

Sylvie

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

Playhouse

Isobel Dodgson

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Space: 1999

Monique Bouchere

The crew of Moonbase Alpha must struggle to survive when a massive explosion throws the Moon from orbit into deep space.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Old Hag

The Chronicles of Narnia is a British television miniseries adapting four of C.S. Lewis's books, blending live-action with animation for fantasy elements like Aslan and the creatures. The first series—The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—aired from 13 November to 18 December 1988; the second—Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader—aired from 19 November to 24 December 1989; and the third—The Silver Chair—from 18 November to 23 December 1990. Each series consists of six episodes each.

Hammer House of Horror

Laurie Morton

Each self-contained episode features a different kind of horror, varying from witches, werewolves, ghosts, devil worship and voodoo, but also includes non-supernatural themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers.

Lady Killers

Madame Marie Fahmy

Compelling crime anthology looks at some of Britain's most notorious murder trials, in which both male and female defendants stood accused of the murder of women. Presented by Robert Morley, seven hour-long dramas reconstruct sensational trials which shocked Britain, offering in-depth analyses of individuals' motives and methods.

Lytton's Diary

Helena

Lytton's Diary is a 1985–86 British comedy-drama programme created and written by Peter Bowles and Philip Broadley. Produced by Thames Television for ITV, it originated as a single play on the anthology programme Storyboard before expanding into two popular series, known for their mix of glamour, intrigue, and social commentary. Bowles stars as Neville Lytton, a suave and successful Fleet Street gossip columnist for the Daily News. Lytton navigates the world of high-society scandals, political corruption, and personal challenges, balancing his professional life with his love life and his ambition to write a novel.

1990

Delly Lomas

The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Department of Public Control (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties. Edward Woodward plays Jim Kyle, a journalist on the last independent newspaper called The Star, who turns renegade and begins to fight the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD, in turn, try to provide proof of Kyle's subversive activities.

Victorian Scandals

Jane Brookfield

Featuring dramatised versions of true stories that shocked mainstream Victorian society.

Number 10

Frances Stevenson

Follows the private lives of seven British PMs who lived at Number 10 Downing Street between the 1780s and the 1920s: William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd-George, Herbert Henry Asquith and James Ramsay MacDonald.

Wessex Tales

Nanny

An anthology series based on the Wessex Tales, a collection of short stories by novelist Thomas Hardy.

Quatermass

Clare Kapp

In the near future, a now-elderly Bernard Quatermass investigates the disappearance of his granddaughter and a mysterious cult.

The Sea Wolves

Mrs. Cromwell

A German spy is passing on information about the location of Allied ships in the neutral harbor of Goa, India, with catastrophic results. Unable to undertake a full military operation in the Portuguese stronghold, English intelligence brings out of retirement a crew of geriatric ex-soldiers, veterans from World War I, using their age as cover. These old soldiers are asked to take to the seas and pull off an unlikely undercover mission.

The Mad Death

Anne Maitland

A French visitor to Scotland smuggles her cat into the country, sparking a terrifying outbreak of rabies which threatens to engulf an entire community.

Return to Narnia

Self

Return to Narnia is a nostalgic documentary that reunites the cast and crew of the BBC’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia adaptations nearly four decades after their original broadcast. Featuring interviews with almost 30 contributors — including all four Pevensie actors — the film revisits key filming locations, explores childhood memories from the set, and reveals how the beloved series was created with ingenuity despite limited resources. Cast and crew reflect on the challenges of bringing C.S. Lewis’s world to life, the production decisions that shaped the adaptations, and the lasting impact the series has had on fans and on their own lives. Blending behind-the-scenes stories, archival material, and warm reunion moments, Return to Narnia celebrates the enduring legacy of the BBC’s Narnia and the timeless magic that continues to draw audiences back through the wardrobe.

My Brother Jonathan

Rachel Hammond

Chronicles the lives of brothers Jonathan and Harold Dakers, in the Black Country, focusing on their close bond and the challenges they face, particularly during World War I.

The Monster Club

Angela

A vampire attacks a horror author on the street and then invites him to a nearby club as a gesture of gratitude, which turns out to be a meeting place for assorted creatures of the night. The vampire then regales him with three stories, each interspersed with musical performances at the club.

Monsignor Renard

Monsignor Renard was a four-part ITV television drama set in occupied France during World War II. It starred John Thaw as Monsignor Augustine Renard, a French priest who is drawn into the Resistance movement. The series was later shown in the U.S. as part of Masterpiece Theatre.

The Glittering Prizes

Barbara Hughes

The Glittering Prizes is a six-part British television drama written by Frederic Raphael, broadcast on BBC Two in 1976. From the 1950s to 1970s, a group of Cambridge University students explore their changing lives and the 'glittering prizes' of success, academia and personal fulfillment in a shifting Britain.