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1
Red Dwarf

BBC Two

3 Million Years from Earth, the mining ship Red Dwarf Its crew: Dave Lister, the last crew member alive Arnold Rimmer, a hologram simulation of his dead bunkmate Cat, a humanoid, evolved from Lister's cat. Additional: The ship's crew has come across new members: Kryten, a series 4000 mechanoid rescued from the Nova 5 Navigation Officer Kristine Kochanski, from a parallel universe. I am Holly, the ship's computer with an IQ of 6000 (and rapidly decreasing). Message Ends. ========================== Welcome to the Red Dwarf guide. Enjoy the backstory and details of one of the best SF parodies ever created for TV.moreless
2
Bottom

BBC Two (ended 1995)

Richard Richard & Edward Elizabeth Hitler, two men with no hope of fitting in with society. Two men who will forever fall foul of life's little jokes, mainly because they are too stupid to avoid them! Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall take an anarchic look into the lives of these two friends who are forever threatening, and committing, violence on each other. This series could be said to be a follow up, of a kind, to The Young Ones. Same stars and same attitude but the young ones are now heading into middle age. A successful series that spawned three live tours [and three videos of these shows] and a big screen film, Guest House Paradiso. Although the film was not released as such it is advertised as a Bottom film on the video release.moreless
3
The League of Gentlemen

BBC Two (ended 2002)

Welcome to Royston Vasey, a small town in northern England inhabited by an odd bunch of people. Amongst the residents you will find Edward and Tubbs, who run the Local Shop; the toad-worshipping Denton family; Dr. Chinnery, the vet who tends to turn sick animals into dead ones; Pauline, the pen-obsessed Job Centre employee; butcher Hilary Briss, who has some very suspicious sausages; and the enigmatic Papa Lazarou.moreless
4
Never Mind the Buzzcocks

BBC Two

Unsympathetic to the precious pomposity of the rock and pop industry, 'Buzzcocks' takes a sledgehammer to the delicate egos of the biggest and most famous names in music - often whilst they are guests on the programme. The scathing wit of Mark Lamarr and latterly Simon Amstell, has literally caused guests to walk off the show.moreless
5
Rex The Runt

BBC Two (ended 2001)

Welcome to the Rex the Runt guide.
6
Stressed Eric

BBC Two (ended 2000)

Eric Feeble is a middle-class divorced father of two who resides in London, England. An average man, with a less than average life, Eric is endlessly at his wits end -- stressed out with his family, coworkers, and his life in general. For starters, there's his children. His precocious daughter, Claire is allergic to everything, from peanuts to dolls and everything in between. Eric's toadish son, Brian, sticks everything into his mouth that he can get his hands on. The family's live-in au pair, Maria, is a drunken nymphomaniac with a bad habit of disappearing for days at a time. Eric's ex-wife, Liz, is a whiny psycho who's involved in every kind of "rights" act imaginable, from "animal rights" to "tree rights" to Buddhism. Just to make his oddball family dynamics look worse, the next door neighbors are the aptly named Perfects, who are wealthy and snobbish. At work, Eric has to put up with his insufferable boss, P.P., who is prone to insane fits of rage and over-use of the word "arseburger." And then there's his secretary, Alison, who does nothing more than spend her days gabbing on the phone to her friends. Others in Eric's life are his self-obsessed doctor, Doc, whom Eric often contacts for advice. And last, but not least, is Mrs. Wilson, the little old lady who's always slowly inching her way towards the mailbox with a letter, which eventually falls into the sewer. At the end of each episode, a throbbing vein in Eric's head bursts out and chokes him.... Stressed Eric premiered on BBC-2 in 1998. Touted as the UK's answer to "The Simpsons," it grabbed the attention of the USA's NBC network, who quickly bought the rights to air the show later that summer. This was the first animated series that ran on NBC primetime since 1982's short-lived "Joke Book," but it was quickly pulled from the air after 4 episodes due to lackluster ratings. An NBC affiliate in Utah even refused to air the series, because they felt it was stupid and not up to the same standards as the rest of the "Must See TV" schedule, so "Mad About You" was rerun in it's place. The NBC versions of the episodes shaved off around 4 minutes, so that they could add in their standard 8-minutes of commercial time per half hour. But the biggest problem with NBC's version was their decision to change Eric's voice. To appeal to US audiences, they foolishly felt Eric should be an American living abroad, so his voice was redubbed by Hank Azaria ("The Simpsons"). The original title sequence (and theme) were dumped and replaced with a scrapbook montage opening -- featuring photos of Eric in the US, moving to the UK, getting married and having kids. Comparably speaking, the US opening credits were dopey. The unaired episodes with Azaria's voice have never seen the light of day. A second season was made and finally aired on BBC2 in 2000. This second season boasted a new opening sequence identifying all the regular characters, accompanied by a new, jazzy arrangement of the theme tune (in contrast to the harsh electric guitar version used in season 1). The most dramatic change, however, was that the new episodes were made in 16:9 widesreen, which may make it the first major animated series to appear in this format.moreless
7
I'm Alan Partridge

BBC Two (ended 2002)

Alan is a self-obsessed DJ who has had several TV jobs in the past (including chat show Knowing Me Knowing You) and has failed to bounce back from his long dead career. Each episode normally sees Alan resorting to embarrassing anecdotes, insulting someone without noticing and failing to revive his career. In Series One he lives in a motel after a divorce leaves him homeless.

Between promotional films for Norwich firms and his early (3am!)radio show, we see Alan ineptly flirting with the receptionist and sneaking larger plates into the breakfast buffet. By Series Two he has 'upgraded' to a mobile home next to his partially built new home and can't avoid delaying the builders' work on the house with his pedantic requests.moreless
8
People Like Us

BBC Two (ended 2001)

Documentary-maker Roy Mallard makes fly-on-the-wall films about Britain’s unsung professionals - 'people like us'. The fact that he's not too sensitive to the mood of the people he interviews, is linguistically challenged and struggles to blend into the background mean he more often that not, brings out the more ridiculous aspects of his subjects' character.moreless
9
Big Train

BBC Two (ended 2002)

Before and after Father Ted, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews had been sketch show writers; contributing to the likes of Spitting Image, The Day Today and the Friday and Saturday Night Armistice. Big Train picked up on the surrealism found in their earlier work. From the World Stare-Out Championship to herds of wild jockeys being hunted by The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, from show jumping firefighters to the most erratic 100m runner ever seen, the show broke new ground, was much imitated and, arguably, launched the careers of Simon Pegg, Catherine Tate, Mark Heap and Amelia Bullmore.moreless
10
Operation Good Guys

BBC Two (ended 2000)

UK, BBC (Fugitive Group/BBC), Sitcom, colour, 1997 Starring: David Gillespie, Ray Burdis, Dominic Anciano A sparkling fly-on-the-wall documentary spoof, ostensibly covering a police action code-named 'Operation Good Guys'. The head of operations, DI Beach, has hand-picked his task squad from across the board, the team including his long-term sidekick DS Ash; armed-response expert Sgt de Sade; undercover drugs-squad man 'Bones'; deep undercover officer Gary Barwick; another undercover man, the 1960s-throwback and would-be rock musician 'Strings'; and naive new recruit Mark Kemp, who just happens to be the Commissioner's nephew. Beach has permitted a documentary unit to film every step of the operation, surmising that the successful outcome of the venture will reflect well upon him. But his faith is misplaced - the team is excruciatingly inept, bungling even the simplest of tasks and, embarrassingly, often embroiling famous faces in their foul-ups (including the Arsenal and England goalkeeper David Seaman, and the businessman Victor Kiam, both of whom appeared in first-series episodes as themselves). The running joke at the start of the second series was that the squad hadn't been telegenic enough in the first and needed to sharpen up their act. They had also been demoted back into uniform following their all-too-public exposure. The third series saw the lads in ever more outrageous situations, the comedy venturing into areas of naked embarrassment - literally so in one edition, when the team were left to fend for themselves on a survival course. Peopled extensively by former alumnus of the Anna Scher acting school in London, Operation Good Guys was a marvellously inventive satire, overflowing with good ideas and memorable characters. Any thoughts that the initial premise might be too thin were dispelled by the creativity of the actors and the strength of the ongoing plot (which could have stood on its own without the fly-on-the-wall-film gimmick). The fact that the dialogue within the structured storylines was mainly improvised also added to the spontaneous, 'real-life' feel of the series. Executive producers Jim Beach and Geoffrey Perkins themselves turned up in episodes, Beach as the Commissioner, Perkins as the Head of Interpol. Production Details Written by: Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis, Hugo Blick Directed by: Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis, Hugo Blick Produced by: Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis, Hugo Blick 3 series, 19 episodes Transmitted: 1997-2000 TV Channel: BBC2 BBC Television Fugitive Group Productionsmoreless
11
Joking Apart

BBC Two (ended 1995)

Welcome to the Joking Apart guide at TV.com British sitcom; pilot episode aired on July 12, 1991
12
Sunnyside Farm

BBC Two (ended 1997)

British sitcom
13
Lazarus and Dingwall

BBC Two (ended 1991)

British sitcom
14
The Nicholas Craig Masterclass

BBC Two (ended 1992)

British sitcom
15
The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand De Bargos

BBC Two (ended 1995)

What happens when you take archived BBC footage and put it in the hands of several comedians? They dub over the original sound in a humorous way and create The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand De Bargos.moreless