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1
The IT Crowd

Channel 4 (ended 2010)

At the UK company Reynholm Industries, their corporate high-rise towers are full of beautiful happy people with one success story after another. Well, except for the employees that work in the basement - the IT department. While their colleagues work in fantastic surroundings, Jen, Roy and Moss must work below ground in the dark and horrible basement, struggling to make it into normal society. Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is a career person who is looking to climb the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, due to fibbing on her CV (resume), she finds herself the manager of the IT Department. The problem is, she knows nothing about technology! Roy (Chris O'Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade) make up the IT Department and share a love of technology, science fiction and not having to work if at all possible. What they don't like is the idea of being supervised by someone who knows nothing about computers. Seeing that Roy and Moss may know a lot about computers, but very little about working with people, Jen takes on the role of "Relationship Manager" to help the guys and help herself in the process. The IT Crowd is a playful and somewhat surreal look at what it's really like to be the underof every company - the IT Department. In 2008, The IT Crowd won the Rose D'Or for Best Comedy.moreless
2
Spaced

Channel 4 (ended 2001)

Spaced is a sitcom like no other. The premise is simple enough: Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) and Tim (Simon Pegg) are out of luck and love, so pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat together. Downstairs neighbour and eccentric painter Brian suspects someone's fibbing, and almost blows their cover with their lecherous lush of a landlady, Marsha. Fortunately he soon falls for Daisy's health-freak friend Twist, while Daisy herself goes ga-ga for pet dog Colin. Tim remains happily platonic with lifemate Mike; a sweet-at-heart guns 'n' ammo obsessive. The series is chock-full of pop culture references. In fact, each episode is themed after at least one movie, with nods to The Shining and Close Encounters of the Third Kind proving especially hilarious. Hardly five minutes goes by without a Star Wars reference, and every second of screen time from Bill Bailey as owner of the comic shop where Tim works is comedic gold. The look of the series is its other outstanding element, with slam-zooms, dizzying montages, and inspired lighting effects (often paying homage to the Evil Dead movies). It's an affectionate fantasy on the life of the twenty-something that's uncomfortably close to the truth. The second series finds the gang at 23 Meteor Street a little older, but definitely none the wiser. Tim's career is hampered by severe hang-ups over The Phantom Menace. Daisy's career is just plain non-existent. There is still a spark of sexual tension between them, but it's overshadowed by Brian and Twist getting it on. Propelling the seven-episode series arc is the threat of Marsha discovering that none of the relationships are what they seem, Mike's increasing jealousy and a new love interest for Tim. That's the basis for a never-ending stream of in-jokes and references that easily match the quality of the first series. Tim has a Return of the Jedi flashback, then déjà vu in reliving the end of The Empire Strikes Back. There are spoofs of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Robocop, The Sixth Sense and comedy rival The Royle Family. There are guest spots from Bill Bailey, Peter (voice of Darth Maul) Serafinowicz and The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Every episode is packed with highlights, but this series' guaranteed geek pant-wetting moments have to be the mock gun battles, slagging off Babylon 5 and learning that "The second rule of Robot Club is: no smoking." If you loved Shaun Of The Dead you'll love this.moreless
3
Black Books

Channel 4 (ended 2004)

Black Books is a second-hand bookshop in London run by an Irishman named Bernard Black. He is probably the planet's least-suited person to run such an establishment: he makes no effort to sell, closes at strange hours on a whim, is in a perpetual alcoholic stupor, abhors his customers (sometimes physically abusing them) and is often comatose at his desk. Help comes in the lumpy shape of Manny Bianco, a hairy, bumbling individual who becomes Bernard's assistant. Manny is not exactly great at the job either but he is a million times better than Bernard. Next door is Fran, an anxious, frustrated woman who runs a sort of new-age shop selling the most unlikely bits of arty junk. Fran is friends with Bernard and, through him, with Manny; together the trio become embroiled in escapades that are sometimes extreme, fantastically ludicrous, and always bizarre. The show has won two BAFTA awards and one Bronze Rose award.moreless
4
Shameless (UK)

Channel 4

The critically acclaimed and brilliantly funny drama from award-winning writer Paul Abbott features the Chatsworth Estate's Gallaghers, probably the UK's most dysfunctional family.

Head of the family, Frank, embarks on a series of adventures with his remarkably well-balanced children Fiona, Lip, Ian, Debbie, Carl and Liam - not forgetting the other two with Frank's valium-fuelled lover, Sheila. A shambolic family living on a Manchester estate, where eldest sister Fiona has to look after her five younger siblings after their mother's disappearance and their father became an alcoholic. After Fiona herself escapes, it's down to her twelve year old Sister Debbie to run the Gallagher household. With Sheila leaving and Monica's return it's a whole new ball game at the Gallagher residents, and it's not all plain sailing with Monica's estranged girlfriend Norma living in the van in the yard. No-ones life is ever going to be the same.

Now in its eighth series things are still as dysfunctional as ever on the Chatsworth Estate with, Frank and Libby trying to get married with Monica coming back on the scene, Mimi's a new mother once again but still has the task of having to find out ho the father is. Also, Karen and Jamie are trying to get on with their lives after all the recent events and, there's also a whole load of new people on the scene just waiting to cause mayhem.

Shameless is packed with sex, drugs, gratuitous violence, love and scams. Chaos ensues with more tales of how one extraordinary family goes about its normal everyday life.moreless
5
Peep Show

Channel 4

Essentially, a take on The Odd Couple, Peep Show revolves around the lives of Mark Corrigan and Jeremy Osbourne; two twenty-somethings who share a flat. Mark works in an office and has a bleak outlook on life; he's infatuated with his colleague, Sophie Chapman. Jeremy, in contrast, is a lazy, shallow man trying to make it in the music industry. A unique twist that immediately sets the show apart form other sitcoms is the use of the first person view point [the original show title was POV], where we get to see from the characters own eyes. We also get to hear internal thoughts and opinions which reveals things they wouldn't say out loud.moreless
6
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

Channel 4

Each week Gordon travels to a different restaurant in dire need of help. He often has to deal with chefs and waitresses stuck in their ways, ready-made meals and slow service, none of which he allows in any of his own restaurants. With a long history in the food industry, Gordon uses his wealth of knowledge to try to get them back on track and into financially viable businesses.moreless
7
Queer as Folk (UK)

Channel 4 (ended 2000)

Stuart Jones (Aidan Gillen) has got it all. He's rich, drop-dead gorgeous and always the centre of attention. He can be forgiven the arrogance because he's pretty close to perfection. His best mate Vince Tyler (Craig Kelly) is funny, adorable and definitely a babe but, unlike his friend, has zero confidence in himself. Since time began, Vince has carried a torch for Stuart but his love remains firmly unrequited. They're both 29, hitting Canal Street every night, stalwarts of the scene but just starting to wonder where else their lives may be going. Then along comes Nathan Maloney (Charlie Hunnam). Young, wild and coming out with a vengeance, he crowbars his way into their world and once he arrives, nothing is ever the same again.moreless
8
Green Wing

Channel 4

Set in a hospital and from the production team behind Smack The Pony, Green Wing has been described as "part surreal soap, part innovative comedy drama" and follows the sometimes strange, and often amusing, antics of its staff.

There's new doctor Caroline Todd whose first day on the job is far from perfect. Then there's Dr. Alan Statham, the boring Consultant Radiologist who is constantly being outsmarted by his juniors and who is having a secret affair with hot tempered and no-nonsense Head of Human Resources Joanne Clore.

To help the staff with any of their problems there is Staff Liaison Office Sue White (who is more likely to laugh at, then help solve, your troubles) and the object of her affection, smooth talking surgeon Dr. "Mac" Macartney who spends most of his time making stupid competitive bets with Anaesthetist Guy "I'm God's gift to women" Secretan.

Senior Paediatrics Register Dr. Angela Hunter has very little problems, except trying to get that kink out of her boyfriend's ‘perfect' nose, while the girls in admin Kim, Harriet, Naughty Rachel and Karen spend more time talking about their sex lives than actually doing any work.

And then there are the junior doctors; the confident and sarcastic Boyce and the drippy, useless Dr. Martin Dear who is hated by the patients and desperate for a woman, preferably Dr. Todd if he can manage it.

Green Wing was devised and produced by Victoria Pile.moreless
9
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Channel 4 (ended 2004)

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is the brainchild of celebrated horror writer and self-styled "fabulist" Garth Marenghi, author of such genre classics as Afterbirth (a mutated placenta attacks Bristol) and Crab! ("One of the three best horror books about crabs I've ever read" - Hard Gore Magazine). Back in the 1980s, he branched out into television production, writing and starring in a series so radical, so scary and so downright crazy that when the bosses of Channel 4 saw what they had on their hands, they ran away screaming, like little girls. Only now, twenty years on and amid the worst programming drought in television history, have the station finally allowed the show on the air. Intercut with new interviews with Marenghi himself and his co-stars Dean Learner and Todd Rivers, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is perhaps the most disturbing vision of hospital life ever broadcast.moreless
10
Smack the Pony

Channel 4 (ended 2003)

Welcome to the Smack The Pony guide at TV.com.

Take the banal, the irrelevant and the downright silly, add a female perspective, pour in a hefty dose of comic timing, stir well, and what do you get? Smack the Pony. The team of Sally Phillips, Doon MacKichan and Fiona Allen play on women's neuroses (snogging, pubic hair and size of boobs, not necessarily in that order), their preoccupations (finding a man, finding a man and finding a man), their weaknesses (Marks & Spencer, fashion and men) and their competitiveness (more covert than that of the male of the species, and therefore far more deadly).

The spoof dating agency clips take in the full range of stereotypes and unfailingly hit the spot. And the prize for the most surreal sketch goes to the one which sets that most bourgeois of institutions--the wedding list--in a sex shop, with the coup de grace: "Two butt plugs ... with love from Kathy and Edward".moreless
11
NY-LON

Channel 4 (ended 2004)

This drama series from Channel 4 follows the trans-Atlantic love affair between New York record store clerk Edie (Rashida Jones) and London banker Michael (Stephen Moyer), two very different personalities drawn together by fabulous chemistry. Watch as they juggle travel, jobs, and family responsibilities, whilst pursuing a deepening love against a stupendous soundtrack that helps tell the story. Opening Titles Music: "Oh Katrina" by Tender Trap. Closing Titles Music: "Tuesday's Girl" by Akayzia Parker. US TV-MAmoreless
12
The Book Group

Channel 4 (ended 2003)

Who says good reading is good for you? American Claire has just moved to Glasgow and is extremely keen to meet some new and interesting people. She decides to start a book group. To her utter dismay, those who turn up for the first session are not the friends she had hoped for. There's Kenny, a handsome ex-climber in a wheelchair, Janice the frustrated wife of a famous Scottish footballer, and eccentric student Barney who Claire actually does fancy. The Book Group is about this intriguing cast of characters, who are all trying to make new friends, new lives and new versions of themselves. But pretty soon things get complicated. A little education can be a dangerous thing. Bad News! Channel 4 did confirm a third series was in the works due for broadcast mid 2004, However, I received an email from Annie Griffin (Creator of the show) explaining that no third series was in production for 2004, nor had she even yet written a third series due to commitments towards other projects, "...but perhaps some time in the future they'll be back" Currently I shall leave the status of the show as on hiatus, for it may return.moreless
13
Gordon Ramsay's F Word

Channel 4

This UK series is all about food. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay shows his softer side at his London restaurant, The F Word, from which the show has taken its name. In case you have been wandering the F stands for Food of course. Each season has its own theme.

Season one is centred on Ramsay preparing a three-course meal at the F Word restaurant for 60 invited diners. He has adapted some of his restaurant recipes so that everything that he cooks on the show can be cooked by anyone. The Times' restaurant critic Giles Coren acts as a field correspondent. Food writer Rachel Cooke also provides several reports on healthy eating. Two (or three) commis "battle" each other in every episode to earn a position at one of Ramsay's restaurants. 12 commis chefs appeared in the series out of a thousand applicants. Furthermore this season has turkeys as the featured animal that Gordon raised in his back yard, for food, so that his children gained a better understanding of where their food came from.This season also features Gordon's "Get Women Back in the Kitchen" campaign, for the promotion of which he visited several English households to help women who wanted to improve their culinary skills. A pudding (dessert) challenge, usually between Ramsay and a celebrity guest is also featured, the winner of which had the honour of serving his or her pudding to the guests at the F-Word restaurant.

From the second series onwards the restaurant sits 50 paying guests served by a different brigade. The brigades featured in season two are amateur brigades. If guests found any of their food unsatisfactory, they could choose not to pay for that item. Janet Street-Porter became the series' field correspondent instead of Giles Coren who only appeared as a guest star. Pigs are the seasons featured animals raised once again By Gordon and his family in his back yard. The recipe challenge in this season includes any kind of food instead of pudding only. This series empha on the importance of Sunday lunch. Due to a schedule change bad language is not beeped out from this season onward.

(more to come soon)moreless
14
How to Look Good Naked (UK)

Channel 4

Gok Wan presents this style show with a twist, in which he takes women who are self-conscious about their body image and gives them the confidence to pose naked. Combining his knowledge of style and fashion he teaches ladies how to bring forth their inner and outer beauty without plastic surgery or extreme dieting. The series will return next year on Channel 4.moreless
15
The Devil's Whore

Channel 4 (ended 2008)

This four-part drama series looks at the Civil War through the eyes of Angelica Fanshawe, a spirited noble wife. During the War, Angelica's innocence is questioned as she becomes increasingly aware of the political turmoil facing the country.moreless
16
The Comic Strip Presents

Channel 4 (ended 2000)

Broadcast history: C4 1982-1988 BBC2 1990-1993 C4 1998-2000 Running times are given in the production code field for episodes longer than 35 minutes.
17
Beyond River Cottage

Channel 4

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall moved from River Cottage to a farm in Dorset. The series follows him as he sets up his farm and learns new trades including bee-keeping, meat smoking and honey making.moreless
18
The Ghost Squad

Channel 4 (ended 2005)

Welcome to The Ghost Squad guide at TV.com. Amy Harris is an idealistic young undercover detective recruited to The Ghost Squad by her powerful new boss, Detective Superintendent Carol McKay. Pete, a thrill-seeking detective, lends support and guidance to Amy as she is thrust into the gritty new world of undercover work.moreless
19
White Teeth

Channel 4 (ended 2002)

Zadie Smith's anarchic comedy set in multiracial northwest London comes mind-blowingly to life in a four-part adaptation of her acclaimed first novel. Hailed as "street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical" by the New York Times and "funny as hell" by Newsweek, Smith wrote White Teeth at the astonishing age of 24. Set in the cultural farrago of Willesden Green, where Smith grew up, White Teeth tells the story of three families in the hippy-to-hiphop era of 1974 to 1992 -- with a nostalgia-inducing soundtrack of popular hits from the period.

"I wanted to write a book about a man who... lives a good life by accident," Smith says of White Teeth's protagonist, professional envelope-folder Archie Jones (played by Phil Davis), whom she compares to Jimmy Stewart. In British-music-hall fashion, she pairs Archie with a sidekick who is his opposite in nearly every way. Bengali waiter Samad Iqbal (Om Puri) is intellectual where Archie is clueless, a devout Muslim where Archie is a laid-back atheist, and a tormented adulterer where Archie is an oblivious family man. But they have been best friends since an experience involving a fugitive war criminal during World War II -- an incident that comes back to haunt Archie at crucial points in the plot. The story begins on New Year's Eve 1974, when Archie decides to end it all in a carbon monoxide-filled haze. Coincidentally, a nearby commune is celebrating the impending end of the world. Both Archie and the world survive to have some very unusual adventures.

Smith populates White Teeth with an assortment of curious characters worthy of Dickens himself -- from Archie and Samad's headstrong spouses, lapsed Jehovah's Witness Clara (Naomie Harris) and tart-tongued Bengali Alsana (Archie Panjabi); to Clara's fire-and-brimstone mother, Hortense (Mona Hammond); Samad and Alsana's twin sons, brainy Magid and gang-leader Millat (both played by Christopher Simpson); and Archie and Clara's diffident daughter, Irie (Sarah Ozeke). Then there are the smugly scholarly Malfen family, the militant Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation (an Islamic sect with an acronym problem), and a crazed animal liberation outfit called Fighting Animal Torture and Exploitation (FATE). All come together for a debacle at a pre-millennium bash for a genetically modified mouse. "White Teeth", the book by Zadie Smith, was commissioned by UK Network Channel 4 in the spring of 2002. Filming began in June of the same year and the first episode of four was aired on 17th September 2002. The show won praise from Film and TV critics and launched the career of one of it's stars Naomie Harris. The show gained healthy viewing figures throughout and peaked at 3.5 Million during the final episode. The Series has now been shown throughout the world and was aired in Australia, Sweden and most recently the USA to great success.moreless
20
The Ascent of Money

Channel 4

Historian Niall Ferguson examines the role of money and financial institutions in world history. Exploring topics such as foreign exchange, the evolution of credit and the origin of debt, this six part series looks at how the world's financial market has developed.moreless
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