Bill Fraser

The British send an American and a war hero to kidnap and hide an oil-country prince.

A mysterious young man settles in a rural English town and immediately starts making a good impression. Before long he has insinuated himself into local life, is married and is serving on the board of the local hospital. Everything seems to be going well for him until a newly appointed consultant psychiatrist shows up and starts asking some probing questions.

A funny thing happened to Lurkalot, serf to Sir Coward de Custard, on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place, but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle, and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...

A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands, listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den, the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar.

Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when the independently wealthy tycoon Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film.

Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St James has things well organized - a loving and very English wife Maud in Gibraltar, and the loving if rather more hot-blooded Mistress, Nita in Tangiers. A perfect life. As long as neither woman decides to follow him to the other port.

In Frankie Howerd's third Up... film it's World War I and he plays Lurk, an absolute cowerd, er coward. He's evading the call-up for all he's worth. But one evening he's hypnotised by a drunken hypnotist (Stanley Holloway) into being brave, but he fails to be released from it. So with his yellow streak gone Lurk is down that army office before you can say "titter ye not." Off to war he goes, mingling with sexy spies like Zsa Zsa Gabor and before long, the spellbound recruit is heading hot-foot back to Blighty with the Germans' plan of attack tattooed on his bum, and the Germans are bringing up the rear...! Full of sauce, knowing real-life references and witty remarks to camera, this is a cheeky incorrigible final instalment.

Deborah and Charles, young executives at the thriving Pontifex Advertising Agency, are very much in love. Deborah is recognised by her employers as the most brilliant TV executive in the country, while Charles is regarded as 'thoroughly reliable'. But there is one hard-and-fast rule at the agency: the board of directors will not allow any married women on their staff; as soon as a girl marries, she must resign!

Survivors of a sinking ship are rescued by Captain Nemo and his submarine crew. They are taken to an underwater city where they may spend the rest of their lives.

Two men who are nextdoor neighbors constantly battle it out over seemingly trivial offenses. Their wives, on the other hand, are best of friends. The two couples attempt to win a 'love-thy-neighbor' competition by lying...

An American movie company wants to shoot a science-fiction film using a British army barracks as a location, and its soldiers as actors.

Two funeral parlours fight one another for business, one of whom is more shady than the other.

A strong-willed teacher, determined to educate the poor and illiterate youth of an impoverished Welsh village, discovers one student whom she believes to have the seeds of genius in him.

When a saboteur places an explosive device on a train full of sea mines, the authorities call for bomb expert Peter Lyncort to diffuse the situation, unaware that he has explosive problems of his own.

While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better. In a cellar beneath his East London fish shop, a gambling club thrives – and austerity provides a nice black-market sideline. But the dolce vita crumbles when police arrive in a lightning raid, and offer Joey and his fellow reprobates a stark choice: sign up for active service, or face another stint inside. Thus the lads find themselves heading off to Italy, determined to make the best of it...

Fred Midway may be a bit short on brains, but he's got plenty of ambition. However, before he can gain promotion as a salesman, he must make his family more socially acceptable.

During a game of golf between a police inspector and a vicar the inspector cheats by having a constable move his ball into favourable positions and the vicar's into hazardous ones. when the vicar discovers this he prays for divine intervention which turns the tables.

Swinging playboy Grand Duke Nicholas Goduno, a direct descendent of the Romanov family who were overthrown in the Russian Revolution of 1917, learns that his family's crown jewels will be exhibited at a London museum and plots to steal them. To this end, he gathers a crew of beautiful but dangerous women, led by Bridget Rafferty, to assist in his plot against Popov, the Soviet functionary in charge of the exhibit.

Comedians is a TV movie/play by Trevor Griffiths, set in a Manchester evening class for aspiring working-class comedians.

On the eve of an in-depth television interview, Edward Waite, former Labour cabinet minister, calls his family together for a birthday celebration that results in dramatic revelations.

In Victorian London, the British Government attempts a solution to the problem of prostitution by establishing the world's most fabulous brothel.

A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film in originally released in two parts.

A new career opens for Charley Moon when, during his army service, he is detailed to appear in a unit concert. In doing so, he becomes friendly with Harold Armytage, a peacetime actor of the old school. Hearing that Charley has no job to go to when demobilized, Armytage suggests they team up as stage comics. Things are not easy; jobs are few and far between, and when they can be found they are in the tattiest of theatres, but Charley gains the experience he needs. They then decide to try their luck in London.

Doctors Burke and Hare leave the confines of St Swithins for the world of general practice, stopping off on the way as patients at the Foulness Anti-cold Unit. Hare then takes up a position as junior in a well-healed G.P.'s surgery while Burke continues to sow his doctorial wild oats.

A fast-moving comedy with Billy Fury, who plays himself in the film. The story reveals his great love of animals, and it features his own racehorse, Anselmo. Also featured are several of Billy's own dogs.

As a surprise, two horse owners decide to ride their animals themselves in a steeplechase. But Bill Davidson's horse "Admiral" behaves weirdly, and falls hard after an obstacle. Bill dies from his injuries. His friend Alan York suspects the animal was doped by unscrupulous bookies and starts to investigate. He doesn't know how serious his opponents are, and that he's in danger to suffer the exact same fate as his friend.

On the lush planet Tigella, two opposing factions are divided over the usage of the Dodecahedron, an ancient and powerful artefact which provides the entire planet's energy. The Doctor is summoned to arbitrate the conflict, but the power-crazed Meglos intercepts the call and impersonates him in order to steal the Dodecahedron.

A series of murders in the West End of London baffle the officers of Scotland Yard and draw the interest of a crime reporter to the case.

The Common Touch is a 1941 British drama film directed by John Baxter and starring Geoffrey Hibbert, Harry Welchman, Greta Gynt and Joyce Howard. On the death of his father, an eighteen-year old lad leaves school to take over the family firm in the City of London. Realising the other directors want to keep him in the dark he starts asking questions, and is soon undercover as a down-and-out in a hostel which will disappear if a company building project goes ahead.

A man wants to help a youth club that is in danger of closure. He decides to resort to blackmailing the relatives of the recently deceased, threatening to publish incriminating stories about them. Then he tries to blackmail the family of a prominent villain.

Sarah Jane Smith arrives at the home of her Aunt Lavinia in the cozy village of Moreton Harwood, only to find that Lavinia is nowhere to be found and that the Doctor has left her a parting gift in K·9 Mark III. With the help of K·9 and Lavinia's young ward Brendan Richards, Sarah Jane starts investigating her aunt's disappearance. In the process, they discover that Moreton Harwood is home to a coven worshipping the pagan god Hecate and preparing for a human sacrifice...

A Christmas black comedy based on the tradition in Hammond's Bank that a member of the board should take a turkey and 6 pence to a deserving poor family.

Meet Me Tonight was the American title for the British-filmed Tonight at 8:30, adapted from the Noel Coward stage production of the same name.

A Home of Your Own is a 1964 British comedy film which is a brick-by-brick account of the building a young couple’s dream house. From the day when the site is first selected, to the day – several years and children later – when the couple finally move in, the story is a noisy but wordless comedy of errors as the incompetent labourers struggle to complete the house. It may well have been inspired by the success of Bernard Cribbins' classic song of the same vein from two years earlier, "Right Said Fred". In this satirical look at British builders, many cups of tea are made, windows are broken and the same section of road is dug up over and over again by the water board, the electricity board and the gas board. Ronnie Barker’s put-upon cement mixer, Peter Butterworth’s short-sighted carpenter and Bernard Cribbins’ hapless stonemason all contribute to the ensuing chaos.

In England during WWII, an American news correspondent’s affair with a married British correspondent ends tragically when he is killed in action. Fearing a nervous breakdown as a result of his death, she travels to Cornwall to mourn with his family without any intention of revealing her relationship with him.

A detective gets involved with a wealthy socialite who can't seem to stop hiccuping.

George Watson's domestic bliss is shattered when his wife discovers he has broken his promise never to gamble again.

An American insurance investigator is sent to Rhodesia to investigate the mysterious death of a diamond broker who drowned whilst diving off the coast. The broker was insured for $1 million so the insurers are suspicious.

TV dramatisation of the trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

Unemployed East End lad Alf Hitchens has an on-off relationship with his girlfriend Marilyn and a dream of hitting the big time in the music business. Cheerful pop musical with a working-class background which uses a number of genuine London locations.

Set on Blackpool’s Golden Mile, Jim (Douglass Montgomery), a once promising scientist, sets up in business as a patent medicine man selling hair tonic at the fair with his ex-army colleague Dan (Ronald Shiner). Following a fight with local hoods over pitch spaces, Jim falls for Jane (Hazel Court), the girl on a nearby candy floss stall. The two begin dating but Jim fails to mention he is already married.

The Mad Morgans are a family song and dance act touring the British Music Halls. Young Davy is the star of the act but should he stay with his family or strike out on his own ? The last comedy to be produced at Ealing Studios.

Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber the Needle, a ruthless German spy in possession of vital information about D-Day, takes refuge on Storm Island, an inhospitable, sparsely inhabited island off the coast of northern Scotland.

A TV set given as a retirement present is sold on to different households causing misery each time.

A depressed middle-aged man, revisiting the seaside resort he often vacationed at as a child, encounters a highly optimistic and carefree young woman who attempts to reason him out of following through on his suicidal thoughts.

Pickwick is a British television musical made by the BBC in 1969 and based on the 1963 stage musical Pickwick, which in turn was based on the 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers written by Charles Dickens. It stars Harry Secombe as Samuel Pickwick and Roy Castle as Sam Weller. This television production was based on the stage musical Pickwick which had been a commercial success. It was adapted for the screen by James Gilbert and Jimmy Grafton. The musical had premiered in the West End in 1963, again with Harry Secombe in the lead role. Running at 90 minutes and made in colour, the TV musical again had lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and a score by Cyril Ornadel. The book was by Wolf Mankowitz and it was directed by Terry Hughes. The programme was first transmitted on 11 June 1969 and again on 26 December 1969. One of the better known songs from the score is "If I Ruled the World". The cast of this production differed somewhat from that of the stage musical.

American sailor Charlie Madison falls for a pretty Englishwoman while trying to avoid a senseless and dangerous D-Day mission concocted by a deranged admiral.

Shaw's comedy of ideologies looks forty years to the future at the impossibility of government as the British cabinet and monarchy face a day of "crisis" for the country. King Magnus is happy to engage a prime minister seeking to transform the nation into a constitutional monarchy, but who truly rules in this democracy: the king, the government or the businessmen? And do any of them care about the people?

In Torre del Lago, by Lake Massaciuccoli, Puccini is writing "The Girl of the Golden West" when his wife Elvira accuses him of a dalliance with their maid, Doria Manfredi, a young women from town. Although the maestro is frequently unfaithful, he denies the affair; Elvira insists she's right and publicly hounds Doria. Between scenes in this domestic drama that turns tragic, we watch a Scottish company rehearse and stage "Turandot," Puccini's last opera. The film finds parallels between the two stories and suggests that in the opera, Puccini expresses love for his wife and guilt in Doria's fate. Three local gentlemen provide a spoken chorus as Puccini's score plays throughout.

An evening at Wilton's Music-Hall, Grace's Alley, Wellclose Square, London, 1860 starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Keith Michell, Pat Kirkwood, Warren Mitchell, Ronnie Barker, Bill Fraser, Gina Astralita, Eric Robinson. Introduced by Billy Russell. Tonight, 90 years after it closed, this famous Music-Hall opens again to bring you a picture of the stars, the singers, the dancers, and the people who once went there.

In this murder mystery, a woman's brother is killed in a freak accident, or so she believes. Fortunately for her, an American journalist is more suspicious and so begins roaming the London streets in search of the killer.

Pringle, leader of the Brotherhood, recieves an anonymous letter accusing his wife of adultery. He employs a private investigator, Caulfield, who discovers things are not quite that straightforward. Joe Orton's last play for television: a farce.

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

The Army Game is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1957 to 1961. Made in black-and-white, it is about National Service conscription to the post-war British Army. It was created by Sid Colin. Many stars, like Charles Hawtrey, William Hartnell, Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass and Dick Emery became household names, and appeared in the Carry On films, which began with Carry On Sergeant, virtually a spin-off. It was made for the ITV network by Granada Television.

Bootsie and Snudge is a British television situation comedy series written, in the early days, by Barry Took and Marty Feldman; later writers were John Antrobus, Jack Rosenthal, ventriloquist Ray Alan and Harry Driver. The show featured Clive Dunn, more famous as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army, as well as Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser. Series 1-3, 5 centred around a gentlemen's club called the Imperial Club, whilst the fourth series broadcast as "Foreign Affairs" centred around a British Embassy in Bosnik. 112 half-hour episodes were made, being broadcast from 1960 to 1964 and in 1974. The traditional gentlemen's club in Britain has long been used for comedic purposes in films, usually because of the eccentric characters with whom it can be populated, and the arcane rules. The rule of absolute silence in the reading room, notwithstanding several old men snoring under copies of The Times, is a common feature of such comedy. Memorable moments include Kenneth Connor, in the film Carry On Regardless, being forced to mime "Your flies are open" to one of the members. In the Imperial Club Bootsie and Snudge resumed their roles of snivelling skiver and bullying sergeant, with contributions from the ancient and always-bumbling dogsbody, Johnson, all under the tyrannical eye of the "Hon. Sec.", the club secretary played by Robert Dorning. The Hon. Sec.'s way of dealing with arguments was to drown out the opposition with repetitions of "Tup! Tup!", rising in volume until the other party stopped trying. Thus Bootsie's name for the character was "Ol' Tuptup".

A British television series based on the book of the same name written by Sue Townsend.

Whoops Baghdad is a BBC television comedy programme first broadcast from 25 January to 1 March 1973. It stars Frankie Howerd, and was similar to his earlier programme Up Pompeii!, with the setting moved from Ancient Rome to mediaeval Baghdad. However, it was less successful than its predecessor, only running for six episodes and is little remembered, although all episodes apparently survive. The original proposed title, Up Baghdad, was rejected because it was felt that it might have been seen as supportive of the then-current Iraqi regime.

The Train Now Standing

That's Your Funeral was a BBC sitcom from 1971. The show was about a North of England funeral director called Basil Bulstrode. It used numerous urban legends about the funeral industry in its storylines. The show only lasted for one series before being axed. A very similar theme was used far more successfully in the ITV sitcom In Loving Memory.

A one-episode television pilot for a proposed 1981 spin-off of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen, and K9, a robotic dog voiced by John Leeson. Both characters had been companions of the Fourth Doctor but they had not appeared together before. The single episode, A Girl's Best Friend was broadcast by BBC1 as a Christmas special on 28 December 1981 but was not taken up for a continuing series.

A British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s, combining surreal sketches and situation comedy.

Black and Blue was a BBC TV comedy-drama series, first broadcast in 1973. It was so named because of the black and blue humour. The show consisted of 6 episodes of 50–60 minutes duration, each episode was a separate self-contained playlet. The only connection between them was the Black and Blue humour theme. The first episode was broadcast on 14 August 1973, with the last episode airing on 18 September 1973. The play Secrets was wiped, only surviving thanks to a domestic videotape copy made from the mastertape by its producer, Mark Shivas.

David Copperfield is a BBC television serial starring Ian McKellen in the title role of the adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel that began airing in January 1966. It also featured Tina Packer as Dora, Flora Robson as Betsey Trotwood, Gordon Gostelow as Barkis, and Christopher Guard as young David. The screenplay adaptation was written by Vincent Tilsley.

And So To Bentley

Foreign Affairs

The everyday traumas and emotional upheavals of the legendary teenage diarist as he struggles to come to terms with life in Margaret Thatcher's 1980s England.

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.

Series based on the short French farces written by Georges Feydeau, Eugène Labiche, Marc Michel and Sacha Guitry. All of them include mistaken identities and impeccable timing.

A British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s, combining surreal sketches and situation comedy.

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy, series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.