In Search of the Dark Ages

When veteran anchorman Howard Beale is forced to retire his 25-year post because of his age, he announces to viewers that he will kill himself during his farewell broadcast. Network executives rethink their decision when his fanatical tirade results in a spike in ratings.

Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.

In 1921, a young man, having read Mark Twain's classic novel of the same title, dreams that he himself travels to King Arthur's court, where he has similar adventures and outwits his foes by means of very modern inventions including motorcycles and nitroglycerine.

A surreal adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", chronicling Arthur Pendragon's conception, his rise to the throne, the search by his Knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail, and ultimately his death.

While Old England is being ransacked by roving Danes in the 9th century, Alfred is planning to join the priesthood. But observing the rape of his land, he puts away his religious vows to take up arms against the invaders, leading the English Christians to fight for their country. Alfred soundly defeats the Danes and becomes a hero. But now, although Alfred still longs for the priesthood, he is torn between his passion for God and his lust for blood.

This is the inspiring, epic journey of a noble warrior's quest to prove his worth, his might, and his destined fate to become the next ruler of Britain.

49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.

A look at Sir Alex Ferguson's guide to succeed at leading after his 26 year career as Manchester United's manager.

The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by a Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. In 1981, a stage production of Pippin was videotaped for Canadian television. The stage production was directed by Kathryn Doby, Bob Fosse's dance captain for the original Broadway production, and David Sheehan directed the video adaptation, with Roger O. Hirson in charge of the music. Ben Vereen returned for the role of Leading Player, while William Katt played the role of Pippin. However, this version was a truncated adaptation and several sections of the play were cut. An extended version running 135 minutes is also available.

An exploration of the musical and social origins of the blues, shot on location in Mississippi in 1978 by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in association with the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television and broadcast on PBS in 1980. This re-release in 2009 includes two hours of additional music.

In this documentary, Stephen Fry tells the story behind his success, after presenting the BAFTAs for more than ten years. With an outstanding career in film and television which began with a chance meeting with comedy partner Hugh Laurie at Cambridge, he went on to create the outrageous Melchett in Blackadder and has become a firm favourite on BBC2 with the quite interesting quiz QI. Featuring a supporting cast of friends, including interviews with Michael Sheen, Hugh Laurie and Alan Davies.

TV presenter Dallas Campbell, engineer Professor Danielle George and engineer Dr Hugh Hunt re-create the opening of the BBC's television service on 2 November 1936. This involves building the mechanical flying-spot cameras that were used by Baird's system.

The Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of history. It was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983, for production and broadcast in 1986, but was subsequently shelved by Controller of BBC One Michael Grade due to its alleged pro-Margaret Thatcher stance and jingoistic tone. This prompted a press furore over media bias and censorship.The play was not staged until 2002, when it was broadcast in separate adaptations on BBC Television and Radio.

Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen is a 2009 television drama. It deals with Dr James Niven's attempts to deal with the 1918 flu pandemic in Manchester. Its screenplay was written by Peter Harness and it starred Bill Paterson as Niven, along with Mark Gatiss, Kenneth Cranham and Charlotte Riley. It was first broadcast on BBC Four on 5 August 2009.

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.

Ace Lightning is a children's television series co-produced by the BBC and Alliance Atlantis, which has been broadcast in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom and Australia. The show was filmed in Canada, but the program was set in America. It ran for two seasons, and spawned several books, including a yearbook for the year 2003, an activity book and a companion to the series. A computer game based upon the show was released in 2002. Most of the programme was live-action, although the heroes and villains from the video game were created using CGI. The primary focus of the series is the power of friendship, as well as the battle between good and evil. The series is significant in that until its creation, live action and CGI had not been attempted to such a huge and constant degree within a weekly television serial.

BBC Breakfast is a national British morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from MediaCityUK and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items. The programme is broadcast seven days a week, every week of the year, including weekends and public holidays. It is a department of the BBC North Group division. Alison Ford, previously the UK Editor for BBC Newsgathering, was the Editor of the programme, until her death in July 2013. Her appointment followed the departure of David Kermode to 5 News.

Waterloo Road is a UK television drama series the first broadcast was in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Originally set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, England, the location of the show was moved to the former Greenock Academy in Greenock, Scotland in 2012. The series focuses on the lives of the school's teachers and students, and confronts social issues such as extramarital affairs, abortion, divorce, child abuse, and suicide. Waterloo Road is produced by Shed Productions, the company responsible for Bad Girls and Footballers' Wives.

Fist of Fun was a British comedy television and radio programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. A lot of the show's comic material was adapted from Lee and Herring's radio programme Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World. Each episode of Fist of Fun featured several disparate sketches and situations. Fist of Fun began as a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993, before becoming commissioned as a television series on BBC Two in early 1995. It was broadcast at 9pm on Tuesday nights, and was successful, but not a major ratings-winner. The second series was aired on Friday nights, and although its ratings were relatively good, the show suffered from a lack of preparation and poor promotion. The show was not given a third series, and Lee and Herring went on to write This Morning with Richard Not Judy, for BBC Two. Many other comedians who appeared in the series went on to fame themselves, including Kevin Eldon, Peter Baynham, Ronni Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Al Murray, John Thomson, Rebecca Front, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Ben Moor and Sally Phillips.

Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons. Described as focusing on the human element of the series, Confidential features behind-the-scenes footage on the making of Doctor Who through clips and interviews with the cast, production crew and other people, including those who have participated in the television series over the years of its existence. Each episode deals with a different topic, and in most cases refers to the Doctor Who episode that preceded it. There have also been two episodes of Doctor Who Confidential broadcast apart from the showing of Doctor Who episodes: in November 2006 an edition subtitled "Music and Monsters" was produced going behind the scenes of a televised concert of soundtrack music produced as part of that year's Children in Need appeal, and on 3 January 2009, a special edition was broadcast to announce the actor chosen to play the Eleventh Doctor.

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

Harry & Paul is a BAFTA Award-winning British sketch comedy show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 13 April 2007. Prior to broadcast it was trailed as The Harry Enfield Show. The show reunites the pair, who had success with Harry Enfield's Television Programme in the 1990s. The second series of the programme began on BBC One on 5 September 2008. This was the last series from the comedy producer Geoffrey Perkins who died shortly before the programme's second series began. A third series was commissioned and began 28 September 2010 this time on BBC Two to where the show has been moved, because of falling ratings. The fourth series began broadcasting in October 2012.

Trevor's World of Sport began as a 2003 BBC television sitcom written and directed by Andy Hamilton and starring Neil Pearson as Trevor. Only one television series was made, and Hamilton felt mistreated by the BBC over the scheduling of the show. The first episode attracted an average of 3.4 million viewers, dropping to 2.9 million for the second and third episodes. The subsequent episodes were rescheduled from Friday evenings to Monday nights, despite the Radio Times issues having already been published listing the originally scheduled transmission dates. Hamilton went public with his displeasure over the show's scheduling and vowed never to work for BBC1 again, though he has since changed his mind. A radio version was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004, with subsequent series in 2005 and 2007. The series is set in the world of TS Sports – a sports public relations firm, run by Trevor Heslop and his partner, the lascivious Sammy Dobbs. Trevor is portrayed as an essentially decent, honest man in the corrupt money-obsessed industry of sporting celebrity, who is still deeply in love with his estranged wife Meryl. Andy Hamilton also appears in a minor role within the show, and several actors who have worked in his other comedy shows for television and radio appear. Neil Pearson was in Hamilton's Drop the Dead Donkey, as was Michael Fenton Stevens who plays TS Sports' only regular client, fading celebrity Ralph Renton.

Presented by Neil Oliver, A History of Scotland is a television series first broadcast in November 2008 on BBC One Scotland and later shown UK-wide on BBC Two during January 2009. The second series began on BBC One Scotland in early November 2009, with transmission at a later point on network BBC Two. Along with the series, BBC Scotland planned a range of radio programmes, a new website, an interactive game, and concerts. The Open University, in collaboration with the BBC, also created a series of audio walks around historic locations in Scotland, with narration from Oliver. In Australia, series one aired on SBS One Sundays at 7:30pm from 6 December 2009 to 3 January 2010. Series two commenced on 24 October 2010 running until 21 November in the same Sunday night Lost Worlds strand. It has since been repeated.

The Indian Doctor is a British television drama set in the summer of 1963. Produced by Rondo Media and Avatar Productions, it was first broadcast on BBC One in 2010. The most recent series began on 27 February 2012 and concluded on 2 March. It is a period comedy drama starring Sanjeev Bhaskar as an Indian doctor who finds work in a South Wales mining village.

The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog, also known as Les Mystères d'Alfred, is an animated French-Canadian series that airs on several broadcast and cable networks around the world. The show's characters consist of mainly anthropomorphic woodland animals such as raccoons, moose, and voles. The show follows three anthropomorphic animal tweens—Alfred Hedgehog, Milo Skunk, and Camille Wallaby—as they solve mysteries in Gnarly Woods. In the US, Discovery Kids begin airing the series on March 17, 2010, with a St. Patrick's Day marathon of 19 episodes, starting from 6:00 am to 3:30 pm. The series returned on April 12, 2010, with its regular time slot, starting at 7:00 pm and 7:30 pm. As of November 2011, the show's reruns can be seen on TVOntario, TFO, VRT, TV3, qubo, and France 5.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme is a British comedic television show about television. It is shown on BBC Two and is hosted by comedian Sarah Millican. It began on 8 March 2012 and is scheduled to run for six episodes. A second series was broadcast from Christmas Day 2012 and throughout January, and a third series has been commissioned. An unbroadcast pilot episode was filmed on 25 May 2011. A series was then commissioned and filmed at the MediaCityUK complex in Salford in late-2011. The series is a co-production by So Television and Millican's own company, Chopsy Productions.

Spotlight is the name given to a BBC Northern Ireland weekly current affairs programme. The programme is aired on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 10.35pm on Tuesday evenings, with a repeat on BBC2. It is available to UK viewers outside of Northern Ireland on BBC iPlayer for a week after the programme. The format usually consists of a half hour report presented on a rotating basis by a small number of reporter/presenters. At present these are Brian Hollywood, Stephen Walker, Darragh MacIntyre and Bobby Friedman. Occasionally the programme consists of a studio format with various reports and panel discussions. Spotlight is well known for its hard-hitting investigations and recently won an Royal Television Society award for Mandy McAuley's dog-fighting investigation. It has launched the careers of a number of high-profile broadcasters, including Jeremy Paxman and Gavin Esler.

Bastard son Arthur returns to the land he's been banished from to find a kingdom in chaos. Seeking the aid of his oldest confidants, Arthur aims to right Britain's path as he faces the most unexpected of obstacles.

Monty Halls' Great Escape is a British television programme broadcast on BBC Two from 1 March 2009. Marine biologist Monty Halls escapes from the city to be a crofter in Applecross in the west of Scotland. In five episodes, Halls converts a down-trodden cattle shed - "beachcomber cottage" - into a small self-supporting farm, whilst documenting the local wildlife and society. A second series, Monty Halls' Great Hebridean Escape began airing on 21 April 2010. In Australia, it aired as Monty Halls' Island Escape starting on 28 December 2012. "Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape" was first aired on 11 August 2011.