Fractured British Television Classics Quiz

Answer: Grange Hill

'Grange Hill' was a gritty children's drama that followed the trials and tribulations of the pupils of the fictional Grange Hill School located in London, England. A total of 601 episodes of the show were broadcast between February 1978 and September 2008 when the show was finally cancelled. Examining issues important to and which affected children such as bullying, peer pressure and inter-personal relationships, 'Grange Hill' featured a number of controversial subjects over the decades of its production; most notably was the drugs storyline that followed the descent into the hell of heroin addiction by Samuel 'Zammo' McGuire played by actor Lee MacDonald, one of the show's most popular and enduring characters.

This storyline led to an important anti-drugs campaign in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s which resulted in the release of the popular hit song 'Just Say No' which raised much needed funds to finance the campaign.

Many of the young cast enjoyed differing degrees of fame or notoriety after they had left the show, notable in this respect was the actor Todd Carty who played the character Peter 'Tucker' Jenkins who went on to star in his own spin-off series 'Tucker's Luck' and later as the character Martin Fowler in the long-running BBC television drama 'East Enders'.

Answer: Loose Women

First broadcast on the 6th of September 1999, 'Loose Women' is a topical, day-time talk show aimed squarely at a female audience and which looks at issues important to women. 'Loose Women' and its team of high profile celebrity presenters which has included actresses Sherrie Hewson and Denise Welch in addition to former pop singer Colleen Nolan and journalist Janet Street-Porter, have courted controversy from day one, often including their own personal problems and issues as subjects for discussion. Subjects that have been tabled for intense debate have also included those that affect the wider female community such as female genital mutilation, domestic violence and infidelity.

The show has striven to be seen as all-inclusive, but 'Loose Women' has been accused of being sexist and vehemently anti-male on a number of occasions. Sadly, the hugely popular presenter and former actress Lynda Bellingham, famous for her portrayal as the mother in the long-running series of advertisements for 'Oxo', a brand of culinary stock cube, passed away on the 19th of October 2014 after suffering from cancer.

Answer: George and Mildred

Between 1976 and 1979 one of the most popular situation comedies on British television was 'George and Mildred'. The show, a spin-off of the highly successful sitcom 'Man about the House', followed the exploits of the Roper's, a couple who had moved up the social ladder to a leafy London suburb. George, played by actor Brian Murphy, was lazy, inept and forever trying to avoid putting his hand in his pocket.

This was in sharp contrast to his wife Mildred, played by actress Yootha Joyce. An inveterate snob, she was constantly looking to ingratiate herself with her neighbours, often with calamitous results.

The programme ran for a total of thirty eight episodes in five series and was broadcast across the independent television network, ITV. Sadly, Yootha Joyce succumbed to liver disease due to alcoholism on the 24th of August 1980 at the age of just 53; her co-star Brian Murphy still performs and makes occasional cameo appearances on television today.

Answer: Rising Damp

Rupert Rigsby, referred to simply as Rigsby, was the seedy landlord of a decaying boarding house. Also starring actress Frances de la Tour as the glamorous spinster and apple of Rigsby's eye Miss Ruth Jones, black actor Don Warrington as Philip Smith and the late Richard Beckinsale as student Alan Moore, 'Rising Damp' consisted of a total of twenty eight episodes in four series (in addition to its pilot episode) and was broadcast on the British ITV network between 1974 and 1978. Actor Leonard Rossiter, who played Rigsby, also enjoyed considerable acclaim in his role as the eponymous Reginald Perrin in the BBC sitcom 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' as well as in a series of humorous advertisements with actress Joan Collins for the alcoholic beverage, Cinzano. Richard Beckinsale went on to enjoy stardom as Lenny Godber in 'Porridge' a situation comedy set in a prison alongside the late Ronnie Barker before his untimely death at the age of just 31 from an undiagnosed heart defect. Don Warrington has enjoyed a long running career on both stage and television, recently appearing in the BBC black comedy, 'Death in Paradise'. Frances de la Tour still enjoys considerable success on stage and screen having performed roles in the motion picture 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' and more recently as the headmistress of Greybridge Secondary School in the very entertaining comedy 'Big School'.

Answer: Juke Box Jury

Between 1953 and 1967, 'Juke Box Jury' was another unmissable pop music show on British television. The format took a group of celebrities who would listen to the latest pop releases and then cast a vote as to whether they believed that the song would become a 'hit' or a 'miss'. Presented by David Jacobs, a vast number of celebrities appeared as panel members including such alumni as David McCallum, Katie Boyle, Shirley Bassey, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Manfred Mann.

Not without controversy, 'Juke Box Jury' found itself under intense public scrutiny when the Mothers of Invention song 'It Can't Happen Here' was voted a hit by two of the panel members, the issue being that it had been recorded whilst the band had been under the influence of LSD. Eventually relegated from its Saturday evening prime-time slot to early on Wednesday evening due to falling ratings, the writing was on the wall for 'Juke Box Jury' and the final transmission was broadcast on the 27th of December 1967. Two attempts were made to resurrect the show, one in 1979 presented by the then BBC DJ Noel Edmonds and again during 1989 and 1990 by jazz pianist and big band leader Jools Holland, neither of which met with success. Due to BBC policy in the 1960s of not retaining recordings of shows, especially live transmissions, many programme recordings were routinely erased and it is believed that only two complete episodes of 'Juke Box Jury' are still in existence as of 2016.

Answer: University Challenge

The longest running quiz show in British television history, 'University Challenge' has been broadcast almost continuously since 1962. Between September 1962 and December 1987, over nine hundred episodes were broadcast by the Granada company. During the first twenty-five years of its incarnation, the academic quiz was hosted by the unassuming historian and author, Bamber Gascoigne, but the show was greatly missed after it came to an end in 1985 and, on its revival by the BBC in 1994, the acerbic and intimidating television presenter and journalist Jeremy Paxman stepped in to become its new presenter; a position which he still occupies at the time of writing.

Although considered a 'high-brow' show, 'University Challenge' has courted its fair share of controversy over the decades. During the 1975 season, a team from Victoria University Manchester staged a protest against the rules by answering every question with the names of Marxist figures.

This protest led to the university being banned from entering the contest again for several years.

A small number of contestants have also been found responsible for having their teams disqualified due to the breaking of the show's eligibility rules.

Answer: Blue Peter

If ever a single programme could be considered a British television icon, then it is the children's show 'Blue Peter'; over the fifty-eight years that it has been in existence it has become a British television institution. The programme was first transmitted on the 16th of October 1958 and is the world's longest running children's television show.

Its format was unique for its day in that it encouraged viewer participation through competitions and running features that included children themselves appearing in front of the cameras. Children were also presented with the coveted 'Blue Peter Badge' should they have been fortunate enough to have made a contribution to a show or should they have made some form of contribution to their local community.

The show's pets always proved very popular, the concept being that not all children were fortunate enough to have pets of their own and this was one way of helping them feel included; anyone who watched the episode of the BBC question and answer show 'Fax!' could never forget the January 1987 broadcast in which the passing of Shep, an enormously popular show pet, was announced by the grief-stricken former presenter, John Noakes. Shortly before Christmas 2012, the BBC ceased transmitting 'Blue Peter' on BBC1 and moved the show to CBBC, the corporations dedicated children's TV channel where it still entertains, engages and enthralls all those children that watch it.

Answer: Holby City

Unlike the drama that takes place in the BBC series 'Casualty', the action in the spin-off 'Holby City' takes place on Keller and Darwin wards in the General Surgery and Cardio-thoracic departments respectively of the fictional Holby Hospital. At the time of writing in May 2016, over eight hundred of the hour long episodes of the show in eighteen series had been broadcast. Often meeting with unfavourable press, the show has been blamed for giving patients and their families attending real A&E departments, unreasonable expectations as to what can be done in the case of serious injury and has also been blamed for contributing to the rise in the number of medical negligence cases that have ballooned over the last twenty years or so.

At a technical level, 'Holby City' is very realistic; many of the actors undergo training in some of the procedures that have been featured in the series over the years. On a personal level, I find it an enjoyable show however some more recent storylines require a suspension of disbelief.

As someone who has worked within the British National Health Service for almost thirty years, I cannot believe that any hospital would countenance doctors and nurses with known drug abuse issues carrying out surgical procedures, as has happened in a recent series of stories.

Answer: Stingray

'Stingray' is a puppet show which uses the Supermarionation technique developed by Gerry Anderson, the creator of other contemporary children's shows such as 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons', 'Joe 90' and of course, 'Thunderbirds'. This technique involved the use of incredibly fine cables and wires to control the puppets, the cable controlling the bodily movements whilst the wires were used to electrically power a series of solenoids in the puppets heads that gave them the ability to reproduce basic human facial movements which was revolutionary at that time.

Originally broadcast on the British ITV network between 1964 and 1965, the stories surrounded the submersible craft 'Stingray' of W.A.S.P, the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, which was crewed by Captain Troy Tempest and his subordinate Lieutenant George 'Phones' Sheridan. Sworn enemies of W.A.S.P were the Aquaphibians led by King Titan, a race determined to destroy W.A.S.P and ultimately the human race.

The show's romantic interest was provided by Marina, a beautiful slave girl rescued from King Titan with who Troy Tempest becomes besotted much to the chagrin of Atlanta, the daughter of W.A.S.P leader Commander Samuel Shore, who has romantic intentions toward Tempest (and this was a show for children?) In all, just a single series of 'Stingray' were produced and broadcast running to a total of thirty nine episodes broken down into three blocks of thirteen each for production purposes.

Answer: Only Fools and Horses

"This time next year Rodney, we'll be millionaires"... Alas, the Trotters only managed it once after selling a Harrison marine watch that they had found whilst clearing their garage for over six million pounds and then promptly losing it all after investing badly in Central American financial markets. First shown on BBC television in 1981 'Only Fools and Horses' is, without doubt, one of the funniest and most successful comedy series ever broadcast by the BBC. Written by John Sullivan, this situation comedy followed the exploits of the Trotter family in their endeavours to earn a living. Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter, played by actor David Jason, was a loveable rogue who always tried his best to support his immediate family; he had a penchant for cocktails and speaking 'Franglais', a mixture of French and English words and phrases that he believed gave him an air of sophistication.

His younger brother, the gormless Rodney played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, often the victim of Del Boy's dodgy dealings frequently found himself being taken advantage of by his elder sibling. Living together in a cluttered flat in Nelson Mandela House in Peckham, the principal line-up was initially completed by Grandad, portrayed by Lennard Pearce who was replaced after his death in 1984 by old salt naval hero Uncle Albert played by actor Buster Merryfield who passed away in 1999.

The show was blessed with a hugely talented cast of supporting characters which included the greatly missed Roger Lloyd-Pack who played Trigger, an incredibly dim-witted local authority worker, shady second-hand car salesman 'Boycie' played by John Challis and his put upon wife Marlene played by Sue Holderness along with many, many others of equal comedic talent. The show ran between 1981 and 1991 consisting of 64 episodes in seven series and nine Christmas specials the last of which was broadcast in 2003.