ade towell
Senior Member
- Location
- Nottingham
The Prisoner
Monkey
Poldark (original)
Guilty pleasures...
Tenko
Prisoner Cell Block H
Monkey
Poldark (original)
Guilty pleasures...
Tenko
Prisoner Cell Block H
Great old TV series (preferably drama)
- Thread starter Yellow Fang
- Start date
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NorthernDave
Never used Über Member
- Location
- The real Northern Powerhouse
Prospects was a genuinely brilliant series and I never understood why they only made one series of it.
Survivors is well worth a watch, although it did get a bit middle class stereotypes later on. The remake (mid 00's?) is watchable but just sort of fizzled out - I suspect they were thinking of doing another series that never got made.
Auf Weidersen Pet is one of the best written shows ever, but gets overlooked now - possibly due to how popular it was at the time.
Shameless - no really, the first couple of series were excellent, well written and a real social commentary but it went downhill later on.
A Very Peculiar Practice is also well worth watching if you can find it, as is Spender.
Or try ITV4 on a weekday morning - Quincy, Kojak, The Professionals, Minder, The Sweeney - it's like being a kid again. 😉
Kryton521
Über Member
Prisoner Cell Block H. Brilliant but awful, so, so addictive. Early Dr Who, spent most of my childhood hiding behind the sofa terrified of the monsters. To this day I still don't like shop mannequins!!!
Survivors both the original and the remade were good, but failed.
Dixon of Dock Green, wonder if that's where I get my morality from?
Survivors both the original and the remade were good, but failed.
Dixon of Dock Green, wonder if that's where I get my morality from?
I always thought Shameless went downhill after Kev & Veronica were written out of it. Never liked the Maguires as characters, apart from the gay son Micky, who was hilarious.
Spartak
Powered by M&M's
- Location
- Bristolian
Wallandar is available again on the iplayer starring Kenneth Branagh.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
one of the best TV series ever... but 692 episodes might be a bit daunting for the OP
lane
Veteran
There was a more recent re make of that but it didn't do very well. I was fascinated by that series as a child but didn't realise I would be living it 40+ years later.
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
To me, simply the best, in the same way no other tv comedy comes close to Fawlty Towers.
Derek Jacobi is just superb, Brian Blessed is astonishingly restrained, for him, and Sian Philips is quite brilliant. John Hurt makes a fine Caligula. The scripts are razor sharp, and the sheer quality of the dialogue and acting means the polystyrene masonry never intrudes. One of very few series I will happily watch repeatedly. Having said which, I tried it with one daughter (albeit when really quite young), who gave up after ten minutes: "It's just people talking at each other." Which I suppose in a sense it is. Stagey, yes; theatrical, yes - but that's playing to our rep-trained Brit acting strengths, and it works.
Depending how old is 'old', a more recent drama series that for me at least stood head & shoulders above the norm was Happy Valley. Impeccable acting from a rocksolid cast, and a script proving beyond doubt, as if there were any, that Sally Wainwright is right up there among the tv writing greats.
Finally, someone upthread mentioned Cracker. Stonewall classic. Interestingly (arguably) I once saw an interview with Jimmy McGovern, who said he'd written Fitz with a very particular physicality in mind - he saw him as one of those small, wiry hard-nuts, like Begbie in Trainspotting. Imagine his surprise when the producer announced they'd secured 'the perfect candidate' - Robbie Coltrane. Even McGovern conceded that Coltrane turned out to be perfect for the part.
oldfatfool
Guru
Gotta say it, miami vice
A show i loved back in the late 70's was Hazel, a private detective series.
Some time ago, i noticed they were re-running it on Talking Pictures. So i made a point of watching it, expecting to really enjoy watching this again. It was rubbish, really dated with ludicrous story lines and a terrible script.
Some shows are best left in the past.
Some time ago, i noticed they were re-running it on Talking Pictures. So i made a point of watching it, expecting to really enjoy watching this again. It was rubbish, really dated with ludicrous story lines and a terrible script.
Some shows are best left in the past.
swee'pea99
Legendary Member
I've been rewatching old Minders, and one thing that really strikes you is the inconsistency. Different episodes had different writers, and boy does it show. When it's good, it's very very good, but some are so bad you really wonder how they ever got made.
Minder was always a must watch for me..... right up until the point Dennis Waterman left. I could never get into it again when the new guy took over.
lane
Veteran
One thing I notice when I re-watch a lot of series from the 70s is how slow paced they are compared to today. On the other hand TV had so much money in those days they didn't know what to do with it so there are a lot more on location scenes than today.
Has anyone mentioned The Sweeney yet. It's actually very good.
Has anyone mentioned The Sweeney yet. It's actually very good.
