100 Greatest British Television Programmes

100 Greatest British Television Programmes was a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened.

Initially, a 'big list' of 650 programmes was drawn up by BFI personnel, and this provisional list was then distributed to a range of television industry professionals in the UK, who were each given 30 votes. The listing was split into six categories: Single Dramas, Drama Series and Serials, Comedy and Variety, Factual, Children's / Youth, and Lifestyle & Light Entertainment. Each voter was required to cast a minimum of three votes in every category. News stories were mostly excluded — with exceptions such as the coverage of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales — on the basis that it would be impossible to determine whether it was the coverage or the news itself that made them important. Sport was excluded for similar reasons, and also because many events such as the 1966 World Cup, while important to those in England, would not matter to those in other areas of the United Kingdom.

Some programmes were represented on the list as an entire series, while for some series such as the anthology "The Wednesday Play" and current affairs show "This Week", individual episodes were singled out. Early television programmes no longer existing in the archives were excluded from consideration.

Although obviously not including any programmes made in 2000 or later, the list is useful as an indication of what were generally regarded as the most successful British programmes of the 20th century.

The full list ran as follows:

# "Fawlty Towers" BBC2 1975-1979
# "Cathy Come Home" ("The Wednesday Play") BBC1 1966
# "Doctor Who" BBC1 1963-1989, 1996, 2005-
# "The Naked Civil Servant" ITV 1975
# "Monty Python's Flying Circus" BBC2 1969-1974
# "Blue Peter" BBC1 1958-
# "Boys from the Blackstuff" BBC2 1982
# "Parkinson" BBC1/ITV 1971-1982, 1998-2007
# "Yes Minister" / "Yes, Prime Minister" BBC2 1980-1988
# "Brideshead Revisited" ITV 1981
# "Abigail's Party" ("Play for Today") BBC1 1977
# "I, Claudius" BBC2 1976
# "Dad's Army" BBC1 1968-1977
# "The Morecambe & Wise Show" ITV/BBC1 1961-1983
# "Edge of Darkness" BBC2 1985
# "Blackadder Goes Forth" BBC1 1989
# "Absolutely Fabulous" BBC2/BBC1 1992-1996, 2001-2004
# "The Wrong Trousers" BBC2 1993
# "The World at War" ITV 1973-1974
# "The Singing Detective" BBC1 1986
# "Pennies From Heaven" BBC1 1978
# "The Jewel in the Crown" ITV 1984
# "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" ITV 1998-
# "Hancock's Half Hour" BBC1 1956-1961
# "Our Friends in the North" BBC2 1996
# "28 Up" ITV 1985
# "The War Game" ("The Wednesday Play") BBC1 1965 (transmitted 1985)
# "The Magic Roundabout" BBC1 1965-1977
# "That Was The Week That Was" BBC1 1962-1963
# "An Englishman Abroad" BBC1 1983
# "The Royle Family" BBC1 1998-2000, 2006
# "Life On Earth" BBC2 1979
# "The Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC2 1971-1987
# "University Challenge" ITV/BBC2 1961-1987, 1994-
# "Porridge" BBC1 1974-1977
# "Blue Remembered Hills" ("Play for Today") BBC1 1979
# "Mastermind" BBC1/BBC2 1972-1997, 2003-
# "I'm Alan Partridge" BBC2 1997, 2002
# "Cracker" ITV 1993-1996, 2006
# "Coronation Street" ITV 1960-
# "Top of the Pops" BBC2/BBC1 1964-2006
# "Inspector Morse" ITV 1987-2000
# "Grange Hill" BBC1 1978-2008
# "Steptoe and Son" BBC1 1962-1965, 1970-1974
# "Only Fools and Horses" BBC1 1981-1996, 2001-2003
# "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (series 1) ITV 1983-1986
# "Tiswas" ITV 1974-1982
# "Elgar" BBC 1962
# "Nuts in May" ("Play for Today") BBC1 1976
# "Father Ted" Channel 4 1995-1998
# "The Avengers" ITV 1961-1969
# "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" BBC2 1979
# "The Forsyte Saga" BBC2 1967
# "Hillsborough" ITV 1996
# ' ("Without Walls Special") Channel 4"' 1994
# "Bar Mitzvah Boy" ("Play for Today") BBC1 1976
# "Edna, the Inebriate Woman" ("Play for Today") BBC1 1971
# "Live Aid for Africa" BBC1 1985
# "World In Action" ITV 1963-1998
# "Thunderbirds" ITV 1965-1966
# "Talking Heads/Talking Heads 2" BBC2 1987, 1998
# "Ready Steady Go!" ITV 1963-1966
# "Z-Cars" BBC1 1962-1978
# "Culloden" BBC1 1964
# "The Ascent of Man" BBC2 1973
# "A Very British Coup" Channel 4 1988
# ' BBC2"' 1969
# "Prime Suspect" ITV 1991-1996, 2003-2006
# "The Likely Lads" / "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?" BBC2/BBC1 1964-1966, 1973-1974
# "Have I Got News for You" BBC2/BBC1 1990-
# "The Snowman" Channel 4 1982
# "Walking with Dinosaurs" BBC1 1999
# "Nineteen Eighty-Four" BBC1 1954
# "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" BBC1 1976-1979
# "Quatermass and the Pit" BBC1 1958-1959
# "Between The Lines" BBC1 1992-1994
# "Blind Date" ITV 1985-2003
# "Talking to a Stranger" ("Theatre 625") BBC2 1966
# "The Borrowers" BBC1 1992
# "One Foot in the Grave" BBC1 1990-2000
# "Later with Jools Holland" BBC2 1992-
# "Tutti Frutti" BBC2 1987
# "The Knowledge" ITV 1979
# "House of Cards" BBC1 1990-1995
# "This is Your Life" BBC1/ITV 1955-1964, 1969-2003
# "The Tube" Channel 4 1982-1987
# "The Death of Yugoslavia" BBC2 1995
# "Till Death Us Do Part" BBC1 1966-1975
# "A Very Peculiar Practice" BBC1 1986-1992
# "Michael Moore's TV Nation" BBC2 1995
# "This Life" BBC2 1996-1997
# "Death on the Rock" ("This Week") ITV 1988
# ' BBC2"' 1997
# "Drop the Dead Donkey" Channel 4 1990-1998
# "Arena" BBC2 1975-
# "The Railway Children" BBC1 1968
# "Teletubbies" BBC2 1997-2001
# "Spitting Image" ITV 1984-1996
# "Pride and Prejudice" BBC1 1995
# "Made in Britain" ITV 1982

ee also

* Britain's Best Sitcom

External links

* [http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/index.html The BFI TV 100 at the BFI website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/911085.stm BBC News coverage]