'Experts' name 50 most influential UK shows
Big Brother makes it but Fawlty Towers doesn’t – TV experts have compiled a list of the 50 most influential shows in British broadcasting history.
When the list of 100 programmes were whittled down to 50, stalwarts like Dad’s Army and Only Fools and Horses did not make the cut.
But the likes of Blue Peter, Changing Rooms and even docu-soap Driving School have won a place in TV history.
A total of 33 of the 50 programmes are BBC shows, 12 are from ITV and four are from Channel 4. Sky also has a place for its 24-hour news channel.
The only sports programme to make it on to the list is the BBC’s Match of the Day, while the children’s shows are Teletubbies, Tiswas, featuring Spit the Dog, and Watch with Mother, which bought characters like the Flower Pot Men and Bagpus to the screen.
The list, which was not ranked in order, was compiled by 16 judges, and 13 of them were media executives.
Axed Channel 4 soap Brookside secures a place, as does Coronation Street for setting “a template for soaps”, but there’s no room BBC rival EastEnders.
Judges describe Driving School as “the first and probably the best of the docu-soaps” while Steptoe and Son was “the first major sitcom to get the nation talking”.
The Royle Family, starring Caroline Aherne, is also there, with judges saying “it portrayed the humdrum nature of working-class life far more vividly than any docu-soap ever could and paved the way for shows like The Office”.
The Generation Game, Have I Got News for You, The Morecambe and Wise Show, The Big Breakfast and Pop Idol have also made it.
Dramas which have a place in the top 50 include Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective, BBC costume drama The Forsyte Saga and Dr Who.
In the news and current affairs section, News at Ten gets a mention for changing “the face of television news”.
Factual programmes include the BBC’s memorable Video Diaries, David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, and ITV’s The World at War.
Broadcast magazine, which put the list together, said: “This was never going to be an easy task. Every programme on this list had to fight furiously for its place.
“Those that did make it can claim to have been the most influential ever made - they change the way the industry thought about television and they pushed boundaries.
“For better or worse they carved out today’s television landscape.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Big Brother
Changing Rooms
Comic Relief
Coronation Street
Driving School
The Generation Game
Have I Got News for You
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Morecambe and Wise Show
Not the Nine O’Clock News
Pop Idol
Ready, Steady, Go!
The Royle Family
Spitting Image
Steptoe and Son
That’s Life!
That Was the Week That Was
The Word
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Z Cars
FACTUAL
Arena
Civilisation
Culloden
The Family
Life on Earth
Video Diaries
The World At War
BREAKFAST/DAYTIME
The Big Breakfast
This morning
NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
Man Alive
News At Ten
Panorama
Police
Sky News
This Week
Tonight
World in Action
DRAMA
Boys from the Blackstuff
Brideshead Revisited
Brookside
Cathy Come Home
Doctor Who
Edge of Darkness
The Forsyte Saga
The Singing Detective
CHILDREN’S
Blue Peter
Teletubbies
Tiswas
Watch With Mother
SPORT
Match of the Day
