Felix Dexter

Room to Rent

Ali is a young Egyptian screenwriter determined to succeed in London, where he has been a student. He loves the artistic and political freedom, the colours, the music, the individualism. But he has little money, his student visa is about to expire and he has been thrown out of his lodgings. And so Ali moves in with a succession of eccentric and colourful London flatmates: Mark, a photographer with a very individual style, Linda, a young, blonde, very sexy model and Marilyn Monroe impersonator, and Miss Stevenson who is convinced that Ali is the reincarnation of her long dead Egyptian lover.

Five Go to Rehab

The Famous Five are back. Thirty years after the Comic Strip arrived on our screens with their famous Enid Blyton spoof - Five Go Mad in Dorset. These famous children's characters have again been brought back from the past to confront today's modern world. This time they are made to account for their racist and sexist views. But they seem blissfully unrepentant as they gather for a reunion on Dick's birthday in leafy Dorset - still a magical land of rolling hills, woods, ruined castles, and of course dodgy villains in big black cars.

The Planman

A lawyer finds himself increasingly frustrated by the professional criminals he is called upon to defend, and hooks upon the idea of devising perfect crimes.

Respect: A Felix Dexter Special

A special programme celebrating the life in comedy of the much-loved and respected actor, Felix Dexter. Charting his influence as a pioneer of black comedy, from his early days in stand-up, then the landmark Real McCoy, The Fast Show, Down the Line, Absolutely Fabulous, Bellamy's People and Citizen Khan. Friends and colleagues gather to remember Felix, including Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson and Adil Ray.

Cherps

Cherps is a fresh and charming romantic comedy that draws equally on traditions of British story telling and New York independent filmmaking. Reggie is a thirtysomething second-generation black British west London geezer. He likes to live on the fly; ducking and diving, and avoiding work whenever possible. He also likes to cherps women. In black British street slang, 'to cherps' is to chat up or flirt with women. Simple.

Have I Got News for You

Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.

Absolutely Fabulous

Set in the world of fashion and PR, immature fun-loving mother Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy drive Eddie's sensible daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness. Numerous in-jokes and heavy doses of cruel humour have made this series a cult hit in the UK and abroad.

Mongrels

Nelson 'the urbane fox' and his anthropomorphic animal friends navigate the urban jungle from their home in London's East End in a puppet sitcom for adults.

Room to Rent

Ali is a young Egyptian screenwriter determined to succeed in London, where he has been a student. He loves the artistic and political freedom, the colours, the music, the individualism. But he has little money, his student visa is about to expire and he has been thrown out of his lodgings. And so Ali moves in with a succession of eccentric and colourful London flatmates: Mark, a photographer with a very individual style, Linda, a young, blonde, very sexy model and Marilyn Monroe impersonator, and Miss Stevenson who is convinced that Ali is the reincarnation of her long dead Egyptian lover.

Five Go to Rehab

The Famous Five are back. Thirty years after the Comic Strip arrived on our screens with their famous Enid Blyton spoof - Five Go Mad in Dorset. These famous children's characters have again been brought back from the past to confront today's modern world. This time they are made to account for their racist and sexist views. But they seem blissfully unrepentant as they gather for a reunion on Dick's birthday in leafy Dorset - still a magical land of rolling hills, woods, ruined castles, and of course dodgy villains in big black cars.

The Planman

A lawyer finds himself increasingly frustrated by the professional criminals he is called upon to defend, and hooks upon the idea of devising perfect crimes.

Respect: A Felix Dexter Special

A special programme celebrating the life in comedy of the much-loved and respected actor, Felix Dexter. Charting his influence as a pioneer of black comedy, from his early days in stand-up, then the landmark Real McCoy, The Fast Show, Down the Line, Absolutely Fabulous, Bellamy's People and Citizen Khan. Friends and colleagues gather to remember Felix, including Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson and Adil Ray.

Cherps

Cherps is a fresh and charming romantic comedy that draws equally on traditions of British story telling and New York independent filmmaking. Reggie is a thirtysomething second-generation black British west London geezer. He likes to live on the fly; ducking and diving, and avoiding work whenever possible. He also likes to cherps women. In black British street slang, 'to cherps' is to chat up or flirt with women. Simple.

Have I Got News for You

Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.

Absolutely Fabulous

Set in the world of fashion and PR, immature fun-loving mother Edina Monsoon and her best friend Patsy drive Eddie's sensible daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness. Numerous in-jokes and heavy doses of cruel humour have made this series a cult hit in the UK and abroad.

Mongrels

Nelson 'the urbane fox' and his anthropomorphic animal friends navigate the urban jungle from their home in London's East End in a puppet sitcom for adults.

Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge

Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge is a BBC Television series of six episodes, and a Christmas special in 1995. It is named after the song "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA, which was used as the show's title music. Steve Coogan played the incompetent but self-satisfied Norwich-based host, Alan Partridge. Alan was a spin-off character from the spoof radio show On the Hour. Knowing Me Knowing You was written by Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber, with contributions from the regular supporting cast of Doon Mackichan, Rebecca Front and David Schneider, who played Alan's weekly guests. Steve Brown provided the show's music and arrangements, and also appeared as Glen Ponder, the man in charge of the house band. The show was a parody of a chat show. It featured a live audience whose laughter meant that viewers could not mistake the show for a real chat show. Alan went on to appear in two series of the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge, following his life after both his marriage and TV career come to an end.

Vanity Fair

In early 19th-century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

Crapston Villas

Comedy satire on inner-city London life, directed at a mature audience. It features a set of characters, living in a grim apartment building in the fictional postcode of SE69, who are plagued by various dilemmas.

Let's Dance for Comic Relief

Celebrities perform famous dance routines in front of a panel of judges to raise money for the Comic Relief appeal, with viewers voting for their favourites.

Bellamy's People

Radio phone-in host Gary Bellamy is given his own TV series in which he travels the length and breadth of the land to meet the British people.

The Real McCoy

The Real McCoy was a BBC Television comedy show that ran from 1991 to 1996, featuring an array of black and Asian comedy stars performing material aimed at an across-the-board black audience. UK comedy stars that featured in the series included: the comedy double-act of Curtis and Ishmael, Collette Johnson, Llewella Gideon, British Asian standup Meera Syal, Perry Benson, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Leo Chester, Felix Dexter, Robbie Gee, Kulvinder Ghir, Judith Jacob, Rudi Lickwood, Eddie Nestor, Marcus Powell, Junior Simpson and Curtis Walker and Jo Martin. The producer of the first two series, Charlie Hanson, was the co-founder of the Black Theatre Co-operative and had produced No Problem! and Desmond's before creating The Real McCoy. He was working with Curtis and Ishmael on the 291 Club at the Hackney Empire and suggested making a television version, but instead, the BBC opted for a totally new sketch series, launching The Real McCoy. In spite of its popularity it has yet to be released on DVD.

Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round

Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round was a comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 6 episodes over one series in 1998. Alexei Sayle's final series was almost identical in format to The All New Alexei Sayle Show except with yet another change of writers.. Unusually, there was no studio audience. Sketches included the talents of Noel Fielding, Lee Hurst, Paul Putner, Gemma Rigg, Reece Shearsmith, Jessica Stevenson, David Walliams and Peter Serafinowicz The continuing adventures of Bobby Chariot were chronicled. Now free from any obligation to be Alexei's warm-up man, he traversed a series of other career cul-de-sacs under the appalling management of the repulsive "Edna" Denise Coffey. In one episode, the joke was turned on its head as Chariot performed for an audience of students, who enjoyed his act ironically and responded to his catchphrase "How ya diddling?" with an enthusiastic reply of "We're diddling fine!". Meanwhile Alexei Sayle himself was depicted as living in a Teletubbies-style burrow somewhere in the posh part of North London.