Drop that last comment. The website is showing some odd messages.

...I think The Avengers, The Prisoner AND The Sweeney should have been in there. Truly brilliant British television that was popular, too.

I'd like to have seen Sky's 'Soccer Saturday' included - the best live sports broadcasting show ever... and all this without actually featuring any live sport.

That's exactly what I thought when i read the list and you've saved me the trouble of blogging myself. As for World at War, well, very worthy I'm sure - but you could ask a thousand randdom viewers and not find one who thought this was the greatest British rtelevision programme ever made.

I've just posted a response to this apparently in the wrong place.

Which is the thread for best tv progs then? The other one doesn't seem to work...

both pretentious overrated nonsense if you ask me - esp Prisoner. I like Portmerion though. World at War was great and very well watched at time. Ask a thousand random viewers to choose and you probably get Eastenders or Hi de Hi or something as dire.

Especially the one where Hammy flies a biplane.

...would see The Prisoner as pretentious, but The Avengers?? It's one of the least pretentious shows around, IMHO- it's often daft as a brush and full of utter madcaps, and it's all the better for it compared to some of the humourless entries to the action-adventure genre of the 60s (yes, The Champions, I'm looking at you). I also love The New Avengers (save a handful of truly terrible episodes)...draw the line at that terrible 1998 film though.

I could have nominated Callan too. Only seen a few episodes of that so far but it's brilliant television. Am watching through Life On Mars again, reminding myself how brilliant this was and just how astonishingly inferior Ashes To Ashes was by comparison. That series could have been in the 'best' category too, if it wasn't already. Glad to see you included Doctor Who, though.

Maybe you could have fit in the Old Grey Whistle Test too; some absolutely amazing performances on that throughout its long run. I also have huge affection for The Professionals but it was never a critics' favourite and gets overly lampooned now, sadly. But check out an episode called 'Discovered In A Graveyard' to see the basic premise of Life On Mars done some 25 years earlier. It really was generally a better show than it is given credit for.

...I prefer the episodes from the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker periods. I'm an outsider in some ways as I genuinely liked many of Sylvester McCoy's episodes too. The new series does fall into the 'pleased with itself' trap on occasions, I agree.

a textbook example of how TV should be made. I remember one programme in which Cooke was talking directly to camera with no cuts for at least two minutes. He held one's attention because what he had to say was bloody interesting and he had the gravitas to deliver the script with a wonderful, quiet authority.