1) THE BORGIAS - While everyone else was watching the watcher friendly first run of Brideshead Revisited the really clued up kids of the time were watching The Borgias. It had everything the pubescent teenager could want from horrible murders to incest and bestiality. It was the BBC's attempt to counter Brideshead but needless to say, the viewing figures were miniscule - mind you, Adolfo Whatsisname was an orrible sight in the buff.

2) THE LIKELY LADS (ORIGINAL B/W VERSION) - Little seen original which I only saw for the first time recently. Some of it has dated badly but much of it is still hilarious check out the episode where Bob & Terry manage to get off with a mother & daughter on the same night - almost (but not quite) as good as the classic 'footy score' episode.

3) When The Boat Comes In - Spookily, another James Bolam prog. Most people probably remember this as one of those boring BBC period dramas but check the re-runs on UKGOLD and you realise what a brilliant series this was. Social revolution, the workers fighting back, feminism - its all in there although it does become a bit bobbins towards the end as Jack becomes just another Working Class 'made good'.

4) So It Goes / North West local news - While the rest of the nation put up with terrible, amateurish gubbins in the late 70's / early 80's, us in the NW. had Tony Wilson espousing Situationist theories on ITV while Stuart Hall (remember It's A Knockout ) felled us with laughter on the Beeb. Admittedly there was a fair bit of rubbish ( I'm old enough to remember Tony Wilson suggesting that Kiss were the future of Rock'n'Roll) but by and large ours was, and still is by far the best local programming.

5) The Monocles Mutineer No! not a programme about our own Cwiss Eubank but a drama (which the Tories tried to ban) about a little known incident during the 1st World War when soldiers, pissed off by horrendous treatment and educated by pamphleteering from Russian soldiers almost caused a Europe wide Bolshevic revolution. I might be wrong here but to all intents and purposes, this series is now effectively 'banned' cos' the BBC wont repeat it or put it out on video.

6) Graham's Gang - Started at the same time as the first Grange Hill series but didn't put the shits up me (I was just about to go to secondary school). Generally a bit of a 'lad' programme before it's time but actually managed to capture the feeling generated by being in a gang at that age.

7 & 8 ) 2 Tv For Schools Progs - Titles Unknown - Schools TV was a rich vein of great tele which you only saw when you came down with the mumps/measles/'mysterious tummyache' (or wagging for short) schools TV often produced great progs about subjects little covered by the mainstream. One covered a kid running off with her aunty to the Aldermaston marches at at time (in the 70's/80's) when Protect & Survive and the bomb was uppermost in everyone's minds. The other about the suffragette movement showed just how horrific the establishment treated the women involved in the cause.

9) Our Friends In The North - I know this was only on recently but it was brill. Another series that Tory backbenchers moaned about because it was one of the first to be honest (to a degree) about local council and police corruption and the treatment of the pickets during the miners strike. The series starts slowly but gets better as the sideburns lengthen, the radical politics get sillier and Malcolm Mcdowell looks scarier by the minute. Top new stuff that is supposedly going to get a repeat soon - if the BBC don't chicken out.

10) Striker - Kids programme from the 70's that had everything - parental rebellion, class war, alienation and a large dose of footy fever. New kid in town wins over the populace by forming the greatest team ever assembled in junior village football history and shows the rich kids it's not your expensive trainers that matter.