That wasn’t on when I was growing up. I do have the DVD set, but haven’t had a chance to watch them yet.
I first saw it back in the '60s. Troy Tempest was modeled after James Garner.
Yes, except that Coupling—the first two years at least—was brilliant and Friends was distinctly stupid.
No love for Foyle’s War? A favorite of my late mother’s, and I like it too.
Yes, Foyle’s War and Danger: UXB. Neither one ever had a bad episode.
Back in the 50s, there was a whole string of British historicals. Robin Hood, William Tell, The Buccaneers, Sir Francis Drake, Ivanhoe, Sir Lancelot—those are the ones I can recall. And the 60s saw the first version of Danger Man (30 minutes, and John Drake was a Canadian working for NATO) and nearly the entire Supermarionation family. The whole world of “prestige” British television began with the Eric Porter version of The Forsyth Saga, which US networks turned down because it was in black and white, and so ended up on NET (the predecessor to PBS).
Prisoner Cell Block H was the US name for a series simply called Prisoner in its home country of Australia.
I once described The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to a friend as “Tom Stoppard’s version of Father Knows Best”.
I believe The Prisoner being sold to CBS was a necessary precondition for the show to be made at all. It was an expensive production.
Was The Avengers a British show?
The one with John Steed and Emma Peel, yes.
Steed had other partners through the run of the series, but Emma Peel is the one best remembered.
Of course. And Vera.
I liked it, but it got repetitive.
And yes, The Avengers. People today think of Marvel Comics when they hear ‘Avengers’. I think of John Steed and Emma Peel.
The best episode (IMHO) was the one where the Australian naval officer is called in to help defuse a parachute mine dropped on London by the Luftwaffe. Just as he’s about to insert the widget that will stop the detonator, it slips out of his fingers and falls into the pile of debris on the floor of the demolished flat. The timing mechanism starts whirring, and the Australian turns to Anthony Andrews and yells “RUN!”
Andrews gets the hell out of there and runs as fast as he can, while the Australian fishes around trying to find the widget before the mine goes off and destroys the entire city block.
Pure butt-clenching tension!
I liked Michelle of the Resistance.
“Listen very carefully, I shall say zis only once.”
Possibly the best final episode, ever.
“'Allo, 'allo. Zis ees Nighthawk. Do you hear me?”
“Of course I hear you!”
Aah! Ze flashing knobs!
Unlike other Lloyd and Croft shows, 'Allo 'Allo was actually a direct parody of an earlier drama series called Secret Army, about a Cafe owner who was harbouring Allied Airmen, assisting the Resistance against the German occupation.
Did he have a Madonna with big boobies? 
Funny you should mention George Wendt. He was the murderer in tonight’s episode of Columbo.
Just sayin’.
Actually, Lloyd and Croft slipped in gags from, and references to, other shows and movies into several of their shows. They’re re-running a lot on various archive channels over here at the moment, and even now I’m noticing new ones:
Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, when someone points out an obvious flaw in some plan of his: “I was wondering who"d be the first to spot that” (straight from Whisky Galore)
One entire episode of Are You Being Served works up to the pantomime favourite paperhangers’ sketch.
In Allo! Allo!, various bits of business are distinctly reminiscent of an old movie called Secret Mission, plus the episodes riffing on 1950s POW camp movies. And one I noticed just the other day: Yvette buys herself a new hat with feathers, which tickle René’s nose into a sneeze as she moves her head - straight out of Jacques Tati’s M. Hulot’s Holiday.
I found out recently that Entwistle in Last of the Summer Wine was played by Bert Kwouk. You may know him better as Cato from the Pink Panther movies.
Let’s not forget Up Pompeii! starring Frankie Howerd.
Nevertheless, Friends came first.