Remembers…

Jeanette Winterson looks back on the iconic drama series Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989).

Bernard Hill looks back on the iconic drama series Boys from the Blackstuff (1982).

Colin Baker looks back on one of his earliest TV roles and discusses the significance of acclaimed 13-part drama series 'The Roads to Freedom', which is being shown on television for the first time since 1977 as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations. Based on the novels by Jean-Paul Sartre and set in Nazi-occupied France, it has been described as an amazing, potent and subversive viewing experience, that saw taboos broken with every weekly broadcast. That assessment can now be tested by first-time viewers, as well those who saw it at the time and who have long campaigned for the BBC to screen it again.

Michael Jayston looks back on the acclaimed drama series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).

Double Oscar winner Glenda Jackson remembers the role that brought her back to television after the huge success she had found on the big screen.

Actor Duncan Preston introduces Victoria Wood's comedy drama about two ill-matched sisters.

Renowned ballet dancer Dame Darcey Bussell introduces us to a gem from the BBC’s dance archives, The Magic of Dance, which was first transmitted in 1979 to great acclaim and is presented by celebrated ballet dancer, the unforgettable Margot Fonteyn. Darcey describes her favourite moments of the series, including a tap masterclass with the ever-cool Sammy Davis Jr, a beautiful routine by celebrated Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and a glimpse of pioneer of modern dance Isadora Duncan.

Penelope Keith casts an affectionate eye back on the much-loved sitcom To the Manor Born and her role as upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, who finds herself down on her luck and forced to change her circumstances and home after the death of her husband. Penelope tells the story behind how the comedy came into being, what it was like working with fellow cast members Angela Thorne and Peter Bowles, and the challenges she faced taking on a new role after the huge success she’d enjoyed playing Margo in The Good Life.

Andrew Davies looks back on Pride and Prejudice (1995) and talks about how he adapted the story from Jane Austen's classic novel.

A self-confessed comedy hero to Ruth Jones, Hattie Jacques was a core part of postwar British comedy history. Roles in the Carry On films and TV sitcoms such as Sykes and Hancock cemented her place in the nation’s heart. Yet her off-screen life was just as extraordinary – married to Dad’s Army star John Le Mesurier, she began an unconventional affair with her driver, a scandal that could have ended her career. Ruth looks back at Hattie, a one-off drama that captures the astonishing story. She discusses the origins of the project and the prep work she did for playing such an icon. She talks of the attention paid to period detail, the loving recreation of classic screen comedies, her joy in the costumes and the astonishing cast. And she tells us how Hattie Jacques was so much more than the larger-than-life persona we saw in the movies, a comic genius and role model who broke the mould.

Actress Vivien Heilbron looks back on the 1982 drama series Cloud Howe, the second part of the BBC’s acclaimed adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic trilogy A Scots Quair. Vivien’s character Chris is now moving on from the death of her first husband, newly married to a church minister and trying to manage a new life in a small town where gossip and rumour runs rife.

First broadcast in 1983, Grey Granite was the third and final part of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots Quair trilogy that the BBC adapted for television. Leading actress Vivien Heilbron looks back on her time making the series and the challenges she faced when taking on the key role of Chris Guthrie one last time, over ten years since she was first cast in the part in Sunset Song. Grey Granite finds Chris struggling with the radical politics of her son Ewan and the amorous attentions of a friend from the past. Vivien outlines the challenges of bringing Gibbon’s story to the screen once again and shares an overview of her memories from across the entire trilogy, working with some of Scotland’s finest acting talent.

Beloved entertainer Christopher Biggins takes a nostalgic look back at his time on the classic BBC comedy Rentaghost. Sharing fond memories of the show’s quirky humour and unforgettable characters, Biggins reflects on how the series became a cult favourite and why it still holds a special place in British television history. His anecdotes promise a delightful trip down memory lane for fans of the iconic supernatural sitcom.

Mike Leigh, icon of British TV and film, looks back on one of his most popular and influential television plays, 1976's classic camping comedy Nuts in May.

With a career spanning seven decades, acclaimed theatre, film and TV director Richard Eyre has been involved in a number of hugely successful Ibsen productions. His adaptation of Ghosts in 2013 won him the Evening Standard Best Director award. He directed John Gabriel Borkman for the National, starring Paul Schofield and Vanessa Redgrave, and a notable Hedda Gabler with Eve Best, again adapted by Richard. Thus, he is perfectly placed to give us an introduction to this complex yet still very relevant playwright. Richard talks about how much contemporary drama owes to Ibsen and about the key characters - Nora in A Doll’s House and Mrs Alving in Ghosts - and how their depictions were drawn from the playwright’s own experience and world view. He also discusses the darkness in Ibsen’s subject matter, how he was often vilified when his plays were first performed. Yet it is this bravery that has kept the plays relevant and a mainstay of the arts world to this day.