Happy Birthday BBC Two

A 3 hour programme, including details of the aborted opening night and looking at the programmes and people behind BBC2, from The Likely Lads and Late Night Line-up to The Office and Newsnight. This soiree could be seen as either a celebration or a wake, given that many of BBC2's pioneering functions have now been delegated to BBC3 and BBC4. The station itself intends it as a celebration, of course. Conceived with far-from-lofty ambitions (to persuade more people to buy TV sets), and born in a power cut, BBC2 did become a distinctive voice in the British cultural landscape, thanks to shows as diverse as Civilisation, This Life, The Old Grey Whistle Test, I, Claudius Monty Python's Flying Circus and Playschool . While BBC2's movers and shakers look back, the Dead Ringers team provide comical interludes.