BBC Documentaries

TV 73: The Defining Shows (2007x129)

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1973 was the year when television realised its potential. Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii became the first show with a global audience of one billion and the arrival of large-screen colour TV sets confirmed that as a domestic fixture, the television had come of age. In this film, Mark Lawson looks back at five of the most popular programmes of the year - That's Life!, The Burke Specials, The Generation Game, The Onedin Line and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? - to consider what their success tells us about life in Britain at this time. With contributions from the former controller of BBC One Bill Cotton, Likely Lads writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, drama producer Verity Lambert and television critic Chris Dunkley.