Diana Davies

Profile of the actress who found fame in Coronation Street and whose life offscreen was as colourful as that of Elsie Tanner, the character she played for 21 years. Close friends and co-stars including Julie Goodyear, Helen Worth, Tony Booth, and Tony Warren, the creator of Coronation Street, share their touching and hilarious memories of this larger-than-life, spirited woman.

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The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit. Spanning five short series from 1999 and 2003, it follows the London Metropolitan police force's vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and such organised crime are regular occurrences. Most episodes end where the main villain is caught but often not in a 'naturally' concluded way expected from other TV dramas, and often ending with more unanswered questions than answered. Leader DI Pat Chappel struggles to manage the balance between his private and professional lives — as do the rest of the team. Working in the seedy underworld leads to a continual dilemma — the tension between the Vice Squad and vice-related crimes runs throughout the series and gives the show a rich viewing experience. The line of the team staying on the right side of the law is often blurred, as almost every member at different points submits briefly or permanently to the dubious temptations, sometimes with drastic consequences.

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The Grand is an ITV television drama series created and written by Russell T Davies and starring Rebecca Callard, Tim Healy, Susan Hampshire, Paul Warriner, and Mark McGann. Following WWI, the Bannerman family re-opens the Grand Hotel after a lengthy closure and a costly re-furbishing. The hotel has been in the family for a long time, and John Bannerman and his wife Sarah desperately want to make a go. Their son Stephen has returned from the wars without any physical harm but still suffers from the mental anguish of seeing so many of his comrades-in-arms falling on the battlefield. When they learn that their accountant has squandered what little money they had left, they must turn to John's brother Marcus, a successful businessman who has eschewed any interest in the hotel over the years but now seems ready to plunge into the business with both feet.

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Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

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Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

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Australian ex-cop Jack Bartholomew goes to Britain when he discovers he's heir to a family title; when he doesn't get on with his new family, he starts working as a private detective.

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Two long distance truck drivers talk about their sexual escapades to each other using CB Radio.

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Every man needs just one night out, off the leash. Willie's attempt to prove himself provides a painfully funny and painfully sad comment on the battle of the sexes.

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Life as a farmboy whose father had died. An adaptation of Fred Kitchen's 1940 book.

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As they go by lorry to start their apprenticeship as Royal Naval Artificers, Pike and Brooks take a tacit dislike to one another. It's going to end in a fight.

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Terry is leaving school with few prospects in his native Liverpool. His father finds him a job in a local warehouse but Terry has other ideas. Living in a dream world promulgated by a radio DJ to whom he listens constantly. Terry is convinced there is something better and he makes an angry escape bid.

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Strangers is a 1978–82 ITV police procedural created and principally written by Murray Smith, based on characters created by Kenneth Royce in his novel series and subsequent 1977–78 television adaptation The XYY Man. Don Henderson and Dennis Blanch reprise their roles, respectively, of Detective Sergeant (DS) George Bulman and Detective Constable (DC) Derek Willis. A group of police officers are brought together from across the country to the north of England. There, the fact that they're not well-known gives them the advantage to infiltrate where a more familiar local detective could not. Despite being based around a comparatively small team of detectives, a regular feature in its early years is that few episodes feature the entire team, with most using just two or three regulars in any major role.

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Comedy series about the everyday events in a small town in Northern England.

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Enemy At The Door is a British television drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV. The series was shown between 1978 and 1980 and dealt with the German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, during the Second World War. The programme generated a certain amount of criticism in Guernsey, particularly for being obviously filmed on Jersey despite being ostensibly set on Guernsey. The series also marked the TV debut of Anthony Head as a member of the island resistance. The theme music was by Wilfred Josephs.

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The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

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Grand Challenge pie-eating contest : ' Winner finishes most whole pies off the belt in half-an-hour. Ties decided on a raw cabbage '. The Bedworth Hog faces tough competition.

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Comedy about a couple expecting their first baby.

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When Henry James Prince is dismissed from his post as a curate, he decides to found his own religion, called the Abode of Love.

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Featuring dramatised versions of true stories that shocked mainstream Victorian society.

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A film extra has won a chance for the big break in his career. He has two crucial lines in a television film, but nothing goes according to plan.

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Holly Elliot is a university graduate taking an evening class in art appreciation. Her husband, David, on the other hand, works for a mail-order firm and is trying hard to keep up with Holly by taking an extramural degree in his spare time. Their lives are about to be irrevocably upended.

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Play based on a story by Chekhov. For Gromov, behind the bars of a mental ward, the railway is the one hope of escape. For the doctor in charge, Andrei, it is the link with civilisation which alone could rose him from the lethargy of life in provincial Russia.

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How We Used to Live is a British educational historical television drama written by Freda Kelsall and sometimes narrated by Redvers Kyle and John Crosse, both employed as continuity announcers at Yorkshire Television at the time of production. Production began in 1968 at the YTV studios in Leeds. The series traced the lives and fortunes of various fictional Yorkshire families from the Victorian era until the 1960s, in and around the fictional town of Bradley, using self-contained short dramas interspersed with archive footage.

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The Lump is an uncompromising exploration of exploitation and resistance within the building trade.

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An anthology series of plays. Each episode explores a different story of villainy.

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This spin-off from The Odd Man (1962) starred William Mervyn as the acerbic Inspector Rose, who, alongside the soft-hearted pensive Det. Sgt. Swift (Keith Barron), are joined by Anthony (John Carson) and Alice Brand (June Toblin), a barrister and his journalist wife, though not for long. By the second season, the Brands and Swift departed, leaving the calm, cold Rose in prime position, supported by newcomers DS Hunter (Anthony Ainley), his girlfriend Claire (Veronica Strong), and her boozy reporter friend Fred Blaine (John Stratton).

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