An annual Christmas special produced by ITV, containing new mini-episodes of popular British sitcoms and light entertainment programmes, with some musical interludes. It was hosted by Des O'Connor in 1969, Max Bygraves in 1970, Mike and Bernie Winters in 1971 and Jimmy Tarbuck in 1972 and 1973. Created as a direct competitor to the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars, all had short five minute sketches devised and produced for transmission within the festive period, written by the original writers of each comedy series.
The story takes place during the weeks before Christmas, in the small mining town of fictitious Granhyttan in Bergslagen, Sweden. One day a suspicious couple, Signe and Orvar, arrives in the small town and retires in an abandoned hut. Nobody knows what they up to; but strange things starts to happen as Staffan finds a gold nugget while playing in a disused mine at the Kråkberget Mountain during a skiing trip with his schoolmates. Staffan believes the nugget is a part of Skarp-Erik's gold, as his grandpa had told exciting stories about. The news about the gold discovery spread quickly and Staffan and his friends are soon pursued by curious schoolmates, school staff and also the mysterious strangers. All this happens as the students are rehearsing for the nativity play before Christmas break.
There are incredible things on the remote South Sea island of Titiwu: a school that you can skip with impunity and a harmony between humans and animals that was thought to be lost. The absent-minded Professor Habakuk Tibatong has taught some animals to speak. For example, the pig lady Wutz, the shoebill Shush, Ping Penguin and the monitor lizard Wawa. On the rocky reef, the elephant seal sings his "traurögön Lödör" all the time. Unfortunately, every one of them except Wutz has a speech impediment. The orphan Tim Tintenklecks helps the professor when it comes to getting the animals excited about a joint project. And one day it happens: a block of ice is stranded on the shore. Inside is an egg from which a primeval creature hatches - the Urmel. And it can even talk. Professor Tibatong, who has always believed in the existence of the Urmel, does something stupid...
Chronicles the melancholically funny lives of the Clangers, a flutey-voiced family of woolen, knitted aliens living below the surface of a knobbly little planet far out in space. Their misadventures brought them into contact with such unlikely creatures as the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, the Iron Chicken and the Glow Buzzers.
The drama depicts the lives and loves of people living in three different environments: a family consisting of two brothers and their parents; a family with a father and a daughter who are not well organized; and a girl who has moved from the countryside to Tokyo to live alone in the whirlwind of the big city, desperately trying to survive.
Chigley is the third and final stop-motion children's television series in Gordon Murray's Trumptonshire sequence. Production details are identical to Camberwick Green.
As in Camberwick Green and Trumpton, the action centres around a small community, in this case the fictitious village or hamlet of Chigley, near Camberwick Green in Trumptonshire. Chigley is more of an industrial area, and according to Gordon Murray, the three communities are at the corners of an equilateral triangle. A digitally restored version of the series from the rediscovered original film masters emerged in 2012.
Moomin is a Japanese anime series broadcast on the Fuji Television Network between 1969 and 1970. It is loosely based on the Moomin books by the Finnish author Tove Jansson.
The Flaxton Boys is a British historical children's television series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, created by Sid Waddell. Four seasons—covering a specific period: 1854, during the Crimean War (series 1), 1890 (series 2), 1928 (series 3), and 1945, in the aftermath of WWII (series 4)—explore four generations of young men and their experiences at Flaxton Hall in Yorkshire.
The Secret Service is a 1969 British children's espionage television series, produced by Century 21 / ITC Entertainment for Associated Television, Granada Television, and Southern Television. Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and produced by David Lane and Reg Hill, it was the eighth and final Century 21 production to feature Supermarionation. Under the direction of Gerry Anderson, who wanted to compensate for the inadequacies of Supermarionation and increase the realism of the format, The Secret Service incorporates footage of live actors for long-distance shots.
Father Stanley Unwin, voiced by and resembling the real-life comedian of the same name, is the parish priest of a rural English village. But Unwin is in fact a secret agent for BISHOP, a covert British Intelligence branch that battles international criminal and terrorist threats. Aided by junior operative Matthew Harding, Unwin answers to his London-based superior 'The Bishop', as he would in his public profession.
The Courtship of Eddie's Father is an American television sitcom based on the 1963 movie of the same name, which was based on the book written by Mark Toby. It tells the story of a widower, Tom Corbett, who is a magazine publisher, and his son, Eddie, who believes his father should marry, and manipulates situations surrounding the women his father is interested in. ABC had acquired the rights to the story; the series debuted on September 17, 1969, and was last broadcast on March 1, 1972.
Bixby received an Emmy nomination for the show.