Best of British (TV series)

Production

The team behind this series first worked together in 1985 on a one-hour documentary special, Around The World In Seven Minutes And Four Times On Saturday, which looked at the Pathé News and Movietone News cinema newsreels and their main commentators, Bob Danvers-Walker and Leslie Mitchell. Their positive working relationship with Barry Brown, who was then the BBC’s Head of Acquisitions, resulted in a pre-purchase agreement for Season One, which was then made independently by Charisma Films.

Season One was produced in 1986 and consisted of ten episodes. These episodes focused on films that the Rank Organisation had produced and distributed over a fifty-year span, from the 1930s to the 1980s. Robert Sidaway produced the series for Best of British Films & Television and Charisma Films. All the programmes were written by Robert Sidaway, Ashley Sidaway, Maurice Sellar, and Lou Jones, and were narrated by John Mills.

The episodes aired weekly starting on Wednesday 22 April 1987 at 7:35 pm. Each episode ran for 25 minutes, except for Things That Go Bump in the Night (Episode 1.07), which the BBC cut to 19 minutes because its content was considered too intense for the early evening slot. A book based on Season One, titled The Best of British: A Celebration of Rank Film Classics, was written by the same four creators and published by Sphere Books in April 1987 to coincide with the broadcast.

Two specials of the chat show Wogan, hosted by Terry Wogan, were broadcast to tie in with the series. The first aired on Friday 22 May 1987 and lasted 35 minutes, and the second on Monday 25 May 1987, lasting 40 minutes. These specials featured British cinema stars including John Mills, Stewart Granger, Peter Cushing, Kenneth Williams, and Norman Wisdom. Season Two consisted of sixteen episodes and continued the detailed look at Rank Organisation films.

It was produced and written by the same team and narrated by John Mills. Production for Season Two took place during late 1987 and 1988. During this season, the National Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the series theme music. Nicholas Raine arranged and conducted the sessions at CTS Studios in Wembley.

RCA released the music in June 1987, with a Love Theme arrangement on the A side and the Main Theme on the B side. This orchestral version was used for Seasons Two through Five.