Best of British (TV series)

Production

The creators had previously collaborated in 1985 on the one-hour documentary special Around The World In Seven Minutes And Four Times On Saturday, which examined the Pathé News and Movietone News cinema newsreels and their lead commentators Bob Danvers-Walker and Leslie Mitchell. Their successful relationship with Barry Brown, then Head of Acquisitions at the BBC, led to the pre-purchase of Season One, which was then produced independently by Charisma Films. Season One was produced during 1986 and comprised ten episodes focusing on films produced and distributed by the Rank Organisation over a fifty-year period from the 1930s to the 1980s. Robert Sidaway produced the series for Best of British Films & Television and Charisma Films, with all episodes written by Robert Sidaway, Ashley Sidaway, Maurice Sellar and Lou Jones and narrated by John Mills. Broadcast began on Wednesday 22 April 1987, with episodes airing weekly at 7:35 pm. Each episode ran 25 minutes, except for Things That Go Bump in the Night (Episode 1.07), which the BBC edited down to 19 minutes due to its intense content for the early evening timeslot. A tie-in book titled The Best of British: A Celebration of Rank Film Classics, written by the same four creators, was published by Sphere Books in April 1987. Two specials of the chat show Wogan, hosted by Terry Wogan, were broadcast to coincide with the series: the first on Friday 22 May 1987 (35 minutes) and the second on Monday 25 May 1987 (40 minutes), featuring stars such as John Mills, Stewart Granger, Peter Cushing, Kenneth Williams and Norman Wisdom. Season Two comprised sixteen episodes, continuing the detailed examination of Rank Organisation films. Production took place during late 1987 and 1988. During this season, the series theme music was recorded by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Nicholas Raine 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; the orchestral version was used for Seasons Two through Five.