David Sant

Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.

7.8/10
10%

Bluestone 42 is a comedy drama about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan. So what’s the average working day for a hero? Make your keen young colleague deal with the boring paperwork? Wind up your fellow employees? Flirt with the new girl on the team? Or deal with an unseen enemy who’s trying to blow you up? Bluestone 42 is a comedy drama about a bunch of soldiers who just happen to be risking their lives diffusing hidden bombs. But who says they can’t have some fun alongside the serious professional stuff? This hilarious and often surprising series follows the adventures of a bunch of diverse characters living and working together at an army base in Afghanistan. This is a show about something easily forgotten; soldiers really enjoy being soldiers, but it’s not just a show for soldiers and it’s not just about the Army: it’s also a show for anybody who has ever fallen in love, experienced status battles at work or had a fear of failure. It is packed with the lively workmate banter and relationship minefields that most people will recognise. Even if they don’t face danger on a daily basis...

8/10

Ideal is a British dark comedy sit-com, originally broadcast on digital channel BBC Three, created by Graham Duff and produced by BBC Comedy North and Baby Cow Productions. It stars Johnny Vegas as small-time cannabis dealer Moz. It is set in Salford, Greater Manchester, chosen because Duff was familiar with the area having done many stand-up gigs there during his youth. Most of the series takes place in Moz's flat and revolves around the eclectic array of characters who visit Moz to buy cannabis, socialise or both. The closing theme is "Song of the Oss" from the album Nuada: Music Inspired By the Film the Wicker Man composed by British band Candidate. The series also features a number of tracks by Californian hip hop group Ugly Duckling. It was broadcast on BBC Three in the UK, on entertainment channel 3e in Ireland and on ABC2 in Australia. First broadcast in 2005, seven series have been shown; the most recent ended on 30 June 2011. After the seventh series aired, Ideal was cancelled by the BBC. Following the announcement, writer and creator Graham Duff wrote to fans: "As some of you may have heard, the BBC have decided against commissioning an 8th series of Ideal. The reason given was that the new channel controller wanted to make a clean sweep. It is a source of both pride and frustration that, at the point of cancellation, Ideal was attracting its biggest ever audiences, its highest profile guest stars and its best ever reviews. And the show is now being screened in more countries than ever before - from America to Finland and beyond." Fans have launched a petition dedicated to saving the show.

8.2/10

Pingu is a BAFTA award-winning British-Swiss stop-motion claymated television series created by Otmar Gutmann. The series was produced by The Pygos Group and Trickfilmstudio for Swiss television, and centers on a family of anthropomorphic penguins living at the South Pole. The main character is the family's son and title character, Pingu. The show was made by HiT Entertainment and HoT Animation, British companies, from seasons 5–6. The show originally ran for fourteen seasons from 28 May 1986 to 9 April 2000 on SF DRS. In 2001, there were 2 Pingu episodes made that did not air during the original run. The episodes were run later, in 2000, as part of a Pingu marathon. HiT Entertainment's request for more episodes convinced Pygos to bring back the show in 1998, with two more series. Of note, season 1 and season 2 were run consecutively but took 4 years for each season to complete, while season 3 and season 4 took 2 and 3 years to complete – the show was not cancelled in between. To this day, Pingu maintains a cult following, and enjoys occasional reruns on Cbeebies in the United Kingdom. It aired on BBC in 1995 until 2005 through the early years.

7.4/10

David Walliams has co-created a brand new retelling of a classic fairytale, starring as the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk: Ever After. In Walliams’ version, the Giant didn’t die after falling off the beanstalk, but escaped with a concussion and no way back to his home. Stuck in a human village, he’s forced to seek help from the unlikeliest of sources – all the while attempting to outsmart the villagers.