Shirley Stelfox

Frank (Larry Lamb) and his brother Len (John Benfield) meet on the day of their father's funeral. Together, with the help of Len's son Sean (John Simm) and Jean (Shirley Stelfox), a mysterious woman connected to the deceased, they will set off on a rather peculiar journey.

Unexpected events occur over a long weekend when Pat, a glamorous British born star of American soaps, returns home to plug her auto biography on television and meets, for the first time since they were teenagers, Margaret her plain, fat and frumpy younger sister. The meeting is painful for both sisters highlighting the vast differences in their lives and resurrecting painful memories of their unhappy childhood with their uncaring mother. The tabloid press smell a juicy story and a race ensues to trace the current whereabouts of the long lost errant mother...

8.4/10

Get Back is a British sitcom written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran that ran for two series between 1992 and 1993. It followed the Sweet family, led by father Martin, played by Ray Winstone, a self-made man who lost his money in the recession of the early 1990s and has to downsize, moving in with his father in a council flat. It is notable for the early appearance of Kate Winslet, who played one of the family's daughters. The series title, the character names and the titles of each episode were all inspired by Beatles songs.

7.1/10

Former soldiers in Britain's elite Parachute Regiment struggle to come to terms with civilian life after leaving the army.

8/10

Clarence Flamer hosts a late-night talk show on regional radio station North Star Sound. A phone call he takes one night leads to his discovering a mortgage scam being run by a group of estate agents. His attempts to delve deeper have tragic consequences.

6.6/10

Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. Centred on the life of eccentric, social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket, the sitcom follows her obsessive and determined attempts to impress in middle class society and portray herself as more affluent than she truly is. The show stars Patricia Routledge, who received two BAFTA nominations for her performance as Hyacinth. Broadcast between 1990 and 1995 on BBC One, the sitcom spawned five series and 44 episodes—4 of which are Christmas specials. Keeping Up Appearances was a great success in the UK and also captivated a large audience in the US, Canada, and Australia, but production ceased in 1995 when Routledge wanted to move on to other projects. Since its original release, all five series—including Christmas specials—are available on DVD. In 2004, the sitcom was ranked 12th in the countdown of Britain's Best Sitcom. It is regularly repeated worldwide.

7.8/10

Making Out is a British television series, shown by the BBC between 1989 and 1991. The series, created by Franc Roddam, written by Debbie Horsfield, mixed comedy and drama in its portrayal of the women who worked on the factory floor at New Lyne Electronics in Manchester, tackling the personal lives of the characters as well as wider issues of recession, redundancy and retrenchment as the factory goes through various crises and take-overs. The music for the series was composed by New Order. The main theme for the show is an adaptation of the song "Vanishing Point". There is a specific mix of this song called the Making Out Mix.

8.2/10

The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. The story follows Christine Painter (Julie Walters) as the down-at-heel waitress who, with the help of prostitute Shirley (Shirley Stelfox) and cross-dressing Wing Commander Morten (Alec McCowen), seeks to up her earnings by turning her suburban home into a brothel. Before long she and her girls are chaining up judges, spanking Generals and attending to the needs of Honourable Members. Christine sees herself as providing a vital service to these harmless pervs and when finally the house is busted and the case comes to court, it's fair to say that the presiding judge isn't unfamiliar with her work.

6.4/10
6.7%

George Orwell's novel of a totalitarian future society in which a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.

7.1/10
7.4%

"They're nice affable gobblers and we're in the nice affable gobbling business." But Tom and Gwen soon find that their gastronomical retreat from the rat race is anything but an escape when the Porters come to dine.

The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.

4.8/10

A surgeon discovers that he can restore the beauty to his girlfriend's scarred face by murdering other women and extracting fluids from their pituitary gland. However, the effects only last for a short time, so he has to kill more and more women. It is ultimately a killing spree which ends with considerable death and disaster.

5.9/10
6.7%

It's 69AD in Rome and streetwise hustler Marcus Didius Falco gets caught up in the death of the son of a man close to the new emperor, Vespasian. Hired by the victim's sister to discover the truth, Falco and his newly acquired slave, the gladiator Justus, uncover plots involving a cult which reaches into the Imperial household.

6.4/10