As Jane Austen approaches her forties, her success as a writer is assured and her witty and sharply observed romantic novels are widely admired. To her niece, Fanny Knight - a young, pretty girl desperate to fall in love - Jane is a favourite aunt who offers the wisdom and knowledge to help her in her own search for a happy marriage.

Yet, when asked by Fanny to help her vet potential husbands, Jane's usual confident composure is threatened. Surely the woman so capable of writing love on the page must have experienced love herself, so why did she never marry?

Protected by her wit, Jane has presented a front as dazzling as many of her novels young heroines, but as she reflects on her own romantic encounters and affairs, we are drawn into the passions, suitors and choices of her life - the cruel flirting, the proposals spurned and the love that seemed to arrive too late.

As she recalls missed opportunities, the doubts arise. Did she make the right choice for herself and her family? Could the great romantic expert have been mistaken? And, could her principles about love and marriage possibly have been ill-judged?

Wives & Daughters:
After years spent as a widower, village doctor Mr Gibson has decided to remarry; something for which his rather naive daughter, Molly, is wholly unprepared. Molly's world is soon overturned by the arrival of an unwanted stepmother and a bewitching, beautiful stepsister, Cynthia. In spite of the circumstances of their acquiantance and of being so entirely different from one another, the two girls instantly form a close relationship. But it is a friendship that is put to the test when they look set to become rivals in love. Matters are further complicated when a dangerous secret emerges from Cynthia's past in which she entangles Molly, with serious consequences for them both...

Cranford:
Cranford is a small rural Cheshire town, inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty. But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reapparance of long-lost relatives.

North & South:
A powerful adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's feisty and passionate love story, set across the social divides in the changing world of Victorian industrial society. Margaret Hale is one of literature's most original heroines: a southerner from a country vicarage newly settled in the industrial northern town of Milton. In the shock of her move, she misjudges charismatic cotton mill-owner John Thornton, whose strength of purpose and passion are a match for her own pride and wilfulness. When the workers of Milton call a strike, Margaret takes their side, and the two are brought into deeper conflict. As events spiral out of control, Margaret - to her surprise - begins to fall in love with Thornton...

Michael Palin's first televised travel adventure was screened as part of the BBC series Great Railway Journeys.

'Confessions of a Train Spotter' (1980) saw him travel the length of Britain by train. Setting off from Euston he includes diversions to lines beyond the inter-city network; a trip on the Flying Scotsman; visits to York's railway museum and Edinburgh at Festival time. He crosses the breathtaking Forth Railway Bridge, and after travelling over 785 miles reaches the Kyle of Lochalsh.

Palin's second Great Railway Journey (1994) takes him from the ancient walled city of Londonderry to the most western tip of Ireland. He travels his 'family line' as he attempts to trace his great grandmother who left Ireland for the USA over 150 years ago. His trip through a still war-torn Northern Ireland takes him on to Belfast before heading south to Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, and on to Wexford, Waterford, the little village of Buttevant and finally Kerry's Dingle Bay, the most western point of Ireland.

The newly regenerated Doctor (Tom Baker), assisted by Sarah, Harry and the Brigadier, has to track down the theft of the components for a powerful new laser gun, and the death of a prominent politician. Sarah investigates the mysterious Think Tank, where it becomes clear that robot K-1 is being misused by its political extremist masters and the Doctor has to prevent the robot from being used to start an atomic war. Tom Baker's first story as the Doctor.

Groundbreaking BBC documentary looking at the history of our planet. Presenter Aubrey Manning unravels the secrets of the Earth, from the craters of active volcanoes to the ocean floor, combining cutting-edge digital footage with the latest animation techniques.

All twelve episodes from Series 1 and 2 of the anarchic 1980s comedy series starring Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Christopher Ryan. In 'Demolition' the council want to knock the boys' house down. 'Oil' sees the foursome move into their new house just as the workers' revolution begins. 'Interesting' finds Rick, Vyv, Neil and Mike playing host to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. 'Bomb' has a bomb land on the house just as the TV licence man arrives. 'Flood' sees Rick initiate a desperate game of hide-and-seek, while Mike's room is taken over by lions. 'Boring' finds the foursome so incredibly bored that Neil digs himself a grave and Vyv chops his finger off. In 'Bambi', the boys get to go on 'University Challenge', while 'Nasty' sees Neil taking to wearing a dress. In 'Time', it looks like Rik has finally scored with a member of the opposite sex. In 'Cash', plates keep disappearing in the house. Must be a poltergeist. 'Interesting' sees a visit from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, while in 'Summer Holiday', the boys finish college and head off on a big red bus.

The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) returns to Perivale in 1883 in an attempt to cure Ace's phobia about the place. He soon discovers that aliens, hiding beneath a Victorian house, are planning to take over and destroy the planet. It is now up to the timelord to defeat their plans and once again save the planet from a deadly fate.

Civilisations is a major nine-part series telling the story of art from the dawn of human history to the present day, for the first time on a global scale.

It is now nearly half a century since Kenneth Clark’s series Civilisation thrilled audiences with its authoritative interpretation of the glories of Western art. Inspired by that ground-breaking programme, this new series of Civilisation introduces a new generation to the great masterworks of beauty, ingenuity and illumination created across the continents. It explores the visual culture of societies from around the globe, revealing alongside the magnificent objects made in the West the wealth of treasures created by other cultures, from the landscape scrolls of classical China and the sculpture of the Olmecs to African bronzes, Japanese prints and Mughal miniatures.

Told by three presenters, each bringing their own skills and perspectives to the series – Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga.

All 37 episodes from all five season of the TV drama starring Matthew Macfadyen as a detective trying to maintain the law on the streets of Whitechapel in the wake of the Jack the Ripper murders.

Following the notorious killings committed by Jack the Ripper, H Division's Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, aided by the hard-boiled Sergeant Bennett Drake and American forensics expert Captain Homer Jackson, has his hands full trying to keep the streets safe from others only too willing to fill the void.

Britain, the early ‘80s. At Cachet Windows, the stakes are high and so are the staff.

Vincent Swan, Cachet’s head of sales, excels at selling his favourite product – himself. Martin Lavender has a university degree, which in the world of sales is as much use as an aerated condom. Brian Fitzpatrick is an excellent liar with no principles: he makes a pretty good salesman. And then there’s Carol, Britain’s lousiest receptionist. They are getting filthy rich thanks to uPVC double-glazing, a dirt-cheap alternative to timber.

To you and me, it’s just plastic. To them, it’s white gold.

The entire 16th season of the long-running cult classic. Tom Baker, the popular fourth Doctor, is joined by the beautiful Romana (Mary Tamm) in this 26-episode intergalactic treasure hunt for the all-powerful Key to Time. Includes six storylines: 'The Ribos Operation', 'The Pirate Planet', 'The Stones of Blood', 'The Androids of Tara', 'The Power of Kroll' and 'The Armageddon Factor'.

Emma Woodhouse, beautiful, clever, and rich, has very little to concern her. When her governess marries advantageously, Emma congratulates herself on her great success as a matchmaker. So, when she meets the pretty, naive, and socially inferior Harriet, Emma is ready to practise her skills again - ignoring warnings of the harm she could cause from friend and neighbour, Mr Knightley.

As she sets about meddling with the affairs of the village of Highbury, Emma carves a trail of confusion, disappointment and disaster that risks Harriet’s happiness, and much to her surprise, her own happiness too.

This fresh, funny, and perceptive adaptation by Sandy Welch, acclaimed writer of North and South, Jane Eyre, and Our Mutual Friend, brings Jane Austen’s comic masterpiece about village life, love, and self awareness to life with a stellar cast. As our heroine embarks on a journey that challenges her naivety and her social preconceptions it leads her to realise that she has become so focused on the lives of others that she has failed to see what’s in front of her own eyes..

All 12 episodes from the first four seasons of the BBC's fast-paced modernised crime drama based on the characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Laptops, mobile phones and the internet are the new tools for crime in a modern London under threat from serial killers, bombings and gang warfare.

Sherlock Holmes, the most brilliant intellect of his generation, has a unique analytical brain unlike anyone else's, and staves off the ever-present threat of boredom by solving crimes, the more intricate and baffling the better. Meanwhile, his friend and flatmate, John Watson, is an army doctor invalided home from the battlefields of Afghanistan.

All six episodes from the third season of the BBC crime drama starring Gillian Anderson as a Metropolitan Police detective drafted to Belfast to help on a puzzling murder case.

Having apprehended and hospitalised serial killer Paul Spector, the prime suspect in the Belfast Strangler case, Stella and her colleagues face an investigation of their own over their handling of the case.

The legendary comedy duo's Christmas Specials began in 1969, but the phenomenon exploded in 1971 when the first, lavish, extended Christmas production was broadcast.

Shirley Bassey sang in hobnail boots; Glenda Jackson was serenaded by an assortment of BBC Presenters and the Andre Previn sketch stole the show. From then on, every subsequent year demanded new stars and great sketches. Diana Rigg played Nell Gwynne, Elton John was sent the wrong way round Television Centre, Vanessa Redgrave starred in a Latin-American extravaganza and a leggy Angela Rippon emerged from behind the news desk to perform a legendary dance routine.

In their last year at the BBC, the show reached its peak as a record 28 million people tuned in to see a chorus line of newsreaders acrobatically dance and sing 'There Ain't Nothing Like a Dame', Penelope Keith climb awkwardly from an unfinished stairway and an unexpected return for Elton John.

All Sixteen Episodes of the Golden Globe Winning Series

Starring Idris Elba, Luther is a gripping, smart and entertaining psychological thriller driven by an intellectually brilliant but emotionally impulsive cop. John Luther works for the Serious Crime Unit; he is a dedicated policeman, an inspired maker of connections and a whirlwind genius. Throughout the four seasons, Luther faces a succession of psychological duels between hunter and hunted, predator and prey.

As the stakes get ever higher and more personal, Luther’s lonely path pulls him towards the very edge of temptation.

Episodes 1 and 4 of this adventure are missing from the BBC archives, and so Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) fills in the narrative. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie and Zoe arrive in late 20th century London to discover that something fishy is going on at Tobias Vaughan's electronics factory. A scientist has gone missing, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the newly formed UNIT are on the case. What does Vaughan produce in his factory, and who are the creatures he speaks to through that revolving whirring device in his office cupboard? It can only be the Cybermen, out to invade the Earth and convert humankind. Resistance is useless, but the Doctor and UNIT will have a go anyway.

Complete first series of the forensic crime drama. Amanda Burton stars as pathologist Dr Sam Ryan, a committed forensic specialist whose passion for justice often leads her to conduct her own inquiries outside the lab. In this series, Sam has to determine whether the death of a six-year-old girl was really an accident, and finds herself caught up in an investigation into ritual murder and black magic. Episodes are: 'Buried Lies (Part 1)'; 'Buried Lies (Part 2)'; 'Long Days, Short Nights (Part 1)'; 'Long Days, Short Nights (Part 2)'; 'Darkness Visible (Part 1)'; 'Darkness Visible (Part 2)'; 'Sins of the Fathers (Part 1)'; and 'Sins of the Fathers (Part 2)'.

British television satirical comedy based on the novel by Tom Sharpe, about adulterous MP Sir Giles Lynchwood (George Cole) and his harridan of a wife, Maud (Geraldine James). Despising the ancient country pile he calls home, Rising Gorge, Lynchwood concocts a plan to have a bypass built straight through it, enabling him to collect large sums of money in compensation. When Maud hears of the plan she decides drastic measures are needed to keep the house; enlisting the help of her mysterious groundsman, Blott (David Suchet), her plan is to divorce Lycnhwood and turn Rising Gorge into a safari park, leaving Lycnhwood and the corrupt motorway officials to counter her any way they can. And, unbeknownst to Maud, in Blott's shady past is a debt he owes to Sir Giles Lynchwood . . .

Stars Peter Cushing as Holmes in the BBC adaptation of these classic stories.

The true story of Rome told through six crucial moments that shaped the destiny of the Empire.

The Roman Empire - the ancient world's only superpower - stood for six hundred years, a period in which dictatorship usurped democracy, nations were enslaved, the city of Rome was rebuilt and the Empire embraced Christianity. In this epic mini-series, CGI is mixed with compelling drama to tell the dramatic stories - the great battles, rivalries, rebellions and momentous achievements - that shaped the Roman Empire.

The story begins in 146BC with Rome's destruction of its ancient enemy Carthage; leading to the celebrated victory of Julius Caesar and the overthrow of the Republic; Emperor Nero's dramatic descent into madness; the Jewish Revolt - the biggest rebellion in Imperial history; Constantine's delivery of Christianity to the Empire; and finally the downfall of Rome, told through the tale of Alaric the Goth.

It reveals the greed, lust and ambition of men like Caesar, Nero and Constantine and with stunning locations and state-of-the-art visual effects portrays Rome as it really was: gritty, sometimes sordid, but ultimately magnificent.

“Anger and Jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love...” George Eliot

Driven by passion, intelligence and imagination, Maggie Tulliver is a rare free spirit in the convention-bound world of Victorian rural society.

Despite the fierce love between her and her stolid brother Tom, Maggie turns to others for the companionship she craves. Denied the friendship of Philip Wakem, the son of her father’s implacable enemy, she is drawn irresistibly to the handsome Stephen Guest. Torn between love and devotion to her family, she is rejected by Tom and only an act of supreme courage can effect a final but tragic reconciliation.

Drama, romance and tragedy in a story one woman’s struggle for freedom and love.

All ten two-part episodes from series 13 and 14 of the BBC crime thriller. Forensic experts Dr Leo Dalton (William Gaminara), Dr Harry Cunningham (Tom Ward) and Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) investigate various cases including the suicide of a bullying victim which leads to a shooting attack and the discovery of a girl's body who disappeared in the 1980s. Episodes comprise: 'Intent', 'Voids', 'Run', 'Shadows', 'Home', 'A Guilty Mind', 'Lost', 'First Casualty', 'Bloodlines' and 'The Prodigal'.

Every episode from the first four seasons of the Doctor Who spin-off series set in Cardiff. Captain Jack is in charge of Torchwood - a disparate crew of investigators, each an expert in his chosen field, searching desperately for alien debris that has fallen to earth. They're beyond the rule of law - hired by the UK government and in a race to find the technology before the UN does, so that they might use it to fight crime here on earth. Season 1 episodes are: 'Everything Changes', 'Day One', 'Ghost Machine', 'Cyberwoman', 'Small Worlds', 'Countrycide', 'Greeks Bearing Gifts', 'They Keep Killing Susie', 'Random Shoes', 'Out Of Time', 'Combat', 'Captain Jack Harkness' and 'End Of Days'. Season 2 episodes are: 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang', 'Sleeper', 'To the Last Man', 'Meat', 'Adam', 'Reset', 'Dead Man Walking', 'A Day in the Death', 'Something Borrowed', 'From Out of the Rain', 'Adrift', 'Fragments' and 'Exit Wounds'. Season 3 episodes are: 'Children of Earth - Day One', 'Children of Earth - Day Two', 'Children of Earth - Day Three', 'Children of Earth - Day Four' and 'Children of Earth - Day Five'. Season 4 episodes are: 'Miracle Day - Rendition', 'Miracle Day - Dead of Night', 'Miracle Day - Escape to LA', 'Miracle Day - The Categories of Life', 'Miracle Day - The Middle Men', 'Miracle Day - Immortal Sins', 'Miracle Day - End of the Road', 'Miracle Day - The Gathering' and 'Miracle Day - Blood Line'.

Welcome to The Grapes - a Northern pub full of warmth, good cheer and nicotine. Where the regulars ponder their lives, loves and who's been leaving fag ends in the blocked urinals.

Season One
Does Melanie ever find her real dad? Will Jean get to go to Crete? Who did father Janice's baby? Can crime crack itself? Will Eddie get to share his concern over the installation of temporary traffic lights on Samuel Street? Does anyone give a toss? No.

Season Two
There seems to be romance in the air, Tanya can pull a good pint but can she pull the landlord? Ken's got other things on his mind though, the pub's on its arse and the brewery are on his back. There's talk of them turning it into a fun pub but they'd have to evict Old Tommy first and he's going nowhere.