What we were watching

Do you remember these shows that were on TV this week ten, 20, 30 and 40 years ago?

1976

The Red Shoes star Marius Goring appeared for the last time as a pathologist in the fourth and final series of BBC2’s The Expert. Sadly, all but one of the tapes from the first series were wiped to make room for other BBC shows.

1986

Slinger’s Day – a follow-up to 1984 sitcom Tripper’s Day, which was cancelled after the death of its star Leonard Rossiter – was the only sitcom Bruce Forsyth ever appeared in. He was a shop manager (right, with co-star Alisa Bosschaert).

1996

After Pride & Prejudice, Andrew Davies gave us Wilderness on ITV, a drama about a librarian (Swedish actor Amanda Ooms) who turned into a wolf every month and enjoyed lusty encounters with strangers. ‘You need sex in the spine of your story,’ Davies has said.

2006

Ex-England rugby captain Matt Dawson (right) beat Charlie Dimmock, weatherman Ian McCaskill and Sue Perkins to win the first series of Celebrity MasterChef. The show was a huge hit – the final week’s five shows attracted a combined audience of almost 24 million.