What we were watching

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

1976

Joanna Lumley played crimefighter Purdey in the first-ever episode of action drama The New Avengers. To ensure it was a hit, ITV spent more than £120,000 on each show and even cast horror legend Peter Cushing in the opening episode.

1986

Sir Laurence Olivier starred in his last TV series as a comedian in ITV’s Lost Empires. Set in the world of variety theatre it also featured Poldark’s Beatie Edney as a young singer and Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter as a policeman.

1996

Patricia Hodge is best known as Miranda’s mum Penny but in BBC1 sitcom The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin her lawyer character jumped into bed with Geoffrey Palmer’s eccentric former soldier. Such bedroom antics couldn’t stop the series being axed after a single run.

2006

Helen Mirren ended 15 years as Jane Tennison in crime drama Prime Suspect, slipping quietly out of a police station at the end of the last-ever episode. Young Tennison, with Stefanie Martini playing the detective as a 22-year-old rookie, is due to air early next year on ITV.