What we were watching

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

1978

Vet drama All Creatures Great And Small began on BBC1. Christopher Timothy played James Herriot in all 90 episodes, despite being injured in a car crash just before the first one aired. ‘Insanely, I was back at work in nine weeks,’ he says.

1988

The Kenny Everett Television Show finished on BBC1 after eight years. The show moved from ITV in 1981 and Kenny (right, with Cleo Rocos) had to invent new characters after a dispute over who owned creations such as Frenchman Marcel Wave.

1998

Singer Jane McDonald made her debut in BBC1 documentary series The Cruise. She was on board the Caribbean-bound Galaxy but only just made it on stage after an attack of nerves. By July that year, her debut album Jane McDonald had gone double platinum.

2008

Jane Asher played the Queen Mother in ITV’s The Palace, about a fictitious British royal family. Jane said, ‘There’s not the remotest connection with the genuine article.’ The drama was filmed in Lithuania with Buckingham Palace re-created in a disused factory.