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FAIR EXCHANGE/CBS/1962-63
*(Victor Maddern/costar) Thomas "Tommy" Finch, British sporting good store owner
who sends his daughter Heather (Judy Carne) to live with the Walkers, an
American family living in New York. In the meantime, the Walkers send their
daughter Patty to stay with the Finch family while she attends the Royal Academy
of Dramatic Arts in London for a year. Also featured were Diana Chesney as Sybil
Finch, Tommy's wife; Dennis Waterman as Neville Finch, their son; and Maurice
Dallimore as Tom's friend, Willie Shorthouse.
FAME/NBC/SYN/1982-87
**(Michael Cerveris) Ian Ware, a former British rock 'n roll guitarist who
enrolled at New York City's renowned High School for the Performing Arts to
study classic guitar. Traci Lin starred in a 1987 episode as Joanna, his former
British girlfriend/band member.
FAMILY AFFAIR/CBS/1966-71
*(Sebastian Cabot/costar) Mr. Giles French, an English gentlemen's gentlemen
working in a Fifth Avenue Manhattan apartment of bachelor engineer, Bill Davis.
Mr. French was responsible for his employers three adopted children. Mr. French
was later replaced by his brother Niles (John Williams) when Giles was called
off to England to work in the service of the Queen of England.
FANTASY ISLAND/ABC/1978-84
**(Christopher Hewett) Lawrence, the English assistant of the mysterious Mr.
Roarke who lived on Fantasy Island introduced during the 1983 season.
FATHER BROWN/ATV/1974
*(Kenneth More) Father John Brown, British Catholic parish priest with a
penchant for crime and investigations. Also featured was Dennis Burgess as Det.
H. Flambeau. Based on the popular 1930s works of G. K. Chesteron, this series
aired in America on PBS's MYSTERY! in 1982.
FATHER DEAR FATHER/THA/1968-73
*(Patrick Gargill) Patrick Glover, British mystery writer who in between putting
pen to paper, puts up his two beautiful grown daughters Anna (Natasha Pyne) and
Karen (Ann Holloway) and the frequent intrusions of his ex-wife, Barbara (Ursula
Howells). The series was syndicated to America in 1977.
FAWLTY TOWERS/BBC/1975 & 1979
*(John Cleese) Basil Fawlty, the incorrigible Englishman who owns Fawlty towers,
a coastal guest house by the Sea of Torquay on the British sitcom FAWLTY
TOWERS/BBC/1975 & 1979. The inn was jointly owned by his wife, Sybil (Prunella
Scales) who was the brains behind the operation. Sybil's level head and
no-nonsense manner often clashed with her ill-tempered husband who verbally
brutalized their guests. Also featured were Connie Booth as waitress Polly
Sherman; and Ballard Berkeley as Major Gowen, a regular resident at the inn.
TRIVIA NOTE: Two attempts to recreate the success of FAWLTY TOWERS have been
undertaken by American television including AMANDA'S/ABC/1983 starring Beatrice
Arthur as Amanda Cartwright, the owner of Amanda's by-the-Sea, a quiet coastal
inn; and PAYNE/CBS/1999 starring John Larroquette as Royal Payne, the
unscrupulous proprietor of Whispering Pines, a California hotel that he operated
with his wife, Connie (played by JoBeth Willams).
THE FIRST CHURCHILLS/BBC/1969
*(John Neville & Susan Hampshire/costars) John and Sara Churchill, the ancestors
of England's Prime Minster Sir Winston Churchill. The 12-part series followed
their lives in the 1600s as John Churchill served as a talented British General
while his wife Sara acted as the lady-in-waiting to court of Princess (and later
Queen) Anne. The series aired in America on PBS's MASTERPIECE THEATER in 1971.
FLAMBARDS/YOR/1979
*(Christine McKenna) Christina Parsons, a British teenage orphan who is sent to
live at "Flambards," a rural estate in Essex owned by her tyrannical Uncle
Russell (played by Edward Judd). Other cast included Steven Grives as son Mark
Russell; Alan Parnaby as son William Russell; and Sebastian Abineri as Dick.
This 12-part series, set at the beginning of World War 1, aired on PBS's
MASTERPIECE THEATER in 1980. The program was based on the trilogy of books
written by K. M. Peyton.
THE FLASH/CBS/1990-91
*(Amanda Pays/costar) Tina McGee, a research scientist with a British-accent who
assisted the speedy superhero known as the Flash.
FORSYTE SAGA/BBC/NET/1969-70
*(Kenneth More) Jolyon "Jo" Forsyte, wealthy male (and heir) of the Forsyte
family living in the Victorian and Edwardian times fo England. Set in England
from 1879 to 1926, the British import The Forsyte Saga actually introduced the
TV novel to the American audience. Based on the nine novels of John Galsworthy,
(the first A Man of Property written in 1906) the 26 episodes (10 full length
movies) were introduced to American television via the National Educational
Network (NET). It aired every Sunday night at 8:30 beginning in October of 1969.
Set in mid-Victorian England, the series chronicled the lives of the famous
aunts and uncles of the Forsyte family. Other cast included Eric Porter as
lawyer Soames Forstye' Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene; Susan Hampshire as Fleur;
Margaret Tyzack as Winnifrid; Nicholas Pennell as Michael Mont; Joseph O'Connor
as Jolyon, Sr.; Fay Compton as Aunt Ann; Lana Morris as Helene; Martin Jarvis as
Jon Forsyte; Ursula Howells as Frances; and George Woodbridge as Swithin.
FOUR JUST MEN/SYN/1959
*(Jack Hawkins/costar) Ben Manfred, a British detective who earlier in his
career fought Nazis during World War II. He was later reunited with former
wartime buddies (an American, an Italian and a Frenchman) to battle crime.
FRASIER/NBC/1993-2--4
**(Jane Leeves) Daphne Moon, British [originally from Manchester, England]
live-in-caregiver/physical therapist to Martin Crane, a retired cop who lived
with his son Dr, Fraser Crane. Daphne hails from London and is a borderline
psychic. When Daphne prepared to get married in the seventh season, her family
from Britain arrive for the event. Millicent Martin appeared at Daphne's mother,
Mrs. Moon; and Anthony LaPaglia appeared as Daphne's mooching brother, Simon.
FRESH FIELDS/THA/1984
*(Julie Mackenzie & Anton Rodgers) Hester & William Fields, a middle-aged
British couple (whose children have finally move out of the house) now ponder
what to do with the rest of their lives. In the meantime, William works as a CPA
and Hester works as a homemaker and part time caterer. Also featured were Ann
Beach as Sonia, their mooching neighbor who shows up a dinner time; Philip Bird
as Peter Richardson; Debbing Cumming as Emma Richardson; and Fanny Rowe as Nancy
Penrose. This series was broadcast on PBS stations.
FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR/NBC/1990-96
**(Joseph Marcell) Geoffrey, the haughty black English butler who worked for the
Banks family headed by a wealthy stuffed-shirt black attorney living in Bel Air,
California.
FRIENDS/NBC/1994-2004
**(Helen Baxendale) Emily, a lovely young woman from Great Britain who fell in
love with American paleontologist Ross Geller. After a whirlwind romance, Ross'
friends flew to England to participate in their wedding ceremony. Unfortunately,
Ross calls Emily "Rachel" (Ross's old flame) during their altar vows and the
love between the two deteriorates despite valiant tries on both parts.
FROM A BIRD'S EYE VIEW/NBC/1971
*(Millicent Martin) Millie Grover, a British stewardess who worked for
International Airlines based in London.
GAVILAN/NBC/1982-83
*(Patrick Macnee) Milo Bentley, suave, conniving travel agent with a British
accent living in Malibu with former CIA agent Gavilan. On occasion, Milo aided
his friend with projects from California's DeWitt Institute of Oceanography
projects.
THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E./NBC/1966-67
*(Noel Harrison) Mark Slate, a British secret agent transferred from
U.N.C.L.E.'s (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) London
headquarters to their New York facility. Mark was teamed with the beautiful
American agent April Dancer, whom he regularly rescued from perilous situations
(in the nick of time, don't you know).
GOOD MORNING MISS BLISS/DIS/NBC/1988-89
*(Hayley Mills) Carrie Bliss, a single British ninth-grade history and social
studies teacher working at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indiana. The
series was later repackaged for NBC as SAVED BY THE BELL and the Miss Bliss
character was dropped. In the GMMB pilot on NBC, Carrie taught second grade and
was married (husband played by Charles Siebert).
GOOD NEIGHBORS/BBC/1974-78
*(Richard Briers) Tom Good, a graphics art designer who decided to chuck his
civilized 9 to 5 existence to become self sufficient. Now living in his Surbiton
home near London, Tom and his wife Barbara (Felicity Kendal) embark on a life of
growing their own food, raising their own livestock and weaving their own
clothing. Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington played the Good's next-door neighbor
Margo and Jeremy Ledbetter, whose quiet suburban lifestyle was now being
interrupted by the smells and sounds of farm life emanating from just across the
back yard fence. The series (originally titled "The Good Life" when it aired in
England) was broadcast on the PBS network in America.
THE HALLS OF IVY/CBS/1954-55
*(Benita Hume/costar) Vicktoria "Vicki" Cromwell Hall, a former London stage
star now living on the campus of Ivy College, U.S.A. with her husband Dr.
William Todhunter Hall (Ronald Colman), the president of the Ivy College. Vickie
first met William when he visited England on a summer vacation. They now reside
at One Faculty Row.
HAWKEYE/SYN/1994-95
**(Garwin Sanford) Captain Taylor Shields, the, arrogant, corrupt British
colonial officer stationed at Fort Bennington in New York's Hudson River Valley
of 1755.
HERE COME THE DOUBLE-DECKERS/ABC/1970-72
*(Peter Firth/costar) Scooper, one of seven British children who lived inside a
double-decker bus parked in a London junkyard. The other Double-Decker members
included Brinsley Forde as Spring; Gillian Bailey as Billie; Debbie Russ as
Tiger; Bruce Clark as Sticks; Douglas Simmonds as Doughnut; and Michael Anderson
as Brians; and Melvyn Hayes as Albert, a local adult. This British import ran on
weekend mornings.
HETTY WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES/SYN/1990-97
*(Patricia Routledge) Hetty Wainthropp, British senior citizen who decided to
become a private investigator. Also featured were Derek Benfield as Robert
Wainthropp; Dominic Monaghan as Geoffrey Shawcross; John Graham Davies as Det.
Chief Insp. Adams. The series aired from: May 1990 to January 1997 in England
and surfaced on the PBS network in the late 1990s
HOGAN'S HEROES/CBS/1965-71
**(Richard Dawson) Corporal Peter Newkirk, a British prisoner of War. He has a
saucy manner, a good sense of humor and talent for scheming and picking pockets.
Newkirk reported to American Colonel Robert Hogan, but was a leader in his own
right. In his spare time Newkirk played poker, dreamed of beautiful women, and
dupped the German soldiers on guard at the camp. In his efforts to thwart the
Nazi war machine Newkirk, sabotaged ammunition factories, cracked safes to steal
top-secret war plans, posed as a general's wife to get penicillin to an ill
underground leader and even had time to create a number of handsome looking Nazi
uniforms that Hogan and the other POW's used on covert operations outside the
camp. Actor Bernard Fox played the occasional role of Colonel Crittendon, an
inept British officer who used the fact that he out ranks Colonel Robert Hogan
by 29 days to hamper the covert sabotage and rescue missions at Stalag 13.
Crittendon appeared in episodes "The Flight of the Valkyrie" (The Gestapo place
Colonel Crittendon in charge of the POWs); "The Crittendon Plan (Crittendon
wants to plant flowers along an airplane runway); "Hogan Go Home" (Hogan is sent
home and Crittendon replaces him); "Hogan's Trucking Service…We Deliver the
Factory to You" (Crittenden fouls a plan to destroy a ball bearing plant); "Crittendon's
Commandoes" (Crittendon and his commandos parachute into camp to capture
Rommel); "Lady Chitterly's Lover: Part 1&2" (An English traitor is a dead ringer
for Crittendon); and "The Assassin" (Crittendon is ordered to kill a scientist
but Hogan wants to help him defect).
HOMEFRONT/ABC/1991-92
**(Sammi Davis-Voss) Caroline Hailey, an English war bride who returned to the
home front town of River Run, Ohio with her U.S. Army soldier husband, Charles
Hailey.
HOUSECALLS/CBS/1979-1982
*(Lynn Redgrave) Ann Anderson, efficient British woman working as hospital
administrator at Kensington General Hospital in San Francisco. In 1981, Lynn
Redgrave got involved in a contract dispute with the series producers. This
resulted in Ann's character being dropped from the program. To explain her
departure from the show, Redgrave's character left behind a letter explaining
that she had returned to London to be with her ex-husband. The series was based
on the 1978 motion picture "House Calls" starring Walter Mathau and Glenda
Jackson.
HUNTER/SYN/1968
*(Tony Ward) John Hunter, British government operative for COSMIC (the Office of
Security and Military Intelligence who battles agents from CUCW (Council for the
Unification of the Communist World). Other cast included Glyn Fernande as Eve
Halliday; and Nigel Lovell as Blake. The series was produced in Australia.
INSPECTOR FABIAN OF SCOTLAND YARD (PATROL CAR)/SYN/1955
*(Bruce Seton) Inspector Robert Fabian, British Superintendent of Detectives of
London's New Scotland Yard.
INSPECTOR MORSE/CEN/1987-2000
*(John Thaw) Chief Inspector Morse, the middle-aged British police inspector
based in the town of Oxford, England. who uses his caustic personality and
deductive-reasoning skills to solve the most difficult homicide crimes. Also
featured were Kevin Whately as Det. Sgt. Lewis. A variety of "Inspector Morse"
mysteries have been imported to America and shown regularly on the PBS networks.
THE INVISIBLE MAN/CBS/SYN/1958-60
*(?) Peter Brady, a British scientist working on the principles of light
refraction at the Castle Hill Research Lab in England is exposed to an
experimental gas and turned invisible. Unable to return to normal, Peter
continues his research for a cure and from time to time helps the British
Intelligence battle crime. For the life of the series, the name of the actor who
portrayed the invisible man, was a closely held secret (rumored to be Ralph
Smart the series producer). Later sources reveal Johnny Scripps played the man
beneath the bandages and Tim Turner provided his voice laid in during
post-production dubbing sessions. Other cast included Lisa Daniely as Diane
Wilson, Peter's sister; and Deborah Watling as Sally Wilson, Diane's daughter.
The series was produced in England.
IRISH R.M./C-4/1983-85
*(Peter Bowles) Major Sinclair Yeates, a retired British Army officer who
travels to the westlands of Ireland to become the resident magistrate (Justice
of the Peace/legal arbiter) in a small town circa 1900. The series was based on
the book "Some Experiments of an Irish R. M." written in 1899 by Irish cousins
Edith Somerville and Martin Ross (aka Violet Florence Martin). Also featured was
Doran Godwin as Phillippa Yeates.
IVANHOE/SYN/1957-58
*(Roger Moore) Ivanhoe, a Saxon knight who roamed England of the late Twelfth
Century. The series, produced in England, was based on the literary character
created by Sir Walter Scott. In 1972 a syndicated serialized adaptation of
Scott's classic tale (originally run as a mini-series in 1970) appeared as part
of FAMILY CLASSICS THEATER starring Eric Flynn in the role of Ivanhoe.
JACK OF ALL TRADES/SYN/UPN/2000
*(Angela Dotchin) Emilia Rothschild, a strong-willed, beautiful British secret
agent operating undercover in the East Indies to thwart the expansion of
Napoleon's empire in the year 1801. A wealthy entrepreneur to the world at
large, Emilia teams up with a a swashbuckling American spy name Jack (aka the
Daring Dragoon) on secret missions against the French, aided by ingenious
devices she invents in a hidden lab.
JACK THE RIPPER/SYN/1973 (Miniseries)
*(Alan Stratford-Johns) Det. Chief Superintendent Jack Barlow, a modern-day
British police officer who reopened the 1888 investigation of the White Chapel
serial murders in the East End section of London in hopes of proving the
identity of the illusive killer known as "Jack the Ripper." Also featured was
Frank Windsor as Det. Chief Superintendent Watt, Barlow's partner. Sebastian
Cabot hosted the six episode series. In the 1980s Michael Caine starred in "Jack
the Ripper (1988) a two-part TV movie (200 minutes) starring Michael Caine as
Scotland Yard Inspector Det. Frederick Abberline, the officer who investigated
the original murders.
JACK'S PLACE/ABC/1992-93
*(Finola Hughes/costar) Chelsea Duffy, a no-nonsense transplanted British woman
working as a waitress at Jack's Bar & Restaurant, a newly opened American eatery
run by Jack Evans, a white ex-jazz musician.
JASON KING/ATV/1971-72
*(Peter Wyndgarde) Jason King, a successful British mystery novelist and special
investigator for Interpol who appeared on the adventure series DEPARTMENT
'S'/ATV/ITC/1969 and later on JASON KING/ATV/ITV/1971-72. Jason King was the
author of the Mark Cain Mystery Novels High Fashion Murder and Two Plus One
Equals Murder. He helped solved each of his cases as if they were a plot for one
of his novels.
JEEVES & WOOSTER/ITV/1990-93
*(Hugh Laurie) Bertram "Bertie" Wilberforce Wooster, a socializing, upper-class
feather brain bubbling with inadequacies who struggles though life with the
assistance of Jeeves, his unflappable supercilious valet (played by Stephen
Fry). The series was based on characters created by P.G. Wodehouse. Episodes
aired in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre beginning in November-December 1990
through January-February 1995.
THE JEFFERSONS/CBS/1975-85
**(Paul Benedict) Harry Bentley, an educated Englishman, naive to many American
customs and euphemisms, who was the next-door apartment neighbor of George
Jefferson, a successful black New York City dry cleaner. When not working at the
United Nations, Bentley visited the Jeffersons, occasionally asking for their
assistance in putting his bad back to rights again.
JENNIE: LADY RANDOLPH CHURCHILL/THA/1975
*(Lee Remick) Lady Randolph Churchill (nee Jennie Jerome), the American-born
mother of Britain's renown statesman, soldier, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
(1874-1965). This seven-part series told the story of her entry into polite
English society and into the family of the aristocratic Churchill family. Other
cast included Ronald Pickup as Randolph Churchill; Cyril Luckham as the Duke of
Marlborough; Rachel Kempson as the Duchess of Marlborough; Dan O'Herlihy as Mr.
Jerome; and Helen Horton as Mrs. Jerome.
JERICHO/CBS/1966-67
*(John Leyton/costar) Nicholas Cage, British Navy Lieutenant (a demolition
expert) teamed with a French Air Force officer and an American Army Intelligence
agent as Allied troubleshooters (Code Name: Jericho) working behind German lines
as spies and saboteurs during World War II.
THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN/GRA/1984 (Miniseries)
*(Tim Pigott-Smith/costar) Ronald Merrick, a mean-spirited racist British police
superintendent serving in India who takes up a persona vendetta against Hari
Kumar, Indian-born man educated in England who returns to his homeland and
begins to pursue a relationship with a young English woman named Daphne Manners
(Susan Wooldridge) whom Merrick also fancied. The 14-part series follows the
struggling nation of India from 1942 to 1947 as India wins its independence from
Great Britain. The miniseries was adapted from four novels written by Paul Scott
(collectively known as "The Raj Quartet.") Other cast included Geraldine James
as Sarah Layton; Wendy Morgan as Susan (Layton) Bingham; Charles Dance as Guy
Perron; Rachel Kempson as Lady Manners; Judy Parfitt as Mildred Layton; and
Peggy Ashcroft as Barbie Batchelor
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