Media: If I Ruled The Airwaves

Jo Wright, Head Of Drama At LWT, Plans An Eventful Evening

IF I ruled the airwaves, I would like to give people the chance to relive the excitement they felt when they first saw some of the popular drama that has gripped them over the last 30 years.

Everyone complains that the proliferation of channels and the advent of the video recorder have taken the "event" out of an evening's viewing, so let's try to recapture those must-see evenings. Time to relive the time when you spent the first 10 minutes of your day discussing events such as "who shot JR?"; "is Robert Powell of Doomwatch really dead?", and "which is your favourite Monkee?"

I remember how upset my father was when some guests arrived during the last episode of The Fugitive, when he was about to discover the identity of the one-armed man. He just pulled his chair right up to the TV and ignored them.

So sit back, and get ready to recapture those heady days of the old kind of interactive television.

Tales of the Riverbank (BBC), a show in which live animals enacted dramatic situations in tiny sets, was certainly a TV drama event for small, pet-obsessed children during the Sixties. It may shock you to know that this was originally a Canadian production, so perhaps it would be best to show the famous Ginnie the Guinea-pig in the hot-air balloon episode, with Johnny Morris's hilarious "Hammy" and "Roderick" voices, then show it again in the original Canadian (in which Randy the Rat and Hank the Hamster come to the rescue when the dastardly weasels shoot up the town). For discussion by the photocopier next day: "You may not want to know this, but they got through a lot more than one Ginnie, Hammy and Roderick during the 10 years the series spanned."

The Brothers (BBC): "Find me another show like The Brothers, Michael Jackson would plead when he was controller of BBC 1. So tonight we shall enjoy that superb opening episode of 1972 when the Hammond family realise that their father's mistress is to run the firm. Whatever happened to Edward, Brian and David? Probably lost everything during the recession, and are now chauffeurs in a limo company. For discussion in the company car park: "Why did we never see a lorry?"

In Bouquet of Barbed Wire (LWT) Andrea Newman touched a nerve and shocked us all with her expose of a middle-class family falling apart. Or was it that we were all so appalled and intrigued by the weird relationship between the father (Frank Finlay) and the daughter (Susan Penhaligon)? To be discussed in the canteen queue with the attractive man from marketing: "Did you know that Andrea Newman is back on TV with another steamy three- parter? And, coincidentally, my TV has broken, so I would love to watch it round at your place".

House of Cards (BBC): Popular drama about politics is the best thing you can give a middle-class audience because they can pretend it is highbrow and educational while really only caring about the sex and intrigue. This series gave it all, and more, in a wonderfully witty adaptation by Andrew Davies. For discussion at a management meeting, or in the gents' toilet: "Why did Urquhart (Ian Richardson) speak to camera? Mixing too much with Lovejoy?"

Thirtysomething (Channel 4): Hope and Michael were the original "smug marrieds", and Ellen and Melissa the first real "singletons" of TV drama. But however dreadful some of the angst became, Thirtysomething was one of the most stylish and brave shows in its writing, production and direction. Who can forget when the birth of Gary's baby was shot backwards, from birth back to conception? To be discussed with partner when putting the baby to bed: "Did you know that Nancy and Michael were married to each other in real life? (Don't tell Hope.)"

Jo Wright is working on projects at LWT with Paula Milne, Debbie Horsfield, Andrew Davies and Andrea Newman.