The Valiant Varneys

The World of Beachcomber

September 2025 •English

The World of Beachcomber was a surreal television comedy show produced by the BBC, inspired by the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper. The show, like the column, consisted of a series of unrelated pieces of humour. Links between the items were provided by Spike Milligan, dressed in a smoking jacket and cap, as in the cartoon logo above the newspaper column. The other actors were a Who's Who of British comedy of the time, encompassing almost every supporting player seen or heard in comedy, not excluding people of diminutive stature. In all, 19 episodes were produced beginning in 1968. Unfortunately, like many shows of the time, the original videotapes were wiped. Only one complete episode, on black and white 16mm film, now survives in the BBC archives, from the penultimate edition.

The World of Wodehouse

September 2025 •English

The World of Wodehouse was a comedy television series, based on the Blandings Castle and Ukridge comedy stories by P. G. Wodehouse. The series, which followed The World of Wooster, was shown on BBC Television during 1967 and 1968. Apart from one or more extracts from a solitary episode of Blandings Castle broadcast in February 1967, all episodes of both series are lost.

Polka Dot Door

September 2025 •English

Polka Dot Door was a long-running Canadian children's television series produced by the Ontario Education Communications Authority from 1971–1993. PDD was created and developed by a team of employees from TVOntario hired and led by original series producer-director, Peggy Liptrott. Significant contributors to the creation and development of the series in 1971 included Executive Producer Dr. Vera Good who laid the conceptual foundation of the show, Educational Supervisor, Marnie Patrick Roberts, Educational Consultant L. Ted Coneybeare, Script Writers/Composers, Pat Patterson and Dodi Robb, Animator Dick Derhodge and Dr. Ada Scherman, a professor at the prestigious Institute of Child Study in Toronto who was consulted in the early stages of PDD's development and is responsible for giving the show its name.

Sunny

September 2025 •Slovak

Slniečko is a children's TV show about the sun, named Sunny (Slniečko), as well as characters like Raťafák Plachta (Big Nose Blanket), Ruky Rukaté, and Míma Valentína.

His Honor, Homer Bell

September 2025 •English

Homer Bell, an elected judge/practicing attorney and widower, looks after his orphaned niece Casey with the help of his housekeeper Maude.

Sorry I'm Single

September 2025 •English

Sorry I'm Single is a British sitcom produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1 August to 26 September 1967. It stars Derek Nimmo as long-standing student David, who lives alone in a flat in a Hampstead converted house; his neighbours include Suzy (Pik Sen Lim) and the always-bickering Brenda (Gwendolyn Watts) and Karen (Elizabeth Knight).

Blandings Castle

September 2025 •English

Blandings Castle, based on P. G. Wodehouse's short stories in the same shared universe, is half of the larger British anthology series The World of Wodehouse. The six-episode miniseries broadcast on BBC1 from 24 Februrary to 31 March 1967.

The Young Lady from London

September 2025 •English

HMS Paradise

September 2025 •English

A completely lost early ITV sitcom with strong similarities to the popular radio series The Navy Lark. HMS Paradise is set at a Royal Navy station on an island off the Dorset coast where very little actual work takes place.

The Grizzly Man Diaries

September 2025 •English

King of the River

September 2025 •English

A completely lost BBC1 drama series centred on the King family, who love, live, fight and work around a harbour in the Thames estuary.

Hereward the Wake

September 2025 •English

Hereward, son of Duke Leofric and Lady Godiva, fought a long and ultimately hopeless guerilla war against the invading forces of William the Conqueror in the fens of Lincolnshire, betrayed not only by his allies but by his own weaknesses.

The Man in the Iron Mask

September 2025 •English

A completely lost BBC1 miniseries adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 19th century historical adventure novel of the same name. Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

A Castle and Sixpence

September 2025 •English

Widowed Mrs Martingale and her four children inherit a castle in the will of an elderly relative. When they move in they find dear old Miss Button, the housekeeper, a whole host of cats and, odder still, a boy called Christopher Sixpence who keeps appearing and disappearing. What is he doing there?

Jesus of Nazareth

September 2025 •English

An eight part BBC miniseries about the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was notable as being the first production featuring an actor depicting Jesus.

All About You

September 2025 •English

All About You was an educational television series that was syndicated to numerous educational and PBS stations during the early and mid-1970s, mainly as part of weekday in-school telecasts. The series was first produced at WHRO-TV, "Hampton Roads ETV", in Hampton, Virginia. In 1974, production of the series was moved to WGBH-TV Boston, where it was produced in association with WGBH's in-school television initiative, the "21-Inch Classroom". The 1974 episodes were distributed in the US and Canada by the Agency for Instructional Television; this is one of a few WGBH series to have not been distributed by NET or PBS.

Viva Piñata

September 2025 •English

Piñatas of various species roam the Piñata Island gardens freely, eating candy and coexisting with one another in a peaceful society. When a piñata's candy inside reaches a high enough level, they are sent to a party, where they will be broken open by the partygoers before being repaired and returned to the island. The series follows a group of close piñata friends and their day-to-day lives on the island.

Special Investigation Robo Janperson

September 2025 •Japanese

Special Investigation Robo Janperson was the 1993 installment in Toei Company’s Metal Hero Series. The series revolved around Janperson, a robotic detective who patrolled the streets of Tokyo and fought against three different underworld organizations who used super technology to subjugate the masses. Unlike most Metal Heroes, a monster-of-the-week was rarely shown and most of the villains are criminals akin to television police dramas. The name given to this series by Toei for international distribution is Jumperson.

Life with Lucy

September 2025 •English

Life With Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The show ran on the ABC network in 1986 not on the CBS network as her previous shows had and unlike Ball's previous programs, it was a critical and ratings flop. Only eight out of the thirteen episodes that were filmed aired before ABC cancelled the series. It is the very last sitcom she starred in before her death in 1989.

Aifric

September 2025 •Irish

The series follows the life of Aifric whose wacky family have just moved to a new town in the West of Ireland. The 14yr old wants nothing more than to fit in but feels her family will not make it easy for her. Her mother is a new-age hippy who has banned television, while her father is a wannabe rock star, not to mention her annoying little brother.