Maxine Peake

Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.

Two British best friends and in-laws Dawn and Jackie work together at a factory. When Dawn is diagnosed with a brain tumor Jackie shares $100,000 she's got from her secret lover with Dawn to fulfil her dream - a visit to Las Vegas. They buy two tickets and fly there...

While caring for their dying mother, a child finds solace in a group of friends, but begins to encounter violence at every turn.

Parisian bon vivant, World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse…Samuel Beckett lived a life of many parts. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos “Dance first, think later”, the film is a sweeping account of the life of this 20th-century icon.

World-renowned journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya went from being a local print journalist to braving the Chechen killing fields and exposing Russian state corruption under Vladimir Putin. She refused to give up reporting on the war in Chechnya despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence, including being poisoned. She was ultimately murdered in the elevator of her block of flats and it remains unclear who paid for the contract killing.

An underworld drama set in the early 1980s, about a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman.

A lesbian in the 1800s who keeps a detailed account of her life written in coded diaries attempts to live independently while juggling an affair with a married woman.

The story of Merseyside mum and campaigner Anne Williams, who lost her son Keven. For nearly three decades she fought the English establishment to expose the truth of what really happened at Hillsborough, and to try and get justice for the 97.

On his way to a Make Poverty History gig in Scotland, Bob Geldof is accidentally stranded by an incompetent chauffeur in a run-down motel in Northern England. To his horror, he discovers a lookalike contest is taking place, and no-one will believe he is the real Bob Geldof. Just when he thinks things can't get any worse, he discovers he may not be the only Bob Geldof in the room... Written by Linda Boulie

Robson Green and Mark Benton co-star in Christmas Lights, a one-off comedy drama for ITV1 centred on two lifelong friends who have always competed with each other. The festive season brings on new challenges and takes their rivalry to extremes resulting in the two friends forgetting what Christmas is really about. Can anything bring them to their senses?

A working-class photographer captures the impact of Thatcherism on the north of England but is unable to escape the poverty and inequality she exposed.

Two scheming demons strike a deal with a punk rock-loving teen so they can leave the Underworld and live out their dreams in the Land of the Living.

Dinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.

A sitcom set in a small pub in Manchester, “The Grapes”, where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals. Regular drinkers Joe and Duffy pass the time with landlord Ken and his police officer cronies.

ChuckleVision is a long-standing British children's series broadcast from 1987 to 2009. The Chuckle Brothers' famous comedy involves slapstick, other visual gags, wordplay, and catchphrases such as "To me, to you!" and "Oh dear, oh dear!"

Working from his home in a converted windmill, Jonathan Creek is a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He soon puts this ability to the use of solving impossible crimes and mysterious murders.

Comedy Connections was a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows. The show featured interviews with some of the cast and crew of the subject programme, as well as footage from the series. Comedy Connections mostly documented BBC comedies and sitcoms, although two programmes have been from ITV and two from Channel 4. The first series consisted of six episodes, however the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each, the first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha, however the rest of the series were narrated by Doon Mackichan.