Forget Monkey and The Water Margin, they have nothing on this epic 81 episode long series. Telling the legend of Jumong, the son of Hae Mo-Su, who was taken in by the then Prince Kum Wa and raised as his own son, even after he became king. Jumong founded the kingdom of Goguryeo in 37 B.C. which became one of the three kingdoms that united to become Korea.

If there is anything to fault this series, it is that Song Il-Guk looks a little to old to play Jumong, given that the real person on who the character is based founded Goguryeo before his death at the age of 27.

Like a lot of Korean shows, the pace of this drama is a little slower than the shows on TV in the UK today and it does drag in the middle somewhat. Not that I'm complaining about that. This isn't something for the low attention span kids of today, it demands your attention like the dramas I grew up on in the seventies (Doomwatch, The Onedin Line, Poldark etc).

DVD's of this series are hard to find in the West, but it is available in the US as a 4 volume set (and obviously in region 1). Each volume contains 7 DVDs in Korean with English subtitles. With over 80 hours of programming, the set is not surprisingly a bit pricey (Amazon are selling each volume at around $75 to $160 each, depending on whether the volume comes with extra booklets or not). So, not something the casual viewer is likely to buy. All of which makes it a glorious little secret gem.

If you're lucky enough to track it down, and totally irresponsible, there's a Jumong drinking game that can get the maximum fun out of your DVD (chug your drink every time someone says "yeah", twice if its Jumong), but, of course, I could never recommend you try something like that.

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Travel Channels would be worth watching if they could produce shows of this quality. Superb travelogue documentary series introduces viewers to those parts of Japan that normally get overlooked. With so much Japanese tourism promotion focused on Tokyo and its districts, this show makes a refreshing change, and has a knack of finding gaijin presenters who have a warmth and magnetism that will make you want to come back for more.

Of all the shows on NHK, this has done more to make me want to live in Japan than anything else they've broadcast, with the possible exception of Begin Japanology.

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Wheeler Dealers' Mike Brewer tries to trade cars around the world with the intention of trading up from a starting budget of $3000, hoping to eventually have earned enough profit to buy a supercar. A quirky little show with enough interest to engage the viewer to the end of the series, even if it sometimes feels a bit staged.

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Never heard of this before, so looked it up on YouTube and ended up sitting through the whole two and a half hour series. I guess it was never repeated and i'm just glad i never saw it as a 6 year old, it would have scarred me for life.

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Heh heh great comments guys ;-) Sorry to hear you missed out on it, biffbangpow :(

Apologies also for you being a Swap Shop fan TopP. It must have been hell being beaten up every day at school! So you didn't have a crush on Edmonds then? Well there was always Maggie Philbin...

Seriously though, these two shows (yes I did flip the channel to Swap Shop occasionally - know your enemy and all that) left indelible pieces of information ingrained in my memory. I can even remember their postal addresses: Tiswas was Birmingham B1 2JP. When someone uploads an entry to Swap Shop, the world will once again get to know their telephone number.

Topic for a Forum discussion maybe - Tiswas vs. Swap Shop? Could even follow with World Of Sport vs. Grandstand too ;-)

What gave Tiswas the edge over Swap Shop for me was the fact that there were top comedy entertainers as guests (as mentioned by biffbangpow) plus the fact that the show was loosely structured - giving them the chance to improvise and really show their talents. Russ Abbott, for example, used to do a turn as Cooperman - a cross between Tommy Cooper and Superman. He was much funnier and looser than his dedicated TV series on the BBC. John Gorman of Scaffold fame did turns as Smellows, the smelly gardener and The Masked Poet, an intense dressed-in-black guy going around reciting dire verse. The Frank Carson appearances were of course (like everything he ever did) stomach-achingly funny. And the late David Rappaport of Time Bandits fame, taking the mick out of the BBC's Blue Peter with his whistle-themed Green Nigel...

The band Darts were regulars too, especially vocalist Den Heggarty, who once showed the nation his amazingly long-eyebrow hair. Ginger-afro'ed brummie comedian Ian "Sludge" Lees also got a bucket of water on many occasions. He used to have a pink suit with a Bassett's licorice allsorts pattern on it (he still does). Lenny Henry also did turns as the aforementioned Trevor McDonut, the very positive rasta Algernon with his condensed milk sandwiches and his catchphrase ("OoooooKaaaayyyy!") and David Bellamy impersonation, usually with his false beard peeling off and him and Chris Tarrant cracking up.

As a kid, for me all this was total anarchy and freedom - the diametrical opposite of Swap Shop with its constrained, controlled, BBC-discipline. It wasn't until Trev and Simon did their hilarious turns on BBC1's Going Live! in the 90s, that the BBC's saturday-morning TV record was redeemed, ironically with a touch of Tiswas-like looseness.

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Comedy set in the last days before nuclear destruction is unleashed upon the Earth.

Johnny Cyclops is trying to get re-elected while the deposed Shah of Iran is trying to flee to England, driven by his blindfolded lackey, Abdab ("I am not worth to look upon your holy countenance master"). Unfortunately he is stopped from entering the country by the newly elected Labour party, whose Prime Minister Kevin Pork confides to his colleagues that he is really Superman.

Cyclops has to placate the many clones of the Russian Permier while his advisor, The Deacon, crucifies students on the White House lawn.

While all this is happening, Lacrobat has stolen a Quark bomb and is taking it to the Middle East. Wear your mushroom with pride.

Much funnier than the movie. Alexei Sayle is superb as the crazy Commisar Solzhenitsyn. Rik Mayall gives a brief but memorable appearance as Biff, the man brought in to write the Johnny Cyclops campaign song. Barry Morse showed he had an amazing comic timing as Johnny Cyclops. His facial reactions are some of the best I've seen in a comedy show.

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Beautifully presented series about Japan. Highly informative and always a joy to watch, this should be required viewing for any would be documentary producer/presenter. In my view, this is easily the best documentary series on television today and shows that documentaries don't have to be hard hitting or filmed in war zones etc to make for compelling viewing. Barakan's gentle voice lends a dignified air to every subject he covers and leaves the viewer wanting to find out more about Japan. This show is the star in NHK World's crown.

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This is the story of nine noble families fighting to rule the mythical land of Westeros.

Although this is not the type of series I would normally rush to watch, in this instance the hype is justified and HBO have a hit (although at the time or writing I have only got through the first two seasons - all within the last fortnight).

Political themes, sexual content and lots of swashbuckling violence - it certain has what most adult audiences look for.

If you are considering starting on this one (and I recommend you do) keep at it for the first few episodes whilst it outlines the story-lines and you will soon be gripped.

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Steed saving his fingers and blowing the pea before the axe fell, biffing someone unconcious and then looking in the mans jacket because he wanted to know who was his tailor. Moments which I shall treasure for ever.

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True Detective - Season One.

It's hard not to believe that we're currently living in the middle of a 'Golden Age' of television when something as wonderful as 'True Detective' appears on our screens. With Hollywood now more concerned with SFX driven Superhero blockbusters and suchlike it now feels that TV is where the really deep, intelligent and interesting stuff is happening.

With 10-20 hours to tell a story (or more often stories) there is a freedom to be character and script driven and that is certainly the case with TD. The friction between the two main detectives played by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson is completely engrossing perhaps even more so than the actual solving of the crime.

I won't give too much away about what happens in the first season of True Detective but let's just say that if you enjoy dark modern crime fiction like James Ellroy (LA Confidential) then there is every chance you will LOVE this. It's a dark labyrinth of 'Southern Noir' and once you've watched the first episode you will be obsessed until you've watched them all. You may need subtitles unless you happen to live in the South of the USA!

My favourite US TV show since The Sopranos.

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