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Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark (Robert Bathurst) and Becky (Fiona Gillies), who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The twelve episodes, broadcast between 1993 and 1995, were directed by Bob Spiers and produced by Andre Ptaszynski for independent production company Pola Jones.

The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Some of the episodes in the first series followed a non-linear parallel structure, contrasting the rise of the relationship with the fall. Other episodes were ensemble farces, predominantly including the couple's friends Robert (Paul Raffield) and Tracy (Tracie Bennett). Paul Mark Elliott also appeared as Trevor, Becky's lover. (Full article...)

Dakota Blue Richards as April, a troubled teenager who was abandoned in a dustbin as a baby, in the 2008 BBC film Dustbin Baby. The film, based on Jacqueline Wilson's novel of the same name, won an International Emmy and a BAFTA Children's Award.

Thompson in 2016

Sir Mark John Thompson (born 31 July 1957) is a British–American media executive who is CEO of CNN, and serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of Ancestry He is the former president and CEO of The New York Times Company. From 2004 to 2012, he was Director-General of the BBC, and before that was the Chief Executive of Channel 4.

In 2009 Thompson was ranked as the 65th most powerful person in the world by Forbes magazine. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017. (Full article...)

BBC Television Centre on Children in Need appeal night 2008. The annual telethon was formerly broadcast from Television Centre on BBC One until its closure in 2013.

Highlights from Wikipedia's Did you know

• ... that author Jacqueline Wilson described Dustbin Baby, the BBC dramatisation of her novel of the same name, as the best ever film adaptation of her work?

• ... that the idea of a two hooded coat to keep your date dry in the rain is genius?

• ... that BBC traffic reporter Sally Traffic has also narrated poetry albums for the blind?

• ... that Private Passions, a weekly classical music programme on BBC Radio 3, has occasionally featured interviews with hoax characters played by comedian John Sessions?

• ... that most of "Cold Comfort", an episode of British dark comedy Inside No. 9, is made up of footage from a fixed camera in a call centre booth?

• ... that the pilot episode for a BBC series on a suicide prevention charity made some critics laugh?
• ... that working broadcast journalists were used as extras for the portions of the Doctor Who episode "73 Yards" that were filmed at the BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House?
• ... that soprano Sarah Fischer sang excerpts from the title role in Carmen for the very first televised BBC broadcast of opera music?
• ... that to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, viewers were given the opportunity to vote on the outcome of a love triangle storyline?