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Season 1 - Episode Guide

Episodes

TV Talent

Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Aug 6, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson guides us through the history of television's talent shows. Where did they come from? How have they evolved? And why do we so frequently end up laughing at them?

Politics

Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Aug 13, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson charts the history of television's relationship with politics via the things that can and will go wrong.

Animals

Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Aug 20, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson guides us through the history of television's love affair with animals. Never work with children or animals is an old adage, but TV continues to ignore it. And so mistakes and mishaps are bound to happen.

Live TV

Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Aug 27, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson guides us through the history of live TV, pointing out all the things that go wrong when the programme-makers have no second chance.

TV Experts

Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Sep 3, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson guides us through the history of television's favourite experts and the pitfalls that attend the role. As well as pointing out the potential problems of being cast as a telly know-it-all, there's sage advice to the would-be experts of the future.

Christmas

Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Dec 22, 2009

No image (yet).

Clive Anderson tries to fathom the miracle of Christmas television. Why do we sit down in front of the box, year after year, with such high expectations, and then feel surprised when it feels like we've seen it all before? Mostly because, it turns out, we actually have seen it all before.

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