I know that this is straying away from the Subject of Childhood TV but when you look around at some of today's TV it makes you appreciate some of the old series. I recently bought DVDs of the BBC productions of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People with Alec Guinness as good as the recent film of Tinker Tailor was seeing the way Alec Guinness and a host of old actors it was just superb. Another BBC series worth taking a look at is State of Play. There was a Russell Crowe film of the same story a few years ago and as good as that was the BBC version knocked it into a cocked hat.