Can you name the three original presenters of "Magpie"? Who won the Eurovision Song Contest the year "after" Abba? What does a floor manager do? What is the longest-running programme still showing on UK television? "The Penguin TV Companion" answers all of these questions: it aims to be the most wide-ranging, fascinating and useful reference book about UK television. Not only does it give you full cast lists and lively plot synopses of nearly 1300 programmes broadcast in the UK since the BBC's first transmission in 1936 but there are also entries for around 1300 actors, writers, producers and directors. From "Sooty" to "The Simpsons", "Billy Bunter" to "Big Brother", "Emergency-Ward 10" to "ER", Leslie Mitchell to Davina McCall, and Richard Dimbleby to Charlie Dimmock, this companion gives you all you could wish to know about television: the programmes, the people, the companies and the history.