h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That Was The Week That Was smashed broadcasting taboos when it was first aired by the BBC (for one year only) in the early 1960s, surely laying the foundations for subsequent satirical current affairs shows such as Not The Nine O'Clock News, and all that followed. Where would, for example, Mike Yarwood's Harold Wilson have been without Peter Cook's Harold Macmillan to sew the seeds of political impersonation? Relentlessly satirising the cosiness of 1950s England, TW3 came at the same time The Beatles were rolling back a pop-music scene choc-a-bloc full of earnest young men in wooden-buttoned cardigans. Britain has only ever looked back in longing fits of nostalgia.

Made Famous: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller