Basil misses out on top 50 shows

"Fawlty Towers" has been left out of a list proclaiming the 50 most influential TV shows in Britain.

11:33 23 July 2004

"Fawlty Towers" has been left out of a list proclaiming the 50 most influential TV shows in Britain.

The highly successful British comedy is among a number of famous shows omitted from the list compiled by 16 judges and published in "Broadcast" magazine. "Dad's Army" and "Only Fools and Horses" also miss out.

But shows such as "Big Brother", "Blue Peter" and "Driving School" have made it on to the list, which does not rank the shows in any particular order.

Of the 50 shows, the BBC broadcast 33, 12 were on ITV and four are from Channel 4, while Sky has one nomination for Sky News.

"Match of the Day" made it on to the list as the sole sporting entry, while "This Morning" and "Big Breakfast" were included in the daytime category.

In the battle for most influential soap, "Brookside" was included despite recently being axed by Channel 4, as was ITV's "Coronation Street", but the BBC's "EastEnders" did not make the list.

Speaking about the controversial choices, "Broadcast" magazine said: "This was never going to be an easy task. Every programme on this list had to fight furiously for its place.

"Those that did make it can claim to have been the most influential ever made - they changed the way the industry thought about television and they pushed boundaries.

"For better or worse they carved out today's television landscape."