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I will confess that this story is not as good as I thought it would be but as time passes it does grow on me.

The cybermen themselves are back on track after their underused performance in 'The Invasion' and are seen to be a lot more cunning and manipulative. E.g. using human greed to aquire the services of a human agent. However I am disapointed that they don't have much involvement in the story until episode 3 but their performance makes up for that.

Tom Baker is excellent as the Doctor, as usual. His banter with the Cyberleader during episode three is a mixture of seriousness and silliness and thats what makes it so good.

Companions Harry and Sarah are seen to have their own mini adventure in this story trying to avoid capture by the Vogans which in by view is a very good subplot.

On first viewing the vogans arn't very impressive but like the story they do grow on you and the idea of the vogan civil war is another excellent subplot.

Weak points of this story include: quite a slow plot, missing cybermen from most of parts one and two and finally the american accent the Cyberleader appears to have picked up.

First broadcast in 1974, the ITV bedsitland sitcom Rising Damp was an instant and enduring success. It starred Leonard Rossiter as the miserly and lovelorn landlord Rigsby who is constantly needling young lodger Alan (Richard Beckinsale), a science student whose long hair and earrings are symptomatic to Rigsby of the parlous effeminacy of the modern age. He's also in love with Frances De La Tour's dowdy spinster Miss Jones, though his tentative advances are forever rebuffed. She in turn carries a torch for Philip (Don Warrington), the elegant son of an African chief who also resides at Rigsby Towers.

Some aspects of Rising Damp have not aged well, principally Rigsby's stream of racist jibes at Philip. Although these were doubtless well-meant and supposed to illustrate Rigsby's foolish bigotry, you suspect that that was a convenient cover for audiences in the 1970s to enjoy racist humour. However, Rossiter's Rigsby--stuttering, stammering, bent perpetually over backwards--remains a great comic creation, embodying all the festering prejudices, small-mindedness and self-delusion of the lower middle class Little Englander. --David Stubbs

The War Games is an epic story that sees the departure of the cosmic hobo,Patrick Troughton,the iconic 2nd Doctor,long serving companion Jamie,played by Frazer Hines and the lovely,Wendy Padbury,playing super intelligent Zoe Heriot.
The story starts with the Doctor and his companions arriving in no man's land during WW1,the great twist being,it turns out to be an alien planet with aliens casually watching kidnapped earth men despataching each other,through reinactments of various wars.
The story goes on for 10 episodes and special praise must go to Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks,for a highley imaginative script and the directon by the late,David Maloney is excellent.
The story is a lot more mature than others in season 6,setting the way for the more serious Pertwee stories.
The final episode deals with the Doctor,trying to escape,his own people,The Time Lords,Troughton is at his most manic as he tears around the TARDIS console,trying to escape capture.
The Doctor's moving speech,showing the creatures he has fought against,is very well acted,Troughton changing from indignation,to resignation as he knows he cannot escape but gives the Timelords a lot to think about.
The departure of Jamie and Zoe,is very sad,the fact that they will only remember,their first adventure with the Doctor,is very sad,indeed the recent Catherine Tate departure from the new Who, with her forgetting the Doctor entirely brought back memories of the War Games.
Zoe is returned to The Wheel In Space,and meets a character for her first story,a very nice touch,while Jamie chases a Redcoat,finally back in his beloved Scotland of 1746.
The 2nd Doctor still protesting,about his exile to 20th century earth,as he is regenerated,spinning into a void,faceless,we don't see Jon Pertwee until the next series.
A great story for Patrick Troughton and Co.to depart on,so glad it all still exists for us all to enjoy!

Everything said by other reviewers about Wilde, Fry and this production are perfectly correct. Wilde has been covered several times in the past and each production tries to portray this complex man according to the standards of the time it is made.

This production is no different. The BBC valiantly steers away from anything remotely genuinely sexual between the men. Which of course is what ruins the film. What is portrayed is largely wrong and the fact that Wilde was mostly involved on a platonic level is never properly developed. Why for example does the BBC always show him fully clothed in bed when his partner is naked? There is a need to dwell on the difference between lust and love between men and this just doesn't happen.

They prefer the viewer to put their own spin on what goes on which, with a topic of this nature is plainly absurd.

They similarly destroyed an otherwise good production on Byron. There's no hint even that the man was one of the great pedophiles of all time. Even the man's death is quickly passed over to avoid having to say what really happened.

Of course male to male sex of any kind is dangerous territory for any film maker but it can be done and of course has been done. One need only recall some of the films shown on Channel 4 to understand this.

So a great production but decidedly unbalanced.