Dennis Potters six-part 1978 BBC serial remains a UK television masterpiece technically daring, emotionally devastating, powerfully acted and, of course, brilliantly scripted.
In the 1930s, sheet music salesman Bob Hoskins, torn between frigid wife Gemma Craven and sensual schoolteacher Cheryl Campbell, descends into agony, exploding occasionally into mimed period songs that illuminate frustrated dreams and the horrors drawing near. Often imitated, and made into an overblown movie, the original is the one to have.