100 GREATEST TV CHARACTERS

1 – 25   26 – 50   51 – 75   76 – 100

1. Alan B'Stard (87-94) – Rik Mayall
   "Imagine what we could do. Smash the NHS, disenfranchise women, reintroduce slavery."
   
   The member for Haltemprice North, whose 26 thousand plus majority was ensured by a nasty car crash involving both his opponents. Who's Who describes his interests as "Making money, boozing, driving, dining at other peoples' expense, bonking, grinding the faces off the poor."
2. Alan Partridge (94 - present) – Steve Coogan
   "And on that bombshell"
   
   The Chris de Burgh loving purveyor of the "Sports Casual" look, who lives in a Travel Tavern, works the Radio Norwich graveyard shift and still harbours dreams of a TV chat-show return (despite the unsavoury incident involving a BBC executive and an oven ready turkey).
3. Albert Steptoe (62-74) – Wilfrid Brambell
   "AROLD!!!!!"
   
   The 'dirty old man' whose sly scheming ensures that his long suffering son 'Arold will never be able to flee the family nest. Probably the only character disgusting enough ever to eat pickled onions in the bath on national TV.
4. Alf Garnett (65-97) – Warren Mitchell
   "Stands to reason. Dunnit?"
   
   He started life as Alf Ramsay but by the first full series of 'Till Death Us Do Part' (a month after the World Cup win) he had become Alf Garnett. The debate still rages as to whether the sixties studio audience were laughing at his racist views or with them.
5. Ali G (98-Current) – Sacha Baron Cohen
   "Booyakasha"
   
   Mainstay of the Staines Massive and the creation of Sacha Baron Cohen whose thesis at Cambridge was an award winning examination of the Black Rights movement.
6. Ally McBeal (98-Current) – Calista Flockhart
   "What is so great about the real world?"
   
   The kooky lawyer with a vivid imagination and an ongoing quest for lurrve was allegedly modelled on Michelle Pfeiffer (who happens to be married to the show's writer David E. Kelley).
7. Anna Forbes (This Life) (96-97) – Daniela Nardini
   "Miles, you bastard!"
   
   Upfront, OTT, chain-smoking, heavy drinking twenty something - she packs a mean punch too, you know.
8. Arnold (Diff'rent Strokes) (80-86) – Gary Coleman
   "Whatchya talkin' about, Willis?"
   
   Harlem orphan Arnold may have been lacking in inches but his comic timing was as good as it gets with an eight year old.
9. Arthur Daley (Minder) (79-94) – George Cole
   "The world is your lobster, my son."
   
   His name has become so synonymous with dodgy dealing that legend has it that George Cole still has problems getting credit to this day.
10. Arthur Parker (Pennies from Heaven) (78) – Bob Hoskins
    "I looked like a little hippopotamus shaking its hooves."
    
    Dennis Potter's tale of a songsheet salesman with a hankering after school teacher Eileen and a tendency to burst into song.
11. B.A. Baracus (A-Team) (83-88) – Mr T
    "Murdock You Crazy Fool!"
    
    Played by Mr T, the unmistakable ex-wrestler and former bodyguard to Muhammed Ali - he dripped with gold, drove the van and was a dab hand at knocking up a cabbage-firing anti-aircraft gun using only available household implements.
12. Basil Fawlty (75-79) – John Cleese
    "Don't Mention The War!"
    
    John Cleese's first prototype of the hotelier from hell appeared in an episode of ITV sitcom Doctor in the House, but unbelievably, ...BBC bosses were lukewarm to what has become one of the all time great comedies.
13. Benny (Crossroads) (75-88) – Paul Henry
    1"Miss Doiiane"
    
    A wooly hat, perma-stubble and an eager to please nature. Benny once disappeared from Crossroads for six months after saying he was "off to look for a spanner."
14. Bet Lynch (70-95) – Julie Goodyear
    "Ey up, chuck"
    
    After a false start (her first role as a factory girl lasted just six episodes) Julie Goodyear notched up 2000 episodes in plunging leopard-skin necklines and unfeasibly complicated ear-rings as the tart with a heart.
15. Beth Jordache (92-95) – Anna Friel
    "Don't worry, I'll get him with the hammer"
    
    Former child star Anna Friel leapt to grown-up stardom with her "I'm-a-lesbian-Dad's-buried-under-the-patio" role on the world's most dangerous close.
16. Beverley (Abigail's Party) (77) – Alison Steadman
    "Cheesy Pineapple, Ang?"
    
    Queen of the mid-70s suburbia of Demis Roussos records, Pilchard Curry for tea and evenings spent in a floor-length dinner-dance party frock.
17. Blackadder (83-89) – Rowan Atkinson
    "Your brain is like the four-headed man-eating haddock-fish beast of Aberdeen. It doesn't exist."
    
    From the plague-ridden Middle Ages to the mud of the trenches, the unacceptable face of British history .
18. Budgie (71-72) – Adam Faith
    "There are two things I hate in life, Budgie. And you're both of them."
    
    Ex-teen idol Adam Faith's second taste of the big time came with the creation of the first TV criminal the audience were meant to root for. Budgie Bird was a cheeky cockerney chappie with quick fingers, big dreams and even wider lapels. .
19. Captain Mainwaring (68-77) – Arthur Lowe
    "You stupid boy"
    
    Based in part on writer Jimmy Perry's bank manager, after 80 episodes worth of the pompous and bumbling Home Guard captain it was hard to tell where Mainwaring ended and Arthur Lowe started.
20. Charlie Barlow (Z Cars, Softly Softly) (62-76) – Stratford Johns
    "Der der derrrr, de derr derrr derrr derrr"
    
    Initially created by writer Troy Kennedy-Martin as a small-town dreamer, over 25 years Barlow transformed first into a bull headed tyrant and eventually became one of the most powerful cops in Britain.
21. Charlene (Neighbours) (86-88) – Kylie Minogue
    "Strewth, Scott"
    
    The tomboy mechanic girl next door whose big hair, toothy grin and greasy overalls captured the heart of the mother country, and went on to launch the Oz invasion of the British charts.
22. Claudius (I,Claudius) (76) – Derek Jacobi
    "Poor Old Uncle Claudius"
    
    Derek Jacobi starred as the stammering yet resourceful hero in this classical drama that had the nation hooked with its heady mix of orgies, incest, nymphomania and Christopher Biggins' portrayal of the Emperor Nero.
23. Columbo (72-93) – Peter Falk
    "Ah, just one more thing"
    
    A shapeless raincoat, just the one eye and a crazy hunch that invariably nails the bad guy. How different the part of Columbo might have been if first choice, Bing Crosby, had taken on the role.
24. Compo (Last of Summer Wine) (73-2000) – Bill Owen
    "I wish you'd stay inside, Nora Batty - tha know it only excites me."
    
    After 27 years it now seems strange that confirmed Southerner Bill Owen was an unlikely choice for scruffy tyke Compo. After his death, the show's future looked bleak without its mainstay, until Owen's real son Tom was recruited to play son of Compo.
25. Dame Edna Everage (62 - present) – Barry Humphries
    "Spooky isn't it?"
    
    From humble beginnings this suburban Aussie housewife has risen to world superstardom, although she remains deeply unhappy that art-loving man of letters Barry Humphries to this day insists that Dame Edna is actually him in drag.