49) STEPHEN FRY (Presenter, writer, director, actor, bon viveur) - If one were to take a look back now at those bright young Oxbridge (and Manchester) things from the early eighties, it is clear that few of the trailblazing comedians of that time are still held in anything like high regard today. Ben Elton is fannying around with scripts about how Maggie Mae has to vanquish the Killer Queen halfway up the Stairway to Heaven (or some such gubbins), whilst Adrian Edmondson is flagellating himself on our television screens in a sitcom written by a one-time regular panellist on Channel 5's Tibs 'n' Fibs. Even Hugh Laurie, who TV Cream still quite likes has been flailing recently with the ITV flop Fortysomething. Stephen Fry, however, has remained a consistent performer amidst a team that has long since past its peak. Last year's Bright Young Things wasn't that bad really, and certainly far less insufferable then it had any right to be (we had a dreadful mental image of a roaring twenties version of Peter's Friends), and his recent stewardship on QI made for perhaps the least worst comedy panel game since Gag Tag. Of course we failed to approve of his slick-back hairstyle at the recent BAFTA awards, but for us Stephen's USP has always been his willingness to embrace his own physical awkwardness without making a big deal out of it. In addition, we would maintain that the first series of A Bit Of Fry and Laurie remains the best sketch show ever. For that reason, and his against-the-odds rather reasonable current form, he joins our list.

48) TV ARK (http://www.tv-ark.org.uk) - TV Cream only has two things against TV Ark: That it relentlessly bangs on about every award or nomination it receives (coming soon - TV Cream's logo slapped onto their front page along with "48th most influential mover and shaker!") and: That they seem to have direct access to every TV company archive ever and we're madly jealous. Yes, it's for the clippage and the clippage alone that the combined efforts of Steve Hackett, Rob Frowen, Simon Luxton, Mark McMillan, Marcus Bernard, Steve Barnes and Gareth Price find their way onto our list. With a collection of Real Player stuff that's second to none, at any one time someone in TVC Towers will be downloading something from TV Ark. Our picks are the Bucket of Water Supporter's Club song, those fantastic promos for "The EastEnders" ("I'm Ethel, I live above the doctor - in the nicest possible way of course!"), the titles to Bob's Full House (although they lose marks for curtailing the clip just as Bob's about to riff upon the letters they've received in the production office), a veritable suite of Pebble Mill at One opening credits and the mental Telethon '90 curtain-raiser. Whenever TV Cream obliquely refers to some specific moment from the annals of television and drops in an accompanying quote to boot (ie "I'm Nina Myskow, ready to reveal another of my views on life!") it's not because we've got some fantastic access to the back catalogues of television, it's because we saw it on TV Ark - and they've got some fantastic access to the back catalogues of television. For creating the best online archive of telly clips around, welcome to our top 50, boys.

47) DAVID J BODYCOMBE (Superfluous middle initial, owner of Labyrinth Games, puzzle-setter) - Whilst it may be unsuitable to refer to David J as either 'The Body' or 'The Comb', the moniker 'The Brain' does seem somehow appropriate for one of TV Cream's favourite boffins. You might know him as the bloke who compiles the fiendishly difficult Think Tank brainteasers in the Metro newspaper, but to us he's one of those back room boys that have made series such as The Crystal Maze and The Mole such compelling viewing. Add to that his imperial appearances on Radio 4's Puzzle Panel (one time, sporting a cake!), his indispensable guide to devising a game show (devilishly called How To Devise a Game Show) and his hand in the crucial http://www.ukgameshows.com (a site that we pilfer from on a regular basis), plus an ability to take the most boring of interview questions and provide riveting answers, David J Bodycombe truly is an all round good egg (head). And that he's a personal friend of TV Cream doesn't hurt.

From David: "I thank TV Cream for their generous support. Hopefully it is now a matter of months before my transformation into the new Clive Doig is complete."

46) THE DOCTOR WHO RESTORATION TEAM (Those softly-spoken chaps who put the special features on the BBC's Doctor Who DVD releases) - Any keen reader of TV Cream and its various offshoots and 'emags', can't have helped but notice the recent encroachment of the children's sci-fi show into all aspects of the TVC empire. Why has this happened? Well, it's down to the BBC's crack team of part time boffins who, as far as we know, all hold down regular jobs while de-gritting old episodes of Doctor Who and - more importantly - filling up those DVDs with some of the best archive telly around. Yes, they've got us excited about the show again. We put Pyramids of Mars into the player for Michael Sheard and the mummies, but we stay for the hidden extra bits of BBC1 continuity circa 1975. Likewise, The Three Doctors has a fantastic clip of Patrick Troughton being rude on Pebble Mill at One, The Two Doctors has got the full-length Jim'll being in a Fix With the Sontarans from 1985 and just about every single release seems guaranteed to come with a good half-hour of John, Pete and Lesley era Blue Peter to boot. Doctor Who's never really been a market leader in anything (save for rubbish explosions) but with its DVD packages it's really way out in front, and making the unearthing of idents and Phil Schofield Take Two bits appear like a commercially sustainable endeavour. Now, what chance a series of Grange Hill DVDs sporting Imelda Davies wising up Andy Crane in the Broom Cupboard, Zammo turning dissing the new theme on Going Live and the video for 'Smash Head (You Know the Teacher)'?

45) TONY CURRIE (Author, broadcaster and the friendly face of old telly enthusiasts everywhere) - A James Bond of the archive telly community, a slick and amusing public speaker often bedecked in dinner-jacket and dicky-bow, a sometime singing companion to the legend that is Tony Hatch (they go under the moniker of The Two Tones, natch), a heckling but inspired charity auctioneer ("Come on, they're out there saving lives in all weather!"), an author of one of the set-texts for entrance into TVC Towers (that'll be The Radio Times Story) and a general all round bloody nice bloke. Tony Currie is all of these things and more. Setting up his own radio station at the age of 11, Tone went on to become the voice of Radio Clyde and the face of STV. He's run cable TV stations, established satellite channels, written for Broadcast, The Listener, Radio Times, TV Times (Tony, what were you thinking?!) and The Guardian, he's installed a radio station in a local school, hosted one Kaleidoscope archive TV event and - most importantly - sent TV Cream several chatty emails. What can't the man do? Currently he's running the experimental internet radio station Radio Six International ("Bienvenue chez radio six international" - http://www.radiosix.com) with listeners in 63 countries, we're told. But better yet, he's working on a new book about the early years of ITV. Alongside all this, he's still reading the news on the radio, doing BBC1 and BBC2 continuity and also - get this! - compiling the music to accompany Pages From Ceefax at around 1am ("In the gap between the end of the late movie and the start of Sign Zone," Tony tells us). Let's face it; the man's a machine.

From Tony: "I am honoured and flattered. Your kind words make me blush. And I beat Pete Waterman!! Yaaaay!!"

44) HARRY HILL (Comedian) - He shakes his head with mock abandon: "Oh the freedom of plaits!" he cries. And a nation laughs like a drain. This throwaway comment is typical Harry Hill. Nonsensical, bizarre, dare we say, madcap? But it's this sort of stuff, coupled with a love of popular telly that has lifted him above the likes of Vic and Bob and Eddie Izzard, dropped him onto the very edge of the mainstream and turned him into one of the most powerful comedians on television today. His brilliant TV Burp, a detailed and obsessive deconstruction of the silliness of TV, is the show about telly. Sadly, although TV Burp is a critical and commercial hit - and all the while stuck in a graveyard timeslot - it's an honour for any TV show to be featured. Most production companies have no problem with Harry gently taking the piss out their programmes, except of course, the utterly humourless BBC who find it very difficult to laugh at themselves and therefore will not allow any clips of EastEnders to be used. Could it be because they're still smarting about Harry not appearing in their dreadful Christmas 2003 Shane Richie-fronted light entertainment special? Or more likely because they know how shite EastEnders is these days? Emmerdale couldn't give a toss - and good for them. Harry Hill (real name: Matthew Hall), found a niche and filled it. He's no slouch. This is the person who hired a man he caught fly-posting over posters for his comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival to become his manager. He reckoned anyone that enterprising must have a good business head, right? Riiiiiiiiiiight! So after years of hit and miss TV shows (mostly on C4 - Fruit Fancies, Harry Hill), Harry finally has a hit on his hands and seems to have taken the role of 'the man who keeps TV's feet on the ground'. This is good news for ITV, so burnt by strings of flop comedies. But still they panic that a primetime slot which this show so deserves won't deliver for them. Perhaps the Sunday afternoon repeat will broaden the fanbase (you either love him or hate him) and give them the comedy hit they crave. After all, their last smash was Barbara. So the man who famously switched from practising medicine to comedy in the late eighties, and was just that bit too late to be labelled 'alternative', is now very nearly a household name - at 39 years of age. A couple more appearances on Des and Mel and a primetime slot should ensure he's got a long and happy future ahead of him. But please, drop the badger jokes.

From Harry: "I am thrilled to be moving and shaking at 44 but was hoping for best newcomer... again."

43) STEVE GOWANS (North One Television) - Chrysalis Television is dead, long live North One Television. A management buy-out last year means that David Liddiment is now in charge, but one thing that hasn't changed is the company's ability to produce excellent nostalgia shows. It's been nearly a decade since the first episode of Top Ten, a series that was virtually single-handedly responsible for the nostalgia boom and which, for a time, was the best thing on telly. Who can forget Tony Blackburn offering us "half a pint of that lovely scrumpy they call cider", John Peel telling us to buy Napalm Death LPs or Rick Astley being interrogated by John Mundy? If there aren't as many of these shows as there used to be, North One (so called because they're in London N1) still make a decent amount, and they're normally high quality - look at The 100 Worst Pop Records for an example of how bad this genre can get. Their most recent projects have been Channel 5's eye-opening series on Bad Boys of Comedy, and The Ultimate Popstars, an unashamed big long list filling three and a half hours of a Sunday night. Steve Gowans, John Quinn, Gabriel Silver and Cari Rosen are among the guardians of the archive, and they can keep them coming at a rate of knots as far as we're concerned.

42) PETER KAY (Comedian and actor) - Given that in the past few years the expressions 'comedy classic', 'piss funny' and 'Peter Kay' have been almost synonymous, TVCs favourite Bolton lad was pretty much a shoo-in for this list. Almost single-handedly he has shown that being 'alternative' simply isn't necessary to make a splash on the comedy scene as long as you are side-splittingly funny. After a TV apprenticeship largely spent behind the scenes as a warmup man, his breakthrough came thanks to a guest spot on the Big Breakfast in 1998 and his keen ear for the comedy to be found in warm nostalgia led to his theme-singing ubiquity on just about every episode of the I Love... series. This rise to fame culminated of course in Phoenix Nights which he wrote, starred in and in parts directed. Not to mention the John Smiths adverts (so we'd rather not, thanks). His rather low placing on this list is merely a reflection of the fact that of late he seems to have gone off the boil slightly. The nagging doubt that series two of Phoenix Nights just wasn't quite as funny as the first simply won't go away and the cryptic references to "production difficulties" that have continued to delay the Max and Paddy spin-off series are not a good sign. We here at TV Cream are still confident he has more magic left in the can. After all, a man whom Bob Monkhouse felt moved to lavish with praise in his final interview surely has more to offer than the odd live video and a headline-grabbing cameo in Coronation Street.

41) BRUCE FORSYTH (Light entertainment legend) - "Now, you go first, because you were last, first... I just made that up!" Bruce never looks happier than when he's on the BBC, as proven by his exclamation "I'm delighted to be on television again!" which seems to have been tacked onto the opening spiel for every edition of the excellent Didn't They Do Well. But that's fine, because we're delighted too that he's finally returned to the place where he's produced his greatest work. Thanks to a top turn hosting Have I Got News For You, Brucie's done what they're now calling "The Bob" and rehabilitated himself in the eyes of thirty and fortysomething TV execs as a smart and relevant face for today's telly. (Of course, we, the viewers, always knew that.) A kind of travelling salesman who comes complete with a kit of established gags and catchphrases ("There will be a Brucie Bonus - where I go, my Bonuses go..."), Bruce is a major player again, who's just been awarded a big Saturday night commission, Strictly Come Dancing - a kind of celebrity Dance Academy. Saturday nights is blatantly where the public want to see him, and we reckon this format could be ace with Bruce scuttling around the floor, yapping instructions ("Kick those feet, Jamie, kick! Ooofff! No, not at me, you fool!"). Plus, it's gratifying to see him not just accommodated by BBC1, but once again integral to their plans - so much so that his involvement has stolen the headlines from the upcoming it'll-be-rubbish Johnny and Denise thing. And, let's face it, if Bruce can't woo the viewing public on a Saturday night, then the viewing public doesn't deserve their Saturday nights anyway. "Bruce, you started off your career as the Mighty Atom," Jimmy Tarbuck once chuckled, "and look at you now - the Knackered Neutron!" Not so, because Brucie's about to go nuclear again.

40-31 >