HISTORIAN James Howell is the man to settle any dispute about any television play or serial.

Mr Howell, who lives in Burnley, loves television drama and has completed a detailed document of just about every play and serial to have appeared on British television since 1964, complete with dates of transmission and cast lists.

He said: "It has taken about a year to compile and has been quite a labour of love.''

Copies of the meticulously hand written document have been sent to the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television at Bradford and to the reference library at Burnley.

Mr Howell said: "It is a nostalgic thing, to jog memories of programmes of peoples' lives and of the types of programme that went out.''

He own favourites were Clayhanger in 1977 and Four Beauties by H E Bates, a play broadcast as one of the Country Matters series in 1973.

Mr Howell is particularly keen on the cinema and has staged exhibitions about the history of the cinema in Burnley.

He has now almost finished another mammoth task of completing a detailed list of about 1,000 films broadcast on television in the last thirty years.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.