The bustle and banter of London’s iconic Billingsgate fish market provided the backdrop for Reg Varney’s first sitcom following his phenomenal success in On the Buses.

In the mid-Seventies, Billingsgate was Europe’s premier fish market: a muddle of boxes and barrows, merchants and white-smocked porters with their fish boxes perched precariously on their heads. East Ender Varney plays porter Reg Furnell, whose misadventures Down the ’Gate and beyond were charted over two series in the mid 1970s.

Although twelve episodes were made the only copies now known to exist are six episodes from series two that Reg Varney himself recorded off-air in 1976. Though viewers will notice a drop in picture quality compared to our normal DVD releases from this period, they are the only copies in existence.