When I did this sort of stuff, I used Ilford Ortho film and developed by
inspection (using a very dim red light), usually using a Universal
Developer (Ilford or Paterson) as these are very clean working (i.e. give
little base fog). I have also used Amidol developers.
The universal developers can also be used with panchromatic films such as
Ilford FP4, but there you have to work by time/temperature. I would have
thought HC110 would also be a suitable developer.
Peter