An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.
Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns (very large long range guns capable of shooting at ranges more than 100 miles). When an operational plan by the CIA to export sanctioned arms to apartheid-South Africa through him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released, and moved to Belgium to start a subsidiary, of which a major project was to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles.
When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.
When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place.
A charismatic 17th-century French priest becomes the target of a sexually obsessed nun’s witchcraft accusations, which corrupt church and state officials are all too happy to exploit.
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Born James Henry Miller in 1915, MacColl became prominent on the folk scene in the 1950s and was also a labour activist and actor. This affectionate documentary offers insights into all these aspects of his life and features new versions of some of his songs, including The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Contributors include Billy Bragg and his widow, Peggy Seeger.
In the 19th century, Romantic composer/pianist Franz Liszt tries to end his hedonistic ways but keeps getting sucked back in by his seductive fellow composer Richard Wagner.
Two sets of identical twins are accidentally switched at birth. One pair, Phillipe and Pierre DeSisi, are aristocratic and haughty, while the other, Charles and Claude Coupé, are poor and dim-witted. On the eve of the French Revolution, both sets find themselves entangled in palace intrigue.
Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime - the “ritual murder” of a Gentile child in Kyiv. We witness the unrelenting detail of the peasant handyman's life in prison and see him gain in dignity as the efforts to humiliate him and make him confess fail.
Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
A Russian ballet dancer defects from the USSR, emigrates to England, and joins a ballet company run by a powerful, wealthy lady (Joan Collins).
Several old college friends converge at a mansion, ostensibly for a pleasant reunion. Larry Dann, the most easygoing of the bunch, comes to the conclusion that all is not well in the old dark house. For one thing, he's run across several people whom he's never met. For another, they all seem to be of a different time and place.
A documentary exploring Bill Douglas' struggle from childhood poverty to acclaimed filmmaker of Comrades and the Trilogy.
A mysterious series of suicides fills the people of a small town with anxiety. Shortly before her eighteenth birthday, Kirsten sets out to solve the mystery.
A magical blend of choreography, stop-motion and live action, Stories from a Flying Trunk captures the enchantment of three classic stories from Hans Christian Andersen. Conceived, written and directed by Oscar nominated Christine Edzard and featuring the dancers of the Royal Ballet, choreographed by Frederick Ashton. The Kitchen contains household objects which come to life and hold an animated conversation. The Little Match Girl updates Andersen's heart-rending tale to London's East End in the late seventies. Little Ida is an inspired celebration of dance featuring members of the Royal Ballet.
Based on the novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift and built around the Lilliput and Blefuscu episode. It was made partly in live action and partly animated.
The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.
Lady Booby alias 'Belle', the lively wife of the fat landed squire Sir Thomas Booby, has a lusty eye on the attractive, intelligent villager Joseph Andrews, a Latin pupil and protégé of parson Adams, and makes him their footman. Joseph's heart belongs to a country girl, foundling Fanny Goodwill, but his masters take him on a fashionable trip to Bath, where the spoiled society comes mainly to see and be seen, but drowns in the famous Roman baths. When the all but grieving lady finds Joseph's Christian virtue and true love resist her lusting passes just as well as the many ladies who fancy her footman, she fires the boy. He's found and nursed by an innkeeper's maid, which stirs lusts there, again besides his honorable conduct, but is found by the good parson.
A government team researching cures for plague find their results put on the Official Secrets list. One of their number is so incensed by this that he lets the maimed and jealous companion of a female colleague draw him into what, technically, could be a treasonable act.
Hiding out in an industrial wasteland from the murderous wrath of a regional ruler, a woman, disguised as a boy, gives wooing lessons to the edgy lad who proclaims he loves her.
A meek undertaker becomes trapped in a violent world when a gangster enlists him to dispose of a growing number of corpses.
A pirate crewman kills his captain after learning where he has hidden his buried treasure. However, as he begins to lose his memory, he relies more and more on the ghost of the man he just murdered to help him find the loot.
A group of crooks accidentally kill an elderly shop assistant while stealing the keys to the jewellery shop where she works. When his superiors think that the case is better handed over to Scotland Yard, the local detective inspector, Sparrow, decides to go solo to investigate the crime himself.
On arrival at British Albion, Mr Gryce felt that his lack of ambition would be completely fulfilled. There was a luncheon voucher scheme, a pension fund, paid holidays - and (apparently) nothing much doing between the hours of nine to five. Then his colleagues began to take an unhealthy interest in him. They asked questions he couldn't answer, and answered questions he hadn't asked. Only the lovely Pam made life bearable, but even she was not quite what she seemed....
A young man leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.
Twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are raised in east London, under the influence of their hateful but doting mother Violet. As they grow up, Ronnie's violent nature takes over, and Reggie follows his brother's lead. The two become notorious crime lords who rule over the East End club scene. But at the height of their power, the brothers veer into different lives, giving the older crime bosses a chance to reclaim what the Krays took from them.
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
The outrageous life of the American dancer of the 1920s, Isadora Duncan, whom Ken Russell described as "part genius and part charlatan".
A costume drama / satire about financial skull-duggery, and confidence tricksters in both the upper and lower classes in Victorian London. A working class man impersonates a lord who is supposedly very rich and a financial wizard. As such he is invited to all the best peoples' parties.
Another stab at Henry Fielding's hilarious novel about the amorous misadventures of a dashing young man in 18th century England. The brilliant 1963 version, starring Albert Finney as the lusty hero, won four Oscars. Joan Collins does a great job as a Wicked Lady style highwaywoman.
Hell on Earth is a documentary about Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils. Film critic Mark Kermode chats to Russell as well as two of the film’s stars, Georgina Hale and Murray Melvin. Also included are scenes that were cut from the released film for being too controversial.
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Terry 'The Taxman' Tempest, the greatest bank robber there ever was, whose true identity was never discovered, finds himself languishing in a dilapidated care home with only elderly confidence trickster Professor Humboldt Worth for company. When Terry and The Professor discover all is not right in the care home, the bickering pair are forced to put their differences aside, dust off their criminals skills, step onto the other side of the law and save the day.
A man has an affair with his condemned brother's girlfriend while plotting his escape in Tangier.
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
Two young women arrive in London to make it big in show business, and become corrupted by money and fame in the process.
During World War One an English adventurer, an American elephant poacher and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battle-cruiser which is awaiting repairs in an inlet just off Zanzibar. The story is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith, which in turn is very loosely based on events involving the light cruiser SMS Königsberg, which was sunk after taking refuge in Rufigi delta in 1915.
Barney Lincoln is a rambling gambling man who scores sensational wins at poker and chemin de fer because he has succeeded in marking the original plates for the backs of all the playing cards manufactured in a plant in Geneva and used in all the gambling joints in Europe. In his gambling depredation, Barney is spotted by Angel McGinnis, the daughter of a Scotland Yard Inspector 'Manny' McGinnis on the lookout for a man to do a job. The inspector enlists Barney's help in playing poker with a shady London character whom Scotland Yard wants to force to financial ruin.
Thomas Wilkins has faithfully worked his entire life on Saville Row. Suddenly he is fired by his boss Mr Gerald, who wants a younger man with new ideas. Thomas advertise under "Lonely Hearts" and receives an answer.
A couple uses extremely black comedy to survive taking care of a daughter who is nearly completely brain dead. They take turns doing the daughter's voice and stare into the eyes of death and emotional trauma with a humour that hides their pain.
A tough nun (Anna Massey) demands belief and obedience from convent schoolgirls (Katrin Cartlidge, Oona Kirsch) in World War II England.
Three hapless directors arrive in England from Italy to make a documentary on their idol. The funny thing is, they have no interviews lined up! Not to worry, these guys have a miracle or two that they call in.
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
The medieval legend of a supernatural knight who challenges the king's men to kill him.
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well; first, the journey proves more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food.
Undistinguished British farce (in Technicolor and CinemaScope). Stoker Charlie (the diminutive Drake) helps 150 Wrens under Superintendent Maxine Audley, who've hijacked a frigate, HMS 'Huntress', to prove they're the equal of their male counterparts. Hardly a feminist masterpiece, but fans will relish the nightmare court-martial in which Drake plays all the parts
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
In the near future, where Earth has been devastated by man's pollution and giant winds rule the planet, bounty hunter Matt kidnaps a murderer out of the hands of two police officers, planning to get the bounty himself.
A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.
Tom Canty is a poor English boy who bears a remarkable resemblance to Edward, Prince of Wales and son of King Henry VIII. The two boys meet and decide to play a joke on the court by dressing in each other's clothes, but the plan goes awry when they're separated and each must live the other's life.
A documentary about Peter Medak's unreleased film 'Ghost in the Noonday Sun', starring Peter Sellers and filmed in Cyprus in 1973.
Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.
Bristol, England, early 19th century. A beautiful young stranger who speaks a weird language is tried for the crime of begging. But when a man claims that he can translate her dialect, it is understood that the woman is a princess from a far away land. She is then welcomed by a family of haughty aristocrats that only wants to heighten their prestige. However, the local reporter is not at all convinced she is what she claims to be and investigates. Is Caraboo really a princess?
A self-proclaimed "knight" and his hapless squire travel the Spanish countryside, attacking "giants" that are really windmills in his attempt to win the love of the fair Dulcinea.
A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.
The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.
Professor Monty Lafcado, haunted by the memory of his late mother, sets out to construct a mighty computer in his basement, much to the concern of his friend, Dr Pugh.
An all-new 72 minute featurette including interviews with Director/Producer Stephen Weeks, Actors Larry Dann and Murray Melvin, British Horror Icon Barbara Shelley, and composer Ron Geesin.
T-Bag: the Reunion Documentary is a set of interviews done with multiple actors and the crew of the Tv series of the same name