Joseph O'Conor

Anne of the Thousand Days

Henry VIII of England discards his wife, Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn.

Doomwatch

The waters surrounding an island become contaminated by chemical dumping, and people who eat fish caught in those waters become deformed and violent.

Gorgo

Greedy sailors capture a giant lizard off the coast of Ireland and sell it to a London circus. Then its mother shows up.

The Gorgon

In the early 20th century a village experienced a series of inexplicable murders. All the victims were young men who had been turned to stone. The perpetrator of these deaths was a being so repulsive that she transformed the onlooker using the power of her deadly stare. Much of the time the creature took the form of a beautiful and seductive woman, but during periods of the full moon she becomes a living horror, vicious and deadly. A professor has come to investigate the deaths, bringing with him his beautiful assistant whose knowledge of the Gorgon is more intimate than anyone would ever realise.

The Devil-Ship Pirates

A pirate ship, fighting in 1588 on the side of the Spanish Armada, suffers damage and must put into a village on the British coast for repairs. The village is small and isolated and the Spanish convince the villagers that the English fleet has been defeated and that they, the Spanish, are now their masters. This results in the villagers' sullen cooperation, but rumors and unrest begin to spread and soon the Spanish pirates find themselves facing a revolt.

Oliver!

Musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the workhouse and joins up with a group of boys headed by the Artful Dodger and trained to be pickpockets by master thief Fagin.

Lost Hearts

A young orphan, Stephen, is sent to go and live with his strange, much older cousin at his remote country house. Once there, Stephen experiences terrible dreams in which he sees a young girl and boy who are missing their hearts.

A Walk with Love and Death

During France’s Hundred Years’ War, a Parisian student seeks refuge by the sea and falls in love with an aristocrat. As they find shelter in a monastery, their romance is overshadowed by the ongoing conflict between peasants and noblemen.

Macbeth

Anthony Sher and Harriet Walter star in a highly-acclaimed screen version of William Shakespeare's classic story of tyranny and ambition. On the stage this Royal Shakespeare Company presentation was universally lauded. Following sell-out seasons at Statford's Swan Theatre and in London, the production played Japan and in the United States, where The New York Times praised director Gregory Doran's interpretation as a "harrowing and disturbingly funny parable for the dawn of the 21st century". To make this compelling screen version, Gregory Doran worked with all of the original cast and filmed at London's Roundhouse. Brilliantly shot by director of photography Ernie Vincze, the production uses the edgy techniques of fly-on-the-wall documentaries. The effect is raw, intimate and strikingly dynamic.

Father Dear Father

After divorcing his wife, Patrick Glover decides it is time to remarry, and chooses his literary agent, only to then mistakenly propose to the cleaning lady. Part of his reason for wanting to remarry is to regain some control over his wayward daughters, but they and their lovers continue to complicate his home and his life... A farcical comedy full of hilarious confusions, this feature-length version of the popular sitcom Father, Dear Father is a real gem of British humour at its best.

Yellow Dog

A Japanese cop is sent to join the London police force on a secret investigation.

Crooks in Cloisters

Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit.

Worm in the Bud

An elderly man living on his own in Belfast rouses the suspicions of his neighbors.

Elizabeth

The story of the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Robert Dudley.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

In 1429, a French teenager stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. As she reclaims God's diminished kingdom, this courageous young woman has various amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.

The Forbidden Quest

In 1941, an Irish documentary filmmaker hears of a man named J.C. Sullivan, who may know the fate of the Hollandia, a Norwegian ship that sailed to Antarctica in 1905 and disappeared. Sullivan was the carpenter on that ill-fated voyage and is the last known surviving crewmember of the Hollandia. When interviewed, Sullivan presents the filmmaker with canisters of old film footage which back up his unbelievable tale.

The Black Windmill

A British agent's son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can't even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.

The World of George Orwell: 1984

Early adaption of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as part of the Theatre 625 series.

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.

A Private Battle

A dramatization of the story of noted writer/journalist Cornelius Ryan, author of "The Longest Day," and the valiant battle against terminal cancer that led him to write about his ordeal, with the help of his loving wife, while at the same time determined to complete "A Bridge Too Far," which he had spent years researching.

The Ghost of Adelphi Terrace

J. M. Barrie has an evening with George Bernard Shaw. Later, alone at home, he hears the voice of his dead mother.

The Rose Affair

A young woman befriends a lonely millionaire with a disfigured face whose ruthless business practices are threatening to ruin her father. A modern take on the old story of Beauty and the Beast.

The Prime Minister's Daughter

In a fictitious English parliament, various tactics are employed in the pursuit of power, even to the extent of bismerching member's of a politician's family.

Penny Gold

While investigating a murder case, a detective stumbles upon a rare-stamp swindle involving the victim's twin sister.

No Place Like Earth

Earth is no more, destroyed by nuclear war; but itinerant handyman Bert Foster, wandering the canals of Mars, is possessed by a restlessness for a home which no longer exists. He considers a move to an isolated outpost on Venus.

John Diamond

William Jones runs away from home, haunted by the memory of his father. To lay this ghost, he must search the back streets of London for a man called Diamond.

The Possessed

Adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel about liberal discussion versus revolutionary action in a provincial Russian town in the mid-nineteenth century.

Tom & Viv

The story of the marriage of the poet T. S. Eliot to socialite Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which had to cope with her gynaecological and emotional problems and his growing fame.

Henry VI Part 1

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Romeo and Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

Othello

Iago and a comrade-in-arms are outside the Venice home of Desdemona's father, who does not yet know that she has eloped with Othello. Iago confides to his friend -- who had hoped to marry Desdemona -- that he serves Othello to further his own ends. Venice needs Othello to protect its commercial interests in Cyprus where the Turkish fleet is headed. Desdemona insists on going to Cyprus, too. In Cyprus, Iago plots to convince Othello that Desdemona has betrayed him with Cassio. A lot more than political ambition seems to be motivating Iago.

Paul Temple's Triumph

A husband-and-wife detective team look into the murder of one of her friends, whose father--a prominent scientist--has been kidnapped. They find themselves up against a sinister crime organization headed by a mysterious figure known only as "Z".

The Day of the Fox

"In Jan Carew’s explosive drama, Sammy Davis Jr gives a memorable performance as a proud but disillusioned revolutionary who aims to destroy the remnants of white colonial rule in a new African nation. The political themes explored remain incredibly prescient." - BFI

The Dark Crystal

On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.

The Copyist

A fateful day in the life of a great composer. A play with music

Twentieth Century Theatre: Colombe

A diva of the Paris stage transforms her mousy daughter-in-law into an attractive ingenue to spite her hated son, away on military service.

Immortality

A vampire in London is searching for the ideal woman to 'redeem' him.