Discovering Hamlet
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.
Casts & Crew
Gregory Doran
Jonathan Miller
John Nettles
Trevor Nunn
Christopher Plummer
Michael Radford
John Simm
David Tennant
Franco Zeffirelli
Kenneth Branagh
Laurence Olivier
Mel Gibson
Cal Saville
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy
Alan Bates
Helena Bonham Carter
Michael Caine
Glenn Close
John Gielgud
Ian Holm
Paul Scofield
Robert Shaw
Jean Simmons
Kate Winslet
Also Directed by Philip Saville
A personal take on working with Harold Pinter via intimate conversations with actors, directors and writers who share their experiences of the man and his work.
The wife of a public school head becomes gradually aware that her husband has been physically abusing his pupils, causing the death of one and brain damage and double vision in another (recreated by simply sticking mirrors beside the camera lens).Written by the master of late-middle-age morality plays, William Trevor.
The first Play for Today
A woman's unfulfilling marriage leads her into a passionate affair with a wealthy extramarital lover.
The Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse London and Broadway musical hit Stop the World, I Want to Get Off is given literal treatment in this filmization. Newley stars as Littlechap, whose allegorical rise to success is countered by the instability of his private life. Like the play, the film is staged impressionistically, with Newley decked out in mime makeup and periodically stopping the action to address the audience, and with all the women in his life -- German, American and "Typically English" -- played by a single actress (Millicent Martin, taking over from the stage version's Anna Quayle). In Wizard of Oz fashion, the play itself is lensed in color, while the brief prologue, showing the actors preparing for their performance, is in black-and-white. The production includes such standards (and perennial audition pieces) as What Kind of Fool Am I? and Gonna Build a Mountain.
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, two men had it all; one was a top screenwriter, the other a film idol. But when the witch hunts of McCarthyism swept into Tinseltown, it drove one out of the country and the other to suicide.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
Based on the fact-based novel by Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal based on his 1962 prosecution of the head of a German factory whom he learns was a murderous labour camp commandant. To be able to take him to justice, he must find witnesses who can help him. This leads him to Max Rosenberg, a still tormented individual who lost his wife, Helen, in the camps. Initially Max refuses to cooperate, but gradually his story unfolds beginning before the Holocaust.
TV play by Bernard Kops. Moss is a miser who only love is his grandson. Then tragedy strikes and Moss is "reborn".
Drama based on the true story of Deacon Brodie one of Scotland's most notorious criminals. In 1788 Deacon Brodie a master cabinet maker and town councillor is a rogue and a hedonist. He steals money but gives it back. He attempts to steal a fortune from the city's Customs and Excise office but the attempt fails and he is caught. There is a widely-publicised trial and he is sentenced to death to be hanged on the gallows he designed.
Also Directed by Lyndy Saville
For this informative new one-off, film writer Ian Nathan focuses on the first 60 years of British film, from the invention of cinema and the transition from stage to screen, to the emergence of the studios and the first popular idols. Nathan takes us through the work of leading British film-makers — a talent pool that, like Hollywood’s, benefited from the influx of refugees fleeing Europe — including Alfred Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, and many more besides.
A show commemorating the 30th anniversary of the former Beatle's death. His contemporaries and current commentators reflect on the role of John Lennon, the artist and radical thinker.
In 1967 an expressive, colourful musical force painted a backdrop of social change, fashion, love, turmoil and war. The world remembers the Summer of Love in 1967 as one of those moments when a unique and creative explosion of music and popular culture arrived in the UK and USA.
Always the epitome of style, Audrey Hepburn fittingly started out as a model before being spotted by a movie producer. Her first major film, Roman Holiday, won her an Academy Award for Best Actress and catapulted her to stardom. Further performances in Funny Face and Sabrina Fair confirmed her status as one of the most adored actresses around. But it was when she donned a Givenchy dress in Breakfast at Tiffany's that Audrey Hepburn became an enduring style icon, her name synonymous with playful decadence and grace.
The Vietnam War, a series about the Vietnam war.
Barry Cryer pays tribute to the heroes of comedy he has worked with over his many years in the business. Each episode celebrates one artist and include highlights from their comedy careers. Stars include Tommy Cooper, Ronnie Barker, Joan Rivers, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd and Morecambe & Wise and Barry recalls some of his funniest moments working with each of them.
The Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the May events in France, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, the Prague Spring, the Chicago riots, the Mexico Summer Olympics, the presidential election of Richard Nixon, the Apollo 8 space mission, the hippies and the Yippies, Bullitt and the living dead. Once upon a time the year 1968.
Discovering Cary Grant will not only momentarily bring back the actor's glory days in Hollywood, but it will also thoughtfully examine his life away from the rolling cameras. Get to know Cary on a more personal level through a well-assembled montage of classic film clips punctuated by perceptive commentaries and amusing anecdotes from a panel of highly regarded showbiz resource persons.
A celebration of extraordinary choreographed moments in a countdown of 25 of the most memorable dances in cinema history.