Five-Minute Films: Probation

Mike Leigh’s much praised 2010 tragicomical drama. During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

Theatrical packaging of three comic shorts: Dean Parisot and Steven Wright's "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" (1988), Michael Moore's "Pets or Meat" (1992), and Mike Leigh's "A Sense of History" (1992).

Sentimental pirates, blundering policeman, absurd adventures and improbable paradoxes – Gilbert and Sullivan’s dazzling The Pirates of Penzance comes to ENO in a highly anticipated new production from renowned film maker and director Mike Leigh. This much-loved comic opera is a showcase of brilliant humour and razor-sharp wit and features a sparkling score chock-full of memorable melodies and catchy tunes.

After their production "Princess Ida" meets with less-than-stunning reviews, the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan is strained to breaking. Their friends and associates attempt to get the two to work together again, which opens the way to "The Mikado," one of the duo's greatest successes.

A slow-witted couple decide to start a family.

A window cleaner fancies a sausage roll, but all is not well in the sausage roll factory.

Two couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland. Both women are expecting babies, both couples tell offbeat stories, both couples get by with what little they have. Yet Mike Leigh allows his actors to show not how much but how little these two couple have in common. "Four Days in July" is wonderful yet scathing look at the turmoil that has engulfed Northern Ireland for generations.

A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence.

Leigh's comedy short follows Gary's (Lee Ingleby) attempt to buy a second-hand car. What should be a straightforward task is turned into something of a quest by various people, including dodgy East End car dealer Perry (Eddie Marsan), Perry's taxi-driver dad (Sam Kelly), a garage owner called Derek (Robert Putt) and, not least, Perry's wife Debbie (Samantha Spiro). Oh, and a couple of twins (Danielle and Nichole Bird) are thrown into the mix to cause further confusion. The narrative's series of gags are shot through with sporting references and images of everyday folk taking part in grassroots sports. The swimmers, joggers, cyclists, five-a-side footballers and the rest underline the importance of sport, however casual, to the population in general and the East End of London in particular in this Olympic year. [Source -- Channel 4]

Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.