Aidan McArdle

A black comedy set in a working-class Dublin hair salon where the stylists become accidental vigilantes and community heroes as they take on the gang members and gentrifiers threatening their community.

Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.

7.3/10
4.1%

Over a five month period in 1955 four women are stabbed to death in Montmartre after dark, a prostitute and a midwife among them - women with nothing in common beyond being brunette. Justice minister Morel leans on chief Inspector Maigret to catch the murderer and Maigret sets a trap, using policewoman Marthe Jusserard as a decoy. She survives an attack, sartorial evidence leading to married mother's boy Marcel Moncin, whom Maigret arrests. However whilst Moncin is in custody there is a further murder and Maigret looks to Moncin's family to help solve the murders.

A coming-of-age story set in 1919 about 14 year old Faisal, an Arab prince who is dispatched from the deserts of Arabia to London by his warrior father, Prince Abd Al-Aziz, on a high stakes diplomatic mission to secure the formation of his country.

7.5/10

Seanie is a lonely, borderline delusional man who empties bins on the sparse stretches of motorways that haven’t been populated with service stations yet. He’s also responsible for picking up the rubbish that is illegally dumped around the outskirts of the town. Flo is a belligerent teenage girl on her first day doing community service for spraying graffiti around the town. Today is their first day working together and their attitudes to both rubbish and art couldn’t be any more different. When they catch a couple illegally dumping on a roadside, a feverish chase ensues. Seanie & Flo is a short comedy about learning when to break the rules.

In 1847, when Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years, Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, returns home to reunite with his estranged family, only to discover the cruelest reality, a black land where death reigns.

6.8/10
7.8%

Clean Break is a drama series commissioned by RTÉ One and produced by Octagon Films. Frank is a car dealer running out of fiscal rope. He kidnaps the local bank manager’s family, which gets him into serious trouble.

6.4/10

All is well in the Prendergast household. Or, at least, that is what Jonathan Prendergast would have you believe. But his relationships with his wife and teenage daughter, and his own sanity, are put to the test when he becomes maniacally obsessed with driving off his daughter's handsome new boyfriend. https://vimeo.com/202706238

7.7/10

Still mourning the untimely death of his wife, Bella, Hastings is summoned to Styles Court in Styles St. Mary by his old friend Poirot. Styles is being run as a modest post-war guest house, and it is here that Hastings makes a gut-wrenching discovery: Poirot's health has taken a turn for the worse. The Belgian detective is now old, gaunt, arthritic, and confined to a wheelchair as he battles a weak heart. But his little gray cells are as active as ever, which is why Poirot has called him to Styles in the first place - a murderer is in their midst, and may be ready to strike again.

Quirke is the chief pathologist in the Dublin city morgue – a charismatic loner whose job takes him into fascinating places as he investigates sudden deaths in 1950s Dublin. His pleasures in life are raw and deep, a drink, a smoke, good food, a woman: With one woman in particular – his adoptive brother's wife Sarah and the forbidden love that has shaped and dominated Quirke's life.

6.9/10

Powerful historical drama series, based on the lives of real people, telling the story of young 19th-century apprentices taking their lives into their own hands for the first time.

7.5/10

Vatican investigators are sent to the British West Country to investigate paranormal activity, and they find the events are more disturbing than they first imagined.

5.8/10
8.1%

Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find himself transformed into a large insect. After the metamorphosis, he becomes confined to his room and neglected by his family.

6.2/10

Michael Garrett, a New York corporate troubleshooter, is sent to a small town in Ireland to close a deal on a construction site believed to be inhabited by leprechauns. Michael sets out to get the approval of the town’s leprechaun expert, Sarah Cavanaugh, and soon finds that is easier said than done.

6.2/10

Sally Wilson's daughter Amanda is stricken with a brain tumour and each day, her condition appears to be worsening. Sally is at her wits end as to how to help her daughter and knows a life saving operation in America that she can't afford would be the answer. When the harassed single Mum is called to the office of a swish city lawyer, she never expects a life or death proposition. She’s been bequeathed £5 million! But in order to qualify for this amazing transfer of funds, Sally must first kill a man who deserves to die.

6.2/10

Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.

5.7/10
4%

A drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role.

8/10

The film follows the fortunes of an avant garde Morris team in their struggle to evolve Morris Dancing.

6.3/10

The true tale of pioneering 18th century barrister William Garrow, who acted as counsel for the accused, introducing the concept of 'innocent until proved guilty' at London's Old Bailey.

8.3/10

A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.

6.9/10
6.2%

Beautiful People is a British comedy drama television series based on the memoirs of Barneys creative director Simon Doonan. The series takes place in Reading, Berkshire, in 1997, where thirteen-year-old Simon Doonan and his best friend Kylie dream of escaping their dreary suburban surroundings and moving to cosmopolitan London "to live amongst the beautiful people." The first episode aired on BBC Two on 2 October 2008 and recorded overnight ratings of 1.5 million viewers and positive critical reaction. Episodes are self-contained, but do follow a loose story arc throughout the course of each series. The second and final series finished airing on 18 December 2009.

8.3/10

Charlotte Bronte's classic about an orphan girl who grows up to become a governess in a gloomy manor in Yorkshire, where she falls in love with the mysterious Edward Rochester.

8.3/10

Albert Einstein's greatest contributions to humanity....

7.8/10

Paralysed from the waist down after a car crash, Julie Hill struggles to get used to her disability and to save her marriage. It looks as if her husband will leave her. Then doctors try a revolutionary treatment which feeds electrical impulses to her leg muscles - allowing her to ride a bicycle once again and so go out for bike rides with her family. Her marriage survives and she and her husband end up closer together than before.

6.5/10

In the spring of 1913, Parisian businessman Gabriel Astruc opens a new theater on the Champs Elysées. The first performance is the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', danced by the Ballet Russes. The rehearsal process is extremely fraught: the orchestra dislike Stravinsky's harsh, atonal music; the dancers dislike the 'ugly' choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky. The volatile, bisexual Nijinsky is in a strained relationship with the much older Sergei Diaghilev, the Ballet Russes' charismatic but manipulative impresario. Public expectation is extremely high after Nijinsky's success in 'L'apres-midi d'un faune'. Finally, 'The Rite of Spring' premieres to a gossip-loving, febrile, fashion-conscious Parisian audience sharply divided as to its merits.

7.2/10

Drama following the tensions and romantic crises among a group of friends over the course of a single wedding day.

6.3/10

Ella lives in a magical world in which each child, at the moment of their birth, is given a virtuous "gift" from a fairy godmother. Ella's so-called gift, however, is obedience. This birthright proves itself to be quite the curse once Ella finds herself in the hands of several unscrupulous characters whom she quite literally cannot disobey. Determined to gain control of her life and decisions, Ella sets off on a journey to find her fairy godmother who she hopes will lift the curse. The path, however, isn't easy -- Ella must outwit a slew of unpleasant obstacles including ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, elves and Prince Charmont's evil uncle, who wants to take over the crown and rule the kingdom.

6.3/10
5%

Written and directed by playwright Terry Johnson, the film tells the story of the working and personal relationship between the comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, a hugely popular duo in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing primarily on Cook, the film traces the pair from their first meeting through their career as part of the Beyond the Fringe review, their television series Not Only... But Also (from which the film takes its title) and various other projects before their later estrangement as Moore became a successful Hollywood film star and Cook remained in the UK. Although some events are fictionalised and condensed, and the film was criticised in some quarters for an unsympathetic portrayal of many of Cook's faults, it was generally well-received critically.

7.4/10