Alec McCowen

It's 1863. America was born in the streets. Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.

7.5/10
7.3%

Tale of 19th century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.

7.2/10
8.3%

Maria is a dancer who becomes pregnant, unexpectedly, and has to decide whether or not to keep the baby. When her live-in boyfriend, who is not the father, admits to cheating on her, she kicks him out. Still unable to decide what to do, she imagines a dialogue with the fetus.

Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (also known as The Animated Shakespeare) is a series of twelve half-hour animated television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, originally broadcast on BBC2 between 1992 and 1994. Macbeth was a cel animation directed by Nikolai Serebryakov

Alec McCowen's award-winning solo performance of the St Mark Gospel.

Gritty adaption of William Shakespeare's play about the English King's bloody conquest of France.

7.5/10
10%

A summer evening in Edinburgh, 1776. The ailing philosopher David Hume has an unexpected visitor.

A dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.

7.4/10
7.6%

The story of the rise of a madame of a suburban brothel catering to older men, inspired by the real experiences of Cynthia Payne. The story follows Christine Painter (Julie Walters) as the down-at-heel waitress who, with the help of prostitute Shirley (Shirley Stelfox) and cross-dressing Wing Commander Morten (Alec McCowen), seeks to up her earnings by turning her suburban home into a brothel. Before long she and her girls are chaining up judges, spanking Generals and attending to the needs of Honourable Members. Christine sees herself as providing a vital service to these harmless pervs and when finally the house is busted and the case comes to court, it's fair to say that the presiding judge isn't unfamiliar with her work.

6.4/10
6.7%

Adaptation from the play by Oscar Wilde.

7.3/10

An insecure, aggressive widow of a tea garden manager reluctantly develops an affectionate relationship with an Indian housewife and her family.

6.5/10

An account of how Lech Walesa and the "Solidarity" trade union confronted the might of Communist dictatorship in Poland.

7.4/10

Mr Palfrey of Westminster was a British television drama produced by Thames Television, which ran in 1984–85.

8.3/10

James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 one more time to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuclear blackmail. But Bond has an ally in Largo's girlfriend, the willowy Domino, who falls for Bond and seeks revenge. This is the last time for Sean Connery as Her Majesty's Secret Agent 007. Made outside of the traditional Broccoli production environment due to separate rights having been obtained for this specific Ian Fleming story.

6.2/10
6.7%

After a chance meeting and an indiscreet conversation, childhood friends Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley become involved in a convoluted intrigue led by a mysterious man known simply as Mr. Brown.

7.3/10

A lonely young boy idolizes his local priest. An old acquaintance of the priest shows up one day, and the boy learns that his idol isn't exactly what he seems to be--it turns out that many years before, the priest had betrayed his friend, and now his friend has come back for revenge.

6.7/10

A workaholic persuades a lonely unmarried lady to pose as his wife. Soon she starts wondering about his past, and things start to go downhill.

8/10

Viola and Sebastian are lookalike twins, separated by a shipwreck. Viola lands in Illyria, where she disguises herself like her brother and goes into the service of the Duke Orsino. Orsino sends her to help him woo the Lady Olivia, who doesn't want the Duke, but finds that she likes the new messenger the Duke's sending. Then, of course, Viola's brother shows up, and merry hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle and his cohorts are trying to find some way to get back at Olivia's officious majordomo, Malvolio.

7.8/10

Margaret is a nurse in England during WW2, and married to a secret agent. Things get complicated when she falls for David, an American pilot.

6/10
5.7%

The life of King Henry the Fifth.

7.7/10

For a poet with a gift for crafting words into barbs, Stevie Smith lives a relatively conventional life. Sheltered in a London suburb, she spends her days engaged in tedious housework, crafting verse and conversing with her aunt. But while her body may be committed to drudgery, Stevie's mind is constantly trying to break free, which causes her to rail against religion and middle-class values, and prevents her from finding happiness with a man interested in her.

6.7/10
6.7%

Divorced couple Amanda and Elyot have both recently remarried. On their honeymoons, however, they discover that they have accidentally booked adjoining suites at the same hotel. Containing some of Coward's best dialogue, the play revolves around the agonising realisation that despite their ferocious incompatibility, they are still drawn to each other.

7.8/10

After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he's the wrong man.

7.4/10
9%

At his mother's funeral, stuffy bank clerk Henry Pulling meets his Aunt Augusta, an elderly eccentric with more-than-shady dealings who pulls him along on a whirlwind adventure as she attempts to rescue an old lover.

6.5/10

Len climbs Veronica and Percy’s fence intent on burglary, but what really happens next? The three acts of the play show the incident from each of the three perspectives.

A wanderer returns home only to find political turmoil, disease and romantic difficulties.

6.1/10

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

5.8/10
6.7%

A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy's reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as the Governor's prize runner.

7.6/10
7.3%

The Mediterranean, 1941/42 - Axis forces are using frogmen and manned torpedoes to attack previously impregnable harbours. The Allied forces need to come up with something to answer this threat, which they find in the form of Lt. Lionel "Buster" Crabb.

6.6/10

About a young artist, his wife and a doctor who, when the artist suffers from consumption, uses his limited serum on a more worthwhile case. (BFI Website)

5.9/10

The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.

7.9/10
10%

When an attractive young girl is murdered, suspicion falls on several members of the local tennis club. It falls to Police Inspector Halloran to sort out all the red herrings, and finally after a confrontation at the top of the local church spire, arrest the culprit. Another fascinating look at what life was like in Britain during the 50's.

6.4/10

Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only german prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.

7.2/10

The story revolves around the Dinky Doos, a provincial musical troupe living from hand to mouth.

5.8/10

Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Agnes, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec's father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son's name while battling "the bottle."

6.8/10

A woman is unhappy in her marriage to a boring, stiff judge, so she takes up with a wild-living RAF pilot, who ends up being more than she can handle. (TCM.com)

6.6/10

At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer

7.5/10