Alun Armstrong
Meet the millennium generation - and watch them grow - sharing their hopes, struggles and achievements as the cameras return every seven years. A unique picture of modern Britain.
A man walking home from his local pub one night is tormented by a terrifying sound: The Nicky Nack.
Fiona Shaw stars in this crime drama, based on real events. After a police investigation, a young mother, confused and scared, confesses to a crime she did not commit and is charged with murder.
Set in the dark heart of Victorian London, Detective Inspector Rabbit is a hardened booze-hound who's seen it all. Rabbit's been chasing bad guys for as long as he can remember, but these days his heart keeps stopping at inopportune moments.
Prime Suspect 1973 tells the story of 22-year-old Jane Tennison's first days in the police force, in which she endured flagrant sexism before being thrown in at the deep end with a murder enquiry.
Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime.
The chaotic and violent struggle to control wealth and power in the North American fur trade in late 18th century Canada. Told from multiple perspectives, Frontier takes place in a world where business negotiations might be resolved with close-quarter hatchet fights, and where delicate relations between native tribes and Europeans can spark bloody conflicts.
Autumn of 1924. It's grouse shooting season and Rose's father-in-law invites the Crawley family to a shooting party in Northumberland.
1950s period drama based on the true story of a housewife and mother whose life is turned upside down by a handsome Polish man at her local dance hall.
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.
Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.
The story of the rise of morals crusader Mary Whitehouse in the UK in the 1960's.
Young couple Jackie and Leo move from North London to a suburban home in the green belt paradise of Southern England. At the birthday party of a neighbor, they soon discover the strict social hierarchies of village life.
The story of a couple who take in two girls from Belarus, a country that has been affected by the Chernobyl disaster.
Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.
Famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing is dispatched to Transylvania to assist the last of the Valerious bloodline in defeating Count Dracula. Anna Valerious reveals that Dracula has formed an unholy alliance with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and is hell-bent on exacting a centuries-old curse on her family.
One-off drama about the friendship that grows between two men from very different backgrounds, whose paths cross for the first time as they approach retirement age.
It tells of the events before the film, in which monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing travels to London to investigate a series of horrific, and decidedly supernatural murders, being committed by the mad scientist Dr. Jekyll, in the form of his evil alter-ego, Mr. Hyde.
Paradise Found is a biography about the painter Paul Gauguin. Focusing on his personal conflict between citizen life and his family life and the art scene in Frane. In an incredible imagery montage Gauguin manages to make a successful living in the South Pacific, while being in opposition to France.
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
The story of two lovers and their attempts to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse. John, and world-famous ice skating star, Elena, are about to sign divorce papers when they realise that, in spite of everything happening around them, their love is worth fighting for. It's All About Love is a fresh take on modern love and future life as two lovers struggle in a conspiracy of epic proportions.
Between the Sheets is a 2003 British television mini-series. This carnal, comedic drama is based around the love life and sexual hangups of several different couples that are all linked in some way. Emotional, touching, and sometimes humorous, the story follows these couples as they are forced to face their demons.
The relationship between childhood sweethearts, a farmer's daughter and boy from a rich family, turns tumultuous in this modern interpretation of Wuthering Heights.
Set in the Spain of 1680, a time of torture and interrogation by the Grand Inquisitor. A young man appears that is healing the sick and raising the dead. There are rumours that he might be the second coming of the Messiah. He is brought before the Grand Inquisitor. Though questioned and tortured, he chooses to remain silent.
In Glasgow, Toni Cocozza, age 28, aspires to be a lounge singer; his repertoire is strictly Sinatra, backed by Bill, an aging piano player and his only friend. Toni dreams big and enters a local television talent show. About that time, a local Mob boss decides Toni is great entertainment and invites him to be his guest at a casino. Toni chats up Irene, a cigarette girl, he gets an odd job or two from Chisolm, the mobster's number two, the audition goes bust, and Toni's future is uncertain. One thing leads to another with the Mob. Is Toni at a crossroads, or is there in reality no turning or going back?
It is 1997 and Adrian is now 30 and the Head Chef in a top Soho restaurant. He currently lives in the upstairs room of the restaurant; the rest of his family remain in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He is estranged from his wife Jo Jo, a Nigerian woman who has returned to her home country following their separation, and they are in the middle of a divorce. The real love of Adrian's life is, as ever, Pandora, who is now standing for Labour MP of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and tipped for power as one of Blair's Babes in the New Labour government that follows.
Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.
Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years is a British television series which was first aired on BBC One in 2001. The series was based on the fifth book from the Adrian Mole series, The Cappuccino Years. The series was produced by Tiger Aspect/Little Dancer Production for the BBC.
Bedtime was a British comedy-drama written and directed by Andy Hamilton and broadcast by the BBC. It ran for three series for a total of fifteen episodes between August 2001 and December 2003. The first two series had six episodes each and the third series had three episodes. Series 1 and 2 were released on DVD.
Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.
Harrison Lloyd is a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist. His wife and family are making it hard for him to keep his mind on his work when he's in a war zone, and he wants to change jobs to something less stressful. But he's got one last assignment, in war-torn Yugoslavia, in 1991, at the height of the fighting. Word comes back that he apparently died in a building collapse, but his wife Sarah (also a journalist for Newsweek) refuses to believe that he's dead and goes looking for him. She's helped immensely by the photo-journalists Eric Kyle and Marc Stevenson that she runs into over there; together, they're determined to make it through the chaotic landscape to Vukovar, which is not only the nexus of the war but where she believes Harrison is located. Meanwhile, Harrison's son Cesar is looking after his father's prized greenhouse, keeping hope, and flowers, alive.
This is a dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murders of the late 1970s, showing the effect that it had on the health and career of Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield who led the enquiry.
Charles Dickens' haunting semi-autobiographical tale of a boy who is sent away by his stepfather after his mother dies but manages to triumph over incredible adversities.
18th-century England and Ireland viewed through the eyes of four beautiful high-born sisters - Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians and peers.
Six London school-leavers attempt to make it in the world, balancing the challenge of trying to make a name for themselves in the music industry against the pressures and tragedies of everyday life.
Oliver Twist is a 1999 television mini-series produced by ITV based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
Rosie and Vincent know each other for ten years, and are married for five. She doesn't like her job, he isn't too pleased working with her dad. They're trying to have a baby. One morning Benoit, a Frenchman and former pen pal of Rosie, whom she never met, comes to visit. Did Rosie love him? Does she love him now?
New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. But the locals believe the culprit to be none other than the ghost of the legendary Headless Horseman.
A series of killings of bank managers has London in a turmoil, all the way up to Parliament. And the killer regularly calls about his handiwork, but only to a street-wise, and usually rather tipsy, radio reporter, about to be sacked for his habitual irreverence toward his station and the BBC. And while everything seems to point to a lead singer of a rock group famous for the "In The Red" music which has been connected to the killings, in typical British mystery fashion, there are also other sub-plots to be considered.
A pair of unexceptional suburban siblings who are drawn into a dark web of crime and danger.
A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when this was illegal, besides being a security risk.
Examines the politics and change across Britain from the Sixties to the Nineties seen through the varying fortunes of four friends.
After meeting her old school friend Sandra Delaney, who now works as a stripper, pub owner Maureen Hardcastle decides to spice up her flagging business by turning it into a male stripper club, with the help of untrustworthy businessman Billy Bowman.
Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.
The top stars from the original London and Broadway productions join together with a 150-voice chorus and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's venerated Royal Albert Hall for a truly magical gala performance of Les Misérables. You'll watch and listen time and again to the magnificent Tony Award-winning score as sung by stars forever linked to these roles.
A romantic comedy written by and starring Alexei Sayle. A couple on a first date in London are determined to find a drink after closing time, to prove to themselves that they are not careworn and middle-aged. What follows is a series of misadventures
Liverpool. 1947. A star-struck young girl learns about the grown-up world of the theater.
The past catches up with an ageing American jazz pianist when he returns to the clubs of Lancashire and Yorkshire that he last visited 10 years previously.
The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.
A close friend of MacGyver is murdered. In searching for a reason for this assassination MacGyver discovers a secret nuclear weapons plant right in the center of Britain.
When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.
In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer) hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since. He soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.
The life of Stanley Duke, a fortysomething advertising executive, is thrown into turmoil when his son is diagnosed a schizophrenic. Making matters worse, Stanley's quiet home is suddenly besieged by a plethora of women, among them his past and current wives.
Murder in Eden is a British television series directed by Nicholas Renton and featuring Ian Bannen, Peter Firth and Alun Armstrong. It was first aired on the BBC in 1991 in three episodes of 55 minutes. It was set in a remote part of rural County Donegal where a landlord of a pub murders his barmen. He is blackmailed by one of the other inhabitants, while the police are busy hunting for the killer. It was based on the novel Bogmail by Patrick McGinley.
A thinly fictionalized account of a legendary movie director, whose desire to hunt down an animal turns into a grim situation with his movie crew in Africa.
It's a big night at the New Dragon Inn when a coach of distinguished Germans arrives. But disaster looms - it's the local cricket team's annual fancy dress bash and the theme is the Second World War.
The Widowmaker is a 1990 made for television film starring Annabelle Apsion, Alun Armstrong, David Morrissey and Kenneth Welsh. The film deals with a woman whose husband has been arrested after going on a killing rampage and the reaction of her local community. It was produced In the United Kingdom by Central Independent Television for the ITV Network and aired on 29 December 1990. It received a nomination for Best Single Drama at the 1991 BAFTA Awards.
Britain in the mid-1990s: a divided, violent nation where civil disorder and urban terrorism are on the increase. Scotland Yard detective Commander Jack Bentham is seconded to Wales to look into a series of shootings by police officers, and uncovers a complex web of deceit and corruption
World War II finally reaches a Yugoslavian lake, where a lifeguard shelters a refugee and her son.
Off the wall British musical. Cocky cockney snooker player Billy Kid accepts the challenge of a grudge match from Maxwell Randall (the Green Baize Vampire), six times world champion; the loser will never play professional snooker again.
The hardships faced by a woman trying to survive a bloody civil war while caring for the abandoned child of the deposed former ruler.
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
Play based on Brian Patten's book. Local children and retired detective Moon band together to protect a leprechaun from the investigations of the local police.
Young Nicholas Nickleby sets out to make his fortune in order to prevent his mother and sister from depending upon his uncle, Ralph Nicklby. But he finds his first job as master at a Yorkshire school to be cruel, and runs away with one of the students. Meanwhile, Kate is subjected to the unwanted attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk, aided by her uncle. Nicholas and his new friend, Smike, begin their adventures and eventually set out to rescue Kate, with the usual Dickensian twists, turns and asides.
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
A journalist finds his life is in danger when he investigates the death of a woman who was involved with a religious cult.
Mr and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister's sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father's now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.
When the Duke of Vienna takes a mysterious leave of absence and leaves the strict Angelo in charge, things couldn't be worse for Claudio, who is sentenced to death for premarital sex. His sister, Isabella (a nun-in-training), however, is a very persuasive pleader. She goes to Angelo, but instead of freeing her brother, she gets an offer from Angelo to save Claudio's life if Isabella sleeps with him. The only sympathetic friend Isabella has is a priest who, in actuality, is the Duke in disguise...and he has a plan.
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
During the closing days of the Second World War, a young Czechoslovakian woman, Blanka, is caught between ideologies of the Soviet regime. Part of BBC2 Play of the Week.
British sitcom in which happy-go-lucky character Peter Barnes comically and haphazardly tries to deal with the daily frustrations his life throws at him.
Operation Market Garden, September 1944. The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
When a teacher takes a group of troubled school children on a school trip to Conwy in Wales, the children understand life outside of Liverpool.
With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair them off for good via planning first a dinner party and then that mainstay of 70s comedy, a camping expedition. Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and before you can say ‘I can see the way this is going’ we are set up for japes, larks and embarrassing incidents aplenty, which culminate in the lads getting rather fed up with their partners’ attempts to inflict the rugged outdoor lifestyle upon them and trying to hitch up and drive off with the girls still asleep in the caravan.
The miners have been locked out because they refuse to accept wage cuts. Lloyd George has sent troops to the coalfields: the revolution in Russia is fresh in people's memory.
Less than 20 years after its birth, the Labour Party forms a government with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister. Although outnumbered in Parliament by Conservatives and Liberals, Labour is the largest party. Many feel the task of legislating socialism into existence can now begin.
Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.
Jack, a lorry driver is haunted by the image of a girl he has seen, but finds that she was murdered several weeks earlier.
Playwright Christopher Hudson finds his medical problem hinders his writing. He employs secretary Sandra George and dictates his new play to her, but tensions soon develop between the two. As Hudson creates, scenes from his play are dramatized and interpolated. The play being created is Dennis Potter's Angels Are So Few, seen with a totally different cast from the 1970 BBC production.
Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brothers death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why.
