Bernard Hill
A former opera singer, a priest and a bullfighter meet on the island of Patmos, seeking redemption; their encounter will affect each other’s lives irrevocably.
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.
BBC Horizon follows the ups and downs of an outstanding story in particle physics. In June 2015, teams at CERN started running the large hadron collider at the highest energy ever. Rumours quickly emerged that they were on the brink of a huge discovery. An enigmatic bump in some data suggested a first glimpse of a brand new particle that could change our understanding of how the universe works.
For decades the criminal underworlds of the North and South bumped along begrudgingly. Like the Cold War, territories were respected out of the necessity to avoid apocalypse, with each side keeping tabs on the other’s capability. Such a precarious false harmony could not last forever. Now someone has crossed the line, and there’s no going back. An illicit love affair smolders, breaking taboo and threatening catastrophe at the smallest mistake. It is a romance of purest, unadulterated love, yet so forbidden that its discovery would wreak total carnage. The story is told through vignettes of strikingly original characters, with intertwining subplots that echo the complexity of life in the dog-eat-dog criminal underworld.
Following the fact-based historical book of the same name, this drama follows the rise of Cromwell as he becomes Henry the VIII's closest advisor. England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
From There To Here is set in the aftermath of the 1996 Arndale bombing and follows Daniel Cotton, a Manchester family man who is torn between the life he wants and the life he could have.
Hope and Wire is a dramatized edition of what happened to a group of New Zealanders after the 2010 Christchurch earthquakes telling the "real story". They didn't need any extra drama, Christchurch survivors know that.
In the town of Blithe Hollow, Norman Babcock can speak to the dead, but no one other than his eccentric new friend believes his ability is real. One day, Norman's eccentric uncle tells him of a ritual he must perform to protect the town from a curse cast by a witch centuries ago.
Set in an alternative past where steam power still rules the world, Outpost 11 is the story of three soldiers manning a remote listening post in the Arctic Circle. One day the warning light goes off unexpectedly and their world is plunged in to chaos. Albert, Mason and Graham must fight the isolation, madness and arctic spiders to survive. Think 'The Thing' plus 'How I Ended this Summer' mixed with 'Videodrome.'
James Cameron brings together some the world's leading Titanic experts, including engineers, naval architects, artists and historians, to solve the lingering mysteries of why and how the 'unsinkable' ship sank.
Exodus charts the decline of the Protestant population from Derry’s Cityside - which saw up to one in five of the City’s population leave their homes over a thirty year period. Directed and produced by Vinny Cunningham and John Peto, Exodus is the final film in the three part trilogy that commenced with Battle of the Bogside and No Go: Free Derry.
The dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes.
Set between the parallel worlds of contemporary London and the futuristic faith dominated metropolis of Meanwhile City, Franklyn weaves a tale of four souls, whose lives are intertwined by fate, romance and tragedy. As these worlds collide, a single bullet determines the destiny of these four characters.
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
The compelling story of one of the most successful mountain gorillas that has ever lived - a huge silverback called Titus. The programme starts in 1967, when the researcher Dian Fossey first made contact with a group of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. She opened up a window on to their secret lives. Forty years on, this film reveals the complete and dramatic life story of one individual animal. Titus's father was murdered by poachers in front of his very eyes. His mother abandoned him in the subsequent chaos. His family disintegrated. He should have died. But we reveal how Titus survived against all the odds. Titus's present day trials and tribulations take the viewer back in time to reveal key moments in Titus's history. Using testament from eyewitnesses, the film relives one individual mountain gorilla's extraordinary battle for survival.
Tensions mount in an Andalusia mining town between local Spanish workers and their British employers.
Con artists profit from a charity campaign to raise money for a fictitious hospital.
A sequel to the BBC's acclaimed Monsoon Railway. A two-part documentary looks at the incredible organisation that is the Bombay Railway, with stories of the people who keep the trains running 24 hours a day, those who survive because of it - and those who die on it.
The story of Exodus is relocated to the seaside town Margate. Moses lives in the Promised Lands with his adoptive parents, until he finds his mother in the shanty town, Dreamland, where she’s been ghettoised with other ‘undesirables’. He takes on his father, Pharaoh, and leads a radical campaign to liberate the people of Dreamland.
A moving documentary made to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster on 19 December 1981. The eight-man crew of the RNLB Solomon Browne, the lifeboat from the Penlee station in Mousehole, Cornwall, put to sea in an exceptionally severe gale to rescue the five-man crew of the MV Union Star, a cargo ship whose engines had failed two miles off the coast and which was in danger of being swept onto the rocks. The Solomon Browne was initially able to rescue the captain's family and one of the crew from Union Star but, as they attempted to rescue the captain and the remaining crewmate, radio contact with the Solomon Browne was lost and both crews perished.
On the 14th August 1969 the British Army were deployed onto Northern Ireland’s streets for the first time, to relieve an exhausted RUC in the wake of the Battle of the Bogside. As they entered the city the troops were confronted with a ring of barricades surrounding the Bogside area and manned by the rioters, presenting them with an instant dilemma – to attempt to remove the barricades and provoke a confrontation, or to leave the barricades intact and allow the Bogside to remain beyond official law & order?
Natural and man-made catastrophes retold by eyewitnesses and dramatic reconstructions.
A teenage orphan fights against the Red Army at the end of WWII and in the aftermath is 'adopted' by a Commissar. Years later he is sent to London during the Cold war to work for the KGB, where he questions his life.
The largest predator on the planet, the sperm whale, is your host for an amazing exploration of the final frontier -- the world at the bottom of the ocean. From the makers of the Walking With series comes this incredible marine tour, in which you'll witness a rarely seen world of hidden mountain ranges, majestic canyons, volcanoes and the beautiful and often deadly creatures that inhabit the deep sea.
Bernard Hill and Victoria Hamilton star in Alistair Beaton's wickedly funny feature-length drama inspired by David Blunkett's private affair held up for very public scrutiny.
A look at the horse wranglers and stunts in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
The culmination of nearly 10 years' work and conclusion to Peter Jackson's epic trilogy based on the timeless J.R.R. Tolkien classic, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" presents the final confrontation between the forces of good and evil fighting for control of the future of Middle-earth. Hobbits Frodo and Sam reach Mordor in their quest to destroy the `one ring', while Aragorn leads the forces of good against Sauron's evil army at the stone city of Minas Tirith.
Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron's forces. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam take the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord's realm.
A documentary about the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief – known in the United States as A Brief History of Disbelief – is a 2004 television documentary series written and presented by Jonathan Miller for the BBC and tracing the history of atheism.
The Fellowship is scattered. Some brace hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Others must contend with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam are left to take the One Ring, ruler of the accursed Rings of Power, to be destroyed in Mordor, the dark realm where Sauron is supreme.
After a car crash, a criminal psychologist regains consciousness only to find that she's a patient in the same mental institution that currently employs her. It seems she's been accused of murdering her husband—but she has no memory of committing the crime. As she tries to regain her memory and convince her co-workers of her innocence, a vengeful spirit uses her as an earthly pawn, which further convinces everyone of her guilt.
In Ireland in the mid 1960s, two feuding brothers and their respective Ceilidh bands compete at a music festival.
A documentary about the designing of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
A documentary about Weta Workshop's work on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Frodo and Sam are trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn search for the orc-captured Merry and Pippin. All along, nefarious wizard Saruman awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard.
Aragorn is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron's forces. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam take the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord's realm.
A documentary about the filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Frodo and Sam are trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn search for the orc-captured Merry and Pippin. All along, nefarious wizard Saruman awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard.
In ancient Egypt, peasant Mathayus is hired to exact revenge on the powerful Memnon and the sorceress Cassandra, who are ready to overtake Balthazar's village. Amid betrayals, thieves, abductions and more, Mathayus strives to bring justice to his complicated world.
Jasper Rawlins, a none-too-successful musician, finds himself chatting with a beautiful woman at his neighborhood bar. She goes home with him, direct and frank in answer to his nervousness. During the night, someone breaks into his flat and cuts her throat. He runs into the arms of the police, who dismiss his story, but release him while they search for the weapon. He investigates the crime, and over the next few days, meets a knowing pornographer, hit men, and other schemers. As dead bodies pile up wherever he goes, the police are soon looking for him with guns drawn. As he discovers secrets about a shadowy corporation, the police close in. Can he find someone to trust?
Boozer, skirt chaser, careless father. You could create your own list of reporter Steve Everett's faults but there's no time. A San Quentin Death Row prisoner is slated to die at midnight – a man Everett has suddenly realized is innocent.
The story of the sexual development of a filmmaker through three stages of his life.
A film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy about lovers whose romantic affections are manipulated by fairy magic. The setting is updated to a Tuscan hill town in the late 19th century.
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
Lawyer Wakem takes the mill on the river Floss away from Edward Tulliver (whose ancestors have owned it for 300 years) and becomes the worst enemy of Tulliver's family. When Edward's daughter, Maggie, grows up, she falls in love with Wakem's son Philip. However, her brother Tom (true to the memory of their father) forbids her to meet him again. When she visits her cousin Lucy Deane, Lucy's fiance, Stephen Guest, falls in love with Maggie at first sight, further complicating matters.
Jailed for his reckless driving, rambunctious Mr. Toad has to escape from prison when his beloved Toad Hall comes under threat from the wily weasels, who plan to build a dog food factory on the very meadow sold to them by Toad himself. This fantastic roller-coaster ride of hilarious adventures was both written and directed by Terry Jones, who also plays the central role of Mr. Toad. Alongside three former Pythons are a gallery of well-known faces all bringing wit and wonder to a feast of colourful characters. An absolutely charming film to delight children and adults alike, The Wind in the Willows is a perfect updating of Kenneth Grahame’s well-loved children’s classic.
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project's foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington, who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
Based on one of Catherine Cookson's most beloved works which revolves around slick cardplayer Rory Connor (played by Robson Green), a rags-to-riches gambler faced with a life-changing decision. Never one to shy away from high stakes, Rory is in the game of his life when he's asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for his brother. Directed by Norman Stone, it also stars Bernard Hill, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Sammy Johnson.
This is the story of Harry and Flint, an unlikely couple. Harry is a shy young gay man who can't seem to fit into his local bar scene. Flint is a crusty, older, and seemingly straight man with a questionable background. They meet on a gorgeous coastline, and evolve from distrust to deep love.
Back in the 'bad old days' when the physically and mentally disabled were locked away in institutions a legend grew of someone who could stand up to the authorities and help them. This charming story is how a group of disabled people went to chase that legend. To assist them John is forced to come to terms with his daughter and her friends.
Tony Marchant's eloquent and painful play about the changes to how people are employed, and what that does to their sense of self.
Dirtysomething centres around young lovers Becca and Dog, an older fellow traveller, sage Larry, and is about the pitfalls of giving up the alternative 'crustie' liftestyle of no fixed abode and travelling to settle down.
Whimsical tales of the Tollit family, who live in the picturesque Northern town of Sutton Moor. The husband, Len, is a soft-hearted, well-meaning chap who holds strong views on certain subjects and is fiercely proud of his working-class roots. But his determination to prove himself the equal of those who may consider themselves his betters often leads to confrontation and infuriates his wife, Pat. They have two children, the pre-teen Sean and the sexually-maturing Siobhan, who, at 15, is at that 'awkward age'. Living in the granny flat in their yard is Mr Bebbington, who had been Len's late mother's boyfriend but has remained with them for six months since her death. Pat constantly cajoles Len into getting Bebbington out but he is quite content to let him stay and treats him as one of the family. Len's brother, Morris, who lives nearby, is a spiritual man who comes across as half-hippy and half-witted.
"When you marry, have kids...you'll still be in that chair." An ordinary city flat. Evening. A man tries to talk to his daughter. She will not answer. The play moves through the prison of the mind, to that of the outside world in a search that leads to a tragedy.
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, two young clerks at the stuffy Foreign Office in Whitehall display little interest in the decline of the British Empire. To their eyes, it can hardly compete with girls, rock music, and the intrigue of romantic entanglements.
Based on the idea that drugs have influenced some of our greatest minds (Poe, Baudelaire etc.), this film documents just how influential drug experiences have been on the minds of great writers, poets and thinkers.
Expert safecracker Arthur Clutten (Wisdom) masterminds heists for a criminal syndicate he belongs to. But after witnessing the brutal methods of persuasion being meted out by gang leader, Ignatius Smith (Hill) Clutten decides to quit. But he realises the gang would sooner see him killed than quitting. After stealing some documents incriminating Smith and his boss, Edward Ross (Ward), Clutten then puts his family in hiding and goes on the run...but his daughter (Annett) has been kidnapped by the gang and a hitman (Katt) has been hired and is close to finding Clutten.
A new BBC film starring Anthony Andrews Bernard Hill A new government takes power with a drastically reduced majority. But the ambitious young Home Secretary has a plan to bring the legal establishment to heel and bypass Parliament altogether. Anthony Andrews says of writer and barrister John Cooper (who wrote the ITV series The Advocates): "John is writing about a world he knows intimately. It is a most original and exciting screenplay and extremely prescient in view of the current controversies surrounding the judiciary." Producer Simon Passmore Director Jim Goddard
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.
Wondering what has happened to herself, now feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley Valentine finds herself regularly talking to the wall while preparing her husband's chips and egg. When her best friend wins a trip-for-two to Greece Shirley begins to see the world, and herself, in a different light.
An ironic black comedy of love and death that takes place an a lyrically beautiful landscape. Three related women, all named Cissie Colpitts share a solidarity for one another which brings about three copy-cat drownings. The local coroner is in love with all three women and helps to disguise the murders.
Wil Thomas, a young Welsh soldier on duty in northern Ireland shoots a terrorist in self-defence and is used as scapegoat by the political system.
Hiller, a computer expert, was bribed by group of bank robbers to obtain details of the security system at a newly-built bank. Having obtained the information, he thought he'd seen the last of the robbers. But now they've traced him and his son to London. They hold the son hostage and force Hiller to decode the information about the alarm and then to take part in the robbery.
In a final battle for the control of Thebes, Oedipus's two sons kill each other. Creon issues an order that no one is to bury Polynices upon pain of death. But Antigone is determined that her brother's body will have the proper rites of burial.
Two lads in Edinburgh embark on a non-violent spree of robberies. They dress up in clown masks and act as modern highwaymen, robbing coach loads of tourists in the highlands. In the process they become folk heroes to the locals. Their adventures make for a whimsical and gentle comedy, in the Bill Forsyth vein.
Michael Angelis stars in a comedy about double booking a Catholic and Protestant night in a Liverpool nightclub.
Drama reconstructing the events of a strike by the schoolchildren of a Norfolk school in 1914, who refused to accept the dismissal of their teachers, Tom and Annie Higdon, who were both socialists.
An account of how Lech Walesa and the "Solidarity" trade union confronted the might of Communist dictatorship in Poland.
The familiar story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship. This version follows both the efforts of Fletcher Christian to get his men beyond the reach of British retribution, and the epic voyage of Lieutenant Bligh to get his loyalists safely to East Timor in a tiny lifeboat.
Richard Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of King Edward IV, will stop at nothing to get the crown. He first convinces the ailing King that the Duke of Clarence, his elder brother, is a threat to the lives of Edward's two young sons. Edward has him imprisoned in the Tower of London; killers in Richard's pay then drown Clarence in a barrel of wine. When news of Clarence's death reaches the King, the subsequent grief and remorse bring about his death. Richard is made Lord Protector, with power to rule England while his nephew (now King Edward V) is still a minor. Before the young king's coronation he has his two nephews conveyed to the Tower, ostensibly for their safekeeping. Richard's accomplice, the Duke of Buckingham, then declares the two boys illegitimate and offers Richard the crown, which after a show of reticence he accepts. After Richard's coronation, he and Buckingham have a falling-out over whether or not to assassinate the two children.
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.
Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who dreams of becoming a professional comedian. Simpson believes the boy has talent and starts to groom him for 'stardom'.
Drama about a Merseyside tarmac gang away on a contract on Teesside. Without the boss around, there's a chance for some local diversion with the natives while keeping up the spirit of free enterprise, preferably on the firm's time.
Fox is a British television drama series produced by Euston Films and Thames Television for the ITV network in 1980. The thirteen-part series was based around the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in London and had gangland connections. The series was written by Trevor Preston, produced by Verity Lambert and directed by Jim Goddard.
Set against the backdrop of Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the play depicts a single mother's struggles as welfare cuts affect the poor and disabled. The derogatory term 'spongers' is used by British tabloid press to describe people who are dependent on welfare support, however the play presents the case of a family who really need the help of welfare support. The title sequence shows the title of the play, 'The Spongers', superimposed over a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, denoting them as 'the real spongers' as Royal finances are paid by British taxpayers.
While on a Pyrenees vacation in 1922, upright English gentleman Richard Chandos (Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange, Heroes) encounters the villainous Vanity Fair (Eileen Atkins, Cold Mountain). Mistress of the turreted Chateau Jezreel and leader of a motley band of criminals, she will inherit millions if she can force her stepdaughter to marry. Pitting his wits against this formidable adversary, Chandos determines to rescue the beautiful young woman. But Vanity Fair keeps one step ahead of him, a trick forever up her sleeve and murder in her heart.
One man's view of the British Army in Germany - the social life, discipline, drink, women and, occasionally, the defence of the West.
TV play by Mike Stott. Comedy about a couple expecting their first baby.
Three philosophy professors travel to Prague for a conference. One of them, Anderson, is forced to rethink his ideas on ethics when a former student is arrested by the Czech authorities for writing about individualist approaches to morality.
As sisters, Gladys and Iris never agree about anything - but on one point they're clear: their old mam can't hear a word of their arguments, can she?
Marcia is looking for someone to look after her baby and Joyce seems ideal, looking like a perfect, kindly, respectable lady.
The wife of a drug salesman discovers he is having an affair with a lady doctor.
A group called The Knights Of Avalon are unhappy with the justice system so are taking the law into their own hands by executing criminals using medieval methods such as jousting.
An educational film about the perils associated with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The drama is interspersed with scenes of a medical adviser directly addressing the camera giving advice and information about STDs.
