Clive Russell
Ahead of the COP26 climate change summit taking place in Glasgow, Kieran Hodgson presents this irreverent documentary in which he and an all-star cast of comedy actors explain how people may have left it too late to save the planet - and what it will take to fix it.
Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman, reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory sees his life transformed through a newly found bond with his baby grandson.
Four aging superheroes in a retirement home in Ireland come together for one last hurrah.
This four-part historical drama follows the end of Catherine the Great's reign and her affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin that helped shape the future of Russian politics.
Forced into exile by the English after being crowned King of Scotland, legendary warrior Robert the Bruce fights to reclaim the throne.
Inspired by the loneliness experienced by older people in our society, Ladder to You is an insight into the life of Eric, an old man dealing with the loss of his wife. We follow Eric’s day-to-day life and become immersed in the solitude he is trying to overcome. Through his feelings and memories of better times we get to see what it’s like for the thousands of old people who live every day without any human contact. Ending with a message that love can beat despair, Ladder to You can also hopefully inspire people to give a little more time to the older folk who live amongst us.
In April 2015, the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company, an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area, was burgled by 4 elderly men. With the stolen property having a value of up to £200 million, the incident has been called the "largest burglary in English history".
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter (Gemma Arterton) works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters (Lily Knight and Francesca Knight) who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.
Dan Snow explores the political intrigues and family betrayals between the Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans that led to war.
The story of British-Asian junior doctor Ruby Walker who arrives at the run-down Good Karma Hospital to join a dedicated team of over-worked medics. Run by a gloriously eccentric Englishwoman, Lydia Fonseca, this under-funded but creatively resourceful cottage hospital is the beating heart of the local community. It’s much more than just a medical outpost - it’s a home.
A series of murders has shaken the community to the point where people believe that only a legendary creature from dark times – the mythical Golem – must be responsible.
Set around the antics of a ragtag group of Mountain Rescue volunteers, Mountain Goats celebrates the Highlands of Scotland, with proper kilt wearing maniacs fighting disaster on a weekly basis against the stunning backdrop of the Glencoe hills. When our heroes aren't out rescuing people, or being rescued themselves, they spend their time in 'The Old Goat' pub - a place of great warmth and camaraderie, where people come in for a quick pint and never want to leave. The regulars in the pub are Jimmy, an old school mountain goat with a fag burn in his jumper and a glint of mischief in his bloodshot eyes, the wild and mysterious Bill; Bernie, a cheery, hard-working woman, who keeps the others on the straight and narrow; and Conor, a handsome, easy-going young man who is more than a little bit naive. Their HQ is in the local pub, and the landlady is Jules - a formidable force of nature who'll have you out on your ear at the first sign of trouble.
Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos… but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
Christopher Cowin is in his mid 30s, a family man who owns a small advertising agency. A court case he had recently lost has shown him the rich and powerful always win! That is why Christopher creates the website THE LIST. On this site, users can label corrupt individuals in public life and award them points as to how much of a menace they are. The result is a list of politicians, CEOs and bankers. The website quickly becomes a worldwide success but suddenly, whoever is number one on THE LIST appears murdered and public opinion starts to turn against Christopher.
A drama set in the East End of London in 1889, during the aftermath of the "Ripper" murders. The action centres around the notorious H Division – the police precinct from hell – which is charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel. Ripper Street explores the lives of characters trying to recover from the Ripper's legacy, from crimes that have not only irretrievably altered their lives, but the very fabric of their city. At the drama's heart our detectives try to bring a little light into the dark world they inhabit.
London...present day. A violent, desperate man breaks into an inner city church. With him, he brings the anxiety and anger of contemporary society. Once inside the church, he faces his greatest opponent...a world weary Priest. The Fighter challenges the Priest, on the fundamental fabric of life...faith and death, belief and passion. The scene is set, in the fight for truth, redemption and forgiveness.
Director Robin Hardy's reimagining of his eerie 1973 film, The Wicker Man. Young Christians Beth and Steve, a gospel singer and her cowboy boyfriend, leave Texas to preach door-to-door in Scotland. When, after initial abuse, they are welcomed with joy and elation to Tressock, the border fiefdom of Sir Lachlan Morrison, they assume their hosts simply want to hear more about Jesus. How innocent and wrong they are.
Biography of Lachlan Macquarie and his wife, Elizabeth, who arrived to govern the colony of New South Wales in Australia in 1810. In just over a decade, the couple transformed the prison colony into a proto nation.
There is a new criminal mastermind at large (Professor Moriarty) and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil and lack of conscience may give him an advantage over the detective.
Lawrence Talbot, an American man on a visit to Victorian London to make amends with his estranged father, gets bitten by a werewolf and, after a moonlight transformation, leaves him with a savage hunger for flesh.
P.J`s in a pickle, his parents are missing, he is a spectacular failure at running their bakery, 'Cup Cake', and he is up to his neck in debt with the local loan-Sharks. To add to his misery, he has been duped into marriage by their impossibly tanned and serially jilted sister, Kitty. Enter Gala, a mysterious, beautiful artist with a few tricks of her own. P.J. , a robot-obsessed dreamer and his hapless friends, aided by the ever resourceful Gala, set about cooking up the revival of 'Cup Cake's' fortunes, and spicing up P.J`s love life along the way.
Eccentric consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson battle to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy England.
Based on the wraparound story penned by Clive Barker in the author's "Books of Blood" collection, the story centers on a paranormal expert who, while investigating a gruesome slaying, finds a house that is at the intersection of "highways" transporting souls to the afterlife.
A documentary film crew follows the first carbon neutral, organic, vegetarian expedition ever to attempt the North Pole. Simultaneously Saving the Planet and getting into the Guinness Book of Records Brian and Mark hope to kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, they have never done anything like this before.
A loan shark gives ex-con Nick a period of 24 hours in order to pay back the money he owes. Up against it, Nick involves his best mate on a multi-part mission in order to raise the cash before it's too late for them both
A student takes a bizarre trip through the Italian Alps after being inspired by a professor's lecture on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony.
Set between the years 1642 and 1660, "The Devil's Whore" charts the progress of the English Civil War through the eyes of the a 17 year old girl, the fictional Angelica Fanshawe.
John Simm stars as Vincent Van Gogh in The Yellow House, a feature-length drama that tells the moving human story of the most influential and explosive housemates in art history. For just nine weeks, in late 1888, Van Gogh and Gauguin share a home, The Yellow House, in Arles, southern France.
A drama centered on the relationship between Elliot, a strange and wealthy Londoner, and Joe, a teenager who takes care of an empty house Elliot owns.
Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy is a British family television film following the life of a border collie puppy as she grows up to become a working Herding dog. Part fiction, part documentary, it was filmed by real-life shepherd David Kennard on his farm in Devon. It features his seven working dogs - the puppy Mist, her gentle mother Gail, grandfather 'Sir' Gregory, eccentric, bubbly, hyper uncle Jake, sour and negative great-auntie Fern, gruff, tough cousin Ernie and wise auntie Swift. [Wikipedia]
'Festival' is a black comedy set during the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival. The film is based around both the judging of a major comedy award and the performers at one of the smaller venues. Various plot strands interweave, including the bitter relationship between a famous self-obsessed British comic and his ever-suffering assistant, an actress debuting at the festival with a one-woman show about Dorothy Wordsworth and a depressed, rich housewife who spies on the stoned Canadian theatre troupe to whom she has rented out her house
According to Bex is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One in 2005. Starring Jessica Stevenson, it was written by Katie Douglas, Julia Barron and Fred Barron, who also created My Family and After You've Gone. The American sitcom Courting Alex, starring Jenna Elfman, was originally based on According to Bex.
A gripping story of love, deceit, betrayal and survival set against the backdrop of the Miners' Strike of 1984-85. Michelle (Christine Tremarco) is married to Gary (Jamie Draven), a young miner who goes on strike as soon as the dispute between the Thatcher government and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) begins. Meanwhile, her sister Linda's (Maxine Peake) husband Paul (Adrian Bower) is a local policeman. Paul becomes more and more voluble in his opposition to the strike, while Linda looks around her and witnesses the women of her community suddenly find a voice and independence. The scene is set for political and personal conflicts which would change their lives forever.
Tumshie McFadgen is a sensualist, his trouble starts when he comes up with the notion of cross-pleasuring. what would it be like to experience the maximum whoopee in all five senses at the same time? well I can tell you, it was a bloody disaster all round.
Andrea, a gifted young Polish violinist from Krakow, is bound for America when he is swept overboard by a storm. When the Widdington sisters discover the handsome stranger on the beach below their house, they nurse him back to health. However, the presence of the musically talented young man disrupts the peaceful lives of Ursula and Janet and the community in which they live.
The story of the Arthurian legend, based on the 'Sarmatian hypothesis' which contends that the legend has a historical nucleus in the Sarmatian heavy cavalry troops stationed in Britain, and that the Roman-British military commander, Lucius Artorius Castus is the historical person behind the legend.
Rockface is a British television drama series which was broadcast on BBC One from 2002 to 2003. It ran for two series: the first six episodes were broadcast from 13 March to 17 April 2002 on Wednesday nights; the second series of eight episodes ran from 25 May to 27 July 2003 on Sunday nights. The series is set in Glenntannoch, a fictitious town in the Scottish Highlands, and centres around a mountain rescue team led by Dr Gordon Urquhart. The major rescues and incidents in the series were based on real life rescues conducted by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue service.
Virgil Guppy buys a sleek-looking used Jaguar, but the car turns out to be a lemon. Unfortunately, that's just the start of his problems; a dead prostitute is discovered in the trunk, and Virgil is accused of her murder. Aided by a dysfunctional family of thieves, unorthodox police procedure and some clever body work of his own, he sets out to clear his name.
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well; first, the journey proves more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food.
The Mists of Avalon is a 2001 miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It was produced by American cable channel TNT and directed by Uli Edel.
Happiness was a British sitcom broadcast on BBC2 with dramatic, melancholy overtones written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings with Whitehouse in the lead role. There have been two series thus far, the first running in 2001 and the second in 2003. Whitehouse has stated that there will probably not be a third.
Set at the turn of the 20th century, The Railway Children tells the story of three Edwardian children and their mother who move to a country house in Yorkshire after their father is mysteriously taken away by the police.
A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland, Ahmad ibn Fadlan finds himself in the company of Vikings. While the behavior of the Norsemen initially offends ibn Fadlan, the more cultured outsider grows to respect the tough, if uncouth, warriors. During their travels together, ibn Fadlan and the Vikings get word of an evil presence closing in, and they must fight the frightening and formidable force, which was previously thought to exist only in legend.
Hope and Glory is a BBC television drama about a comprehensive school struggling with financial, staffing and disciplinary problems, and faced with closure. It starred Lenny Henry as maverick "Superhead" Ian George, enlisted to turn around the school's fortunes. It was created by Lucy Gannon, who had previously created Soldier Soldier, and was inspired by a real head teacher named William Atkinson.
Oliver Twist is a 1999 television mini-series produced by ITV based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
A young boy called Pip stumbles upon a hunted criminal who threatens him and demands food. A few years later, Pip finds that he has a benefactor. Imagining that Miss Havisham, a rich lady whose adopted daughter Estella he loves, is the benefactor, Pip believes in a grand plan at the end of which he will be married to Estella. However, when the criminal from his childhood turns up one stormy night and reveals that he, Magwitch, is his benefactor, Pip finds his dreams crumbling. Although initially repulsed by his benefactor, Pip gradually becomes loyal to him and stays with him until his death.
Harry Springer (Tim Healey) and Duggie Strachan (Clive Russell) are ex-Army pals who served in the Falkland Islands together. Duggie was an infantryman, up at the 'sharp end', while Harry was in the Catering Corps. Harry saved Duggie's life - at least, that's what Harry reckons. Nowadays, Harry is the proud owner of the seedy Olympic Hotel in Smethwick and Duggie, now a teacher, is one of his reluctant guests. The hotel is populated mainly by drunks, homeless people on Social Security, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.
Comedy drama. Retired Lord Chancellor Bill Webster decides to sell his memoirs to a tabloid newspaper in order to save his crumbling Cornish house. The Prime Minister wants to stop him as he believes the government will fall if his book is published. One of Bill's old girlfriends, now the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, is sent to try and stop him, but also on his trail is a tabloid journalist who senses a scoop.
Richard Mayhew leads an ordinary life in London when one day a girl named Door falls, injured, across his path. The next thing he knows, his life is gone and he's pulled into the fantastical world of London Below. Pursued by the murderous Messrs. Croup and Vandemar, Door and Richard with the help of Hunter and the Marquis de Carabas, attempt to find the Angel Islington, who knows the secret behind the murder of Door's family, and possibly a way for Richard to go home.
Two young children are brought to Janet Hinton, a social worker in the Scottish Highlands. When both she and an independent expert become convinced that the children are part of a ritual child abuse network, the small community is thrown into disarray.
Political satire closely mirroring real-life British politics of the time - a self-serving Conservative minister "crosses the floor" to join the opposition Labour Party, at a time when the Conservative Party has a majority in Parliament of just one seat. Sequel to A Very Open Prison.
An off-beat romantic comedy about the complex relationships between the inhabitants of a Glasgow tenement block. The final film in the Love Bites trilogy.
In a town where half the men die down the coalpit, Margaret MacNeil is quite happy being single in her small Cape Breton island town. Until she meets Neil Currie, a charming and sincere bagpipe-playing, Gaelic-speaking dishwasher. But no matter what you do, you can't avoid the spectre of the pit forever.
19th century Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution brings both the promise and fear of change. In the provincial town of Middlemarch, the progressive Dorothea Brooke desperately seeks intellectual fulfillment in a male-dominated society and is driven into an unhappy marriage to the elderly scholar Casaubon. No sooner do they embark on their honeymoon than she meets and develops an instant connection with Casaubon's young cousin, Will Ladislaw. When idealistic Doctor Lydgate arrives, his new methods of medicine sweep him into the battle between conservatives and liberals in town. He quickly becomes enamored of the beautiful, privileged Rosamond Vincy, a woman whose troubles seem bound to destroy him.
Roughnecks is a BBC comedy-drama series that ran over two series between 1994 and 1995 on BBC One. The show centred on the working and personal lives of those who worked on the fictional oil rig "The Osprey Explorer" in the North Sea.
Fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany's war crimes have so far been kept a secret. Hitler wants to talk peace with the US president. An American journalist and a German homicide cop stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide.
Housewife Annie Marsh suspects her husband might be The Hawk, a brutal serial killer. Complicating matters is the fact that she once was incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital. When she discovers she does not have the happy marriage she always believed and begins to piece together the times and dates of her husband's frequent absences, her fears begin to take hold, and her sanity deteriorates.
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
The Grass Arena is based on the autobiography of John Healy. Raised in an strongly religious family, with an abusive father, John soon learns that he has to defend himself. Growing into adulthood he takes up boxing, but soon falls victim to alcoholism. His boxing career over, John takes to the Grass Arena (the park) where he lives with other alcoholics. Prison time introduces him to a new and unexpected path.
When Jenny and Bruce Coldfield bring a curious party of literary enthusiasts to a remote Norfolk village to visit the hidden world of ghost story writer Eleanor Mont other forces start to stir.
The film centres on the experiences of Robert Lawrence MC (played by Colin Firth), an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands War of 1982. While fighting at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown, Lawrence is shot in the head by an Argentine sniper, and left paralysed on his left side. He then must learn to adjust to his new disability.
Scully was a British television drama with some comedy elements set in the city of Liverpool, England, that originated from a BBC Play For Today episode "Scully's New Years Eve". Originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1984, the single series was spread over six half-hour episodes plus a one-hour final episode. It was written by playwright Alan Bleasdale. The drama is notable for featuring many of the Liverpool football club first-team squad of that era. Francis Scully is a teenage boy who has his heart set on gaining a trial match for Liverpool to hopefully fulfil his ambition of playing for the club. Francis, in everyday situations during his waking hours, occasionally "sees" famous Liverpool players such as Kenny Dalglish when they are not really there. These dream-like sequences recur throughout the episodes. The main plotline is the efforts of Scully's school teachers to persuade Scully to appear in the school pantomime which they attempt by promising him a trial with his beloved Liverpool if he will cooperate. When Scully and his friends are not in school making trouble for the teachers and the school caretaker, they are seen roaming the local streets upsetting the neighbours and getting into trouble with the police. Scully sometimes has visions of the school caretaker appearing as a vampire due to the caretaker's nickname being Dracula. These frequent waking dream sequences give the show a somewhat surreal atmosphere.
Seven British construction workers escape Britain's ever growing dole queues and travel to Germany to work on a site in Dusseldorf. We follow their trials and tribulations of working away from home and away from the women they left behind.
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.
A single mother's search for her stolen new born baby sends her on a journey through the underworld of London and on a collision course with her past.
Two siblings, looking to escape their abusive mobster grandfather, join forces with a pair of hitmen with a knack for the theatrical in their search for a new life in this tale of crime, violence, and redemption
