Geoffrey Palmer
A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a new home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family.
Sivuqaq is an 18-year-old, larger than life captive pacific walrus. By now he should be a dad but things have not worked out. This is where reproduction scientist Holley Muraco comes in. Holley is taking on the biggest challenge of her career - trying to help Sivuqaq become a parent. Yet walrus love is a mystery - even pandas have been bred more successfully than walruses. Holley hopes the clues lie in in exploring the lives of Sivuqaq's wild cousins and that she can find the answers by journeying to their breeding grounds in Northern Alaska.
Thrown together just five weeks before the final of the 1948 London Olympics, Bert Bushnell (Doctor Who's Matt Smith) and Dickie Burnell (Sam Hoare) defied all the odds and made history in the double sculls. This is the story of how they did it - not only by pushing physical and emotional limits, but also by overcoming their vast professional and personal differences.
In 1897 Queen Victoria antagonized family and court with her relationship with Indian servant Abdul Karim. Originally a waiter the devious and arrogant young man won over the queen by playing on her love of Indian cuisine and romantic view of the country,teaching her Hindistani,whilst she signed letters to him 'Mother',bestowing houses and gifts on him and his family. Already shocked that a Muslim should be at the heart of the court the Royal family stepped in when Victoria announced her desire to knight him and they threatened to have her declared insane if she went ahead. It worked. And in 1901 after the queen's death Karim was banished from Royal circles,returning to India where he died.
In 1998, an auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor causes great excitement. For one woman, Wally Winthrop, it has much more meaning. Wally becomes obsessed by their historic love story. As she learns more about the sacrifices involved, Wally gains her own courage to find happiness.
Urban fairytale set in Manchester. A series of tragic events that blight a young boy's life are reversed one Christmas Eve, giving him and those around him the happy ending that they were destined to have.
When legendary treasures from around the world are stolen, including the priceless Pink Panther Diamond, Chief Inspector Dreyfus is forced to assign Inspector Clouseau to a team of international detectives and experts charged with catching the thief and retrieving the stolen artifacts.
Travellers' Century is a 2008 BBC Television documentary series presented by Benedict Allen that profiles the lives of three influential 20th century British travel writers.
Chateau Monty is a British reality television series in which writer Monty Waldin gives up life in England to take over a small organic vineyard in the south-west of France.
A light hearted look at future Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers rise from research chemist in 1949 to becoming MP for Finchley in 1959 encompassing her early relationship and marriage to Oil Millionaire Denis Thatcher.
When disaster hits the Titanic, the Doctor uncovers a threat to the whole human race. Battling alongside aliens, saboteurs, robot Angels and a new friend called Astrid, can he stop the Christmas inferno?
Set in Colonial India in 1925, the hunt for the most notorious man-eating leopard of all time.
Set in the 1930s, an American with a scandalous reputation on both sides of the Atlantic must do an about-face in order to win back the woman of his dreams.
This is a BBC commemoration of the life and times of one of the most beloved pontiffs in history. Narrated by Geoffrey Palmer, it is a fitting tribute to a man whose mission above all was to proclaim the joy of faith in a troubled world. He arrived at the Vatican an unknown Polish cardinal and became one of the most towering figures in modern history. All the triumphs and trials of his extraordinary Papacy are here: from his election to the Holy See through his exhaustive world travels, from the shocking attempt on his life and his heroic role in ending Communism. Includes exclusive footage from the only television interview granted after Pope John Paul II was elected to the papacy.
He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel He Knew He Was Right. It was directed by Tom Vaughan.
In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story, when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland.
Series giving a voice to 35- to 54-year-old men, very probably the grumpiest sector of our society.
Stephen Fry and John Bird star as spin doctors Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe as they bring the popular and satirical Radio 4 comedy Absolute Power to BBC Two. Stephen as Prentiss and John as McCabe are an unscrupulous pair who run the blue chip PR agency Prentiss McCabe. Dealing with commercial as well as personal PR, their remit covers everything from political communications to celebrity media relations. Their manipulation skills are tested to the full as they frequently find that their work brings them into conflict with political parties, newspaper editors and celebrities.
The Young Visiters, written in twelve days by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford in 1890, is a surreal blend of naiveté, precocious perception and inadvertent social satire.
The Savages is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One in 2001. Starring Geoffrey Palmer and comedian Marcus Brigstocke, it was written by Simon Nye, the writer of Men Behaving Badly. The Savages revolves around the Savage family, with Geoffrey Palmer playing grandfather Donald, Marcus Brigstocke his son Adam and Victoria Hamilton as Adam's wife Jessica. The programme aired for only one series.
The story of the romance between the King of Siam (now Thailand) and the widowed British school teacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860s. Anna teaches the children and becomes romanced by the King. She convinces him that a man can be loved by just one woman.
Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.
A modern adaptation of the classic children's story 'Alice through the Looking Glass', which continued on from the popular 'Alice in Wonderland' story. This time Alice is played by the mother, who falls asleep while reading the the bedtime story to her daughter. Walking through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself in Chessland, a magical and fun world. There she meets the Red and White Queens, as well as many other amusing friends on her journey across the chessboard countryside onto become a crowned queen.
A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world’s superpowers against each other. Now 007 must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium.
Mr Men and Little Miss aired in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In the United Kingdom, the program was fully animated, and the characters were voiced by British voice actors Geoffrey Palmer, Gordon Peters, and Jill Shilling. The show was narrated by Geoffrey Palmer. In the United States, the voices were dubbed into North American English by Canadian voice actors and the program had live-action segments between animated segments.
An autobiographical film about the racing life of Captain Henry "Tim" Birkin, a British gentleman racing driver of the nineteen thirties.
King George III's erratic behaviour leads to a plot in Parliament to have him declared insane and removed from the throne.
Few wartime prisoners have attempted escape quite as many times as bumbling RAF Officer James Forrester. Though Officer Forrester has twenty-three escape attempts to his name, each successive attempt he makes to break free somehow seems to go worse than the last. But this time there's a difference, because Officer Forrester isn't just plotting his own escape, but the escape of all 327 of his fellow prisoners as well - and all at once. In fact even the Germans want to escape!
Two lovers are reunited after decades apart following a mutual misunderstanding.
Sir Anthony Blunt, who was a Soviet agent for 25 years, is routinely questioned and gives no answers, but is knighted and works as Director of the Courtauld Institute, and presents his interrogator with a puzzle in the shape of a doubtful Titian painting. He also does art restoration work in Buckingham Palace, where he gets into an interesting conversation with HMQ.
A diamond advocate is attempting to steal a collection of diamonds, yet troubles arise when he realizes that he is not the only one after the diamonds.
Franz, a young man, works in a dye factory in Prague. One day he notices a skin-rash, like eczema, growing on his hands. All attempts to treat it with ointment fail, and the rash gradually spreads over his body. After complaining to the management he is laid off work; his relationship with his fiancee is affected. In an attempt to get compensation from his former employers he goes to insurance firm Assicurazion Generali, where he encounters an enigmatic clerk called Kafka.
Executive Stress is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1986 to 1988. Produced by Thames Television, it first aired on 20 October 1986. After three series, the last episode aired on 27 December 1988. Written by George Layton, Executive Stress stars Penelope Keith as Caroline Fairchild, a middle-aged woman who decides to go back to work. Her husband, Donald, is played by Geoffrey Palmer in the first series. However, Palmer was unable to return for the second series, so Peter Bowles played Donald in the last two series. Keith and Bowles had previously appeared in together in To the Manor Born.
Hot metal is a London Weekend Television sitcom about the British Newspaper industry broadcast between 1986 and 1988. The daily crucible, the dullest newspaper in Fleet Street, is suddenly taken over by media magnate Terence "Twiggy" Rathbone. Its editor Harry Stringer is 'promoted' to managing editor, and is replaced in his old job by Russell Spam. Spam then takes the paper shooting downmarket and turns the crucible into a sensation seeking scandal rag, very much in the style of the British tabloids of the 1980s. He is helped along by his ace gutter journalist, Greg Kettle, who intimidates his tabloid victims by claiming to be "a representative of Her Majesty's press" and produces stories such as accusing a vicar of being a werewolf. Throughout the first series, a running plot involved cub reporter Bill Tytla gradually uncovering an actual newsworthy story that went to the very heart of government. Written by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall, it is very much a continuation in style from their previous sitcom Whoops Apocalypse!. It was produced by Humphrey Barclay.
Eight people attend a Christmas party in hope of having a pleasant celebration, however it takes various awkward turns and ends with one of the guests leaving sooner than they thought. Alan Ayckbourn's stage play adapted for BBC TV, 1986
Twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals.
Greenaway's short documentary shows 26 bathrooms, each representing a letter of the alphabet.
Fairly Secret Army is a British sitcom which ran to thirteen episodes over two series between 1984 and 1986. Though not a direct spin-off from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, the lead character, Major Harry Truscott, was very similar to Geoffrey Palmer's character of Jimmy in that series, and the scripts were written by Reginald Perrin's creator and writer David Nobbs. Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott is an inept and slightly barmy ex-army man intent on training a group of highly unlikely people into a secret paramilitary organisation. This idea first emerged in an episode of Perrin when Jimmy confided the plan to Reggie and was based on persistent though unsubstantiated rumours in the 1970s press that right wing generals were secretly planning a coup to rescue Britain from union militancy. The character's name was changed due to Fairly Secret Army being broadcast on Channel 4, and the television rights to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and its characters being held by the BBC. The first series was script edited by John Cleese, whose training films company was responsible for the series. The series did not have a laughter track. Nobbs only started work on the show when he turned down an offer to write a spin-off sitcom for Manuel of Fawlty Towers.
A TV adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, made for the BBC Television Shakespeare series.
Michael Flaherty (Craig Wasson), an American Vietnam veteran of Irish descent, returns to Belfast to join the cause of his grandfather, Seamus (Sterling Hayden). Soon he finds that he is not as welcomed in his home country as he imagined he would be. Even worse, he's the target of an IRA assassination plot designed to make the British forces look bad in order to elicit financial support from wealthy Americans.
Ria Parkinson is a bored housewife and mother. She spends her time daydreaming, and meets regularly with wealthy businessman Leonard to relieve the monotony. Husband Ben, a dentist and avid butterfly collector is oblivious to it all, and her unemployed grown up sons, who both live at home also have other things on their minds, especially girlfriends.
Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own death. Returning in disguise after various attempts at finding a 'new life', he gets his old job back and finds nothing has changed. He is eventually found out, and in the second series has success with a chain of shops selling useless junk. That becomes so successful that he feels he has created a monster and decides to destroy it. In the third and final series he has a dream of forming a commune which his long suffering colleagues help bring to reality. Unfortunately that also fails and he finds himself back in a job not unlike the one he originally had at Sunshine Desserts.
The story of a brutal crime in a high-rise estate; a girl walking home at night is raped and murdered, and the attitude of some is not always sympathetic.
A huge chemical company pays illegal dumpers for disposal of chemical waste dangerous to the environment.
"All I said was the gramophone's too loud." Tony and Zoe Lyle 's silly row starts like any other, but Tony finds that Zoe means it this time. She's walking out and he's got a week to save a marriage that he hasn't looked at in 18 years, and with it all the trappings of a good life in Maida Vale.
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.
This sprawling, surrealist musical serves as an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, as it follows the adventures of a young coffee salesman in modern Britain.
Under stress, Irish tenant farmer Michael Regan, suddenly snaps one day and locks himself in his home, threatening the lives of his wife and child.
A British woman faces a downward social climb thanks to her country's rigid and problem-ridden welfare system.
The film is based on the actual events of the Portland Spy Ring trial in the U.K. A disgruntled Navy Clerk is transferred to a secret research establishment and is subsequently black-mailed/paid by Czech intelligence to procure secrets for them. He seduces the secretary who controls the most secret documents, and they enjoy the fruits of their treachery until the British authorities begin to close in on them.
The Army Game is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1957 to 1961. Made in black-and-white, it is about National Service conscription to the post-war British Army. It was created by Sid Colin. Many stars, like Charles Hawtrey, William Hartnell, Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass and Dick Emery became household names, and appeared in the Carry On films, which began with Carry On Sergeant, virtually a spin-off. It was made for the ITV network by Granada Television.
A documentary about the legendary series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two great public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr. Intended as commentary on the issues of their day, these vitriolic and explosive encounters came to define the modern era of public discourse in the media, marking the big bang moment of our contemporary media landscape when spectacle trumped content and argument replaced substance. Best of Enemies delves into the entangled biographies of these two great thinkers and luxuriates in the language and the theater of their debates, begging the question, 'What has television done to the way we discuss politics in our democracy today?'
