Joan Plowright
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Elieen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Franco Zefirelli passed away on 15th June 2019. Chris Hunt's biography explores how Zeffirelli's sense of drama was born out of his own experience and how his life inspired his productions. Chris Hunt interviewed him and other famous actors, friends and associates, had a camera at Zefirelli's 94th birthday and during the opening of his foundation in Florence. This documentary, including clips from operas, films and plays aims to be the definitive portrait of a Renaissance man larger than life.
A successful Wall Street trader returns to England with her new husband and five-year-old son, but their new start together turns into a nightmare when they move into a country house which contains a terrible secret.
Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.
When The Man in the Yellow Hat befriends Curious George in the jungle, they set off on a non-stop, fun-filled journey through the wonders of the big city toward the warmth of true friendship.
All but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel, an elderly woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer.
A knight returning from the Crusades takes on a dragon and becomes a legend.
Based on Anne Holm's acclaimed young adult novel North to Freedom, I Am David chronicles the struggles of a 12-year-old boy (Ben Tibber) who manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own -- through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark and a compass to help get him there.
Straight-laced lawyer, Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) meets and falls in love with online chat friend "Lawyer-Girl", Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah), only to discover she's a convicted bank robber. Charlene escapes from jail and comes looking for Peter to help clear her name.
When a rock band at the top of their game suddenly loses their leader, their direction suddenly becomes questionable. All the band members know is that the leader's clothes were found at the edge of a waterfront and he had not been seen since. To compensate, they hire a new band member that shakes up their thoughts of the band. But the biggest changes come when the band decides to go into seclusion to develop new songs and a new sound. They rent a mansion from an aristocratic couple, who are hard up for money. When the staff hired to be on hand when the band arrives do not show, the couple decides to act as the butler, Benson, and the cook, Margaret. The obvious conflicts between the two cultures occur, but a respect for each other gradually follows. Meanwhile, the band's recording company is trying to trick them into signing a contract that obligates the music to be as the company requires
A fictionalized account of the last days of opera singer Maria Callas (Ardant).
"Bailey's Mistake" is the name of a cold, dreary island that a bitter widow finds herself stuck on. Seems Liz Donovan got cut out of her husband's will because he'd secretly spent all his money on a New England island. Kids in tow, Liz discovers spooky secrets while getting to know the eccentric natives.
A youngster living in a stately home discovers the magical garden Mary, Colin & Dickon stumbled across years before - but faces a battle with the housekeeper over whether to nurture it.
Actress JoBeth Williams directed this Showtime family feature starring The Sixth Sense's Mischa Barton for Barbra Streisand's Barwood Films. Barton is Frankie and Ingrid Uribe is Hazel, Frankie's neighbor and best friend. Frankie is an orphan who lives with her imperious grandmother, Phoebe (Joan Plowright), while Hazel lives with her father and older brother. Frankie's mother was a prima ballerina--killed in a car crash along with her father--and Frankie's been following in her toe shoes ever since. Although she's the best dancer in her class, she'd rather play baseball, whereas Hazel's a local activist who'd rather be mayor. The story strains credibility when 13-year-old Hazel runs for office against the middle-aged incumbent, but Frankie's goal is more understandable, and both actresses make their characters sympathetic and believable. It's as hard not to like them as it is not to root for them to succeed.
When Tom Long's brother Peter gets measles, Tom is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen in a flat with no garden and an elderly and reclusive landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, living upstairs. Because he may be infectious he is not allowed out to play, and feels lonely. Without exercise he is less sleepy at night and when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13, he investigates and finds the small back yard is now a large sunlit garden. Here he meets another lonely child called Hatty, who seems to be the only one who can see him. They have adventures which he gradually realises are taking place in the 19th century. And each night when Tom visits, Hatty is a different age, chronologically out of sequence.
Semi-autobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, telling the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of English and American women, before and during World War II.
Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.
Fact-based story about a 90's espionage case that was chronicled as the worst case of espionage in US history
Encore! Encore! is an American sitcom starring Nathan Lane as an opera singer. On the verge of becoming "The Fourth Tenor", Lane's character injures his vocal cords and must move in with his family, who run a vineyard in Northern California. The series premiered on NBC on September 22, 1998. Encore! Encore! struggled in the ratings from the start. After its fourth episode aired on October 27, 1998, NBC put the series on hiatus for two months. Thirteen episodes were ordered but the series was cancelled at midseason with two episodes left unaired. The final network episode aired on January 20, 1999. All 13 episodes later ran on Bravo.
Jane Eyre is an orphan cast out as a young girl by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and sent to be raised in a harsh charity school for girls. There she learns to be come a teacher and eventually seeks employment outside the school. Her advertisement is answered by the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, Mrs. Fairfax.
The Live action adaptation of a Disney Classic. When a litter of dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.
The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.
Set in puritanical Boston in the mid 1600s, the story of seamstress Hester Prynne, who is outcast after she becomes pregnant by a respected reverend. She refuses to divulge the name of the father, is "convicted" of adultery and forced to wear a scarlet "A" until an Indian attack unites the Puritans and leads to a reevaluation of their laws and morals.
A pastry boy and the son of a hair-piece mogul become involved in an arson scandal. Sergio is offered a bribe in exchange for taking the blame for the fire that destroys his workplace. Garet, the real arsonist, is apalled that someone else would try to take credit for his act of love. Before long, Sergio and Garet become entangled in a zany love-quadrangle involving Hattie and Stephanie. Written by Brian Whiting
Meg, Pippa, and Hillary are sisters who grew up in Sorrento, a small seaside town in Australia. Meg, who has lived in England for 10 years has just written a criticially acclaimed novel which she claims is entirely fictional. The book causes a stir in Sorrento and in her family when it is supected that the book is not as fictional as she claims.
Communism seen through the eyes of a young girl who watches her beloved uncle struggle with the oppressive government .
Eustacia Vye, an exquisite beauty despairing at her boring life on an English moor, sets up a fateful lovers' triangle when she uses her wiles to entice two men, a dashing suitor and a successful man who made his name abroad and returned to his home on the heath.
In the 1950s, the Ween family live and work on land that was promised to their family. The landowners, the Appletree family, use the promise of the land to keep the family working for them, putting the transfer of the land in doubt.
Scandal and mystery reign following the arrival of Edwina in a small Irish town populated entirely by widows. Edwina quickly falls out with the locals while also falling in with the son of the community's leader
Baby Annie is HIV positive and has been left in the clinic by her drug addicted mother. To prevent that she's deported to a home where they'd just wait for her to die, nurse Susan takes charge of Annie at her home. Two years later she plans too adopt her -- but suddenly Annie's mother reappears and demands her back. And under the law, Susan, as foster-mother, has no claim to the child.
Danny is obsessed with a fictional movie character action hero Jack Slater. When a magical ticket transports him into Jack's latest adventure, Danny finds himself in a world where movie magic and reality collide. Now it's up to Danny to save the life of his hero and new friend.
Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of gold coins that go missing when a shady drifter named Switchblade Sam comes to town.
Margaret (Lena Headey) is a shy, pale, middle-class Englishwoman who is reluctantly engaged to her older, twittish neighbor Syl Monro (David Threlfall). Both bride- and groom-to-be still live with their mothers in the humdrum suburb of Croydon. However Margaret has been acting strangely ever since a vacation in Egypt, where she stayed with her mother's friend Marie-Claire (Catherine Schell). She secretly despises Syl, but does not resist when her mother Monica (Julie Walters), who has repressed the failure of her own matrimony, insists on marriage for the sake of social convention.
Based on Elizabeth Von Arnim's novel, four Englishwomen rent an Italian villa on holiday.
A domineering,reclusive, and ostentatiously pious widow in a small Spanish town keeps such close watch on her daughters that they are unable to have normal social lives. However, the eldest is allowed to become engaged to an unprincipled young man, primarily for the financial advantages it will bring the mother, Bernarda. Jealousy and envy ensues among the other daughters.
Joey Boca is the owner of a pizza parlor located in Tacoma, Washington, and has been married to Rosalie for years. Rosalie is horrified to discover that Joey is a womanizer and has been cheating on her for a long time. Based on the true story of Frances and Anthony Toto.
Set in working class Newcastle, the Stott family fight their private battles against the backdrop of the conflict of World War II. Helen Stott, over thirty and with a limp, is resigned to being left on the shelf until she meets and falls in love with Norman, a serviceman from London. In contrast, her younger sister Joyce has quite a way with men, and finds herself a little too popular with the troops, especially when her husband pops up on leave from his regiment.
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.
In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
It is Stanley's birthday, but the party he is given is not quite what he expects.
New York trapper Tom Dobb becomes an unwilling participant in the American Revolution after his son Ned is drafted into the Army by the villainous Sergeant Major Peasy. Tom attempts to find his son, and eventually becomes convinced that he must take a stand and fight for the freedom of the Colonies, alongside the aristocratic rebel Daisy McConnahay. As Tom undergoes his change of heart, the events of the war unfold in large-scale grandeur.
A strange young man has a sinister effect on the family of a middle-aged writer.
Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, and African cannibal dictator and sinister human experiments.
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.
The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.
A young man becomes infatuated with the exotic Lady Pitts - whose much older husband is not pleased.
One Saturday evening Rosa Priore is preparing a magnificent Sunday lunch for her family and their friends. By Sunday afternoon her life and marriage are in ruins.
A psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, investigates the savage blinding of six horses with a metal spike in a stable in Hampshire, England. The atrocity was committed by an unassuming seventeen-year-old stable boy named Alan Strang, the only son of an opinionated but inwardly-timid father and a genteel, religious mother. As Dysart exposes the truths behind the boy's demons, he finds himself face-to-face with his own.
An Edwardian take on the Shakespeare play starring Laurence Olivier.
Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson and Joan Plowright star in this merry on-stage mix-up of identity, gender and love in Tony Award-winner John Dexter’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Originally broadcast on Britain’s ITV, this classic performance captures all the slapstick, puns and double entendres that have amazed and amused audiences for over four hundred years.
Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.
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."
Moby Dick—Rehearsed is a two-act drama by Orson Welles. The play was staged June 16–July 9, 1955, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, in a production directed by Welles. Welles used minimal stage design. The stage was bare, the actors appeared in contemporary street clothes, and the props were minimal. For example, brooms were used for oars, and a stick was used for a telescope. The actors provided the action, and the audience's imagination provided the ocean, costumes, and the whale. Welles filmed approximately 75 minutes of the production, with the original cast, at the Hackney Empire and Scala Theatres in London. He hoped to sell the film to Omnibus, the United States television series which had presented his live performance of King Lear in 1953; but Welles stopped shooting when he was disappointed in the results. The film is considered lost.
