John Standing
The Backstory of the Original Dancing Queen... as told by Sir John Standing.
Winston Churchill understood the power of films, but the true extent of his use of cinema as a propaganda tool is rarely explored. In 1934, one of Britain's most celebrated film producers, Alexander Korda, signed Churchill up as a screenwriter and historical advisor. It was the start of a unique collaboration. Churchill provided script notes for Korda's productions and penned an epic screenplay. When war broke out, their collaboration took on national importance. Korda was sent on a mission to Hollywood to help bring America into the war, with positive results. With access to previously undiscovered documents, this film documentary examines that mission and a friendship that underpinned a unique, creative partnership.
A woman makes a powerful connection with a surprising stranger on her 30th birthday.
In 1895, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was the most famous writer in London, and Bosie Douglas, son of the notorious Marquess of Queensberry, was his lover. Accused and convicted of gross indecency, he was imprisoned for two years and subjected to hard labor. Once free, he abandons England to live in France, where he will spend his last years, haunted by memories of the past, poverty and immense sadness.
Disgraced poet Ted Wallace is summoned to his friend's country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill suffers from a stroke in the summer of 1953 that's kept a secret from the rest of the world.
Still mourning the untimely death of his wife, Bella, Hastings is summoned to Styles Court in Styles St. Mary by his old friend Poirot. Styles is being run as a modest post-war guest house, and it is here that Hastings makes a gut-wrenching discovery: Poirot's health has taken a turn for the worse. The Belgian detective is now old, gaunt, arthritic, and confined to a wheelchair as he battles a weak heart. But his little gray cells are as active as ever, which is why Poirot has called him to Styles in the first place - a murderer is in their midst, and may be ready to strike again.
At their isolated hotel in the Canadian Rockies, a pair of teenage twin girls need to get over themselves and work together in order to defeat the most horrifying threat they have ever faced: their four-year-old sister.
An Englishman who grew up in London during World War II joins the military to fight in the Korean War.
Former CIA Operative, James Dial is coaxed back into action to kill a terrorist in London, but it all goes wrong and he is forced into hiding, where he meets and befriends a 12 year old girl.
Two hopeful lads from Leatherhead trying to break into the movies stumble upon the opportunity of a lifetime. Frustrated by their arty film teacher, wannabe producer Joe and his talented but neurotic director friend Baggy head to London to sell what they know is a script made of gold.
Fallen Angel is an ITV series broadcast on 11–13 March 2007 based on the Roth Trilogy of novels by Andrew Taylor. It tells the story of Rosie Byfield, a clergyman's daughter, who grows up to be a psychopathic killer. It has a unique narrative that moves backwards in time as it uncovers the layers of Rosie's past.
Sally Lockhart crosses paths with the nefarious industrialist Axel Bellman, the richest and most powerful man in Europe. She's determined to prove him guilty of corruption and fraud, whilst Bellman will stop at nothing to destroy her case.
Fifty years ago, a Home Office committee chaired by Wolfenden, then vice-chancellor of Reading University, recommended the decriminalization of homosexuality. But behind the scenes of what was to become a turning point in British social history, there was an even more extraordinary story. Jack's son Jeremy, then a brilliant undergraduate at Oxford, was himself gay, something his father could not bring himself to acknowledge.
The Rabbit is the world's belling-selling vibrator. In the past year alone, millions have been sold all over the globe. Now experts are warning the Rabbit is becoming the new addiction; women who start using often find they simply cannot stop. RABBIT FEVER is the first film to follow the trials and tribulations of a group of Rabbit Addicts as they attempt to kick their Rabbit habit.
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman from the secret police, he finds in her an ally with whom he can continue his fight to free the people of Britain.
The young and promising genetics researcher Thomas Nielsen will stop at nothing to become the first person to identify the elements in man that trigger aggression. To achieve faster results he performs illegal tests on the convicted mass murderer Iparrah. But when Thomas one day gets caught, he injects the unauthorized test agent itself. This turns out to have unexpected effects ...
Fleeing 1930s New York and leaving behind a chequered past, the giltzy divorcee Mrs Stella Erlynne travels to Italy's sun-dappled Amalfi coast. Mrs Erlynne's appearance causes a stir amongst the visiting aristocracy. Based on the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windemere's Fan
London 1939. In the weeks before the beginning of the Second World War, the Say When jazz club keeps London's Shoreditch swinging. Run by Thomas (Richie) and his wife Massie (Natasha Wightman), it's a place where gangsters and aristocrats, home office gents, and loose women can kick back and relax. Thomas' job is to keep everything running smoothly. But when he starts having an affair with singer Butterfly (Joely Richardson), this carefully balanced world disintegrates into blackmail, drugs, and suicide.
Drama-documentary exploring the life of Jane Austen. Actor Anna Chancellor, a distant relative of Jane Austen, discovers the woman behind the acclaimed novels through readings and reconstructions. Location shots of her homes in Steventon and Chawton and extracts from adaptations of her work are also featured.
A love story offering an intimate look inside the marriage of Winston and Clementine Churchill during a particularly troubled, though little-known, moment in their lives.
The Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of history. It was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983, for production and broadcast in 1986, but was subsequently shelved by Controller of BBC One Michael Grade due to its alleged pro-Margaret Thatcher stance and jingoistic tone. This prompted a press furore over media bias and censorship.The play was not staged until 2002, when it was broadcast in separate adaptations on BBC Television and Radio.
Dramatization of Nancy Mitford's novel about three aristocratic young girls' adventures in love.
Set in England during the early 19th century, Pandaemonium evokes late-1960s America in its depiction of the relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Linus Roach) and William Wordsworth (John Hannah). Instead of going to Vietnam, Wordsworth goes off to fight against the French while Coleridge stays at home and promotes utopianism. After the war, the poets live and work together with Coleridge's wife, Sara (Samantha Morton), and Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy (Emily Woof). At first this communal arrangement works to the advantage of Coleridge--who does some of his best writing while Wordsworth stagnates--until Coleridge becomes addicted to opium. Wordsworth, meanwhile, doesn't find his voice until he abandons his friend. In 20th-century vernacular, Wordsworth is the yuppie, Coleridge the hippie.
By order of Her Majesty's Secret Service, Captain Strong is given a dangerous assignment to deliver a delicate communication to the British Ambassador in Kazakhstan. As the senior officer for the elite Queen's Messenger corps, Captain Strong must pledge to protect his diplomatic cargo with his life
On her wedding night, a young woman conceives a child during an hallucinatory encounter. Several years later, as her friends and family begin to behave strangely, she pieces together clues that lead to one conclusion...her son is the Antichrist
When her TV star husband Alex decides to divorce her so that he can start a career in politics, newly single mother Maddy goes shoplifting and ends up in jail. Losing custody of her infant child, Maddy hatches a scheme to break out of prison with the assistance of her friend Gillian, who's avoiding the law herself for credit card fraud. Now Maddy has to find the couple who have adopted her son and avoid falling in love with selfish Alex all over again.
After the death of his wife, wealthy businessman Philip Emmenthal and his son Storey open their own private harem in their family residence in Geneva (they get the idea while watching Federico Fellini's 8½ and after Storey is "given" a woman, Simato (Inoh), to waive her pachinko debts). They sign one-year contracts with eight (and a half) women to this effect. The women each have a gimmick (one is a nun, another a kabuki performer, etc.). Philip soon becomes dominated by his favourite of the concubines, Palmira, who has no interest in Storey as a lover, despite what their contract might stipulate. Philip dies, the concubines' contracts expire, and Storey is left alone with Giulietta (the titular "½", played by Fujiwara) and of course the money and the houses.
Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson, an employee of Barings Bank who--after a successful trading run--ends up accumulating $1.4 billion in losses hidden in account #88888.
Based upon Wilkie Collins Victorian mystery, the gothic tale tells of a pair of half sisters whose lives end up caught in a grand conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed in white. As the story unfolds, murder, love, marriage, and greed stand between the two women and happy lives. Their only hope is the secret the woman in white waits to tell them.
Clarissa Dalloway looks back on her youth as she readies for a gathering at her house. The wife of a legislator and a doyenne of London's upper-crust party scene, Clarissa finds that the plight of ailing war veteran Septimus Warren Smith reminds her of a past romance with Peter Walsh. In flashbacks, young Clarissa explores her possibilities with Peter.
An American gets a ticket for an audience participation game in London, then gets involved in a case of mistaken identity. As an international plot unravels around him, he thinks it's all part of the act.
A Dance to the Music of Time is a four-part adaptation of Anthony Powell's 12-volume novel sequence that aired on Channel 4 in 1997. The series is a sharp, comic portrait of upper-class and bohemian England, spanning almost a century, from the early 1920s to modern times.
Dr. Gulliver has returned from his yourney to his family after a long absence - and tells them the story of his travels.
Arrogant aristocrat Rupert Campbell-Black has a high social position, woman at his feet, money and fame in the world of show jumping. But Rupert has a rival - the brooding gypsy Jake Lovell, whose loathing for the Pin Up of Penscombe has driven him to the top of the riding world to match Rupert's skills. A bitter feud festers between the two stars, who have fought and fornicated their way round the show rings of the world, and now come to a showdown at the Lod Angeles Olympics. As rivals in love and sport, the stage is set for what becomes a compulsive blend of sex, romance, and adventure.
The true story of mysterious deaf-mute boy Joseph in France just before the revolution.
A British agent comes back from retirement after several of his former colleagues, including his former lover, are murdered. He must examine events from his own past to determine who killed them and why.
Paddington Bear was the second television adaptation of the children's animated series and made by Hanna-Barbera. This series was traditional two-dimensional animated and featured veteran voice actor Charlie Adler as Paddington and Tim Curry as Mr. Curry. The character of an American boy named David, Jonathan and Judy Brown's cousin was added to the stories in order to sell the concept to US networks.
American tourist Gene LePere (Lee Remick), on vacation in Turkey, is hounded by a street vendor into buying a carved head she doesn't want. Then she is cast into prison for smuggling an antique.
A scientific group set out on a journey into space to find a magical creature. What they find is a killer computer on the ship they chartered.
This was the last of Dennis Potter's "one-shot, one-slot" plays for television. It had its origins in Potter's 1983 play "Sufficient Carbohydrate," about two middle-aged executives, one English, one American, who both work for the same multinational food company. Together, they vacation with their wives on a Greek island. In the TV adaptation, British businessman Jack becomes bitter as he faces the prospect of seeing his family company taken over by an American corporation. On a holiday at an Italian villa with his new manager, Eddie, he begins to stir up antagonism prompting Eddie's son Clayton to fantasize a murderous outcome.
Lime Street is an American action/drama series that aired on the ABC television network during the 1985 television season. The series was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who also served as executive producer alongside husband Harry Thomason and series star Robert Wagner.
Robert Wagner plays an American who owns a Lisbon nightclub and Teri Garr is a slightly dippy chanteuse who has stumbled across a Nazi plot to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, living at the time (1942) in Portugal.
Based on the official transcripts of the investigation that followed after the very suspicious notorious death in prison of one of the most important leading men of the South African anti-apartheid movement, Steven Biko.
It is 1947, the year of the communist rebellion in Malaya and the British army's SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South East Asia) are called to the Malayan Jungle to entertain the troops. The eccentric, bible-bashing Major Giles Flack (John Cleese) is in command of the unit. Flack is accompanied by an ageing, theatrical drama queen, Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) who hopes to entertain the troops with his flamboyant impressions, but the bored troops find other ways to enjoy themselves.
This true story follows the exploits of a top secret British military mission to destroy Nazi radio ships in a neutral harbor during WWII. The daring plan is led by British Intelligence officers Col. Lewis Pugh (Gregory Peck) and Capt. Gavin Stewart (Roger Moore). Since the ships are in neutral territory the British Military command, while encouraging the scheme, must deny any knowledge of it if it fails. Pugh and Stewart enlist the aid of retired officer Col. Bill Grice (David Niven) and some of his former soldiers. On the pretext of being on a fishing expedition, these seemingly drunken old men in civilian clothing must board and destroy 3 Nazi ships, whose radio transmissions have resulted in Nazi submarines sinking allied ships. While Stewart arranges a diversion on shore, Pugh and Grice carry out the dangerous raid on and destruction of the Nazi ships.
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.
The Other 'Arf is a British television ITV sitcom series broadcast from 1980 to 1984. It stars John Standing as upper class Conservative politician Charles Latimer, MP, who begins a relationship with working class cockney Lorraine Watts. The series was produced by ATV, and was screened by ITV.
A dedicated teacher (Glenda Jackson) tries to reach out to juvenile delinquent students at a London alternative school.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief. George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.
A couple attempts to unravel a sinister plot within the English countryside estate of a dying man who has gathered an eclectic and notable group of house guests.
When the Nazi high command learns in late 1943 that Winston Churchill will be spending time at a country estate in Norfolk, it hatches an audacious scheme to kidnap the prime minister and spirit him to Germany for enforced negotiations with Hitler.
Early in 1939 Sir Robert Thorndyke takes aim at Adolf Hitler with a high powered rifle, but the shot misses its mark. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo and left for dead, Sir Robert makes his way back to England where he discovers the Gestapo has followed him. Knowing that his government would turn him over to German authorities, Sir Robert goes underground in his battle with his pursuers.
The venomous and amoral wife of a wealthy architect tries, any way she can, to break up the blossoming romance between her husband and his new mistress; a good-natured young widow who holds a dark past.
Four sexy young foreign girls come to England as au pairs and quickly become quite intimate with their employers, host families, and just about everyone else they encounter.
A married man with two small children begins an affair with a beautiful young actress which quickly blossoms into a full blown romance, until she tells him that she is only 15 years old…
Intellectually driven doctoral student Rosamund Stacey, while undertaking graduate work at the British Museum, becomes pregnant after a brief affair with a television newsreader. Against the advice of her best friend, Lydia, Rosamund chooses to keep the baby and adjusts her life to include both her studies and her pregnancy. However, when the baby is born, an unforeseen complication threatens the self-sufficient life Rosamund plans for herself.
The First Churchills was a BBC serial from 1969 about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. It starred John Neville as the duke and Susan Hampshire as the duchess, was written and produced by Donald Wilson, and was directed by David Giles. The serial presents the lives of John and Sarah Churchill from their meeting in 1673 until a time shortly before the first duke's death in 1722, and illustrates, along the way, much of the context of contemporary English politics. Like many BBC serials of the era, it was made on a low budget, with sound studio sets, and generally avoided battle and crowd scenes due to inability to stage them in a convincing manner. The series is based on the Marlboroughs' famous descendant Winston Churchill's life of his ancestor the Duke, and as such presents a very favourable portrait of the Marlboroughs. The closing credits theme is the second piece, a Rondeau, of Henry Purcell's incidental music, composed about 1695, to Aphra Behn's 1676 play Abdelazer, or The Moor's Revenge. It is also notable as being the first program shown on PBS's long-running Masterpiece series in the United States.
Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo. Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra.
During the '64 Olympics in Tokyo, Sir William "Bill" Rutland is visiting strictly for business but has no place to stay after his hotel reservation is screwed up. Everything's booked solid because of the Olympics. He sees a note posted in English, "Roommate wanted." He answers the ad, and finds a tiny two-room traditional Japanese apartment (sliding screens, tatami mats) inhabited by a British woman, an embassy worker. She gives him a cold reception because she wanted a woman roommate, but he persuades her to let him stay just a little while--and soon he's invited another man, an Olympic athlete, to share the tiny two-room sliding-screen apartment, too.
Inspector Holloway is investigating a series of brutal murders in which a doll of each victim is found at the scene. The dolls, as it turns out,were purchased by the crippled Mrs. Von Sturm, whose home is overcrowded with a doll collection. Her pale, wide-eyed, neurotic son is the prime suspect and the daughter of one of the victims discovers the shocking truth.
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. There were no walls or barbed-wire fences for the simple reason that there was no place for the prisoners to escape to. Included among the prisoners is the American Cpl. King, a wheeler dealer who has managed to established a pretty good life for himself in the camp. While most of the prisoners are near starvation and have uniforms that are in tatters, King eats well and and has crisp clean clothes to wear every day. King soon forms a friendship with Lt. Peter Marlowe, an upper class British officer who is fascinated with King's élan approach to life.
A young man travels to Prague for his new employer, unaware that he is being used as an espionage courier.
The film follows Jack Hopkins (played by Michael Craig), an aircraft designer with a passion for traction engines. His boss (played by Cecil Parker) is eager to sell a new supersonic jet plane that Jack has designed to American millionaire Paul Fisher (Alan Hale, Jr.). The first encounter between Fisher and Jack goes badly, and tensions only heighten after Fisher's daughter Kathy (Anne Helm) damages Jack's prize traction engine "The Iron Maiden", rendering it impossible to drive solo. Jack is desperate to enter the annual Woburn Abbey steam rally with the machine, but his fireman is injured and unable to participate. When all seems lost the millionaire himself is won over by Jack's plight and joins him in driving the engine; the two soon become firm friends.
She's new in chambers, and he's a troublemaker. But what 'is' the true status of the old lady's wartime marriage, and can the two young legal minds find the answer?
Harry Brown is a somewhat rough and wild university student, who has the ability to win friends, especially the underdogs like Phil who doesn't play 'rugger' and can't sink a whole pint of beer, and African student Reggie. He also has a way with the girls....
