Lesley Sharp
A documentary look inside the Bank of England during the turbulent year 2018
A feel-good, heart-warming film set in Yorkshire in 1977 about an adolescent boy's big summer after leaving school. It's about a boy and a dog, class and ambition, first love, and above all, family.
The story of three of the children who were victims in the 2012 grooming and sex trafficking case in Rochdale, for which nine men were convicted and sentenced. The drama explores how these girls were groomed, how they were ignored by the authorities directly responsible for protecting them, and how they eventually made themselves heard.
A British family, the Pembertons, decide it’s time to leave rainy England and move to the sunshine state of Florida. They've bought an RV Park with plans for a booming family-run business, but it soon turns out that they are not going to be living the dream they hoped.
Set on a single street in South London, Capital is a portrait of a road transformed by soaring property prices: what was once the home of modest lower-middle class families, Pepys Road has been continuously gentrified into a street of multimillion pound houses. On one day, the people of this South London street all receive an anonymous postcard with the simple message 'we want what you have'. Its unsettling ripples affect every corner of the community.
Emily and Andy have been trying for a baby for years. After three stillborn babies their world has been torn apart by grief. Having moved house to make a fresh start, Emily slips into a delusional state as a way of coping with her loss. Andy tries to help guide her through whilst privately struggling in his own way with the loss of his much wanted children, as well as the gradual loss of his wife as he becomes isolated from her world. Andy then takes drastic action to help Emily see the truth. But is their relationship strong enough to survive?
Follows three young couples as they travel to Korea to be blessed by their messiah, Reverend Moon, at one of the movement's controversial mass weddings
A murder is investigated by both sides of the line, cops and criminals, using opposing methods. But the real line is the morality within each person and how far they will go before they cross it.
Shirley is the youngest of eight children from a mixed race marriage. By the time she is a toddler the family have moved to the all white area of Splott and by the time she is 12 Shirley has discovered she has an extraordinary voice and can earn money singing in pubs around the docks after her father if jailed for sexual crimes. As a young teenager she begins singing and dancing in 'coloured review shows'. But it is a chance meeting with struggling agent Mike Sullivan that changes her life forever. He promises to make her a star, but has no idea of the personal sacrifice that will mean for the teenaged Shirley.
D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.
After placing his ailing wife Alice in a care home elderly academic James Parkin goes to stay at a wintry out-of-season hotel which they used to visit together. Walking on a deserted beach he finds a ring with a Latin inscription,which translates as Who Is This Who Is Coming. He takes the ring back to the hotel but at night he hears loud banging on his door,even though he is the sole guest,as well as seeing a white-clad apparition on the beach.He is seemingly the victim of ghostly revenge - but who is the avenger?
After 6 years of brutal murders the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire, but things become more difficult for the Police when they discover they not only have The Ripper to catch, but a copycat killer is also at large. Assistant Chief Constable of the Manchester Police, Peter Hunter, is called in to oversee the West Yorkshire Police's Ripper investigation, with the help of John Nolan and Helen Marshall, both detectives from the Manchester Police, they decide to go back and look at the crime reports from the Rippers victims to see what they could have missed.
Five-part adaptation of Anne Frank's famous wartime diaries in which a young teenager and her family go into hiding from the Nazis in wartime Amsterdam.
Looking at family businesses where the next generation of the family is unwilling to take over. Parents show their children how to run the business and see what happens when they are left in charge.
An eight year old girl is found murdered on the patio of her home. Any one of the adults who care for her could have killed her, but which one?
Monkey Trousers was a short-lived comedy series on ITV in 2005, featuring Alistair McGowan, John Thomson, Ronni Ancona, Mackenzie Crook, Griff Rhys Jones, Neil Morrissey, Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Marc Wootton and Steve Coogan. It was directed by David Kerr and produced by Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves' production company, Pett Productions. It succeeded The All Star Comedy Show, which was written by Reeves and Mortimer, and produced by Coogan. Sketches of the show included the moronic, yet fearless 'Croc Botherer', Roy the eerie, lonely toy-shopkeeper, Alistair the hopeless estate agent, who replies to every question with "I don't know", the swearing chef, and the 'Geordie Astronauts'. A DVD of the series was released on 4 July 2005.
A provocative drama about an IVF mix-up which results in a white woman giving birth to a black boy.
Based on the best-selling book by award-winning writer Simon Garfield, four stories from Britain's 'lost decade' (1945 - 1955) are presented from the diaries of four very distinct people. In his book, Garfield selected some of the most expressive diarists, and focused on the post-war years giving a vivid portrait of how Britain coped in the post-war years and how little, or how much, attitudes have changed over the past 60 years.
Television drama based on a true story about a group of planespotters wrongly accused of being spies. 14 planespotters are arrested for behaving 'suspiciously' at an air base in Greece and are accused of being spies because of the telescopes, radio scanners and aircraft serial numbers they have in their possession. They plead their innocence but the farce turns into a nightmare when the group are held in squalid Greek prisons.
Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.
The Second Coming is a two-part British television drama first screened on ITV in the United Kingdom in February 2003. It concerns the realisation of Steve Baxter that he is in fact the Son of God, and has just a few days to find the human race's Third Testament and thus avert the Apocalypse. It was written by Russell T Davies, and produced by the independent Red Production Company. The programme was originally commissioned as four one-hour episodes by Channel 4 in 1999; however, when new executives took over running the drama department at that channel, they decided not to pursue the project. Davies and Red's founder Nicola Shindler took the project to the BBC, who quickly turned it down; it found a home on ITV, a channel that had gained a reputation for producing mainstream, unchallenging, "middle-of-the-road" drama in recent years. Screened over two successive evenings in prime time on Sunday and Monday, 9–10 February 2003, The Second Coming gained viewing figures of over six million. Davies, who is an atheist, has said his intention was to provoke debate and get people thinking about religion.
Bob & Rose is a British television drama, originally screened in six one-hour episodes on the ITV network in the UK in autumn 2001. It was produced for the network by the independent Red Production Company, and was that company's first prime-time drama for the ITV network. Bob & Rose was the inspiration for Jules & Mimi, the fictional British television show featured in Sex and the City.
How much do you know about the person working next to you? From the outside, life at Mackintosh Textiles appears to run smoothly, but in a community with so many secrets to hide, things are far from straightforward. In six powerful, self-contained dramas, everyday life is fractured by tumultuous marriages, snatched passions, disappearing husbands and gang harassment.
Daylight Robbery is a British television drama mini-series that aired on ITV from 9 September 1999 to 18 December 2000. Focusing on four Essex women struggling with personal and domestic problems, decide to turn to crime to make ends meet.
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.
The on-the-field trials and tribulations and the off-the-field lives, loves and infidelities of 'The Castlefield Blues', an under funded, badly managed ladies football team from South Yorkshire in the north of England whose loyalty to the team, the game and each other far exceeds their chances of ever winning the championship.
Sheffield, England. Gaz, a jobless steelworker in need of quick cash persuades his mates to bare it all in a one-night-only strip show.
Greg Wise (Sense and Sensibility) and Keeley Hawes (Karaoke) star in this sumptuous adaptation of Wilkie Collins' classic mystery, the first detective novel ever written. The Moonstone, a sacred Hindu diamond was stolen from the head of the Moon God, in its shrine by John Herncastle in 1799. The stone is said to be cursed if it is removed from the shrine. In 1848, a man named Franklin Blake announces to Rachel that the Moonstone has been bequeathed to her by Herncastle. Blake gives her the jewel on her birthday and offers to mount the jewel for her, in order that she might wear it. Inevitably, the jewel is found missing the next morning and Rachel believes Blake stole it. Determined to prove his innocence, Blake leaves in order to pursue the real truth behind the theft.
In three separate stories, DCI Jane Tennison investigates the case of a convicted child-molester accused of killing a baby, leads her team on an investigation of the murder of man who managed an exclusive club. Jane feels the murderer was close to home, and an old case Tennison thought was solved may have been decided incorrectly.
Tony Marchant's eloquent and painful play about the changes to how people are employed, and what that does to their sense of self.
Father Greg Pilkington is torn between his call as a conservative Catholic priest and his secret life as a homosexual with a gay lover, frowned upon by the Church. Upon hearing the confession of a young girl of her incestuous father, Greg enters an intensely emotional spiritual struggle deciding between choosing morals over religion and one life over another.
Common As Muck is a gritty BBC comedy drama serial focusing on the lives of a crew of bin men and their management staff. It ran for two series. The first series was screened in 1994 and the second in 1997. Both were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama.
This is a dramatisation of the true story of Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong, a solicitor and magistrate's clerk who lived in the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye. In 1921 he was arrested and charged with poisoning his domineering wife, Catherine, and later attempting to poison a business rival, Oswald Martin, by administering arsenic to them. At his trial, Armstrong claimed that he had bought the arsenic simply to kill the dandelions on his lawn. However he was convicted of murder and executed in 1922.
Frank Stubbs (Timothy Spall) is a down-at-heel ticket tout with grand ideas. He has an ambition to become a 'high class' promoter of famous and talented performers. In reality, his ambitions tend to outstrip his capabilities.
After some years of tension, Richard begins a sexual relationship with his sister Natalie. Now married, the relationship proves dangerously obsessional.
Clarence Flamer hosts a late-night talk show on regional radio station North Star Sound. A phone call he takes one night leads to his discovering a mortgage scam being run by a group of estate agents. His attempts to delve deeper have tragic consequences.
Charles is in control of his life; he is about to finish 6th from college and start at Oxford. He is 19 and wants an 'older' woman before he turns 20. Enter the beautiful Rachel, and Charles puts his 'master-of-seduction' routines into top gear. Things however get complicated, Charles has a string of ex's and a weird brother-in-law. Rachel has a boyfriend named Deforest and Charles' father has a mistress.
When he was a little boy, Dillon's rock musician father and hippie mother died in a traffic accident. Now in his twenties, Dillon wants nothing more than a normal, responsible life, working in an office and taking care of the grandmother who raised him. But his grandmother has other ideas, and Dillon finds himself lured into an alternate lifestyle of art, pleasure and rebellion.
Realistic story of working class Yorkshire life. Two schoolgirls have a sexual fling with a married man. Serious and light-hearted by turns. Rita, Sue And Bob Too was adapted by Andrea Dunbar from two of her own controversial plays. Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two teenagers living on a run-down council estate in Bradford who both share a job babysitting for Bob (George Costigan) and Michelle's (Lesley Sharp) children. Whilst giving them a lift home one night, Bob decides to take Rita and Sue up to a deserted, country-side landscape. Clearly knowing what he has in mind, Rita and Sue are only too happy to oblige and both have a sexual encounter with him that becomes a regular occurrence. Despite the blatant politically-incorrect nature of the film, this does emerge as a somewhat controversial, though enduringly amusing film that has a sharp, gritty undertone.
