Michael Aldridge
Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.
Roddy and Lola strike up a romance on the cruise liner SS Mara as it heads to Hong Kong from San Francisco.
Charters and Caldicott is a 1985 BBC mystery series featuring the characters Charters and Caldicott from the film The Lady Vanishes. It featured six 50 minute episodes broadcast on BBC1 at 9.25pm on Thursdays from 10 January to 14 February 1985.
The rise and fall of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Recounting his life with his wife, children and mistress, this biography (based on the recollections of Mussolini's eldest son, Vittorio) chronicles Il Duce's tyranny as he plunges Italy into the dark days of World War II.
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.
A successful lawyer struck with blindness in middle age continues his battles in the courtroom with the assistance of his family. As his son deals with bitter memories of their relationship, he also seeks his father's respect and love and in the process learns to love in return.
All seems ready for a major sale of impressionist paintings to be graced by a royal visit. But panic erupts in the boardroom when the pedigree of the Van Gogh - to be sold by the Russians - is questioned. When it causes a scene between the porters, Les and Mick, a respectable firm is forced to take drastic action to save the big day.
Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984. The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1. Captain Emily Ridley has been posted there, having been an active member of the Salvation Army for 42 years. Despite the town and residents being seemingly pleasant, Emily is determined to flush out sin from behind the net curtains. Assisting Emily are her niece Alice Meredith. The programme was a repeat collaboration between Hird and the creator Dick Sharples, having worked together on the comedy series In Loving Memory between 1979 and 1986. The show even featured guest appearances from guest stars like Hird's Last of the Summer Wine co-star actor Michael Aldridge and television presenter & Countdown Legend Richard Whiteley Himself.
The dashing Captain Hugh "Bullshot" Crummond - WWI ace fighter pilot, Olympic athlete, racing driver, part-time sleuth and all round spiffing chap - must save the world from the dastardly Count Otto van Bruno, his wartime adversary. And, of course, win the heart of a jolly nice young lady.
This ten episode program was based on ten short stories written by Agatha Christie but with wide-ranging themes. Some were romances, some had supernatural themes and a couple were adventures. The common link was that all came from the talented pen of Agatha Christie, all were entertaining and each drama was carefully crafted and well cast with many of Britain's best known actors of the time represented.
The unconventional lives and loves of the family of Lord Alconleigh, dominated by the eccentric, irascible Uncle Matthew. The story encompasses the economic and political crises of the Thirties and the upheavals of the Second World War.
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.
Invited to a weekend house party by Sir Basil Turton and his younger wife Natalia, John Bannister is struck by the lady's infidelity. She tries to undo his pajamas and is plainly having an affair with another guest Major Haddock. Jelks, Sir Basil's loyal butler, has also noticed and when Natalia gets her head stuck in an abstract sculpture he knows precisely how to cut her down to size.
Unencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.
A strait-laced British banker hires an eccentric private detective to follow his free-spirited American wife, whom he suspects is cheating on him.
Richard Vernon and Michael Aldridge star as Home Office-appointed criminologists in this clever, humorous and highly original Granada series. Devised and co-written by the award-winning Robin Chapman – the creator of the series’ famous prequel The Man in Room 17 – The Fellows charts the continuing work and often strained relationship of Room 17’s former occupants Oldenshaw and Dimmock. Now appointed to the Peel Research Fellowship at All Saints’ College, Cambridge, they no longer simply solve crimes, trap spies and hunt traitors; their new brief is to investigate the changing nature of crime, ultimately advising the police, legislature and government. But the familiar cat-and-mouse game with the criminal fraternity isn’t over yet, and and their ingeniously unorthodox tactics help to ensnare several lynchpins of organised crime – including infamous gangland boss Spindoe.
The career of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff as roistering companion to young Prince Hal, circa 1400-1413.
A young girl, Ruth (Lynn Taylor), is injured in a boating accident and taken to hospital for what is regarded as a routine emergency. Her parents are informed that only a blood transfusion will save her life, but her religious fundamentalist father, John Harris (Michael Craig), ignores the doctors advice and forbids the procedure, believing that God will inexplicably heal his daughter. His embittered wife, Pat (Janet Munro), who has tolerated her husband's religious convictions throughout their marriage finally relents and signs the required papers, but sadly too late and their daughter dies. The angry Dr. Brown Brown, (Patrick McGoohan), decides to press ahead with manslaughter charges against Harris and the case quickly comes to the law courts. After a lengthy and emotional trial, Harris is eventually acquitted. Though a free man, he must come to terms with his own conflicting feelings over his faith and his daughter’s death.
