Michael Feast
A group of young men and women in Dublin in 1916 are embroiled in a fight for independence during the Easter Rising.The story begins with the outbreak of World War I. As expectations of a short and glorious campaign are dashed, social stability is eroded and Irish nationalism comes to the fore. The tumultuous events that follow are seen through the eyes of a group of friends from Dublin, Belfast and London as they play vital and conflicting roles in the narrative of Ireland's independence.
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith and today, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone: the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where, in all of this, is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial and, as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.
Jack is a children's author turned crime novelist whose detailed research into the lives of Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck, persecuted by the irrational fear of being murdered. When Jack is thrown a life-line by his long-suffering agent and a mysterious Hollywood executive takes a sudden and inexplicable interest in his script, what should be his big break rapidly turns into his big breakdown, as Jack is forced to confront his worst demons; among them his love life, his laundry and the origin of all fear.
The story of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 after she was torpedoed off the Irish coast. The story is told from the perspective of Prof. Holbourn (a passenger), the German U-boat and its captain and crew, and other passengers, crew and Admiralty staff
Deaths tells the story of an all-American guy who is murdered each day by horrifying pursuers, only to wake up in slightly different lives to experience the terror of being murdered again.
Forlorn heiress Penelope Wilhern is cursed, and the only way out is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she find her soul mate when she's sequestered inside her family's estate with only her parents to keep her company. This untraditional fairy tale about a girl who bucks convention to create her own happy ending.
The murder of Sonia Baker, a young political researcher, leads journalist Cal McCaffrey to uncover complex links between government and big business.
A group of British students embark on summoning spirits on a Ouija board after a night of clubbing. But someone breaks the link before they have finished and now a demon is trapped in their world and the only way to banish it, is for all the people who summoned it to die.
Documentary short about the making of "Withnail & I", a DVD extra on Criterion and other special editions.
Tony Harrison's poetic essay on the working class - in particular the British miners -, its struggles, its dreams and its icononography - at the very end of the 20th century, as interpreted through the myth of Prometheus.
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, which originally aired in Britain in 1999, was one of the most quietly incendiary made-for-TV productions of 2002. As he did for his acclaimed feature Bloody Sunday, writer-director Paul Greengrass based the story on actual events and filmed it cinéma vérité-style. The cast is equal to the task in bringing the case to wrenching life. We're there in 1993 as racists viciously attack Stephen, an 18-year-old of Jamaican descent. We're there as his parents (Hugh Quarshie and Marianne Jean-Baptiste) grieve their loss. And we're there as they muster their resources, resolving to do whatever it takes to see his killers brought to justice. Although authorities attempted to bury the case, Stephen's murder became a cause célèbre due to the two ordinary individuals who refused to rest until it was solved. Thanks to their efforts, crimes against minorities aren't likely to be treated so lightly ever again.
New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. But the locals believe the culprit to be none other than the ghost of the legendary Headless Horseman.
Almost a decade has elapsed since Bowiesque glam-rock superstar Brian Slade escaped the spotlight of the London scene. Now, investigative journalist Arthur Stuart is on assignment to uncover the truth behind the enigmatic Slade. Stuart, himself forged by the music of the 1970s, explores the larger-than-life stars who were once his idols and what has become of them since the turn of the new decade.
Touching Evil is a British television drama serial, which began airing in 1997. It was produced by United Productions for Anglia Television, and screened on the ITV network. The first series consists of six fifty-minute episodes. It was created by Paul Abbott, and written by Abbott with Russell T Davies. The serial was very popular, and led to two sequel serials in 1998 and 1999, although these were not written by Abbott or Davies. The star is popular actor Robson Green, playing a police officer, DCI Dave Creegan, whose injuries after a shooting leaves him with strange abilities to sense criminals. Touching Evil was co-produced by Green's own independent production company, Coastal Productions. Green's co-star was Nicola Walker, playing Creegan's colleague DI Susan Taylor.
Shirley Peters is dead. Murdered. Her body is found twelve hours later in her own home. Just one of the many sordid domestic crimes hitting the city. Tony Macliesh, her rejected boyfriend, is the obvious prime suspect and he’s just been picked off the Aberdeen train and put straight into custody. But then another woman is sexually abused and throttled to death. And suddenly there appears to be one too many connections between these seemingly unrelated crimes. Detective Inspector Resnick is sure that the two murders are the work of one sadistic killer – two lonely hearts broken by one maniac. And it’s up to Resnick to put the record straight – and put the bastard where he belongs
While on vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies, Miss Marple correctly suspects that the apparently natural death of a retired British major is actually the work of a murderer planning yet another killing.
Dark and Brooding thriller. A group of mercenaries are assembled in Amsterdam by a British intelligence officer. Believing they are awaiting the details of a new mission, they decide to spend their free time in the sleazy bars and brothels. Over the course of the weekend it gradually becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Unknown to them their paths have all crossed before, and the deceit and violence of the past is about to become their own downfall.
A young artist is commissioned by the wife of a wealthy landowner to make a series of drawings of the estate while her husband is away.
John McVicar was a London Bad Boy. he graduated to armed bank robbery and was Britain's "Public Enemy No. 1". He was captured and put into a high security prison. Will even the highest security prison be able to hold him? This is the true story of his life, his criminal exploits and his eventual rehabilitation.
The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov produced by the Open University.
This is a dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
Receptionist Anne’s new relationship with nascent writer Peter is opening her eyes to a new lifestyle, one far removed from her comfortable middle-class background.
Play about a student, taken from his point of view, and his reactions to the pressures and vacuums of student life.
Jenny Agutter plays Wynne, an adopted 14-year-old girl who has a crush on her 32-year-old stepbrother, George, played by Bryan Marshall. While spying on George in the bathroom, Wynne notices George has several scratches on his back, and finds a bloody sweater she made for him that he threw in the trash, which leads her to suspect George of being the serial killer of several local teenage girls, who is still at large. Despite this belief, Wynne continues to have romantic sexual fantasies about George and dreams of marrying him when she comes of legal age.
