Murray Melvin
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
Terry 'The Taxman' Tempest, the greatest bank robber there ever was, whose true identity was never discovered, finds himself languishing in a dilapidated care home with only elderly confidence trickster Professor Humboldt Worth for company. When Terry and The Professor discover all is not right in the care home, the bickering pair are forced to put their differences aside, dust off their criminals skills, step onto the other side of the law and save the day.
A mysterious series of suicides makes people of a small town is full of anxiety. Shortly before his eighteenth birthday, Kirsten wants to know the mystery surrounding this story.
Looks at Mozart's extraordinary short life and revolutionary music through a distinctive mix of costume drama and documentary.
Hell on Earth is an hour-long documentary presented by Mark Kermode. It's about Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils which is one of the most controversial films ever made. Kermode chats to Russell as well as two of the films stars Georgina Hale and Murray Melvin. Also included are scenes that were cut from the released film for being too controversial.
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well; first, the journey proves more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food.
Three hapless directors arrive in England from Italy to make a documentary on their idol. The funny thing is, they have no interviews lined up! Not to worry, these guys have a miracle or two that they call in.
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Oscar's Orchestra is a British children's animated TV series that ran from 1994 to 1996 comprising a total of three seasons and 39 episodes. The series was produced by the popular British animation studio Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment in association with Warner Music Vision and Europe Images and was originally shown on the BBC as part of the children's block CBBC. It has also aired on the British children's cable networks The Children's Channel and Nickleodeon, France 2 in France and ABC in Australia. It is set in the distant future, in the year 2743 in a city called New Vienna, and was about a talking piano called Oscar, who rebels against the evil dictator of the world, Thaddius Vent, who has banned music. Oscar and his fellow musical instruments plot against Vent and his henchmen, Lucius and Tank, and his soothsayer, Goodtooth, who always says: 'You screamed, master!'. The voice of Oscar was provided by Dudley Moore.
Hiding out in an industrial wasteland from the murderous wrath of a regional ruler, a woman, disguised as a boy, gives wooing lessons to the edgy lad who proclaims he loves her.
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
Thomas Wilkins has faithfully worked his entire life on Saville Row. Suddenly he is fired by his boss Mr Gerald, who wants a younger man with new ideas. Thomas advertise under "Lonely Hearts" and receives an answer.
Slipstream is a 1989 post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film. The plot has an emphasis on aviation and contains many common science-fiction themes, such as taking place in a dystopian future in which the landscape of the Earth itself has been changed and is windswept by storms of great power. There are also numerous sub-plots, such as free will and humanity amongst artificial intelligence.
A tough nun (Anna Massey) demands belief and obedience from convent schoolgirls (Katrin Cartlidge, Oona Kirsch) in World War II England.
After his proposal to sail west to the East Indies is rejected by Portugal, Columbus overcomes court intrigue in Spain to gain support for his expedition.
A pirate crewman kills his captain after learning where he has hidden his buried treasure. However, as he begins to lose his memory, he relies more and more on the ghost of the man he just murdered to help him find the loot.
During World War One an English adventurer, an American elephant poacher and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battle-cruiser which is awaiting repairs in an inlet just off Zanzibar. The story is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith, which in turn is very loosely based on events involving the light cruiser SMS Königsberg, which was sunk after taking refuge in Rufigi delta in 1915.
Another stab at Henry Fielding's hilarious novel about the amorous misadventures of a dashing young man in 18th century England. The brilliant 1963 version, starring Albert Finney as the lusty hero, won four Oscars. Joan Collins does a great job as a Wicked Lady style highwaywoman.
Composer and pianist Franz Liszt attempts to overcome his hedonistic life-style while repeatedly being drawn back into it by the many women in his life and fellow composer Richard Wagner.
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.
Several old college friends converge at a mansion, ostensibly for a pleasant reunion. Larry Dann, the most easygoing of the bunch, comes to the conclusion that all is not well in the old dark house. For one thing, he's run across several people whom he's never met. For another, they all seem to be of a different time and place.
The medieval legend of a supernatural knight who challenges the king's men to kill him.
A couple uses extremely black comedy to survive taking care of a daughter who is nearly completely brain dead. They take turns doing the daughter's voice and stare into the eyes of death and emotional trauma with a humour that hides their pain.
The assistant stage manager of a small-time theatrical company is forced to understudy for the leading lady at a matinée performance at which an illustrious Hollywood director is in the audience scouting for actors to be in his latest "all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing" extravaganza.
A dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft following alleged demonic possessions of sexually repressed nuns.
An account of the adventures of two sets of identical twins, badly scrambled at birth, on the eve of the French Revolution. One set is haughty and aristocratic, the other poor and somewhat dim. They find themselves involved in palace intrigues as history happens around them. Based, very loosely, on Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities," Dumas's "The Corsican Brothers," etc.
Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime - the “ritual murder” of a Gentile child in Kiev. We witness the unrelenting detail of the peasant-handyman's life in prison and see him gain in dignity as the efforts to humiliate him and make him confess fail.
Two young women arrive in London to make it big in show business, and become corrupted by money and fame in the process.
Barney Lincoln is a rambling gambling man who scores sensational wins at poker and chemin de fer because he has succeeded in marking the original plates for the backs of all the playing cards manufactured in a plant in Geneva and used in all the gambling joints in Europe. In his gambling depredation, Barney is spotted by Angel McGinnis, the daughter of a Scotland Yard Inspector 'Manny' McGinnis on the lookout for a man to do a job. The inspector enlists Barney's help in playing poker with a shady London character whom Scotland Yard wants to force to financial ruin.
The outrageous life of the American dancer of the 1920s, Isadora Duncan, whom Ken Russell described as "part genius and part charlatan".
Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.
Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
A man has an affair with his condemned brother's girlfriend while plotting his escape in Tangier.
A group of crooks accidentally kill an elderly shop assistant while stealing the keys to the jewellery shop where she works. When his superiors think that the case is better handed over to Scotland Yard, the local detective inspector, Sparrow (Glyn Houston), decides to go solo to investigate the crime himself.
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
Undistinguished British farce (in Technicolor and CinemaScope). Stoker Charlie (the diminutive Drake) helps 150 Wrens under Superintendent Maxine Audley, who've hijacked a frigate, HMS 'Huntress', to prove they're the equal of their male counterparts. Hardly a feminist masterpiece, but fans will relish the nightmare court-martial in which Drake plays all the parts
Focuses on a working class girl who is struggling to create a life for herself with her gay co-worker after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand with a black sailor.
When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.
