Samuel West
Tubular Bells, one of the iconic musical works of the 20th century, and the highest selling instrumental album of all time, is approaching its 50th anniversary. To mark this, an epic new stage production has been commissioned that re-invents the album with an incredible cinematic score, live musicians and performers.
The heartwarming and humorous adventures of a young country vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. A remake of the 1978 series.
In 1962 England, a young couple finds their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.
This 2-part documentary series reveals the truth about King Edward VIII's affair with American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and the espionage operation that accompanied the investigation.
A thrilling and inspiring true story begins on the eve of World War II as, within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.
An animated adaptation of the famous Shakespeare poem 'All The World's a Stage' narrated by the renowned Shakespeare actor and director Samuel West.
Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement who were forced underground to evade the State.
Inspector John Marlott investigates a series of crimes in 19th Century London, which may have been committed by a scientist intent on re-animating the dead.
The behind-the-scenes true life story of a groundbreaking producer, Milton Fruchtman, and blacklisted TV director Leo Hurwitz who, overcoming enormous obstacles, set out to capture the testimony of one of the war's most notorious Nazis, Adolf Eichmann, who is accused of executing the 'final solution' and organising the murder of 6 million Jews. This is the extraordinary story of how the trial came to be televised and the team that made it happen.
Henry VIII is the most iconic king of English history. Part medieval tyrant, part renaissance prince, he ruled over his people as no king of England had ever done before. He took a country salvaged by his father from the wreck of civil war and set over it a single, sovereign ruler. By the end of his reign the power of the Tudor.
With magic long since lost to England, two men are destined to bring it back; the reclusive Mr. Norrell and daring novice Jonathan Strange. So begins a dangerous battle between two great minds.
Experts examine the ruins and relics hidden under London. Among them, a Roman amphitheater, ditches for victims of the black plague, bomb shelters and more.
Two first-year students at Oxford University join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of a single evening.
Stonehenge is an icon of prehistoric British culture, an enigma that has seduced archaeologists and tourists for centuries. Why is it here? What is its significance? And which forces inspired its creators? Now a group of international archaeologists led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzman Institute in Vienna believe that a new state-of-the-art approach is the key to unlocking Stonehenge's secrets. For four years the team have surveyed and mapped every monument, both visible and invisible, across ten square kilometres of the sacred landscape to create the most complete digital picture of Stonehenge and the surrounding area over millennia. Operation Stonehenge takes the viewer on a prehistoric journey from 8000BC to 2500BC as the scientists uncover the very origins of Stonehenge, learning why this landscape is sacred, preserved and has been revered by following generations.
This feature-doc tells the epic story of the Faberge name, from Imperial Russia until the present-day, spanning one hundred and fifty years of turbulent history, romance, artistic development and commercial exploitation. From the bejewel led Easter eggs of the Romanov Tsarinas to the 1970s allure of 'Brut by Faberge' aftershave, and from the Russian revolution to today's high-fashion glitz in New York and London, the film explores a multi-faceted world that began with one man: the prodigiously talented Peter Carl Faberge, Court Jeweler of St Petersburg. Shot at locations across Russia, Europe and USA (including the collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II), the film features interview contributions from the world's foremost Faberge authorities, as well as personal reminiscences from Faberge family members.
A partly dramatised account of the lives of four Allied servicemen ahead of D-Day, the programme told their story through their final letters home before the assault.
The enormous popularity of recent British dramas such as Downton Abbey, Mr. Selfridge, and Sherlock, has led to vast interest in the real-life stories and history of the icons of Great Britain. Each episode of this series visits a famous British building or institution to explore its past and present, meeting a wide range of experts and historians along the way.
Set at the outbreak of WWII – mischievous playboy Ian Fleming is untroubled by the specter of impending war – chasing women, collecting rare books and living off his family fortune. Forever in the shadow of his brother Peter, and an eternal disappointment to his formidable mother Eve, Fleming dreams of becoming the ‘ultimate’ man – a hero, a lover, a brute and the one who always gets the girl. He is finally given some direction in his life when he’s recruited by the Director of Naval Intelligence to help in the effort against the Nazis. Suddenly, Fleming finds his chance to shine and prove his worth.
A tour of the Tower of London, which has served as a royal castle, prison, place of execution and torture, armory and mint during its almost 1000 years of existence.
The history of this grand 500-year-old palace is inextricably tied to the lavish lifestyle of King Henry VIII and the doomed fates of his six wives.
The story of the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret Stuckley, centered around the weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visited upstate New York.
Two angels are sent to Earth in the guise of lawyers in order to help humankind.
The life and work of Tove Jansson, mainly known for creating the Moomins but also a writer and painter.
A portrait of Elizabeth II's grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, who rescued the monarchy from potential disaster
This film examines recently discovered letters written by socialite Wallis Simpson that reveal her secret love, and chart her fear as she found herself becoming trapped into marrying King Edward VIII.
In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.
Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin take on the lead role of Logan Mountstuart in William Boyd's adaptation of his best-selling novel. From one man's emotional, tumultuous and unpredictable journey through the 20th century comes a funny, moving and ambitious four-part drama. Told through Logan's intimate journals, beginning with the idealism and arrogance of his youth, through the triumphs and tragedies of middle-age, to the unexpected dramas of his twilight years - his story reveals that all our lives are ultimately random, and defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices. Hayley Atwell, Natasha Little, Emerald Fennell, Ed Stoppard, Samuel West and Kim Cattrall star alongside Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander as the lovers, wives, friends and infamous figures he encounters throughout his ordinary and yet utterly extraordinary life.
1099 A.D.: A battle-weary knight leads his men home from the Holy Land after years of fighting. But the supposedly holy relic he’s carrying bears a terrible curse…
1949 the early years of the Cold War. Albert Schweitzer has become one of the most admired men in the world. The "jungle doctor" Albert Schweitzer tells the story of a philosopher and physician who promoted peace during the Cold War, built a hospital in what is now Gabon and proved stronger than the CIA.
A light hearted look at future Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers rise from research chemist in 1949 to becoming MP for Finchley in 1959 encompassing her early relationship and marriage to Oil Millionaire Denis Thatcher.
Following a scientific experiment, a man wakes up in a parallel universe and begins living a life similar to, but different from, his own.
Docu-drama profiling Ying Sheng, the first Emperor of China. Charting the life of the man who unified China, this documentary begins with the future Emperor's rise to power after the death of his father, becoming King of Qin at the age of thirteen. Mostly told through the use of re-enactments, the story continues to the present day and the discovery of the Emperor's tomb and terracotta army in 1974.
Documentary on the Herero and Namaqua genocide of 1904–1908.
This documentary series tackles one of history's most horrifying subjects: the Holocaust and the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
A BBC series dedicated to uncovering the forgotten secrets and hidden life histories of iconic works of art.
Famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing is dispatched to Transylvania to assist the last of the Valerious bloodline in defeating Count Dracula. Anna Valerious reveals that Dracula has formed an unholy alliance with Dr. Frankenstein's monster and is hell-bent on exacting a centuries-old curse on her family.
The young blacksmith Siegfried, who, not knowing that he is heir to a conquered kingdom, becomes popular with the Burgunds by slaying their bane, the dragon Fafnir. When the reward seems to be a huge treasure, Siegfried ignores the curse that lies on the hoard - which now seems to endanger his love to beautiful Norse warrior queen Brunhild.
Being one of 101 takes its toll on Patch, who doesn't feel unique. When he's accidentally left behind on moving day, he meets his idol, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign.
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.
The War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin, is a BBC documentary film series that examines Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and the no-holds-barred war on both sides. It not only examines the war but also the terror inside the Soviet Union at the time due to the paranoia of Joseph Stalin - the revenge atrocities, the Great Purge of army officers, the near-lunacy orders, and the paranoia of being upstaged by others, especially Marshal Zhukov. The historical adviser is Ian Kershaw.
William Thacker is a London bookstore owner whose humdrum existence is thrown into romantic turmoil when famous American actress Anna Scott appears in his shop. A chance encounter over spilled orange juice leads to a kiss that blossoms into a full-blown affair. As the average bloke and glamorous movie star draw closer and closer together, they struggle to reconcile their radically different lifestyles in the name of love.
The Hornblower series is based on C.S. Forester's classic maritime adventures - the story of one young man's struggle to become a leader of men. Set against the back drop of the 18th century Anglo-French wars, the bloodiest time in British naval history.Lt. Hornblower and his mates are sent to accompany a doomed royalist invasion of revolutionary France.
The sexual behaviour and intriguing reproductive strategies of the animal world.
Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.
Hornblower is the umbrella title of a series of television drama programmes based on C. S. Forester's novels about the fictional character Horatio Hornblower, a Royal Navy officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The series ran from 1999 to 2003 and starred Ioan Gruffudd in the title role. It was produced by the British broadcaster Meridian Television, and was shown on ITV in the UK and A&E in the US.
In the trenches of the Western Front in 1915, a British army chaplain is forced to question his faith as he witnesses hundreds of Hindu soldiers risking their lives daily for the Empire.
In this Canadian road movie, two brothers who haven't seen each other in years are uncomfortably reunited when they have to travel together from Vancouver to remote Prince Rupert for their father's funeral. Rupert is a stuffy lawyer who has emigrated to Canada, while Dale ekes out a living dealing drugs. Along the way, they find themselves stranded in a commune where their father once lived, populated by a pack of half hippie/half redneck dropouts who like to get high on mushrooms and drive trucks. George Wendt appears in a supporting role.
This telling of the story of Jack the Ripper focuses not on the killings as much as on the aristocratic lives of the people connected to the heir-apparent to the throne of England... who of course is the Ripper. It tells also of the investigator who dares to charge this man with such crimes, and of his love for a witness to one of the brutal slayings.
Documentary film series that examines Adolf Hitler and the Nazis' rise to power, their zenith, their decline and fall, and the consequences of their reign featuring archive footage and interviews with eyewitnesses.
An unhappy man has an encounter with the ghost of a World War I soldier, who tells him about the 1914 Christmas truce and gives him a new perspective on the season.
Over Here is a 2-part television miniseries made in 1996 by the BBC chronicling the lives of US Army Air Corps B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crews on a Royal Air Force Spitfire base during World War II. Conflict arose when American soldiers must share their barracks. Samuel West starred as the RAF pilot Archie Bunting. Martin Clunes starred as Group Captain Barker; a man with an inability to say the word "Luftwaffe".
This film adaptation of Jane Austen's last novel follows Anne Elliot, the daughter of a financially troubled aristocratic family, who is persuaded to break her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a young sea captain of meager means. Years later, money troubles force Anne's father to rent out the family estate to Admiral Croft, and Anne is again thrown into company with Frederick -- who is now rich, successful and perhaps still in love with Anne.
Painter Dora Carrington develops an intimate but extremely complex bond with writer Lytton Strachey. Though Lytton is a homosexual, he is enchanted by the mysterious Dora and they begin a lifelong friendship that has strangely romantic undertones. Eventually, Lytton and Dora decide to live together, despite the fact that the latter has fallen in love with military man Ralph Partridge, whom she plans to marry.
At Blandings Castle, the Earl of Emsworth only cares about his prize pig 'The Empress' and is wilfully ignorant of the fact that his brother is planning to publish a book which might ruin the family name forever. Moreover, the Earl's nephew might cause the family some major damage by getting married to a terribly unsuitable chorus girl. An adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's novel of the same name.
Based on real events from 1983; DC Peter Finch is awarded a medal for the courage he showed in arresting a dangerous criminal. Meanwhile transvestite David Martin is released once again from prison - he's provocative and aggressive and, when he's caught again during a burglary, he shoots one of the police officers, leading to a nation wide manhunt. Innocent filmmaker Steven Waldorf is subsequently shot as a suspect by Finch provoking a national scandal that rocks the police force.
In 1971, fresh-faced, eager for heroics, the young officers arrive in Belfast. Pelted with rocks by kids, sniped at by the IRA, they take refuge in sex, black humour and the weird rituals of the officers' mess.
A new student at a British public school forms a secret society centered around cooking and midnight feasting with other school misfits and outcasts.
All of the Doctor's incarnations are in crisis when The Rani creates a time-loop in the East-end of London in this 30th Anniversary Special.
There is a strained atmosphere in the Maitland household which has fallen on hard times.
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.
The life of Stanley Duke, a fortysomething advertising executive, is thrown into turmoil when his son is diagnosed a schizophrenic. Making matters worse, Stanley's quiet home is suddenly besieged by a plethora of women, among them his past and current wives.
Two young boys from very different backgrounds become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. However, they don't realize how different they are until much later as one is the son of a well-to-do Jewish doctor and the other the son of a German aristocrat. After that summer and the election of Hitler, things change as antisemitism gains fervor. After the core of the film deals with that era, the film flashes to the present and the Jewish man now returns to his boyhood home and seeks his old friend with some surprises.
When two teenagers commit suicide the police and the press assume the motive to be some kind of love pact. But Allan Blakeston, a local reporter, has too many unanswered questions. As he digs deeper into the case, he learns why the kids really died and his knowledge puts his own life at risk.
Across the years, a mother watches her gladiator son fight, while she remembers his childhood: the last lighthouse keeper prepares for his final trip ashore: and an actor returns to the stage to play his part in a Greek myth.
GATECRASH drives the audience to a breaking point in this modern-day revenge tragedy. Adapted from Terry Hughes’ Fringe First award-winning stage play Life’s A Gatecrash. A couple is brutally made to pay when they refuse to accept responsibility for an act of callous violence. The story opens after the couple, Steve and Nicola, arrive home in the middle of the night, shortly after being involved in a hit and run accident. Steve in a drunken rage, deliberately drove into the victim, leaving him for dead. However, as the night unfolds a series of disturbing events force the couple to battle against an unseen, menacing presence culminating in a sickening discovery.
