Susan Penhaligon
On Saturday 19 December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat ‘Solomon Browne’, was launched in hurricane conditions to go to the aid of the coaster ‘Union Star’ which was being swept towards the southern coast of Cornwall. What followed ranks not only with the greatest acts of courage in the history of the RNLI, but with any human achievement.
Mark Gatiss explores and celebrates Dracula, an icon of popular culture, asking just why we keep coming back to the count.
Set and filmed at the iconic Maida Vale studios, The Dead Room tells the story of a long-running radio horror series and its veteran presenter and national treasure Aubrey Judd. But times are changing. Tastes are shifting. There’s a new young producer. Whatever happened to the classic ghost stories? The good old days? Aubrey soon discovers that all is not quiet in the eerie radio studio and that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped…
Hooligan boss Billy Evans has it all - a successful business, a beautiful family and respect on the terraces. But when he clashes with gangster Mickey over a backstreet proetection racket, Billy soon finds himself out of his depth as they look to finally settle the question - who is Top Dog?
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
Teenage Health Freak is a British teen comedy-drama about the life and travails of a socially awkward teenager as he goes through life. It is best known for featuring the actress Liza Walker and the actor Alex Langdon. It was based on the book Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, by Dr. Ann McPherson and Dr. Aidan Macfarlane.
Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) has retired. But when MacDonald (Gordon Jackson) asks him to take on another case, he says yes. There have been some mysterious murders, and there are no visible causes for the deaths. At the same time Holmes gets this case, Graf Udo Von Felseck (Anton Diffring) gives him another case: find a young and missing prince to prevent war between Germany and England. But Von Felseck is not as honest as he seems...
Following the story of Vic Brown, a West Riding miner's son. It starts in 1957 with a casual affair with Ingrid Rotherwell, which develops into an emotional crisis.
Following the story of Vic Brown, a West Riding miner's son. It starts in 1957 with a casual affair with Ingrid Rotherwell, which develops into an emotional crisis...
A Fine Romance is a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes over four series; the final episode being broadcast on 17 February 1984. The series takes its name from a song in the 1936 film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which Dench recorded as the theme music. The series was nominated for nine BAFTA British Academy Television Awards and a winner of two, both for Dench's performance in 1982 and 1985.
Patrick Dench is a successful loudmouth barrister and professional womanizer who treats everybody with disrespect but still manages to bed every beautiful woman in sight.
Baptista has two daughters: Kate and Bianca. Everyone wants to wed the fair Bianca, but nobody's much interested in problem child, Kate. Baptista declares that he won't give Bianca away in a marriage until he's found a husband for Kate, so all the suitors begin busily hunting out a madman who's willing to do it, and they find Petruchio: a man who's come to wive it wealthily in Padua. And Petruchio marries Kate with a plan to tame her, while everybody else begins scheming to win Bianca's hand.
A tender romance develops between an attractive young woman and a famous race car driver who lives incognito after supposedly being killed in an auto accident.
The outrageous - and not entirely reliable - memoirs of Irish writer Frank Harris, sometime cowboy in the Old West, friend to the famous in the literary world, essayist and critic, and seducer of beautiful women.
Wilbur Gray, a horror writer, has stumbled upon a terrible secret, that cats are supernatural creatures who really call the shots. In a desperate attempt to get others to believe him, Wilbur spews three tales of feline horror.
The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.
In a Philadelphia convent, two nuns battle it out to be elected to the position of head abbess, and neither is about to let anything stand in the way of getting what she wants.
Count Dracula is a British television adaptation of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It first aired 22 December 1977. It is among the more faithful of the many adaptations of the original book. Louis Jourdan played the title role.
Bouquet of Barbed Wire is a British television series based on a 1969 novel by Andrea Newman. The series – whose title comes from an incident that occurred to Newman and her mother while on a walk – was made by London Weekend Television for ITV in 1976. A new adaptation of the novel was made in 2010.
Family life is turned upside down when it's revealed that the daughter's pregnant by her teacher.
Also known as 'The Confessional', another of Pete Walkers's critiques of institutional hypocrisy, in which a troubled young girl goes to confession at the local church. Unfortunately, the sexually frustrated priest she confesses to becomes obsessed with her. At first, the priest stalks the girl, but later it is revealed that he will stop at nothing, including blackmail and murder, just to get close to her.
Through the story of a single family, Brassneck traces a history that parallels the Labour Party's advent to power in 1945 through to the property speculation of the 1960s and the disillusionment with the Labour government in the early 1970s. Like most of the early work of the writers, David Hare and Howard Brenton, committed radical (if not revolutionary) socialists throughout the 1970s, it is a satirical attack on capitalist greed and corruption, full of savage, and often disturbing, humour.
A dark tale in which a successful novelist is unbalanced by an assured young female fan.
A seventeen-year-old girl is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon.
Sexual passion breeds violence in the Thomas Middleton and William Rowley written tale of a beautiful woman who falls in love with a sea-captain. Filmed with lush production values and at a leisurely, very British pace, Helen Mirren is riveting as Beatrice-Joanna, a young lass already torn by love and commitment.Beatrice-Joanna (Helen Mirren) is betrothed to Lord Alonzo de Piraquo (Malcolm Reynolds) but is in love with Alsemero (Brian Cox). She hires her father's manservant, De Flores (Stanley Baker), to kill Alonzo but after he has done so, she realises De Flores wants her as a reward.The Changeling was an instalment of the BBC's Play of the Month series and is a production for television of a 1622 Jacobean tragedy of the same name, written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.
During World War I, a German U-boat sinks a British ship and takes the survivors on board. After it takes a wrong turn, the submarine takes them to the unknown land of Caprona, where they find dinosaurs and neanderthals.
Porn store owner Pete orders some new stuff from his supplier Niko but Niko mixes up the address with the address of the local Barclays Bank. Here, newly-weds David (the bank's assistant manager) and Penny Hunter is shocked when first photos, then films and then finally two girls are sent to them in the Bank's flat. They, and their friend, head cashier Brian Runnicles (who slowly starts to have a nervous breakdown), have to deal with getting rid of the porn without letting their boss, Mr. Bromley - the bank's manager (who's very anti-porn), the local police in the form of Inspector Paul, and David's mother, Bertha Hunter, in on what is happening...
The delightful if peculiar story of a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village called "Llareggub" in which we meet a host of curious characters (and ghosts) through the 'eyes' of Blind Captain Cat.
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.
David and his estranged daughter Lea are forced to make a long and eventful car journey home together after she leaves university under tragic circumstances.
