Tony Maudsley
Ahead of the start of the tenth series of the award-winning ITV sitcom, this special programme talks to the show's creator and writer Derren Litten about how it was created and cast members talk about their roles.
The Day of the Triffids is a BBC miniseries adaptation of John Wyndham's novel of the same name. The novel had previously been adapted by the BBC in a 1981 miniseries.
Thomas Turgoose (This Is England) stars as David, a young boy who lives a carefree life on a coastal caravan park with his best friend Emily (Holliday Grainger). When David learns that Emily is being forced to move away, he helps her hide out in a remote cave on the beach. But as David watches the police close in on his missing friend, their innocent secret takes on a life of its own. When the real reason Emily wants to escape comes to light, David's world is shattered. Swept up in a situation out of his control, and with his feelings for his best friend growing stranger by the day, David is forced to take action.
This is the time of year when friends and family gather round the television to exchange the traditional greeting -“Don’t bother, there’s nothing on”. Well this Christmas join Victoria Wood for her ‘Mid Life Christmas’ featuring highlights from the Mid Life Olympics 2009, with the most unlikely sporting events and a dance number that brings together the killer combo of midriff bulge. Victoria then dons a bonnet and corset, for the popular costume drama Lark Pies to Cranchesterford, and revel in the further adventures of soap star Bo Beaumont played by long term collaborator Julie Walters. DVD extras include the searing in-depth documentary (!) ‘What larks!’
Victoria Wood delves into the making of her Mid-Life Christmas, with behind the scenes footage from sketches including Lark Pies to Cranchesterford and the Midlife Olympics. The making of Victoria Wood's Mid-Life Christmas.
On a freezing December night in 1963, 13-year-old Alison Carter took her dog for a walk and was never seen again. As the entire country watched, newly-promoted Detective Inspector George Bennett turned up enough evidence to see his suspect hanged and was hailed a hero by the people of Scardale. More than four decades later, the lingering cloud left by the missing body of Alison Carter compels controversial filmmaker Catherine Heathcote to turn her camera to Bennett.
Returning for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts, Harry is stunned to find that his warnings about the return of Lord Voldemort have been ignored. Left with no choice, Harry takes matters into his own hands, training a small group of students – dubbed 'Dumbledore's Army' – to defend themselves against the dark arts.
The Virgin Queen explores the full sweep of Elizabeth's life: from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister's terror; through her great love affair with Robert Dudley; into her years of triumph over the Armada; and finally her old age and her last, enigmatic relationship with her young protégé, the Earl of Essex.
Sally Lockhart has struck a man dead with just three words, sent to her in a message from her father just before he drowned in the South China Seas. But unfortunately, Sally has no idea what the words The Seven Blessings mean. Before long, she is drawn into a mystery filled with opium, secrets from her own past and, at the heart of it all, the Ruby of Agrapur.
Upon discovering that their town is up for sale, crafty Irish villagers scheme to raise the money to prevent the buy-out. They hold a poetry contest with a tempting grand prize -- the deed to their local pub. But what could happen when a duplicitous American rapper emerges as the best poet around?
Beautiful, funny, passionate, and calculating, Becky is the orphaned daughter of a starving English artist and a French chorus girl. She yearns for a more glamorous life than her birthright promises and resolves to conquer English society by any means possible. A mere ascension into the heights of society is simply not enough. So Becky finds a patron in the powerful Marquess of Steyne whose whims enable Becky to realise her dreams. But is the ultimate cost too high for her?
In the 1930s, a social set known to the press – who follow their every move – as the “Bright Young Things” are Adam and his friends who are eccentric, wild and entirely shocking to the older generation. Amidst the madness, Adam, who is well connected but totally broke, is desperately trying to get enough money to marry the beautiful Nina. While his attempts to raise cash are constantly thwarted, their friends seem to self-destruct, one-by-one, in an endless search for newer and faster sensations. Finally, when world events out of their control come crashing around them, they are forced to reassess their lives and what they value most.
Eyes Down is a comedy starring Paul O'Grady as Ray Temple, the manager of a bingo hall in Liverpool, England called The Rio, although the series was filmed in Rayners Lane in London. Although it had moderate ratings, the programme only lasted for two series until it was cancelled by the BBC in 2004. The show was written by Angela Clarke and directed by Christine Gernon.
Remake of the 1976 TV drama by Jack Rosenthal. An extra in a TV drama is finally given a line to say. He goes on to cause mounting chaos
A period drama/thriller about a surveyor and his fiancée who arrive in a remote Malaysian trading post and encounter a closed-fisted ivory trader and her ill-meaning family.
London, 1993: a wild range of clubbers get together to drink, drug, dance and waste the night away at one of city's most happening underground venues...Club Le Monde.
Rose and Maloney is a British television crime drama starring Sarah Lancashire and Phil Davis as Rose Linden and Maloney, two investigators working for the fictional Criminal Justice Review Agency. This agency takes on claims of miscarriages of justice, assessing whether there are grounds to reopen old cases. Rose is brilliant but strong-willed and sometimes reckless. She likes to follow her instincts and play hunches and often comes into conflict with authority. Maloney, although Rose's superior, usually allows himself to be led by his more passionate colleague. Maloney is a by-the-book man and a little grey. He finds working with Rose dangerous but addictively exciting. A pilot was first broadcast on ITV on 29 September 2002. A series of three stories followed in July 2005. Throughout all the series many actors and actresses starred in the programme including Tara Fitzgerald, Danny Dyer, Tiana Benjamin, Andrew-Lee Potts and Neil Dudgeon to name but a few.
A film adaptation of the 1606 satirical tragedy by Thomas Middleton, relocated to a post-apocalyptic Liverpool. Christopher Eccleston plays the revenge-obsessed Vindice, who has sworn to kill the evil Duke (Derek Jacobi) who murdered his one true love.
The career of the once successful classical portraitist, Kingdom Swann, has hit bad times. When a leading gallery rejects his work, he seems at the point of giving up. It is only the support of his housekeeper, Violet Askey, that keeps him going and it is she who encourages him to switch to photography. Soon Swann has developed a healthy (and respectable) business with portraits of naked women in classical and exotic settings. However, the nature of Swann's new work is open to misinterpretation and he finds himself at the centre of a scandal involving the misuse of his pictures by a SOHO pornographer, and the focus of a campaign by suffragettes against the expoitation of women. At the same time, he loses the support of the loyal Violet, who leaps to the wrong conclusion about Swann's relationship with one of his models. When Violet then becomes involved in the suffragette and amti-pornography movements, it seems all may be lost for Swann - both professionally...and personally.
A darkly comic tale of a young man who comes face to face with his huge family - a variety of eccentrics, all of whom are hiding secrets from their pasts. At a family reunion Raymond is presented with a copy of the family tree and is absolutely amazed by the complexity of his family ties.
In A Land Of Plenty is a 10-episode British television drama serial produced by Sterling Pictures and Talkback for BBC Two in the United Kingdom. Adapted for television by Kevin Hood and Neil Biswas from the novel by Tim Pears. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom in 2001 and describes a sprawling family saga taking place from the 1950s to the 1990s in England. Through the lives, deaths, tragedies and loves of the Freeman family, the series charts how Britain was shaped after World War II. It was subsequently broadcast in the USA on BBC America. The show was co-financed between WGBH-TV and the BBC and was produced by Michael Riley and John Chapman. Executive Producers were Peter Fincham and Tessa Ross. The soundtrack was written by composer and musician Jocelyn Pook.
In modern-day London, three men (Craig Ferguson, Jimi Mistry and David Morrissey) and three women (Olivia Williams, Jane Horrocks and Catherine McCormack) fall in and out of love and back again, to the Greek-chorus accompaniment of two cab drivers, who engage in an ongoing conversation about sex. A winning romantic comedy, Born Romantic is the second feature by British writer-director David Kane of This Year's Love fame.
The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.
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.
