Trevor Peacock

Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in.

6.9/10

The directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman, Quartet is a high-drama comedy about temperamental divas and old grudges, passion and pride, romance and Rigoletto. At a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and former wife of one of the residents. Expect poignancy and plenty of laughs.

6.8/10
8%

Fred Claus and Santa Claus have been estranged brothers for many years. Now Fred must reconcile his differences with his brother whom he believes overshadows him. When an efficiency expert assesses the workings at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down, Fred must help his brother to save Christmas.

5.6/10
2%

Based on a true story, the movie tells the story of two pigs, named Butch and Sundance, who staged a dramatic escape from an abattoir in January 1998 and remained at large for a week ...

5.9/10

A group of twenty-somethings, one of whom is a single father with a precious daughter, have been unsuccessfully in getting into a certain club so they can have a chance to DJ in their and start a career out of it. A series of events has lumbered them with a dog napping scheme gone badly wrong, ending up with them currently owning a particular pooch belonging to a dog-loving local drug dealer.

5/10

A young woman in her late teens, a reader of novels and with high hopes of romance and passion, marries a widowed country doctor. Although he dotes on her, she is soon bored and discontent. First, she gives her imagination to a law student in town, and next she takes a lover. When he refuses to run away with her, she takes up again with the law clerk. Her spending on dresses and furnishings mounts; these debts and her ill-advised professional counsel to her husband bring his ruin.

6.5/10

Scrooge is a miserly old businessman in 1840s London. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of Marley, his dead business partner. Marley foretells that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, each of whom will attempt to show Scrooge the error of his ways. Will Scrooge reform his ways in time to celebrate Christmas?

7.4/10

The film follows a Jewish family living in Hungary through three generations, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage.

7.5/10
7.4%

A pair of unexceptional suburban siblings who are drawn into a dark web of crime and danger.

8.6/10

Roseanna is dying of a heart condition, and all she wants is to be buried next to her daughter, in a cemetery that is getting full fast. The cemetery can't expand because Capestro, the man who owns the land next to the cemetery, won't sell. While Marcello is doing good deeds to make sure no one dies, Roseanna thinks of Marcello's future.

7.2/10
3.8%

Brilliant, brutal and shocking drama starring Jonny Lee Miller and John Simm, following an ex-convict who falls for a prostitute, but makes a dangerous enemy of her pimp.

7.5/10

Reverend Granger is assigned as the Vicar of the rural parish of Dibley, but she is not quite what the villagers expected.

8/10

The Riff Raff Element is a 1990's British comedy-drama series written by Debbie Horsfield and directed by Jeremy Ancock, who also directed Dressing for Breakfast and episodes of The Bill and Bergerac. It was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 1994.

8.2/10

Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.

6/10
2.9%

Screen One movie that is a continuation of Andrew Davies' brilliant series A Very Peculiar Practice. Dr. Daker feels finally settled in his life in Poland with his new wife and son, but he soon find things to be just as tumultuous, not least because Bob Buzzard is still around. And is that those nuns again?

Family drama series about a middle aged couple (Ray Brooks and Sharon Duce) who, with their own three children in their teenage years, decide to become foster parents.

8.7/10

Simon Leighton is sent to an assessment centre because he is unable to cope with school due to problems in his life – his mother is dead and his father cannot overcome his grief. However Simon is determined to leave the centre to live with his father.

A fantasy film, which mixes fact and fiction, based on director Michael Kohler's time living among the Samburu people of Kenya.

A fictitious Balkan state adaps to life after Communism.

7.3/10

An American's family jewels are stolen during her trip to London and she reluctantly teams up with a private investigator-in-training to try and recover them.

6.7/10

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.

6.7/10
7.6%

Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest friend Antonia McGill knows about everything. She orders the right food; she can complain and get results. She's beautiful and has a brilliant career. Is it any wonder that they hate each other's guts?

7/10
10%

A youth abandoned by his family joins a group of homeless people.

The second world war experiences of brave women recruited as undercover agents behind enemy lines.

7.8/10

A war and world weary soldier tries to talk a witch-hunting cleric into hanging him; he is shaken from his quest for death when the beautiful Jennet is also committed for hanging as a witch.

8.1/10

Franz, a young man, works in a dye factory in Prague. One day he notices a skin-rash, like eczema, growing on his hands. All attempts to treat it with ointment fail, and the rash gradually spreads over his body. After complaining to the management he is laid off work; his relationship with his fiancee is affected. In an attempt to get compensation from his former employers he goes to insurance firm Assicurazion Generali, where he encounters an enigmatic clerk called Kafka.

7.6/10

Oedipus's wanderings come to an end when he finds his final resting place, as foretold by the gods. But his brother-in-law and his son each try to take him away.

7/10

Having subdued the Goths, warrior Titus Andronicus returns to Rome to bury his sons, with Gothic Queen Tamora and her retinue as captives. The newly-dead Roman Emperor's two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, are competing for their father's title. According to Roman custom, Titus sacrifices Tamora's eldest son to the Gods; having the deciding vote, he also chooses Saturninus as Emperor. Both acts have tragic consequences.

7.7/10

When Pericles discovers the dread answer to Antioch's riddle, he flees for his life straight into famine, shipwreck, love, fatherhood, and another shipwreck; he loses his wife and daughter, and doesn't find them again until the story moves us through resurrection, attempted murder, pirates, prostitution, and divine revelation.

7.1/10

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

7.4/10

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

7.7/10

Viola and Sebastian are lookalike twins, separated by a shipwreck. Viola lands in Illyria, where she disguises herself like her brother and goes into the service of the Duke Orsino. Orsino sends her to help him woo the Lady Olivia, who doesn't want the Duke, but finds that she likes the new messenger the Duke's sending. Then, of course, Viola's brother shows up, and merry hell breaks loose. Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle and his cohorts are trying to find some way to get back at Olivia's officious majordomo, Malvolio.

7.8/10

The Old Curiosity Shop is a 1979 BBC miniseries based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It was directed by Julian Amyes, and adapted by William Trevor.

7/10

One man's view of the British Army in Germany - the social life, discipline, drink, women and, occasionally, the defence of the West.

Two stories about school. Gotcha by Barrie Keeffe: On his last day at school, a 'no hope' 16-year-old pupil holds his teachers hostage using a motor-bike petrol tank as a bomb. Campion's Interview by Brian Clark: A headmaster takes on the Education Authorities on behalf on his pupils, exposing the political pressures behind the creation of a comprehensive school.

Jim Allen's Play For Today explores the dilemmas faced by the Catholic Church in Italy in light of the Vatican’s failure to denounce Nazi atrocities

British ITV sitcom starring John Thaw and Bob Hoskins as two friends in a love triangle.

6.8/10

Edward G is nothing like a film star; his life has been ordinary - until now. But he's just had a shattering experience.

Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.

5.6/10

While on vacation, a woman's husband is taken by the Russian government. After one attempt fails, she begins looking for a suitable spy to capture and trade in exchange for her husband, but she develops an attraction to the one she thinks is a good candidate.

5.3/10
3.3%

Peter Rayston, has been in and out of prison most of his life. At 30, he is released for the eighth time, after serving a sentence for housebreaking. Immediately, he goes back to his old life, providing for his expensive tastes by executing a series of daring burglaries

7.2/10

Mr. Figg, the barber, is fond of telling customers about his family, but he hasn’t really got one – he’s a bachelor quite alone in the world. But that may change.

7.1/10

This picture is a mixture of musical, adventure, science fiction and comedy with the popular singer Bobbejaan Schoepen and several famous Flemish actors.

5.9/10

A writer attempts to raise some cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness Monster. No publisher will take it because they all think there isn't really a monster. The writer and some of his friends make a fake monster and take photographs and then travel to Scotland to see if they can convince the locals.

5.3/10