Tom Stoppard's acclaimed television play about the Polish Solidarity movement in the early 1980s. Between August 1980 and December 1981 an attempt was made in Poland to put together two ideas which would not fit, the idea of freedom as it is understood in the West and the idea of Socialism as it is understood in the Soviet empire. The attempt failed because it was impossible, in the same sense as it is impossible in geometry to turn a circle into a square with the same area.
Retired High Court judge, Sir Fennimore Truscott, has time on his hands and suspicion on his mind. His attractive wife, Margaret, has to endure judgements on everything from the pet dog to a wasp which lands in his toast and marmalade. But today the 'trial' is serious. For years Fennimore has suspected his debonair neighbour, Tom, of rogering — seducing — Margaret. With their only son, Edwin, due to arrive for a rare visit home, Fennimore's long-concealed fears are forced into the open. Who is the boy's father?
A scheduling mixup means two groups of old-timers have reserved the same bar for a party on the same night. The situation is trickier than expected since the bar is in Liverpool, and one group are Protestant die-hards while the other consists of Catholics hard-liners.
Playing Away is a 1987 TV comedy film about two cricket teams. The English team, fictitiously named Sneddington (based in Lavenham, Suffolk) invites a team of West Indian heritage based in Brixton (South London) to play a charity game in support of their “Third World Week.” The cricket match scenes were filmed at Botany Bay Cricket Club in Enfield, Middlesex. Among those starring in Playing Away were: Norman Beaton, Nicholas Farrell ,Brian Bovell,Ross Kemp, Gary Beadle,Trevor Thomas Director: Horace Ové
Glasgow, Hogmanay 1953. In the 'steamie' a group of women try to finish their washing before the celebrations.
The film is the story of a friendship between a Welsh-born actor who becomes a famous National Theatre and Shakespearean performer, played by Des Barrett, and Homer, his mentor from childhood, played by Brinley Jenkins, a pigeon lover and teacher who secretly wishes he had the courage to leave the mining valleys. Homer has his passion for nature and culture. His secrets are open. What he discovers is that Barrett's character has his own secrets, and this drives the plot of the film from Bedlynog to the South Bank at Waterloo station on the Thames.
Pupils Vicky and Paul are operating a lucrative business trading school dinner tokens. It started well but can it continue that way?
The story of Joanna, a 14-year-old girl who feels pressured by her peers to lose her virginity. The story, told primarily from her point of view, follows her as she self-destructs, becoming involved in a world of sex, drugs and betrayal. Including graphic and sometimes violent under-age sex scenes, the film portrays an occasionally exaggerated but nonetheless disturbing and thought-provoking view of teenage sexuality.
A fictional drama depicting the lives of Brighton teenagers written and directed by award-winning documentary-maker Daisy Asquith in collaboration with Dunstan Bruce of cult band Chumbawamba. Featuring a cast of talented 14 to 17-year-old actors, vocalists, MCs and beatboxers who were discovered at local youth clubs and schools in Brighton and shot in documentary style, the plot tackles the complex issues facing today's youth: sex, race, drugs, teenage parenthood, violence, reputation and popularity. The young cast demonstrate an extraordinary talent with a sound as raw and gritty as the lives of the characters they portray.
Short film first shown at London's Frightfest in 2002 and received its first television broadcast on Channel 4 in 2004. Adaptation of the Robert Aickman short story. John Trant is an Englishman abroad, exploring an Eastern European church where he hopes to find a particular painting. Instead, he meets a group of extremely strange and really rather worrying people... Also known as 'The Guides'.
The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.
Biting political satire starring Robert Lindsay as a beleaguered Tony Blair, who stubbornly refuses to see the danger he faces from a Special Tribunal on Iraq that has been set up to investigate war crimes. It is some time in the future. Gordon Brown is moving into Number 10, President Clinton is thinking about her second term in the White House, and Tony Blair is swapping the corridors of power for the comforts of his home in Connaught Square. Blair departs Downing Street with an unshakeable belief in his continuing relevance as an international figure of influence. But with Washington's warmongers discredited, he finds himself increasingly isolated. Haunted by the continuing nightmare of Iraq, and obsessed by his legacy, Tony Blair retreats into denial, refusing to see the dangers he faces from the Special Tribunal on Iraq that has been set up to investigate war crimes. As the film moves towards the final image of the former Prime Minister being hauled off to The Hague to face charges of waging an illegal war, The Trial of Tony Blair asks us to imagine a future where the unthinkable becomes thinkable. Robert Lindsay returns to the role of Tony Blair, with Phoebe Nicholls as Cherie Blair, Peter Mullan as Gordon Brown and Alexander Armstrong as David Cameron. Says writer Alistair Beaton: "I gather Mr Blair is very concerned about his place in history. This film is my idea of where that place might be. Whether it's fiction or prediction remains to be seen."
A Very British Sex Scandal tells the story of Peter Wildeblood, a royal correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper. He is a closet homosexual and like many gay men at that time, lives in secret as homosexuality is against the law. One evening he meets Eddie McNally, who is on leave from the air force and the pair embark on an affair together. However, it is their weekend at the estate of Lord Edward Montagu which eventually leads to a scandal which rocked modern Britain and led to a reconsideration of, and the eventual decriminilisation of homosexuality.
Lucy is 11-years-old and lives with her father. One day, not for the first time, he beats her. The next time she returns to school, Lucy asks to see her social worker Jackie. Lucy is known to social services and has been in foster care before, but none of her foster parents have any placements available. Jackie takes her to a children's home, Crop Row, where she is left with nothing except the school uniform she is wearing.
When Boris Met Dave is a docudrama which investigates the shared past of David Cameron and Boris Johnson who, at the time of broadcast, were two of Britain's most influential Conservative Party politicians – Cameron as Conservative leader and Johnson as Mayor of London. The film features interviews with people who knew Cameron and Johnson both at Eton College and Oxford, where they were both members of the Bullingdon Club.
Award-winning actress Julie Walters takes on the lead role in a revealing portrait of Mo Mowlam, the powerfully charismatic woman whose no-nonsense approach to politics helped achieve one of the monumental landmarks in recent British history, the Good Friday Agreement. Written by Neil McKay and based on extensive first-hand research, it's a poignant and intimate look at the life of the most popular, if controversial, Labour politician of recent times as well as an inside account of the extraordinary events which led to peace in Northern Ireland. Mo's warmth, passion and unorthodox style made her renowned throughout the country and loved by many. Away from the public gaze, she found happiness later in life with her husband Jon Norton, played by David Haig, but just months before the 1997 general election, she discovered she had a brain tumour. Defying medics, her brave battle with ill-health was played out on the public stage. 'It's a very human story. The politics is interesting, but it's almost in the background, eclipsed by Mo herself. Which everything was. She was this tornado that went through life with everything else happening around her. It's about who she was, it's about her love for her husband, it's about caring for people, it's about dealing with the tumour, it's about her courage. But it's not sentimental, that's why it's special,' says Julie Walters.
An adaptation of her own stage play, Debbie Tucker Green's visually arresting film Random is set over the course of one spring day and tells the story of an ordinary family whose lives are devastatingly interrupted by the impact of one random event on what starts out as a normal day. Starring Nadine Marshall, Jay Bird, Daniel Kaluuya and Louis Mahoney, the film moves seamlessly between two worlds: the world of Sister, filmed in a stark studio setting where she presents her version of events, and the 'real world', where Brother, Mum and Dad join Sister in their daily routines.
Set in Clapham Junction, London's Burning is a dramatic interpretation of a single night of rioting and looting that took place in August 2011. Starring David Morrissey and Samantha Bond as senior police officers, London's Burning tells how residents, shopkeepers and businesses dealt with the violence. Over several nights in August 2011, riots broke out all over London. The Metropolitan Police said: 'We have never seen such levels of multi-site disorder in the Capital before.' On Monday 8 August, it was unclear where the rioters would strike next. When over 400 youths besieged the Clapham Junction area, nothing had prepared local shopkeepers, residents and police for the attack. This drama is the story of what happened, based on the testimony of some of those who were there. Drawing on witness testimonies and interviews, the drama weaves together half a dozen narratives, and is based on accounts from those who live or work in the area: the hairdresser, the party shop owner, the family man, the music shop keeper. Their accounts are fascinating, revelatory and compelling. They are vivid testimonies to the enduring values of humanity: courage, compassion, determination, kindness and tolerance.
Written by Peep Show's Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, Bad Sugar stars three of the biggest female names in British Comedy - Olivia Colman, Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan - who also co-conceived the idea. Centred on a dysfunctional mining dynasty with an ailing patriarch and some greedy siblings, Bad Sugar is a peculiarly British take on telenovela style melodramas, played for laughs, and also stars David Bradley, Peter Serafinowicz, Kayvan Novak and Reece Shearsmith.
Zawe Ashton (C4's Fresh Meat) takes the lead role in this drama-documentary, director Carol Morley's quest to discover the truth about the life of a vivacious, intelligent woman, and how she came to be so tragically forgotten. Nobody noticed when 38-year-old Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in north London in 2003. When her remains were discovered three years later, her heating and her television were still on. Newspaper reports offered few details of Joyce's life - not even a photograph. Morley places adverts in newspapers, on the internet and on the side of a London taxi, and the responses lead her to Joyce's former friends, lovers and colleagues. Their testimonies, together with re-imagined scenes from Joyce's life form a multi-layered portrait of the deceased woman, and an insight into the world she inhabited.
Feature-length drama from acclaimed writer Guy Hibbert, that explores the murky moral compromise that British MI5 agent Edward Ekubo (David Oyelowo), faces in the hidden intelligence wars.
Feature-length 'What-If' drama exploring the effects of a devastating cyber-attack on Britain's national electricity grid. Based on expert advice and meticulous research, Blackout combines real user-generated footage, alongside fictional scenes, CCTV archive and news reports to build a terrifyingly realistic account of Britain being plunged into darkness.
Teenager Casey Jacobs is in constant digital communication with her friends, with their lives played out through texts, video calls and social media updates. However, when she's targeted by an advanced computer hacker, the dark depths of the internet are exposed. Director Ben Chanan's chilling real-time thriller is inspired by real-life cases and most of the events depicted have happened to individual people.
A ground-breaking and provocative fictional documentary, from the makers of Cyberbully, set in a fabricated future where UKIP have won the 2015 general election and Nigel Farage is Prime Minister
Feature-length political drama starring Bertie Carvel and Mark Gatiss that charts the emotionally wrought, frenzied days in 2010 that led to Nick Clegg's astonishing rise to the top.
A young middle class couple, Gemma and Richard, investigate their `neighbours from hell' after being subjected to disturbing sounds such as arguments, screams and apparent violence. After compiling an evidence blog, they begin to fear they could be living next door to the next `Baby P', and Gemma is convinced they have a moral duty to investigate. However, when they are interviewed by the police after an altercation with the people next door, it soon becomes evident that they themselves could be the real `neighbours from hell'. Drama, starring Joanna Horton, Karl Davies and Anthony Flanagan.
One-off drama starring Stephen Graham as a CCTV operator who intervenes in a dangerous world that he's supposed to just be watching, when the police fail to tackle a group of drug dealers
Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kelly's one-off about the horror of social engagement. Gabe and Nat go to a party in their new town where the residents seem to waver between highly strung and psychopathic.
Drama following teenager Ellen who tries to take control of her life in a world that would rather ignore her. Ellen's home life is chaotic: she's at war with her mum hardly sees her dad, and is at risk of falling through the cracks. But Ellen finds hope when she meets Kayla and they form a deep and powerful friendship. In Kayla, Ellen discovers a kindness and joy that had been lacking in her life. Then she meets the charming Jason, who seems to really like her, but a dark force is lurking. Leon, a hanger-on and mate of her mum's, has his eye on Ellen. Will anyone notice? Funny, poignant and devastatingly sad, this film is about the challenges facing a teenage girl and gives a voice to those that so often go unheard.
Drama starring Indira Varma and Luke Treadaway about a mother who receives an anonymous text alleging her new boyfriend is in an inappropriate relationship with her 11-year-old daughter.
In a world where almost every day there are more media revelations of historic abuse and impropriety at the hands of male authority figures, this timely single drama imagines a 27-year-old woman exacting her finely choreographed revenge for such an act. It's an act of revenge for her teenage self, an act that has been brewing in her head for 10 years. When she was 17, Sarah Ivy was a happy, carefree teenager with a world of opportunity before her; fast forward 10 years and she has two men kidnapped and held in a room... The first man, Nathan Bowyar, is looking forward to his stag do and wedding day, but, before he makes it to either of them, he's seized and taken to an unknown location.
Steve Pemberton, Daniel Mays and Stuart Graham star in this factual drama about the police's interrogation of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who shot a fleeing burglar dead in 1999
Benedict Cumberbatch and Rory Kinnear star in this profoundly timely, witty and compelling behind-the-scenes exploration of one of the biggest political earthquakes of recent times
Based on the inspiring real-life story of Julie Bailey, The Cure is the story of an ordinary woman who exposed one of the worst hospital care scandals in the history of the NHS.
Bringing to life the adventures of a little toy clown, thrown away with a load of old discarded items, as he goes on a journey to find a new loving home for himself and his friends. His journey takes him through the helter-skelter streets of the city, dodging scary dogs and even scarier adults. He even finds himself mistaken for a child and performs in a school Christmas assembly. However, each time Clown thinks he might just have found a perfect new owner, and his hopes start to rise, he gets thrown away again
Drama set in a fictional Liverpool care home telling the moving story of a young care home worker and a challenging patient during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020. Intelligent social misfit Sarah unexpectedly finds her calling as a carer with a talent for connecting with residents, especially 47-year-old Tony, whose young-onset Alzheimer's causes periods of confusion and violent outbursts. Sarah's success at managing him and the other patients soon helps to restore her self-belief.
When Natalie gets a scholarship to an elite private school she's seen as an outsider but bonds with rich, high academic achiever Archie. One night at a party boundaries are crossed and trust is broken between the two but how will the school deal with the accusations made against 'one of their own'?
Karaoke, suitcases of wine, ambushing cake... this factual drama tells the story of Covid from inside 10 Downing Street as staff kicked back at lockdown-breaching parties
