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Mass (2021) #1395
FILM
Main
Mass: Directed by Fran Kranz. With Breeda Wool, Kagen Albright, Michelle N. Carter, Martha Plimpton. Aftermath of a violent tragedy that affects the lives of two couples in different ways |
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The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words (2020) #1240
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary, which accompanies the BBC Two drama, The Windermere Children, reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees, who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945. With compelling testimony from some of the last living Holocaust survivors, the film explores an extraordinary success story that emerged from the darkest of times, all beginning with the arrival of ten Stirling bombers carrying the 300 children from Prague to Carlisle on 14 August 1945. The survivor interviews include extraordinary first-hand accounts of both their wartime experiences, separation from their families and the horrors they experienced, but also their wonder at arriving in Britain and their lives thereafter. The children hailed from very different backgrounds, including rural Poland, metropolitan Warsaw Czechoslovakia and Berlin. Some had grown up in poverty, others in middle-class comfort. Their rehabilitation in England was organised by one charity, the Central British Fund (CBF). Leonard Montefiore, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, used his pre-war experience of the Kindertransport and successfully lobbied the British government to agree to allow up to 1,000 young Jewish concentration camp survivors into Britain. It was decided that the first 300 children would be brought from the liberated camp of Theresienstadt to Britain. And serendipitously, empty accommodation was found on the shores of Lake Windermere in a defunct factory. During the war, it had built seaplanes, but after D-Day the factory was closed, and the workers’ accommodation stood empty. With space to house them and in a truly beautiful setting, it was to prove the perfect location for these traumatised children. The CBF, however, was in uncharted territory. A project to mass-rehabilitate a group of traumatised children had never been attempted before. But in the idyllic setting of Windermere and with just the right team assembled, the children were given the chance to unlearn the survival techniques they’d picked up in the camps. With the freedom to ride bikes, play football, learn English, socialise with local teenagers and swim in the lake, they began to come to terms with the horrors they had experienced and the fact that their mothers, fathers and siblings had perished. Despite the fact that the UK government initially only offered two-year temporary visas, with strict immigration policies enforced in other countries and without families to return to, it soon became clear that there was nowhere else for most of the children to go. Many of the 300 stayed in the UK for their entire lives, becoming British citizens and raising children of their own. Now, 75 years later, the close friendships that were forged in Windermere remain and many consider each other as family. Reflecting on the survivors’ lives after Windermere, the film includes touching home movie footage and remarkable success stories, like Sir Ben Helfgott’s incredible weightlifting career, representing Britain at the 1956 Olympics, only eleven years after arriving in the UK. The documentary also tells the story of the charity they formed, the 45Aid society. With footage of their annual reunions, the documentary gives a sense of the generations of families who all trace their British beginnings to Windermere. |
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The Age of the Image (2020) #1247
DOCUMENTARY
Special
4x1 hour. BBC. Documentary series in which art historian James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. 1/4 A New Reality. James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. 2/4 Power Games. How mass communication and new technology helped image-makers transform society. 3/4 Seductive Dreams. How postwar image-makers created visions of fantasy and desire. 4/4 Fake Views. How images have become more powerful – and less trusted – than ever before. |
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Greg Davies: Looking for Kes (2019) #1224
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Comedian, actor and ex-English teacher Greg Davies is a lifelong fan of Barry Hines's classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave, the story of Billy Casper training a kestrel as an escape from his troubled home and school life. In this documentary, Greg goes in search of the book's enduring appeal, travelling to Barnsley, where the book was set and where Ken Loach's famous adaptation, Kes, was filmed. See the film: #1400 In a series of encounters with Barry Hines's friends and family, collaborators and admirers, Greg offers a warm, funny and poignant tribute to a book that gave a unique voice to the working-class experience and, in Billy Casper, created a young rebel whose story continues to connect with readers more than 50 years after it was first published in 1968. In the fish and chip shop young Billy visits in Kes, now renamed Caspers, Greg meets Dai Bradley who played Billy Casper. Together they wonder what might have become of him. 'I think he would have kept that fighting spirit,' says Dai. 'There’s a lot of kids like him out there and the message of the book is that we need to find ways to harness that energy.' Greg also meets members of the local community in the working men's club, where Barry was a regular, and discovers how many characters in the book were inspired by the people he met there, including the notorious PE teacher. Ken Loach explains why the book provided such perfect source material for the film. 'The truth of the book shone through: the comedy, the use of language and dialect and, of course, the central image of a boy who is trapped, training a bird that flies free.' Greg visits the site where Barry Hines's brother, Richard, found his own kestrel, the encounter that inspired the character of Billy and the location used in the film. For the first time in 50 years, Richard flies a kestrel again. In the Sheffield University archives, Greg is thrilled to discover the original handwritten manuscript of A Kestrel for a Knave. There he meets Jarvis Cocker, another fan of the book, who discusses why the book meant so much to him 'That symbolism of escape was powerful for me growing up,' says Jarvis. 'The desire for escape has been a massive engine for creativity for people from working-class backgrounds. You want to make, write or sing something to help you escape.' |
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Aladdin (2019) #1237
FILM
Main
Directed by Guy Ritchie. With Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari. A kind-hearted street urchin and a power-hungry Grand Vizier vie for a magic lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true. |
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Pinocchio (2019) #1364
FILM
Main
Directed by Matteo Garrone. With Federico Ielapi, Roberto Benigni, Rocco Papaleo, Massimo Ceccherini. Old woodcarver Geppetto's puppet creation, Pinocchio, magically comes to life with dreams of becoming a real boy. Easily led astray, Pinocchio tumbles from one misadventure to another as he is tricked, kidnapped and chased by bandits. Literary Analysis Some literary analysts have described Pinocchio as an epic hero. Like many Western literary heroes, such as Odysseus, Pinocchio descends into hell; he also experiences rebirth through metamorphosis, a common motif in fantasy literature. Before writing Pinocchio, Collodi wrote a number of didactic children's stories for the then-recently unified Italy, including a series about an unruly boy who undergoes humiliating experiences while traveling the country, titled Viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino ('Little Johnny's voyage through Italy'). Throughout Pinocchio, Collodi chastises Pinocchio for his lack of moral fiber and his persistent rejection of responsibility and desire for fun. The structure of the story of Pinocchio follows that of the folktales of peasants who venture out into the world but are naïvely unprepared for what they find, and get into ridiculous situations. At the time of the writing of the book (1883), this was a serious problem, arising partly from the industrialization of Italy, which led to a growing need for reliable labour in the cities; the problem was exacerbated by similar, more or less simultaneous, demands for labour in the industrialization of other countries. One major effect was the emigration of much of the Italian peasantry to cities and to foreign countries such as the United States. The main imperatives demanded of Pinocchio are to work, be good, and study. And in the end Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father and devote himself to these things transforms him into a real boy with modern comforts. |
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Peterloo (2018) #1371
FILM
Main
Peterloo: Directed by Mike Leigh. With Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley, David Moorst. The story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester |
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Christmas Day Eucharist (2017) #1062
MUSIC
Main
1 hour. BBC One. 10am 25th December 2017 Christmas Morning from All Saints Fulham A traditional Christmas morning family service of Holy Communion, live from All Saints Church in Fulham, west London. Families from all generations sing well-loved carols including Joy to the World, See Amid the Winter's Snow and O Come All Ye Faithful. The service is introduced by the Rev Canon Joe Hawes, who also preaches. The celebrant is the Rev Penny Seabrook, and All Saints Choir, led by director of music Jonathan Wikeley, sing Mozart's Credo Mass in C. Featuring Elizabeth Morrell. |
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Spotlight (2015) #1133
FILM
Main
Directed by Tom McCarthy. With Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber. The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core. |
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The United States of Television: America in Primetime (2013) #745
DOCUMENTARY
Main
4x1 hour episodes. Alan Yentob presents the first in a series of star-studded documentaries on the history of primetime television in America. With a potential audience in excess of 300 million to please, the most popular and enduring drama series and sitcoms have had to track the dramatic changes that have transformed America since the age of mass television began in the 1950s, so this more than an entertainment history, it's a social history of the 'United States of Television'. Man of the House traces the trajectory of the archetypal American dad from the breadwinning patriarch of the 'Honey I'm Home' 1950s to the angst-ridden, plate-spinning multitasker who has to build his home on the shifting sands of the 21st century. From the cast iron certainties and benign omniscience of Jim X (Father Knows Best) and Andy Griffith to the crippling anxieties and bad choices Tony Soprano and Homer Simpson, Man of the House takes us on the rollercoaster ride of six decades of American masculinity. Includes interviews with legendary creators, stars, writers and producers: Ron Howard (The Andy Griffith Show), David Lynch (Twin Peaks), Rob Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), David Chase (The Sopranos), John Hamm (Mad Men). James L. Brooks (The Simpsons) and many more. |
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Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime: Europe (2013) #753
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Celebrating a remarkable fifty years on television, TV legend and undisputed travel king Alan Whicker sets off round the world on a journey reflecting his incredibly varied life and career. In this first episode, Whicker revisits Venice, a city of massive significance and very close to his heart, to retrace his steps from war to peace, from soldier to Fleet Street journalist, and then his subsequent move into the fledgling world of television. Included in the films revisited in this episode are Whicker's earliest surviving TV appearance, in-depth profiles of John Paul Getty and Baroness Fiona Thyssen, and a legendary encounter with millionaire Yorkshireman and eccentric Percy Shaw - the man who invented cats' eyes. Finally, the remarkable story of what happened when Whicker became the first man to enter a closed and silent order of nuns - and got them to talk to him. |
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The Trouble with Tolstoy (2011) #701
DOCUMENTARY
Main
BBC 2 x 1 hour episodes: 1 At War with Himself, 2 In Search of Happiness. Alan Yentob takes an epic train ride through Tolstoy's Russia, examining how Russia's great novelist became her great troublemaker. In this first of two programmes, he reveals a difficult and troubled youth, obsessed with sex and gambling, who turned writer while serving as a soldier in Chechnya and the Crimea. His experiences on the frontline eventually fed into War and Peace, a book now recognised as, 'the gold standard by which all other novels are judged'. They also triggered his conversion to outspoken pacifist. Alan's expedition takes him to the Tatar city of Kazan, where Tolstoy was a teenager, the siege of Sevastopol on the Black Sea and Imperial St Petersburg, as well as the idyllic Tolstoy country estate, the writer's cradle and grave, and home throughout his passionate but brutal 48-year marriage to Sofya - a marriage that began with rape, produced 13 children and ended with desertion and denial. In the second episode... The success of War and Peace brought Tolstoy fame, wealth and a massive mid-life crisis. Alan follows the writer through the tortured second half of his life as he transformed himself from aristocrat to anarchist and turned his back on his novels, his possessions and finally his wife of 48 years. Alan travels east into the remote emptiness of the Russian steppe, through the dark pages of Tolstoy's great romantic novel Anna Karenina, on to the small town where Anna takes her life, and then on the pilgrimage to the spectacular monastery where Tolstoy's spiritual quest began. Using extraordinary early film of Tolstoy, we witness the tumultuous events of Tolstoy's final years and his passionate relationship with his disciple Chertkov, the man his wife called 'the devil incarnate'. Finally, Alan retraces Tolstoy's flight from home at the age of 82, a journey that ended in a remote railway station. Heartbreaking archive footage shows his wife Sofya being turned away from the deathbed of her husband. So great was Tolstoy's influence at the time of his death that the government feared the news would spark revolution. Contributors include Tolstoy's great great grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, AN Wilson and author of a Tolstoy biography, Rosamund Bartlett. |
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Green Zone (2010) #295
FILM
Main
Directed by Paul Greengrass. With Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Igal Naor. Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in an unstable region. |
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My Bloody Valentine (2009) #208
FILM
Main
Directed by Patrick Lussier. With Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue. Tom returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people. Instead of a homecoming, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders, and it seems like his old flame is the only one that believes he's innocent. |
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Who Do You Think You Are? Natasha Kaplinsky (2007) #715
DOCUMENTARY
Main
BBC. 1 hour. As the granddaughter of a Polish Jew, Natasha Kaplinsky had always feared that her background would hold some harrowing truths. But when she learned what had happened to her family in the Holocaust, the BBC newsreader was unable to retain her usual on-screen composure. She broke down in tears as, visiting the small town of Slonim in Belarus, she learned of child murder, suicide and the massacre of thousands of Jews. |
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A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) #164
FILM
Main
Directed by Brad Silberling. With Jim Carrey, Jude Law, Meryl Streep, Liam Aiken. When a massive fire kills their parents, three children are delivered to the custody of cousin and stage actor Count Olaf, who is secretly plotting to steal their parents' vast fortune. |
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Holst - The Planets (2004) #608
MUSIC
Main
This visualisation of Gustav Holst's orchestral masterpiece 'The Planets' and Colin Matthews' additional movement 'Pluto, the Renewer' features images which enhance the symbolic meaning attributed to each planet by the composer. Directed by Rhodri Huw, this audiovisual experience enthralled a massive TV audience with a blend of images filmed in many locations around the world (including New Mexico, Arizona and Scandinavia), computer graphics, animatronics and an atmospheric performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. |
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Watergate (1994) #1390
DOCUMENTARY
Main
5 x 50 min episodes. Documentary series re-examining the Watergate Affair. BBC/Discovery 1994 1 Break-in: The full story of the Watergate scandal. In 1974, Richard Nixon, brought down by the Watergate scandal, became the only US president ever to resign. This programme looks at the break-in at the Democrats' headquarters in the Watergate Hotel on the night of 17 June 1972 2 Cover-Up: Nixon's burglars are caught and the president himself is at the head of a cover-up that links the crime to the White House. In November 1972, five months after the break-in, Nixon is returned to office. 3 Scapegoat: President Richard Nixon had the Watergate burglars paid to keep silent about their links to the White House, a cover-up that enabled him to win a second presidential term in 1972. But once the facts began to emerge, the president sought a succession of scapegoats. The revelation that conversations in his office had been recorded meant his crimes were no longer a secret. 4 Massacre: The so-called Saturday Night Massacre, the chain of events that unfolded on 20 October 1973, when President Nixon demanded that special prosecutor Archibald Cox be fired. 5 Impeachment: President Nixon clings on to the White House as the case against him mounts. The automatic recording system he ordered to be installed in the Oval Office, however, contains damning evidence. |
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A Christmas Special with Luciano Pavarotti (1980) #599
MUSIC
Main
With Luciano Pavarotti. The famed tenor performs holiday classics in this program at Notre Dame Cathedral in Montréal, joined by a boys choir, Les Petits Chanteur du Mont-Royal, and an adult choir, Les Disciples de Massenet. |
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The Guns of Navarone (1961) #1033
FILM
Main
Directed by J Lee Thompson. With David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle. A British team is sent to cross occupied Greek territory and destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel. |