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Keeler, Profumo, Ward and Me (2020) #1238
DOCUMENTARY
Special
1 hour. BBC. In 1962, Tom Mangold was newly arrived at the Daily Express – and his first big assignment was the John Profumo/Christine Keeler scandal. It would culminate in the evening of 30 July 1963, when Tom visited Stephen Ward, the man at the centre of the affair. The next day, Ward was scheduled to hear whether he was guilty of living off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies. Ward handed Mangold a suicide letter, which Tom has retained for more than 55 years. He will reveal its full contents for the first time on television. Tom Mangold is one of the only surviving reporters who covered the Profumo story at such close quarters. He had under exclusive contract not only Stephen Ward but also a prostitute known as 'Miss Whiplash', who was a key witness in the trial. Ronna Ricardo confided to Tom that because she had been threatened by the police, she had lied in court to help convict Ward. She followed Tom’s advice and retook the stand to withdraw her evidence. This film reveals the inside story of the Profumo-Keeler-Ward story by the legendary BBC Panorama reporter who was there and had unique access to key players. The story has continued to fascinate Tom Mangold. He met and interviewed Mandy Rice-Davies shortly before she died in 2013, he has obtained exclusive diaries and manuscripts, and has now received more than 20 hours of audiotape recordings of research interviews with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, which have never been broadcast. Christine talks about the famous Cliveden weekend, her affair with Profumo, her brief relationship with Soviet naval attaché Eugene Ivanov, and how police pressured her into manufacturing a case against Stephen Ward. Through Tom's experience of working with Stephen Ward throughout the hectic summer of 1963, he believes that Ward was no saint, but no criminal either. He was not living off Keeler or Rice-Davies, as charged and found guilty. On the contrary, Ward subsidised both women. The programme also features an exclusive audiotape interview with Stephen Ward, recorded two weeks before his suicide, and an extract from what would have been his autobiography - all revealed for the first time. Finally, Tom casts his critical eye over the inquiry ordered by the prime minister, Harold MacMillan. Carried out by the master of the rolls, Lord Denning, Tom has obtained the diaries of the most senior civil servant on the inquiry, which point to another political sex scandal of the time that was hushed up. |
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The Trial of Christine Keeler (2019) #1238
TV DRAMA
Special
With Sophie Cookson, James Norton, Ellie Bamber, Emilia Fox. Story of Christine Keeler, who found herself at the heart of a political sex scandal that rocked British government in the 1960s. 6x1 hour episodes. BBC. 1/6 In 1960s London, model Christine Keeler deals with an explosive love triangle. 2/6 Christine Keeler tells her story to the press, and a chill wind blows for John Profumo. 3/6 Christine flees to Spain as Profumo publicly denies their affair. 4/6 Christine’s star rises, Profumo faces the music, and Stephen Ward is in the firing line. 5/6 Stephen Ward's trial begins at the Old Bailey. Has Christine forsaken him? 6/6 Stephen's life hangs in the balance as his sentence is decided. |
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Mozart: Don Giovanni (2014) #647
MUSIC
Main
The Royal Opera. Mozart’s sublime tragic comedy offers boundless scope for directors, and Kasper Holten has chosen it to follow his directorial debut of Eugene Onegin. He wanted to shift the emphasis from Don Giovanni’s sex life into a darker place, showing Giovanni’s womanizing as an attempt to stave off his own mortality. Each woman he seduces represents a life he could have had. Though it is a dark piece, Holten handles it with a light touch and works with a superb cast – Mariusz Kwiecień, one of the world’s leading Don Giovannis, Alex Esposito, a fresh, vigorous Leporello, and acclaimed French soprano Véronique Gens. Spectacular designs by Es Devlin (Les Troyens) make innovative use of projections by acclaimed video designer Luke Halls. Nicola Luisotti conducts. |
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Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (2014) #837
DOCUMENTARY
Main
3x1 hour. BBC, Series which looks at how the Art Nouveau movement flourished in the burgeoning cities of Europe at the end of the 19th century. 1/3 Paris. Cultural correspondent Stephen Smith explores the objects of Parisian Art Nouveau. 2/3 British Cities. Stephen Smith unearths the bright, controversial but brief career of Aubrey Beardsley. 3/3 Vienna. How Vienna's artists brought their own highly sexed version of art nouveau to the city. |
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The Sessions (2012) #275
FILM
Main
Directed by Ben Lewin. With John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood. A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest. |
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For a Good Time, Call... (2012) #426
FILM
Main
Directed by Jamie Travis. With Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Justin Long, James Wolk. Former college frenemies Lauren and Katie move into a fabulous Gramercy Park apartment, and in order to make ends meet, the unlikely pair start a phone sex line together. |
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Anonymous (2011) #100
FILM
Main
Directed by Roland Emmerich. With Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis, Sebastian Armesto. The theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, who penned Shakespeare's plays. Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I and the Essex rebellion against her. |
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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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Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010) #292
FILM
Main
Directed by Mat Whitecross. With Andy Serkis, Tom Hughes, Clifford Samuel, Joseph Kennedy. A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s. |
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The Whistleblower (2010) #339
FILM
Main
Directed by Larysa Kondracki. With Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave, David Strathairn. A drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal. |
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Carols from Kings (2010) #612
MUSIC
Main
A solo chorister singing Once In Royal David's City begins this traditional celebration of Christmas from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The story of the Nativity is told in the familiar words of the King James Bible together with Christmas poems by Kevin Crossley-Holland, WH Auden and Charles Causley. The famous Chapel choir, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, sings carols old and new, including such favourites as The Sussex Carol, In Dulci Jubilo, Ding Dong Merrily On High, The First Nowell, I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing By, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, Bethlehem Down and O Come, All Ye Faithful. |
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Loaded (2008) #11
FILM
Main
Directed by Alan Pao. With Jesse Metcalfe, Corey Large, Monica Keena, Nathalie Kelley. A young, wealthy club kid's life spirals downward into an out-of-control world of drugs, sex and violence. |
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Loaded (2008) #155
FILM
Main
Directed by Alan Pao. With Jesse Metcalfe, Corey Large, Monica Keena, Nathalie Kelley. A young, wealthy club kid's life spirals downward into an out-of-control world of drugs, sex and violence. |
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Hard Candy (2005) #49
FILM
Main
Directed by David Slade. With Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Odessa Rae. A teenage girl raids a man's home in order to expose him under suspicion that he is a sex offender with pedophilia. |
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Wag the Dog (1997) #366
FILM
Main
Directed by Barry Levinson. With Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary. Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a presidential sex scandal. |
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Breaking the Waves (1996) #213
FILM
Main
Directed by Lars von Trier. With Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr. Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another. |
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When Harry Met Sally (1989) #1533
FILM
Main
1h 35m Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship. |
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) #105
FILM
Main
Directed by Philip Kaufman. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Derek de Lint. In 1968, a Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives. |
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The Ascent of Man (1973) #1490
DOCUMENTARY
Special
The Ascent of Man is a 13-part British documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first broadcast in 1973. It was written and presented by British mathematician and historian of science Jacob Bronowski, who also authored a book adaptation. Intended as a series of "personal view" documentaries in the manner of Kenneth Clark's 1969 series Civilisation, the series received acclaim for Bronowski's highly informed but eloquently simple analysis, his long, elegant monologues, and its extensive location shoots. The programme began broadcasting on BBC2 at 9 pm on Saturday, 5 May 1973 and was released in the US 7 January 1975. 01 Lower than the Angels - Evolution of humans from proto-ape to the modern form 400,000 years ago. 02 The Harvest of the Seasons - Early human migration, agriculture and the first settlements, and war. 03 The Grain in the Stone - Tools, and the development of architecture and sculpture. 04 The Hidden Structure - Fire, metals and alchemy. 05 Music of the Spheres - The language of numbers and mathematics. 06 The Starry Messenger - Galileo's universe - and the implications of his trial on the shift to "northern" science. 07 The Majestic Clockwork - Explores Newton and Einstein's laws. 08 The Drive for Power - The Industrial Revolution and the effect on everyday life. 09 The Ladder of Creation - Darwin and Wallace's ideas on the origin of species. 10 World within World - The story of the periodic table - and of the atom. 11 Knowledge or Certainty - Physics and the clash of the pursuit of absolute vs. imperfect knowledge, and the misgivings of the scientists realising the terrible outcome of the conflict. Auschwitz. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 12 Generation upon Generation - The joys of life, sex and genetics and the dark side of cloning. 13 The Long Childhood - Bronowski's treatise on the commitment of humanity. |