| 21 |
The Christmas No.1 Story (2012) #750
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. This hour-long documentary takes us on a journey back through 60 years of British Christmases via the pop songs we put at the top of the most important chart of the year. From The Beatles to Mr Blobby, Harry Belafonte to the Human League and Benny Hill to the Military Wives, the Christmas number one is unpredictable to say the least and tells its own unique story of the past half-century of British pop culture. This show looks back through the decades at the personalities and circumstances that gave rise to these, songs immortalised by their competition in the race for Christmas number one. Expect wars, charity, stupidity, nostalgia and some cracking good tunes jingling along the way... With contributions from the artists themselves including Rolf Harris, Noddy Holder, Roy Wood, Boney M, Johnny Mathis, Midge Ure, Shakin' Stevens, Sir Cliff Richard, Jason Donovan, East 17 and Alexandra Burke. Also featuring a select cast of commentators including Pete Waterman, Rev. Richard Coles, Tony Blackburn and Edith Bowman. |
| 22 |
A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Masters Voice (2012) #785
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to Vent Haven, the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem. Ken Campbell was a hugely respected maverick of the British theatre, an eccentric genius who would snort out forgotten artforms. Nina was his prodigy in ventriloquism and has been said to have reinvented the artform. This film is truly unique in genre and style. No one has seen ventriloquism like this before. Nina Conti's funny, highly original and poignant documentary, takes us on two journeys. A personal journey, and a professional one, through the strange, surprising and often hilarious world of ventriloquism. When Nina was just another twenty-something wannabe actress, Ken presented her with a teach-yourself ventriloquism kit. This set her on a path to becoming a sell-out act in Britain and abroad, with a clutch of major awards. On the road, Nina brings all the puppets to life as struggles to meet the conflicting demands of her old acerbic partner Monkey, and the new characters she has been bequeathed. But one puppet remains silent. Ken's doll of himself sits mournful and judgemental in the hotel bedroom. Nina cannot find her master's voice and until she does, she will not be able to lay her old life to rest. Never has watching someone talk to themselves been this interesting. |
| 23 |
Shakespeare in Italy (2012) #1376
DOCUMENTARY
Main
Shakespeare in Italy: With Francesco da Mosto, Samuel Barnett, Alberto Toso Fei, Susannah Fielding. Francesco da Mosto takes to the Italian road again in search of Shakespeare in Italy 2x1hour episodes. BBC. 1 Land of Love Francesco da Mosto takes to the Italian road again in search of Shakespeare in Italy. From Romeo and Juliet to the jealousy of Othello, Shakespeare used the land of love to tell his most passionate stories about falling in love. Needless to say, along the way Francesco adds some insights of his own and revels in claims that not only did Shakespeare visit Italy, but also was born in Sicily. It's a whole new take on the Bard! 2 Land of Fortune Francesco da Mosto takes a look at Italy as the land of adventure and ambition - where fortunes are made and battles are fought. Beginning in Venice with actor Ciaran Hinds, Francesco considers how his home town so renowned for its justice struck Shakespeare as the perfect setting for his disturbing tale of what happens to an outsider who goes against the law in The Merchant of Venice. Heading south to Rome, Francesco discovers how in his great Roman plays Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare used this ancient city as a smokescreen to address the most burning political issues of his day while avoiding trouble with the Elizabethan censors. Francesco meets Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance, and also pops in to Rome's very own Globe to understand modern Italy's fascination with our English Bard. Finally he travels from Naples to the beautiful Island of Stromboli, just off the north coast of Sicily, a magical setting for Shakespeare's final great masterpiece - The Tempest. |
| 24 |
Horrible Bosses (2011) #121
FILM
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Directed by Seth Gordon. With Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Steve Wiebe. Three friends conspire to murder their awful bosses when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness. |
| 25 |
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) #811
DOCUMENTARY
Main
With Adam Curtis, Stewart Brand, Peder Anker, Tord Björk. A series of films about how humans have been colonized by the machines we have built. Although we don't realize it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers. 3x1 hour episides. A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers 1/3 Love and Power. Exploring the idea that humans have been colonised by the machines they have built. 2/3 The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts. This looks at how the idea of nature as a self-regulating ecosystem is a machine fantasy. 3/3 The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey. Why do humans find the machine vision so beguiling - does it excuse our failure? |
| 26 |
The Way (2010) #516
FILM
Main
Directed by Emilio Estevez. With Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick van Wageningen. A father heads overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the "El camino de Santiago," and decides to take the pilgrimage himself. |
| 27 |
The Secret Life of Chaos (2010) #677
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand. It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for millennia - how did we get here? In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder? It's a mindbending, counterintuitive and for many people a deeply troubling idea. But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates exquisite order and pattern. And the best thing is that one doesn't need to be a scientist to understand it. The natural world is full of awe-inspiring examples of the way nature transforms simplicity into complexity. From trees to clouds to humans - after watching this film you'll never be able to look at the world in the same way again. |
| 28 |
Fake or Fortune?: Monet (2010) #818
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Series 1 Episode 1. Journalist Fiona Bruce teams up with art expert Philip Mould to investigate mysteries behind paintings. It is a world of subterfuge and intrigue as they grapple with complex battles often unseen beneath the apparently genteel art establishment. Their sleuthing takes them from New York to Cairo and Cape Town as they unpick clues behind stolen and contested works of art, and unmask the work of a master forger along the way. In the opening episode, Fiona and Philip discover what they believe is an unrecognised and valuable painting by Monet. But can they convince the powers that be? |
| 29 |
Bread: A Loaf Affair (2010) #1196
ANIMATION
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1 hour. BBC. The aptly-named Tom Baker narrates a tale of aspiration, industrialisation and plain old-fashioned snobbery in a documentary which unwraps the story of the rise of the popular loaf and how it has shaped the way we eat. Historically, to know the colour of one's bread was to know one's place in life. For centuries, ordinary people ate brown bread that was about as easy on the teeth as a brick. Softer, refined white bread was so expensive to make that it became the preserve of the rich. Affordable white bread was the baker's holy grail - but almost as soon as it became possible to achieve, dietary experts began to trumpet the virtues of brown. Not surprisingly, the British public proved reluctant to give up their white loaves, and even a war couldn't change their eating habits. |
| 30 |
Damage (2009) #227
FILM
Main
Directed by Jeff King. With Steve Austin, Walton Goggins, Laura Vandervoort, Donnelly Rhodes. An ex-con battles it out in the cage to pay for the operation that would save the daughter of his victim. Along the way he finds fatherly love, and friendship, in the most unlikely of places. |
| 31 |
Away We Go (2009) #318
FILM
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Directed by Sam Mendes. With John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Carmen Ejogo. A couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time. |
| 32 |
Micro Men (2009) #667
FILM-TV DRAMA
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Directed by Saul Metzstein. With Alexander Armstrong, Martin Freeman, Edward Baker-Duly, Sam Phillips. In 1979 Clive Sinclair, British inventor of the pocket calculator, frustrated by the lack of home investment in his project,the electric car, also opposes former assistant Chris Curry's belief that he can successfully market a micro-chip for a home computer. A parting of the ways sees Curry, in partnership with the Austrian Hermann Hauser and using whizz kid Cambridge students, set up his own, rival firm to Sinclair Radionics, Acorn. Acorn beat Sinclair to a lucrative contract supplying the BBC with machines for a computer series. From here on it is a battle for supremacy to gain the upper hand in the domestic market. 1hour 24 mins. BBC. |
| 33 |
Amélie (2001) #1430
FILM
Main
Amélie: Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta. Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love |
| 34 |
Barbarella (1968) #279
FILM
Main
Directed by Roger Vadim. With Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea. In the distant future, a highly sexual woman is assigned with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way, she encounters various unusual people. |
| 35 |
Cathy Come Home (1966) #1423
TV DRAMA
Main
Cathy Come Home: Directed by Ken Loach. With Carol White, Ray Brooks, Winifred Dennis, Wally Patch. A wedding. Happy and promising. A young couple, new to the ways of life. The joys of parenthood: A dream comes true. Then the first incident in a long, spiraling chain of events, and down they go. No job, no money. Moving from house to house, each smaller than the last. Hope is briefly found, But fate strikes again under a cruel word: Eviction. The family flees. A caravan is their shelter. But little did they know what was to come. Fire, destruction. Rage. Discrimination towards the poor. Hope is lost. The last straw is pulled. Distress. Separation. The family torn apart. Mother and children, father all alone. The ship can sink no lower. Or so they thought. Broke. Crushed. Chased from their last shelter. A mother clings to her children. And the final blow: children ripped from her loving arms |