Ben Carruthers

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

After a plane carrying three Agents crashes in the Himalayas, they are rescued by an advanced civilisation secretly living in Tibet who grant them enhanced versions of the ordinary five senses, and intellectual and physical abilities.

12 American military prisoners in World War II are ordered to infiltrate a well-guarded enemy château and kill the Nazi officers vacationing there. The soldiers, most of whom are facing death sentences for a variety of violent crimes, agree to the mission and the possible commuting of their sentences.

In the early 1800s, a group of fur trappers and Indian traders are returning with their goods to civilization and are making a desperate attempt to beat the oncoming winter. When guide Zachary Bass is injured in a bear attack, they decide he's a goner and leave him behind to die. When he recovers instead, he swears revenge on them and tracks them and their paranoiac expedition leader down.

A riot in a state prison is staged to cover up an escape attempt, during which many inmates and guards are killed. Shot on location at Arizona State Prison.

Vincent Bruce, a war veteran, begins working as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a private psychiatric facility for wealthy people where he meets Lilith Arthur, a charming young woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose fragile beauty captivates all who meet her.

A filmmaker has problems coping with his wife and marriage, with his daughter being their only connecting link. Seeking a meaningful connection and intimacy elsewhere, a married woman becomes his short-term partner.

The relationship between Lelia, a light-skinned black woman, and Tony, a white man is put in jeopardy when Tony meets Lelia’s darker-skinned jazz singer brother, Hugh, and discovers that her racial heritage is not what he thought it was.

An eclectic group of characters set sail on Captain Lansen’s leaky cargo ship in an attempt to escape their various troubles. When a violent storm strikes, the ship is swept into the Sargasso Sea and the passengers find themselves trapped on an island populated by man-eating seaweed, giant crabs and Spanish conquistadors who believe it’s still the 16th century.

In 1870, a Jamaican colonial family sends its children to Britain for proper schooling, but their ship is taken over by pirates, who become fond of the kids.

A life-long mercenary commander and weapons expert is commissioned to train an army for an exiled African leader. But as his conscience finally catches up to him, he is seen as a threat to the powers behind the operation.

Barbara, a young woman consumed by despair, contemplates suicide, while a man she meets in a church and a married couple struggle to persuade her that life is still worth living. Mekas’s film weaves this intimate drama into a larger reflection on alienation, politics, and the turbulence of early 1960s America.

Archival footage combined with new footage re-creates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It is also a love story between a devout communist woman and the liberal son of a prominent professor. Because of their political differences, the two can never be together.

A country boy arrives in Chicago, gets killed by some gangsters, and returns to life with superhuman powers in this satirical look at movie genres.

A fable about an old man with an odd effect on those he encounters.

Ben Scruggs is an intellectual gangster who lives his life like a poker game.

This film takes a decidedly satirical look at the inner workings of the gangster underworld. Alfred Lowell is a washed-up actor sent to London to take care of some mob business. Alfred's mind is not on his job, as he prefers to probe his past for the reasons why he has failed as a thespian. He entertains thoughts of suicide, but his involvement in the gang prevents him from ending his life.

Crazed scientist Herbert Von Krantz has invented a device to sterilize all nuclear weapons -- and a mad herd of rival spies are desperate to get their hands on the device, including a sect of bald, turtleneck-wearing assassins.

Years ago, it was Roscoe who kept his friends alive in a Korean prison camp. Now, he's penniless and without papers in London - will his now-prosperous former friends help him?