Production
An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.
This series shows the workings of an English hospital through the eyes of its junior doctors. Naive and idealistic Dr Andrew Collins (Andrew Lancel), soon realises he still has much to learn. His boss, Dr Claire Maitland (Helen Baxendale) on the other hand, has seen it all. She is a competent doctor, with a cynical view, and is ready to work the system when needed, but she and Collins work well together as she guides him through the many minefields of working in the NHS.
Based on the much-loved series of books by Mairi Hedderwick, Katie Morag is a small red-headed girl who lives with her family on the remote and beautiful fictional Scottish island of Struay. Although she lives in a fairly unique setting, her adventures are full of experiences and feelings that all children can recognize and identify with. Her stories are full of jealousy, bravery and rivalry – surrounded by an annoying little brother, busy shopkeeper parents, a perfectly perfect best friend and a couple of grandmothers who between them know everything about everything. The stories celebrate the intrinsic sense of community, the preciousness of the environment and the universal tensions and joys of family life. Katie Morag is a feisty character who has been known to get herself into scrapes but who generally emerges from them (usually with some assistance from one or other of her Grandmothers) in a funny and endearing way.
January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.
Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.
James and his three closest lifelong friends go on an ill-advised trip to the stunning coastal area of Barafundle Bay in West Wales. What follows is a touching and comical adventure dealing with friendship, heroism and love.
Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of terror and neglect, with Carlin emerging as an unlikely leader.
After being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents’ actions and the reality of a new world.
Tales Out of School is a British anthology of television plays by David Leland: Birth of a Nation, Flying Into the Wind, R.H.I.N.O.: Really Here in Name Only, and Made in Britain.
16-year-old skinhead Trevor has no regard for authority, and would rather spend his time stealing cars than sitting in the detention centre to which he is sent. Social worker Harry Parker tries his best, but Trevor is only interested when there's something in it for him. The centre authorities try to conform Trevor to the norms of society, but he takes no notice, and would rather speak in a torrent of four-letter words and racial abuse.
Iona returns to the island where she was born with her teenage son to seek refuge from a violent crime in Glasgow. Iona's return exposes her tormented son, Bull, to a way of life she rejected when she left the island and sends a shockwave through the family she left behind.
The past catches up with an ageing American jazz pianist when he returns to the clubs of Lancashire and Yorkshire that he last visited 10 years previously.
A body is found face down in a tank. Detective Inspector Iverson, investigating what seems like a routine case of suicide, becomes involved with the mesmerizing psychotherapist who was helping the dead woman find her true self. Gradually their roles are reversed as her probing uncovers the detective's own deeper motives and needs, until the knife-edge between suicide and murder is exposed.
A feisty young woman returns to Glasgow to run her deceased father's curry house.
In 1970s Britain, 18-year old Dean feels hampered by his working-class background and his family. In order to make something of himself, he assumes another identity and manages to enter high society. Uses a unique projection technique that displays three side-by-side frames of nearly simultaneous action, giving the impression of simultaneous events, rather than a multi-camera recording. This innovative "three-camera" or triple-image effect was an "almost innovation" for the time, offering a novel cinematic experience alongside the film's compelling story and strong direction.
The story of a no-holds-barred, go-getting property dealer played by celebrated comedian Mel Smith, who has the view that everyone has a price though the price may not always be money.
Beverly and Laurence are entertaining their new neighbours, Angela and Tony as well as Sue, whose teenage daughter, Abigail, is having a party. Over drinks and small talk, class differences and relationship difficulties emerge.
Jewish boy loves Catholic girl - will love triumph over family objections?
A film adaptation of the 1606 satirical tragedy by Thomas Middleton, relocated to a post-apocalyptic Liverpool. Christopher Eccleston plays the revenge-obsessed Vindice, who has sworn to kill the evil Duke (Derek Jacobi) who murdered his one true love.
Abandoned by her mother when she was a child, Shell has stayed to take care of her dying father but now feels trapped within the beautiful but desolate landscape that surrounds her. With only her routine of running the decaying petrol station, taking care of her father, and spending afternoons in her bedroom with a local mechanic, life is passing Shell by with every passing truck that rattles her walls. One day a salesman stops to re-fuel and offers Shell a taste of the outside world that takes her closer than ever to the edge of the road and her desire to escape.
