Bad Education – written by and starring Jack Whitehall – follows Alfie Wickers the worst teacher ever to (dis)grace the British Education system. SERIES ONE Abbey Grove School is populated by some of the weirdest teachers ever: Fraser (Mathew Horne) the hair-brained Headmaster Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) the biology teacher with a heart of gold and Deputy Headmistress Miss Pickwell (Michelle Gomez) who displays all the charm and sensitivity of a Third Reich dominatrix. Alfie’s class have been written off by the rest of the school - but Alfie’s determined to take them under his wing. From disastrous parents’ evenings to cringe-worthy sex-education lessons from life-threatening self-defence classes to school elections full of dirty tricks... Bad Education is school life as you’ve never seen it before. SERIES TWO Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall) returns as the self-styled maverick of Abbey Grove attempting to teach his class something - anything - that requires zero effort. The staff room politics are tricky: Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) is now seeing one of their female ex-students Miss Pickwell (Michelle Gomez) is giving President Putin a run for his money and Fraser (Mathew Horne) mistakenly gives all of the school’s funds to ‘The Nigerian Minister of Finance’. This term sees a furiously fought swimming gala a drugs awareness day that ends in Alfie’s utter humiliation and Fraser staging Abbey Grove’s own Take Me Out. SERIES THREE Exams are looming so it’s time for Alfie to actually start teaching his class but the path to A*s never did run smooth. Adding to Alfie’s stress levels is the appointment of his dad Martin Wickers (Harry Enfield) as the new deputy head and his increasingly disastrous love with his girlfriend Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani). Fraser (Mathew Horne) starts the summer term with a strike on his hands after badly investing the school’s money. Thrown into the mix is an evening of after school clubs a competitive sports day Alfie and his class sitting a Biology exam and the end of term Prom.
One Direction: This Is Us is a captivating and intimate all-access look at life on the road for the global music phenomenon. Weaved with stunning live concert footage this inspiring feature film tells the remarkable story of Niall Zayn Liam Harry and Louis' meteoric rise to fame from their humble hometown beginnings and competing on the X-Factor to conquering the world and performing at London's famed O2 Arena. Hear it from the boys themselves and see through their own eyes what it's really like to be One Direction. Directed by Morgan Spurlock the film is produced by Simon Cowell Adam Milano Morgan Spurlock and Ben Winston. The executive producers are Richard Griffiths Harry Magee Will Bloomfield Doug Merrifield Jeremy Chilnick and Matthew Galkin.
The L-Shaped Room, adapted by writer-director Bryan Forbes from Lynne Reid Banks' novel, unfolds in a dank, depressing London boarding house. Leslie Caron plays Jane Fosset, a 27-year-old French woman, down on her luck, who takes a room. There are bugs in her mattress. The taps drip. The landlady ("the lovely Doris") is a drunken, malicious busybody. Forbes doesn't paint the English in a flattering light. They're covetous, eccentric and xenophobic. "I never close my door to the nigs," Doris tells Fosset, as if to prove that she is no racist. When Fosset reveals that she's pregnant and unmarried, everybody turns against her. The one real friend Fosset makes is Toby (Tom Bell), an impoverished would-be writer who lives in the room downstairs. She starts an affair with him, but for all his protestations to the contrary, he too turns out to be moralistic and conservative--he can't accept the idea that she is having another man's baby.Forbes' dialogue sometimes grates, the film risks running into a dead end (Fosset is stuck with nowhere to go and no prospects), but this is compelling fare all the same. Cameraman Douglas Slocombe (who went on to shoot Raiders of the Lost Ark) makes the boarding house seem as gloomy and oppressive as a Gothic mansion. Forbes doesn't sentimentalise at all. The London he portrays is nothing like the swinging, hedonistic city shown in later British movies of the 60s. --Geoffrey Macnab
Available for the first time on DVD the BBC's massively successful primetime series: Goodnight Sweetheart. Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst Goodnight Sweetheart became an instant hit with TV viewers of all ages as it charts the life of Gary Sparrow a dealer in memorabilia and antiques of WW2 who has miraculously discovered a portal in time which allows him to travel between the present and wartime Britain. This handy little trick obviously adds to the success of his business but the co
""Gobble-gobble...we accept her...one of us "" goes the haunting chant of Freaks. Yet it would be decades before this widely banned morality play gained acceptance as a cult masterpiece. Tod Browning (1931's Dracula) directs this landmark movie in which the true freaks are not the story's sideshow performers but ""normals"" who mock and abuse them. Browning a former circus contortionist cast real-life sideshow professionals. A living torso who nimbly lights his own cigarette despite having no arms or legs microcepalics (whom the film calls ""pinheads"") - they and others play the big-top troupers who inflict a terrible revenge on a trapeze artist who treats them as subhumans. In 1994 Freaks was selected for the National Film Registry's archive of cinematic treasures.
John Morlar (Richard Burton - Look Back in Anger Equus) a well-known novelist is savagely attached in his London flat. Barely alive he is taken to hospital. Detective Brunel (Kino Ventura - Sword of Gideon Les Miserables) is assigned to the case. He comes across Morlar's journal which leads him to a mysterious women named Zonfeld (Lee Remick - Jennie - Lady Randolph Churchill Telefon) who is Morlar's doctor. Zonfeld discloses that her patient is obsessed. He feels he bears an awesome telekinetic power - the power to will destruction and death. He can make airplanes crash buildings crumble start raging fires and unleash mighty floods. He believes he possesses the gift of evil and dangerously demonstrates his power. What at first seems preposterous soon becomes sickeningly real. Morlar is able to wreak havoc at will. Brunel desperately wants to stop the next tragedy but can he kill this man? If released from his mortal confines how far can the power of his mind roam..? Directed by Jack Gold (The Naked Civil Servant Kavanagh QC) from a script by John Briley (Gandhi Children of the Damned) The Medusa Touch is highly-effective fast paced thriller which ends in a spectacular and spine-chilling climax. This special edition of the film is sourced from the new HD digitally restored master and is presented in its original aspect ratio. Special Features: Audio commentary with director Jack Gold Kim Newman and Stephen Jones. Destroying the Abbey: behind the scenes footage. Original Theatrical Trailer. Image Gallery.
In Frank Capra's bright, funny and beautifully paced satire Mr Smith Goes to Washington political heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure scoutmaster in a small town, would be the perfect dupe to fill a vacant US Senate chair. Surely this naïve bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains) from his state, a respectable yet corrupted career politician. Capra fills the film with Smith's wide-eyed wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his cynical secretary (Jean Arthur) who doesn't believe for a minute this rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a previous film, Mr Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper. Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy-star Harry Carey lends a warm presence to the role of the vice-president. Mr Smith Goes to Washington is Capra's ode to the power of innocence--an idea so potent that present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr Smith in the halls of power. The 1939 US Congress was none too thrilled about the film's depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature; but even today, Capra's jibes about vested interests and political machines look as accurate as ever. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
A brilliant, bizarre 1973 comedy-horror, Theatre of Blood pitches somewhere between a Hammer horror and the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Vincent Price stars as the hammy, self-important and thoroughly psychotic Edward Lionheart, a veteran thespian who refuses to play anything other than Shakespeare. Piqued by a circle of critics, whom he feels were disrespectful in their notices and denied him his rightful Best Actor of the Year Award, he decides to murder them one by one in parodies of some of Shakespeare's grislier scenes. He's aided by his daughter Edwina (played by Diana Rigg, often in fake moustache and male drag) and a ghoulish company of dosshouse zombies. Some of the murders are quite extraordinarily gruesome, despite their camp, comedic overtones. Arthur Lowe's henpecked critic has his head sawn off while asleep (in a parody of Cymbeline) and Robert Morley's plumply effete dandy is force-fed a pie made from his beloved poodles, choking him to death (cf Titus Andronicus). Jack Hawkins and Michael Horden also meet unpleasant ends. Theatre of Blood is a genuine and underrated oddity in the annals of British cinema and especially uncomfortable for those who happen to be in the reviewing trade. On the DVD: Theatre of Blood on disc is not a triumph of digital enhancement, with sound blemishes unamended and hazy, faded visuals in places. The only extra is the original trailer. --David Stubbs
A minor Czech clan falls afoul of the King in medieval times against the backdrop of Christianity replacing Paganism.
The Army Game was a sitcom giant of its time and one of ITV's most popular shows. Created by Sid Colin it pre-dated the more famous Dad's Army by a number of years. A group of men serving out time as conscripts in the army are determined to dodge duty and derive maximum fun out of a situation they'd rather not be in. Because WWII was only 12 years passed and national service was very much a reality many viewers found they could identify with the characters and the situation they found themselves in.
Massively popular with audiences of over 20 million Steptoe & Son was an obvious choice for the festive schedules but this classic comedy had been running for over ten years before the first of the extended Christmas Specials appeared in 1973. A year later writers Galton and Simpson had decided to bring the series to an end. The 1974 Christmas Special would be the final ever episode: a fitting end to a legendary series. The Party: (Christmas Special 1973) Albert and Harold are busy making preparations for Christmas. Albert is putting up Christmas decorations while Harold is at the travel agents booking some sunny festive fun in Majorca. He's made all the necessary arrangements however there is one last thing to do: tell Albert to pack his bags in preparation for a short stay at the local old people's home! A Perfect Christmas: (Christmas Special 1974) Fed up with staying at home every Christmas Harold plans to take his dad abroad for the holiday. But his old man isn't going to make it easy for him: he pleads to go to Bognor instead objects to every resort in the brochure and struggles to find his birth certificate for the passport. Then just when it looks like Harold's Christmas is going to be another disaster fate delivers one more twist... Originally transmitted: 24/12/73 & 26/12/74 Due to the archive nature of the footage the sound and picture quality may vary occasionally.
Plucked from the womb of his purposeless splendour! It's the floppy-collared-award-winning-loon himself! The one and only Harry Hill! All singing - all dancing! FIIIIIGHT! Join Harry and Top Variety show band The Harrys as he romps through the hot topics of the day - such as how come parrots are the only birds that can be bothered to learn English? And what are the consequences of leaving a small drop of coffee in the bottom of your take -away coffee cup? Stare awestruck as Harry attempts t.
In the tumultuous aftermath of the Civil War Union Cavalry officer John Henry Thomas (John Wayne) takes his heroic men West while Southerner James Langdon (Rock Hudson) takes his soldiers to Mexico. When their paths cross they forge an uneasy friendship that is quickly tested as they get caught between Mexican rebels and the Emperor's forces and find themselves fighting side by side.
For the very first time the complete collection of Men Behaving Badly is available in one definitive box set. That's all six classic series plus the hilarious final trilogy of feature length episodes 'Last Orders' and the riotous Christmas Special 'Jingle Balls'. In addition, the rarely seen Comic Relief sketches from Red Nose Day '97 and '99 have been included: 'Kylie' and 'The Lost Pilot'. Not only that but there are dozens of hysterical out-takes and bloopers as well as unique special features that will keep fans entertained for hours!
Adaptation of the risqué play by Joe Orton. Kath (Beryl Reid) and Ed (Harry Andrews) are a lonely middle-aged brother and sister who live together. When Kath meets Mr Sloane (Peter McEnery) in a cemetery and falls for his charms, she invites him to become a lodger. Before long, Ed has fallen for Sloane's charms also and hires him to be his chauffeur, taking an unwholesome interest in Sloane's tight leather uniform. While Kath and Ed rival for Sloane's affections, their invalid father becomes increasingly convinced that he has some connection to an old unsolved murder. Trapped between the three of them, Sloane makes a shocking decision which has unexpected results.
Sherlock Holmes ever abetted by the trusty Watson investigates a series of deaths at a castle with each foretold by the delivery of orange pips to the victims...
David Lynch's first film since the award-winning "Mulholland Drive" is a complex Hollywood mystery which blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.
This is a John Wayne Western double-bill featuring The Comancheros (1961) and The Undefeated (1969). Nobody made a fuss about The Comancheros when it came out, yet it has proved to be among the most enduringly entertaining of John Wayne's later Westerns. The Duke, just beginning to crease and thicken toward Rooster Cogburn proportions, plays a veteran Texas Ranger named Jake Cutter who joins forces with a New Orleans dandy (Stuart Whitman) to subdue rampaging Indians and the evil white men behind their uprising. The Comancheros was the last credit for Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), who, ravaged by cancer, ceded much of the direction to Wayne (uncredited) and action specialist Cliff Lyons. With support from Wayne stalwarts James Edward Grant (co-screenplay) and William Clothier (camera), the first of many rousing Elmer Bernstein scores for a Wayne picture and a big, flavourful cast including Lee Marvin (the once and future Liberty Valance), Nehemiah Persoff, Bruce Cabot, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (in his last movie), they made a broad, cheerfully bloodthirsty adventure movie for red-meat-eating audiences of all ages. In The Undefeated Wayne and Rock Hudson each play a Civil War commander who, after the ceasefire, lead a community of folks into Mexico to make a fresh start. Hudson is a Southern gentleman; Wayne commanded the Yankee cavalry at Shiloh, where Hudson's brother died. Nevertheless, Rock, with his extended family, and Duke, with his troop of cowboys and 3,000 horses to sell to Emperor Maximilian, soon join forces to outgun banditos and beam paternally over the budding romance between their respective daughter and son. Lingering North-South animosities are celebrated in an obligatory communal fistfight, and the showdown with both Maximilian's lancers and the rebel Juaristas is disconcertingly perfunctory. --Richard T Jameson
This terrific Walter Hill Western follows the careers of the James and Younger brothers--and uses the nifty idea of casting actual clans of acting siblings in the roles. Thus, the James brothers are played by James and Stacy Keach; the Youngers by David, Keith, and Robert Carradine; the Millers by Randy and Dennis Quaid; and the Fords by Christopher and Nicholas Guest. Hill, working with an evocative Ry Cooder score, creates a film that is at once breathtakingly exciting and elegiac in its treatment of these post-Civil War outlaws. The Keaches in particular bring a surprising dignity to the roles of Frank and Jesse James, while David Carradine is a hoot as Cole Younger--and the Quaids mimic real life (as it was for them then) in their battles as the Miller brothers. Bloody, to be sure, but also bloody good. --Marshall Fine
All the episodes from the outstanding eleventh and final season of M*A*S*H! Episodes comprise: 1. Hey Look Me Over 2. Trick Or Treatment 3. Foreign Affairs 4. The Joker Is Wild 5. Who Knew? 6. Bombshells 7. Settling Debts 8. The Moon Is Not Blue 9. Run For The Money 10. U.N. The Night And The Music 11. Strange Bedfellows 12. Say No More 13. Friends And Enemies 14. Give And Take 15. As Time Goes By 16.Goodbye Farewell And Amen
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