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Private Notes
With Alan Holly has a secret ambition. After a life of suburban rectitude, he sets out one morning from Land's End to walk the length of his native land; a Britain he has never known. His boots are new, his health uncertain, he has not walked more than a dozen miles in his life. His progress is overseen by far flung family and friends with mixed feelings of loyalty, exasperation and growing anxiety. As the journey assumes epic proportions, Alan's arbitrary tenacity and courage has a decisive impact on the lives of those he meets and the family he has left behind.
This gentle comedy follows the antics of several British families on holiday in France. The 'Perfect' Marriot family watches 'Topless' try to turn topless beaches into bottomless ones and 'Prat' discipline his family like boy scouts. But will they be able to withstand the charms of 'Early Bird' or the savagery of her husband?
A new BBC film. This Screen One special, a political thriller written by David Lan , is inspired by events in the townships of South Africa. At the same time as protesters weave through the shanty town of 'Dark City', the mayor's home is burgled. These two apparently unconnected events lead to the death of a councillor. Seven people are put on trial and only one person can prove their innocence.
Four boys struggle with the often ridiculous and sometimes dangerous business of growing up on an East London estate. With music by Carl Davis.
This first film adaptation of George Eliot 's classic novel was written by Maggie Wadey , who wrote the much-praised adaptation of Precious Bane. Two young men, the carpenter Adam Bede and the squire Arthur Donnithorne , find themselves competing for the love of the beautiful dairymaid Hetty Sorrel. It is a triangle which eventually leads to tragedy for all of them. When Adam Bede was published in 1859 it was greeted as the work of a major new talent. Charles Dickens was sure the author was a woman. He was right, for George Eliot was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans , a country girl who told her publisher that Adam Bede would be full of "the breath of cows and the scent of hay".
A Screen One Special drama for Hallowe'en by Stephen Volk, starring Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith, Craig Charles. Ghosts no longer inhabit stately homes and rattle chains. They live in ordinary council houses like that of Mrs Pamela Early. For months she's suffered strange noises, awful smells and bent cutlery, but is hers really the most haunted house in Britain? BBCtv turns the cameras on ghoulies, ghosties and things that go bump in the night.
Network TV premiere for this story of first love adapted by Jonathan Falla from Ian McBarrack 's semiautobiographical novel, set in Trinidad in the 1940s and starring Patrick Bergin Susan Wooldridge. Alan, a 12-year-old white boy, is facing disapproval from his parents over his friendship with Jaillin, their Indian kitchen girl. But their concern turns to alarm when the relationship threatens to become more than a childhood crush. With the island's first free elections looming, the children find themselves trapped in a conflict of class, caste and prejudice.
Colin Welland makes his return to writing for television since the success of his Chariots of Fire screenplay in 1981. Welland, who made his name as a writer in the heyday of The Wednesday Play, based this film on the true story of a woman's fight to adopt a Third World child after finding she cannot have a baby of her own. Its showing coincides with the Year of the Family. Julie Walters makes her second Screen One appearance in the last 12 months (having starred last year in Wide Eyed and Legless) as Alice, a wealthy widow whose luxurious life in France is no compensation for childlessness. Walters is joined by Georges Corraface, who played the title role in 1992's ill-fated Christopher Columbus: the Discovery, as her new partner Jean-Paul. Edward Bennett ,who made last year's infertility drama You, Me and It, directs.
A dramatic tale of bizarre and sinister events that strike an unassuming suburban street. When a live television gardening programme descends on Brown Gardens, Connie, the show's researcher, appears to possess an uncanny insight into its residents. While a love affair develops between her and the enigmatic Max, the television gardeners dig up more than they bargained for.
The Armstrong family - Ian, Kate and their two children - live in a comfortable country house. But the house conceals a terrible secret.
A drama based on the true story of Sara Thornton who, in 1990, was sentenced to life imprisonment forthe murder of her husband. This year, at a retrial, she was found guilty of manslaughter.
A tale of passion, deceit and betrayal, starring Helen Baxendale, John Hannah. When three university friends turn up unexpectedly, twenty-something lawyer Lorna is led into a dangerous world.
A Screen One comedy, written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman , starring Kevin Whately As Christmas celebrations get under way, Britain is rocked by a deadly new food scare - "mad turkey disease".
A Screen One drama, based on the true story of one of Scotland's most notorious criminals, starring Billy Connolly Edinburgh 1788: the city is rocked by the news that Deacon Brodie - master cabinet maker and respected town councillor- has been found guilty of a string of crimes and sentenced to death.
Action thriller, based on a true story, starring Rutger Hauer, Martin Sheen, Max Von Sydow In October 1986, a Russian submarine carrying nuclear missiles collides with an American nuclear submarine off the coast of Bermuda.
When his son is killed in a hit-and-run, everyone grieves - but Woody's pain has no limits. Searching for a way to react, his life and sanity slowly falls apart.
Stephen Poliakoff introduces his drama about an unexpected pact between two women.
Actor Duncan Preston introduces Victoria Wood's comedy drama about two ill-matched sisters.
His career as an architect is thriving. The pain of his divorce has faded and he sees his children every weekend But when his ex-wife Lyn falls passionately in love with the volatile Bernard, James's cosy, ordered world is threatened and he is spurred into action.
Starring Keith Barron as Cmdr Jack Bentham, Alun Armstrong as Det Supt Frank Burroughs, Gillian Eaton as Maureen Fry, Dudley Sutton as Deputy Commissioner Sir Harry Streeter. Britain in the mid-1990s is a divided and violent nation where civil disorder and urban terrorism are on the increase. Commander Jack Bentham, a senior Scotland Yard detective already investigating shootings at a violent demonstration by radical nurses, finds himself seconded to Wales to look into a series of shootings by police officers in that province. As he probes deeper into both cases, Bentham uncovers a complex web of deceit which hints at corruption at the highest levels of the establishment.
"Why are the Mafia taking such an interest in my son's barmitzvah? I'm Lionel Ellerman, an accountant from Edgware. All I did was trace a small debt for my mad friend !Old Fart! from Manchester. Naples for a holiday is fine but not with a sack over my head and a gun pointing at me..."
Back in London from abroad, Bill English has it all - smart flat with a river view, flash car and, of course, the beautiful Anna. But he was born and brought up in these parts and everything's changed. Anna asks: 'Where are the ghosts Bill?'
An unexpected pact develops between two women - Lillian, who's been away in a 'home' since she was a rebellious girl half a century ago, and sophisticated, 'happily married' Harriet. Brought reluctantly together when Lillian is returned to the world, the pair find a common purpose which has hilarious and risky consequences for those around them ...
It is May 1944, two weeks before [D]-day. Britain stands poised for the long-awaited invasion of France - thousands of troops wait anxiously for the orders to come for embarkation. MI5 is horrified to discover the top-secret codewords for the invasion suddenly appearing as clues in the Daily Telegraph crossword. Two agents are immediately dispatched to confront the culprit, the headmaster of a boys' school in southern England.
A new BBC film written by Robin Chapman , based on a novel by A. N. Wilson. Derek Blore , MP, enjoys both a happy successful political career and a sideline in the suburbs. When his two political lives become confused, with an added Russian complication, he finds a national scandal engulfing him.
Every cub reporter wants a front page 'splash' and Liz Jolly from The Brit, a top-selling daily tabloid, is no exception. She's on the trail of a sensational story and her job depends on it.
A dark comedy of the not-so-impossible. Paul quarrels with his girlfriend Jane about when to start a family. Dr Eva Frankenstein , a middle-aged lady with an enigmatic smile, overhears their fight and makes Paul's dream come true in a way that changes the world.
Edgar is a nice, normal, clever 11-year-old - and he's had enough of being bullied. He organises the other children into a police force, and they set out to bring justice to the school. Their law-and-order game is such a success there are no more 'criminals'. But the story takes a sinister turn when an unpopular teacher publicly humiliates Edgar and he decides revenge is rightfully his.
Life turns into a nightmare one day when schoolboy Phil comes home, opens the front door, and finds nothing - a deserted house. Fleeing to London he is drawn into the nightmare world of the dispossessed. Then he meets Ros, who opens the door into an even stranger world.
A married couple's lives are shattered when their 16-year-old son develops schizophrenia. At first, he turns violent and has to be hospitalised. When he is released, the full implications of his illness strike home.
Nick, a Greek Cypriot living in London, hits on the idea of marriage to raise some cash - the bride, according to custom, coming complete with dowry. He is forced to enlist the help of a childhood adversary, Maria. Soon realising she is giving him the runaround, Nick retaliates by wooing her.
It's a big night at the New Dragon Inn when a coach of distinguished Germans arrives. But disaster looms - it's the local cricket team's annual fancy dress bash and the theme is the Second World War. Written by Fletcher Watkins.
Molly Cowper is a wilful 80-year-old widow who firmly believes the world is there for her convenience. Her mild-mannered son Geoffrey does his best to help her keep her independence, but Molly keeps trampling on people.
At the same time as protesters weave through the shanty town of 'Dark City', the mayor's home is burgled. These two apparently unconnected events lead to the death of a councillor. Seven people are put on trial and only one person can prove their innocence.
In 1961 Hancock was the most successful and best-loved performer on British television, having just recorded his famous episode, The Blood Donor. The rest of his life was rather different. A funny and poignant dramatisation of the last eight years in the life of the comedian Tony Hancock , written by William Humble and starring Alfred Molina.
Laura Simms has an exciting job as a top magazine editor, but her love life's a disaster. Her luck seems to change when she meets Gabriel, a handsome but mysterious man who believes in old-fashioned love and marriage. This is a first script for television by Adrian Hodges and a first lead role for Judith Scott. Sean Bean (The Field, Caravaggio) stars as Gabriel, with James Wilby (A Handful of Dust, Mother Love) as Laura's philandering ex-boyfriend.
A new BBC film written by Andrew Davies (A Very Peculiar Practice, House of Cards) and starring Charlie Drake, Bill Maynard, David Thewlis. Five men from Wales book an eight-day package tour to the Philippines hoping to return with a 'mail order' bride.
The drinks are lined up at the bar. The girls are in their glad rags. The fellas are on the rampage. Everyone is hellbent on having a good time celebrating the night before the wedding of Dave and Linda. But Peter McGeegan is back for a gig and Peter was once in love with Linda. Russell, author of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine , adapted his stage play Stags and Hens for this film, which had a successful run at the cinema last year.
William Humble 's comedy-drama stars Griff Rhys Jones as a writer on a popular television soap opera who falls in love with the show's leading lady but finds himself unable to break his ties with his ex-wife and their children. It is a witty and telling examination of the way we live now, seen through the eyes of a middling writer in his mid-30s writing about the middle classes.
A new BBC film and first screenplay - with a strong autobiographical slant - by Julie Burchill, Mail on Sunday columnist and bestselling author of Ambition. In the confined space of a working-class terrace a grand passion erupts. A passion so great that years later the daughter of the house returns to a cemetery in an attempt to understand. 'When I was young,' remembers the adult Claudie, standing at a graveside, 'every household had a head. You just didn't question that.' She looks at the tombstone. On it is a large colour photograph of a huge leering alsatian dog, its tongue hanging out. 'The head of our household was Prince.'
A powerful and disturbing black comedy that takes an unflinching look at drug addiction. Henry plays a dealer convinced he is untouchable, Coltrane the ex-gangster turned drug counsellor who is determined to break him. Writer Al Hunter (The Firm) was inspired by the true story of a football team founded to help drug addicts kick their habit.
Sir Anthony Blunt, who was a Soviet agent for 25 years, is routinely questioned and gives no answers, but is knighted and works as Director of the Courtauld Institute, and presents his interrogator with a puzzle in the shape of a doubtful Titian painting. He also does art restoration work in Buckingham Palace, where he gets into an interesting conversation with HMQ.
A season of new BBC films starts with this sequel to Andrew Davies 's highly acclaimed series A Very Peculiar Practice, starring Peter Davison. Stephen and his wife Grete are now living in Warsaw. Despite the chaos caused by the disintegration of communism, Stephen is happy working as a hospital doctor. Then Bob Buzzard turns up.
This powerful and moving documentary drama, written by Michael Baker , reveals the strange and disturbing events following the grounding of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska, in 1989. Christopher Lloyd starred in Back to the Future and The Addams Family, John Heard in Home Alone and Awakenings.
A football fairy-story written by Barry Hines and starring Eve Barker Denis Lawson A player emerges as the best young prospect since George Best - 18 years old, tall, strong, physical and with natural ball skills. There's just one problem: this player is a girl. Producer Tony Garnett was responsible for some of the most famous TV dramas ever made, including Cathy Come Home. His work with Barry Hines includes the film Kes.
Powerful police drama written by G F Newman, this year's winner of the Bafta Writer's Award. When a black politician is murdered, an inexperienced black police officer from Devon is brought in to investigate. He uncovers a web of police corruption. With cameo appearances by lain Glen, Martin Shaw and Don Henderson.
Powerful emotional drama by Lynda La Plante , writer of Prime Suspect and Civvies. Starring Steven Waddington Tom Bell. Boxer Murray Ritchie is training for a vital match when he crosses rival promoter Tony Farrington. Soon Murray is fighting for his life as he slides towards the unlicensed circuit.
This wry comedy by Simon Gray is the story of one man's obsession with the truth. Starring Peter Bowles. Television interviewer George Grant , renowned for his ability to get at the truth, is at the peak of his career. But when he receives a message at his office that his wife needs to see him urgently - a matter of life and death - his life is irreversibly altered. And so the frantic search begins for George Grant 's truth - and his wife.
This study of human relationships, by new writer Roger Eldridge , begins with civil servant Henry Sitchell being recalled from India to post-war Wales for the funeral of his wife. Here he confronts his 12-year-old son Clive for the first time in five years, and a process of painful readjustment begins. Henry, a man out of his time, epitomises the breed which flourished under the British Raj. Clive is a sensitive, lonely boy who lives in a world apart. Their troubled relationship reaches a dramatic climax which forces both to confront their pain and grief. Newcomer Ben Holden , who plays Clive, is the son of author Anthony Holden , and was chosen from among 300 hopefuls.
The Screen One season concludes with a fast-moving comedy thriller written by Tony Sarchet, and starring Alfred Molina. Harry plays hoaxes on gullible tabloid journalists. But when he gets ambitious and tries to sell the faked memoirs of a contract killer to a publisher, things start to go seriously wrong. Among the fine cast are Hywel Bennett, Jill Gascoine, Jack Shepherd and Roger Lloyd Pack.
The marriage of Deric and Diana Longden is a successful one, based on a shared sense of humour as well as love. It seems sure to survive even when Diana is struck down by a mysterious debilitating and, as it transpires, progressive illness. When Deric meets novelist Aileen Armitage matters become complicated, but not in predictable fashion.
This nostalgic comedy was written especially for Guinness by Roy Clarke, better known for successful series like Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances. Cyril takes Amos to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy Briggsy. While in Normandy they encounter Waldo, an American [D]-day veteran. Cyril and Waldo are determined to find their old girlfriend from 50 years before. Also in their party is the mysterious Lisa, whose secret is revealed only at the end of their journey.
Louie, the detective son of an upright police sergeant in Glasgow, is about to marry the daughter of a wealthy and compulsive thief who attempts a spectacular robbery. Louie is put in charge of the investigation.
A bittersweet drama about a street party held in a suburban London square to mark the 1981 Royal Wedding. After two years of the Thatcher administration there is recession and unrest, but the economic boom is just around the corner. Meanwhile, there's the fairytale wedding of Charles and Diana to celebrate.
Inspired by the real-life case of four nurses in Austria who were tried for the murder of 42 patients in their care, this chilling drama stars comedian Dawn French in her first serious role, as an apparently irreproachable carer.
A British high school bet between two friends, and a case of teenage love, take unexpected turns as a small deception called the 'October House Partnership' attracts increasingly bigger players in the property market on both sides of the Atlantic.
The comic offering for tonight's Screen One film is a transatlantic jaunt involving a schoolboy who bets his friend he'll be worth a million before the week is out. Christien Anholt, recently seen as the young man investigating the death of his father in ITV's rerun of The Blackheath Poisonings, stars as the 16-year-old boy. His adventures lead him to New York, where he meets his match in tycoon Martin Short (best remembered here as one of the hilarious Three Amigos with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase.)
David Jason brings a master's touch and immaculate Scouse accent to this comic account of gold fever in wartime Liverpool by Jim Hitchmough, creator of the comedy series Watching. In May 1940, just before Dunkirk, the governors of the Bank of England decided that the nation's bullion would be safer in the vaults of Martin's Bank in Liverpool. How easy It would have been for the gang of dockers who unloaded the cargo at Liverpool to "sample" the wares.... Jason (as dockers' leader Billy Mac ) is joined by Gorden Kaye , veteran of 'Allo 'Allo!, and Tim Pigott-Smith (The Chief) as a dodgy dealer who tempts the bullion boys from the straight and narrow.
A bitter comedy from Charles Wood, writer of the controversial Tumbledown. 1971: fresh-faced, eagerfor heroics, the young officers arrive in Belfast. Pelted with rocks by kids, sniped at by the IRA, they take refuge in sex, black humourand the weird rituals of the officers' mess. See today's choices.
A live TV reunion is the starting point for Victoria Wood's bittersweet tale of two sisters whose lives have taken very different courses.
Linda Leveller, a naive anti-pornography campaigner, undergoes a transformation when she teams up with two sex film actresses to make an erotic movie for women in this comedy adventure. It stars Kim Cattrall (Wild Palms), Claire Skinner (Life Is Sweet and Chef) and features Leslie Phillips It is an unusual and controversial topic to tackle. Writer Maureen Chadwick hopes that it will make viewers reconsidertheir views on censorship and reveals that "My character Linda Leveller 's ideological journey reflects my own shift of viewpoint as a result of researching the subject."
On his release from a young offender's institution, Charlie Dyce 's single-mindedness makes him both friends and enemies when he eventually finds work in a seedy London cafe. There he meets and falls fora teenage prostitute, Myra, whose love transforms his life and gives him back a sense of identity. But when she becomes pregnant with Charlie's baby, herjealous pimp Frank exacts his revenge, pushing Charlie's powers of endurance to the limit.
A psychological drama starring Charlotte Rampling, Trevor Eve A therapist ensnares a cynical police inspector during routine enquiries into a patient's death. Sexual power games fuel this tale which draws a fine line between murder and suicide.
Alan Plater's drama about an ageing American jazz musician. Starring Elliott Gould, Geraldine James A once renowned jazz pianist who is now an alcoholic, a gambler and a womaniser comes to England to play a a series of gigs. There, he meets his match in the woman appointed as his minder for the week.
Comedy drama about the trials and tribulations of three sets of parents as they finally realise that their children have grown up and reluctantly they have to let them enroll at Cambridge University.
Gripping drama about an undercover police officer who infiltrates the Manchester underworld to investigate a brutal murder, and his method of getting to know what's happening is to seduce the gang leader's sexy wife.
When the former Lord Chancellor finds himself in need of money, he writes an explosive autobiography full of scandal and threatens to sell it to the tabloid press.
