Pop stars Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, known internationally as the Pet Shop Boys, take a melancholic stroll through a warped, deteriorating England in Jack Bond’s surreal art film It Couldn’t Happen Here. It was a commercial failure on release … Continue reading REVIEW: It Couldn’t Happen Here (1987)
I have emerged from Sam Mendes’ new drama Empire of Light more than a little ambivalent about it; indeed, I find myself tremendously frustrated. This English drama, set in a seaside down in the early 1980s, stars Olivia Colman as a miserable … Continue reading REVIEW: Empire of Light (2022)
Enid Baines (Niamh Elgar) has a job reviewing films before they are released to the public, and recommending cuts of any material she deems unsuitable. At the same time she battles her grieving parents. They want to declare Enid’s sister … Continue reading REVIEW: Censor (2021)
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So too, sadly, is the road to bad movies. I honestly do not believe anybody sets out to make a bad movie. Even deliberately silly direct-to-streaming efforts made famous … Continue reading REVIEW: The Almond and the Seahorse (2022)
10. Porridge (1974-1977) Ronnie Barker was one of the UK’s most outstanding comedic actors, and Porridge represents his personal master work. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it featured Barker as professional burglar Norman “Fletch” Fletcher, sentenced to five … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #10-1
20. Colditz (1972-1974) Major Pat Reid, imprisoned by the Germans during World War II, eventually wrote a successful memoir of his experiences as a prisoner-of-war, and that hugely successful book inspired the feature film The Colditz Story in 1955. Almost two decades … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #20-11
30. Wolf Hall (2015) The BBC do period drama like nobody’s business. Wolf Hall, broadcast in 2015 and based on the novels of the late Hilary Mantel, is one of the very best. Both books and series focused on Thomas Cromwell, first … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #30-21
40. All Creatures Great and Small (1978-1990) Veterinary surgeon Alf Wright, writing as James Herriot, had made a lucrative career out of a series of semi-fictionalised memoirs about caring for animals in the Yorkshire Dales. While his work had already … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #40-31
50. This Life (1996-2007)As the mid-1990s saw the United Kingdom succumb to the Britpop explosion, so television and film evolved to accommodate this new music-inspired craze for youth and drug culture. In 1996 audiences got Trainspotting in the movie theatres, … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #50-41
60. Challenge Anneka (1989-1995) This entertainment program was devised specifically as a vehicle for Anneka Rice, who had become very popular in the UK off the back of the Channel 4 game show Treasure Hunt. The concept was trialled in 1987 as … Continue reading 100 Years of the BBC: #60-51
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