Winner of four Oscars, this film is shot with the most beautifully scenic backgrounds and with great attention to costume detail. An Irish adventurer, Barry Lyndon, crosses Europe from woman to job, but in the end returns to Britain seeking a wealthy marriage. find out more...

A warrior and not a politician, Coriolanus found the citizens of Rome turning against him. As he sought to wreak his anger on the city, it was left to his mother to prevent a bloody battle. A compelling study of family, loyalty, war and politics, and an acclaimed production well-served by an experienced cast. Being from the BBC stable it can be relied on as a top notch and faithful version of the play. find out more...

David Lean's epic romance set against the turbulant backdrop of the Russian revolution. One man's struggle for moral political and personal survival amidst the complex web of intrigue and tangled loyalties that accompanied the fall of the Tsar.

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Robert Jordan is an idealist and with his skills as a demolition expert he finds himself with the opportunity to marry both by helping the anti-fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Amongst the band of freedom fighters Robert joins is Maria, an innocent but impassioned and beautiful young woman. As the group draw towards their ultimate mission so Robert and Maria's friendship develops into something far deeper, intensified by their uncertain fate. For The Whom the Bell Tolls was showered with O find out more...

Not the Kenneth Branagh version nor Olivier's but one that compares reasonably neverthess - and a more faithful rendering at that! Probably the most useful for the purposes of study. find out more...

One of the BBC's typically exemplary adaptation of one of the great Bard's works performed by pretty much the cream of British theatre. It is the first in the cycle of four plays often referred to as "The Wars of the Roses". find out more...

One of the BBC's typically exemplary adaptation of one of the great Bard's works performed by pretty much the cream of British theatre. It is the third in the cycle of four plays often referred to as "The Wars of the Roses". find out more...

One of the BBC's typically exemplary adaptation of one of the great Bard's works performed by pretty much the cream of British theatre. It is the second in the cycle of four plays often referred to as "The Wars of the Roses". find out more...

Ran, Kurosawa's last great epic, is a Jidaigeki (Japanese period drama) depicting the fall of Hidetora Ichimonj, an ageing Sengoku-era warlord who abdicates as ruler in favor of his three sons. His kingdom slowly disintegrates as the sons struggle for power, murdering rivals and laying waste to the land, and Hidetora goes insane after watching his retainers slaughtered in an epic massacre, the centrepiece of the film. As the kingdom crumbles and rival warlords move in for the kill, the Ichimonji find out more...

The BBC's exhaustive and typically exemplary adaptations of some of the great bard's best known plays and a number of his lesser known works. All filmed between the late 1970s and early 1980s and performed by pretty much the cream of British theatre. find out more...