Schoolteacher John Scopes is placed under close arrest for advocating Darwin's theory of evolution to his pupils in violation of a stifling Tennessee law banning anything that 'denies the divine creation of man as taught by the Bible'. The case is taken up by a cynical newspaper-man who takes an interest when the champion of the Fundamentalists and three-time presidential candidate is named prosecutor. A fascinating and absorbing dramatisation of the famous 1925 'Monkey Trial'. find out more...

When Nicholas Nickleby's father dies and leaves his family destitute, his uncle, the greedy moneylender, Ralph Nickleby, finds Nicholas a job teaching in a repulsive school in Yorkshire. Nicholas flees the school taking with him one of the persecuted boys, Smike, and they join a troop of actors. Nicholas then has to protect Smike, while trying to stop his Uncle Ralph taking advantage of his sister Kate, and later his sweetheart, Madeline Bray, whose father is in debtors' prison. For a director w find out more...

After the death of his financially replete father, Nicholas Nickleby and his family travel to London to seek assistance from his father's older brother Ralph. Taking an immediate dislike to his nephew, Ralph employs Nicholas under the sadistic Mr Wackford Squeers and his interminable wife, owners of a boys' school in northern England. In the meantime, Ralph seeks to use Nicholas's beautiful sister Kate as a ploy to influence his investors. Discourse forces Nicholas to flee the school with the cr find out more...

One of two classic Lean adaptations of Charles Dickens. From the opening shot of Oliver's mother struggling through the snow to reach the workhouse. The film brilliantly recreates the feeling of poverty-stricken Victorian England. Look out in particular for Alec Guinness' superb performance as Fagin. find out more...

Dickens' classic tale of the young orphan boy, picking a pocket or two and struggling to survive in the seedy underbelly of 19th Century London is gloriously brought to life by Polanski. Oliver is a visual feast without doubt; the only question is quite why a director like Polanski has remained so rigidly within the original framework of the book, particularly when David Lean did such an exemplary adaptation over half a century earlier. find out more...

Gentle drama in the best British tradition. Classics master Finney is coming to the end of his career at a public boy's school, only to realise that his years of devotion have made absolutely no impression on his young charges, while his wife has been knocking off one of his colleagues. An excellent performance from Finney. find out more...

Superb adaptation of Graham Swift's novel about growing up in the poverty stricken, primitive, rural Fenland. Irons is peerless as the ageing and troubled history teacher, disillusioned as his students with dry facts and figures, taking them on a field trip though his personal history re-exploring his marriage to his childhood love and the often tragic experiences that befell them. Brilliant and moving. find out more...