Margaret Thatcher

Soldier Tony Tucker returns from the Falklands War; a bitter and angry man, he soon makes a name for himself in the Essex underworld with his security business and drug dealing, after entering a partnership with gangster Bernard O'Mahoney, his life spirals out of control in a cycle of drugs and violence. Things get even worse when he meets notorious hard man Pat Tate and local drug dealer Craig Rolfe, culminating in the Rettendon Range Rover murders of 1995.

An in-depth look at the iconic Scottish soccer player who led Liverpool Football Club to a slew of victories as both player and manager.

Legendary "bad boy of tennis" John McEnroe finally tells his side of his storied career and famously hot-tempered performances on the court in this engrossing documentary revisiting the record-setting career of one of the all-time greats.

The story of the extraordinary final chapter of Freddie Mercury’s life and how, after his death from AIDS, Queen staged one of the biggest concerts in history, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, to celebrate his life and challenge the prejudices around HIV/AIDS. For the first time, Freddie's story is told alongside the experiences of those who tested positive for HIV and lost loved ones during the same period. Medical practitioners, survivors, and human rights campaigners recount the intensity of living through the AIDS pandemic and the moral panic it brought about.

Konnie Huq celebrates the very best of British children’s television, with a dazzling array of clips from some of the most treasured programmes ever made and revealing chats with some of TV’s most beloved stars. But Konnie also tells a perhaps more surprising story: of how kids’ TV has frequently been at the forefront of social change, in terms of the stories it tells and the people who get to tell them.

No synopsis available yet.

Documentary telling the real story of the Cambridge Spies - subject of the drama series A Spy Among Friends.

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

When Bradford City FC met Lincoln City on 11 May 1985 for the final game of the season, what everyone hoped to remember was the carnival atmosphere in the stadium. But what happened at the end of a goalless first half was instead the stuff of nightmares.  A fire, believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette or match, engulfed one of the old wooden stands. 56 lives were lost, and the event made headlines around the world as the city and the nation struggled to confront the enormity of the loss to Bradford. The prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, travelled to the scene of the disaster as the media looked to someone to blame, and a senior judge was appointed to launch an inquiry. The findings would have a long-lasting impact on safety at football matches in Britain and around the world.  With access to survivors, family members of those lost and emergency service first responders, this film aims to relive a largely forgotten tragedy

This film sketches a very personal and decidedly political portrait of the Iron Lady who left the greatest mark on the UK, alongside Queen Elizabeth II. Archives and interviews are enriched by songs from this period that really help to understand the social atmosphere of that time.

Charting the recent advancements in weaponized communication by investigating the rise and fall of the world’s most notorious public relations and reputation management firm: the British multinational Bell Pottinger.

No synopsis available yet.

Edwina Currie, Matthew Parris and Ian Hislop lead a cast of politicians and journalists sharing personal memories of Cecil Parkinson and the scandal that ended his political ambitions – a secret affair with his secretary Sara Keays that lasted 12 years and would threaten the stability of the Conservative government. A story of power, politics and personal consequences.

Masha and Ilya were born around the time Vladimir Putin came to power. The girl and the boy, just like their friends, wanted to live in a free, democratic and open country. Fighting for freedom and their future, our heroes organise discussion clubs and protest actions, participate in pickets and give lectures, support their comrades who are behind bars, try to change the minds of their relatives, friends and ordinary passers-by in various Russian cities. "Moscow, come out!" shouts Masha at a rally. But Moscow does not come out, it is busy and in a hurry. The centuries-old machine of unfreedom sweeps the boys away. War breaks out. And we all find ourselves in another reality.

The Battle of Orgreave, recounted by those who lived through it, is contextualised through the history of the British mining union and a government that was hell-bent on breaking it.

On the 5th of March 1985, a crowd gathered in a South Yorkshire pit village to watch a sight none of them had seen in a year. The villagers, many of them in tears, cheered and clapped as the men of Grimethorpe Colliery marched back to work accompanied by the village’s world-famous brass band. The miners and their families had endured months of hardship. It had all been for nothing. The miners had lost the strike called on March 6th 1984. They would lose a lot more in the years to come. But was it a good thing for the country that the miners lost their last battle?

The extraordinary story behind acclaimed drama The Walk-In. Discover more about former fascist Matthew Collins and his mission to bring down Britain's far-right.

As a school dropout, the teenage John Major could simply never have dreamt that he would one day become a powerful political leader and get elected as Britain's Prime Minister. Major became Her Majesty's ninth Prime Minister.

Political strategist Dominic Cummings leads a popular but controversial campaign to convince British voters to leave the European Union from 2015 up until the present day.

The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.

A surprisingly candid behind-the-scenes account of the career of Ken Loach, one of Britain’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers, as he prepares to release his final major film I, Daniel Blake.

An account of the last two centuries of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. How human beings have progressed so much in such a short time through war and the selfish interests of a few, belligerent politicians and captains of industry, damaging the welfare of the majority of mankind, impoverishing the weakest, greedily devouring the limited resources of the Earth.

A look at the history of the comic book publication that launched such legendary characters as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Dolours Price, the infamous IRA radical convicted of bombing England's Old Bailey in 1973, granted a series of revealing interviews in 2010 on the strict condition of their posthumous release. The interviews, brought to life through vividly cinematic reenactments, uncover the birth of her fierce commitment to Irish Republicanism. Price revisits the bombing and the 200-day hunger strike that followed, and discusses her role in the disappearances of some suspected Republican informants. With 2018 marking the 20th anniversary since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and 50 years since the start of the Troubles, filmmaker Maurice Sweeney presents an eye-opening portrait of a once passionate, now disillusioned nationalist whose clarity of purpose both inspired allegiance and promised terror for so many.

A detailed investigation into the political and economic interests that, since the beginning of the 20th century, have pulled the strings of the arms trade, hidden in the shadows, feeding the shameful corruption of politicians and government officials and promoting a state of permanent war throughout the world, while they cynically asked for a lasting and universal peace.

A historical perspective to understand Neoliberalism and to understand why this ideology today so profoundly influences the choices of our governments and our lives.

A journey through Greece and Europe’s past and recent history: from the Second World War to the current crisis. It is a historical documentary, a look into many stories. «If Democracy can be destroyed in Greece, it can be destroyed throughout Europe» Paul Craig Roberts

This whimsical look at rough-and-tumble American politics examines the influence of money, religion and even ancient Rome on presidential campaigns.

A journey through the 1980s and beyond; the story of a band, an era and how one small gathering of outsiders in London shaped the entire world’s view of music and fashion. The film is not only a fascinating, often hard-hitting social and cultural document of the time, but a brutally honest story of how friendships can be won, lost and ultimately regained.

An uproarious critique of the world financial crisis. Building on actor, comedian, and provocateur Russell Brand’s emergence as an activist following his 2014 book Revolution, where he railed against “corporate tyranny, ecological irresponsibility, and economic inequality".

"England 79" - 17 scenes from Great Britain the winter of discontent, 1979.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, sits down with filmmaker Werner Herzog to discuss his many achievements. Topics include the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.

In 2017, twenty years after the British handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, young people, more politicized than any previous generation and proud of their land, do not feel Chinese and actively fight against the oligarchs who want to subdue them to China's authoritarian power.

With Britain's first-ever political leaders' television debate imminent, award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers what it's like to take part in these contests and how leaders try to win them. He tells the inside story of why it has taken so long for such debates to arrive in the UK. The programme features candid interviews with US Presidents and their advisers on the tricks of the debate trade. Blending new film and behind-the-scenes footage, some never seen before, it's a tragicomic tale of high politics and low cunning. From John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon through to Barack Obama, candidates are seen being prepared for their debates, then in the sometimes funny, sometimes disastrous results on live television. Cockerell shows why for our would-be next Prime Ministers - Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - the three debate stages across Britain will be what one former US President calls 'Tension City'.

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was openly shot to death on a February evening 1986 on the streets of Stockholm. In one night, the country of Sweden was transfigured. “Palme” is about his life, his time, and about the Sweden he had created. About a man who altered history.

Deng Xiaoping's economic and political opening in China. Margaret Thatcher's extreme economic measures in the United Kingdom. Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution in Iran. Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. Saddam Hussein's rise to power in Iraq. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The nuclear accident at the Harrisburg power plant and the birth of ecological activism. The year 1979, the beginning of the future.

Margaret Thatcher - The Iron Lady is the first major documentary to look back on the development and impact of this remarkable woman, whom commentators of both the political left and right agree changed the face of 20th Century politics forever. Featuring many excerpts from her powerful speeches and insightful contributions from her political supporters and detractors, a portrait emerges of a woman whose strength of conviction eventually becomes the weakness of intransigence.

Documentary that outlines the 1990s and the decade the changed the world.

Based on the story of Americas enigmatic career of one of the revered architects of the modern world - icon, screen star, and two-term president, Ronald Reagan.

Margaret Thatcher arrived in power and Britain changed forever. Her policies polarised the nation and the mention of her name still provokes feelings of both admiration and anger. This hour-long ITV special, presented by Alastair Stewart, looks at Baroness Thatcher's impact on Britain and the world before and during her time in Number 10 and the decades that followed.

The Swap is the third chapter of the PolEc Trilogy, comprising Wandering Marxwards (1998) and The Three Failures (2006). It features the same character as in the previous episodes, but now reduced to a lost, exhausted soul roaming Shanghai's cityscape from the remotest periphery to the financial district. Another narrative, spoken this one, takes us to September 2008, as gigantic bailouts put the financial system on life support instead of letting it collapse, thus seizing our reality and replacing it with a fiction tailored for the situation. These two streams end up meeting on a Shanghai dancefloor, where unresolved contradictions can finally be performed.

A radical film about a radical woman. Martin Durkin's controversial thesis is that Margaret Thatcher was a working class revolutionary. She believed that capitalism was in the interests of ordinary people, not the toffs. Many ordinary people agreed. And that is why the left hated her so much - Margaret Thatcher stole the working class. This feature-length film includes interviews with the Prime Minister, Norman Tebbit, Nigel Lawson, Cecil Parkinson, Neil Kinnock, Bernard Ingham and many others close to Mrs Thatcher.

An investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

A look at the story behind the bestiality tape ANIMAL FARM. From its production in early 70's Denmark, to when it was smuggled to the UK and distributed in 1981.

The film was produced by Nick Higgins from Lansdowne Productions and Noémie Mendelle from the Scottish Documentary Institute and has 10 film-chapter directors for each of the 10 chapters of the film. The film's unifying theme is human rights in Scotland with each chapter illustrating one of the "New Ten Commandments" - 10 articles chosen from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 10 film chapters of The New Ten Commandments 1. The Right to Freedom of Assembly - Dir, David Graham Scott 2. The Right not to be enslaved - Dir, Nick Higgins 3. The Right to a fair trial - Dir, Sana Bilgrami 4. The Right to freedom of expression - Dir, Doug Aubrey 5. The Right to life - Dir, Kenny Glenaan 6. The Right to liberty - Dir, Irvine Welsh & Mark Cousins 7. The Right not to be tortured - Dir, Douglas Gordon 8. The Right to asylum - Dir, Anna Jones 9. The Right to privacy - Dir, Alice Nelson 10. The Right to freedom of thought - Dir, Mark Cousins & Tilda Swinton.

A documentary about Spitting Image (1984) and the impact it had, including clips of the most memorable moments and contributions from many of the cast, crew and some of celebrities portrayed on the show.

Twenty years ago, Britain went to war - with itself. In March 1984, Mrs Thatcher's government announced plans to close 20 coal mines, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. The Miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, led his workers out on strike. What followed was the ultimate left verses right showdown, a colossal battle for the political heart of a nation, with an epoch-making, era-defining moment of social significance unparalleled since World War II. This feature length documentary tells the story of the year-long struggle that split friends, families and the country apart, led to shocking scenes of violence, and made many fear that George Orwell's nightmare vision of a police state was becoming a reality. After this war, Britain would never be the same again.

Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years. The film reveals who left office bankrupt, who did TV commercials for Cheshire cheese, who had his own chat show and who has never had a single happy day since leaving Number Ten. Cockerell, who met the eight PMs prior to Blair, looks at what Tony planned do next and just how many millions he could make from being an ex-PM.

Ronald Reagan said of his beloved Santa Barbara, California ranch, “No place before or since has ever given Nancy and me the joy and serenity it does.” President Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo, his home for nearly twenty-five years and the Western White House for eight, is a window into the soul of Ronald Reagan. But what if the Reagan Ranch had been lost? Future generations would have been robbed of the chance to visit the Ranch and “meet” the real Ronald Reagan. This videocassette is a tribute to the man and his ranch.

True story of the saga that was hoped to be the long-awaited justice brought to bear upon Augosto Pinochet, Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990. In September 1998, Pinochet flew to London on a pleasure trip but experienced back pain and underwent an operation in the London Clinic. Upon waking, he was arrested by Scotland Yard. Could it be that this was to become the first Latin American dictator to answer for crimes while serving as Head of State? After 500 days of house arrest, he nevertheless eventually returned unscathed to Chile, despite the compelling case built against him before & during this period by a young Spanish prosecutor, Carlos Castresana.

Michael Cockerell presents this documentary on the health problems of Britain's Prime Ministers.

A revealing one-off documentary that provides an inside view of how Tony Blair and former prime ministers - including Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and John Major - have run their cabinet, the highest decision-making body in the land. Through candid interviews, rare archive footage and filming inside No 10, presenter Michael Cockerell opens the door to the Government's own chamber of secrets as he seeks the answer to the question: is the notion of cabinet government an obsolete concept?

What was a cunning plan from Lord Edmund Blackadder V to fake a time machine on his gullibly incompetent friends, turns out to be the real thing and hurls him and his imbecile underling, Baldrick, through the course of human history.

The history of film and video censorship in Great Britain.

A film portrait of Former Conservative and Unionist Party Politician, Enoch Powell.

Whips pride themselves on their secrecy and discretion. Reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers their shadowy world and reveals how they operate. How close to reality is the fictional Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, in the drama series House of Cards? Government Whips can make or break ministers and ensure they know all the secrets of the private lives of their fellow MPs. One Tory MP claims that the Whips are a gestapo, but another says they are democracy's unsung heroes - as necessary for Parliament as sewers are for civilisation.

Broadcast live via satellite around the world on January 31, 1982, this special produced by the US International Communication Agency protesting the then recent imposition of martial law in Poland. Hosted by Charlton Heston, Max von Sydow, and Glenda Jackson, the program features multiple celebrity appearances, speeches by 21 world leaders, and several contributions Polish artists and intellectuals.

Ken Loach documentary, contrasting the 1982 Labour and Conservative Party conferences.

Rude Boy is a semi-documentary, part character study, part 'rockumentary', featuring a British punk band, The Clash. The script includes the story of a fictional fan juxtposed with actual public events of the day, including political demonstrations and Clash concerts.

Angela Huth reports about why English women dress as they do - and asks Mrs. Thatcher about her underwear.