Bill Douglas

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

Two Britons—inventor Hengist Pod, and Horse, a brave and cunning fighter—are captured and enslaved by invading Romans and taken to Rome. One of their first encounters in Rome leaves Hengist being mistaken for a fighter, and gets drafted into the Royal Guard to protect Julius Caesar.

The story of the extraordinary friendship between Scottish film maker Bill Douglas and his lifelong companion and collaborator Peter Jewell. Bill Douglas was Scotland’s finest director, celebrated by the likes of Lynne Ramsay, Lenny Abrahamson, Satajit Ray and Yuliya Solntseva. Bill’s life was turned around in the Egyptian desert when during National Service he met the man who would become his lifelong friend, Peter Jewell. The two men had very different backgrounds but they formed a unique bond that channelled a tremendous creative energy. In this film Peter reminisces about the life he shared with Bill in their tiny Soho flat filled with cinema memorabilia. Their shared love of the movies lead them to start experimenting with an 8mm camera. Peter’s memories and musings about the legacy Bill left behind are illustrated with these never-before-seen short films.

The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.

Celebrated filmmaker Bill Douglas’s early student short follows two men who meet in a cafe on a Southend pier. Glances, body language and very brief snatches of lewd dialogue suggest a pick-up, but the atmosphere soon darkens and events take an unexpected twist.

Early 8mm silent short by Bill Douglas.

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.

The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.

The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.

Celebrated filmmaker Bill Douglas’s early student short follows two men who meet in a cafe on a Southend pier. Glances, body language and very brief snatches of lewd dialogue suggest a pick-up, but the atmosphere soon darkens and events take an unexpected twist.

Celebrated filmmaker Bill Douglas’s early student short follows two men who meet in a cafe on a Southend pier. Glances, body language and very brief snatches of lewd dialogue suggest a pick-up, but the atmosphere soon darkens and events take an unexpected twist.

Early 8mm silent short by Bill Douglas.

A rare “talkie” displaying Bill’s gift for dialogue, Small World is a comedy of manners about two married couples who meet by chance at an outdoor café and think they have met before.

Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.

Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.

Early 8mm silent short by Bill Douglas.

A young woman runs to catch the last post with her weekly pools coupon, whilst imagining a more glamorous life for herself.

An elderly woman is admitted to an asylum and all her possessions are removed by the council. The idea came from Peter Jewell, who was working as a social worker at the time, but is reminiscent of Bill's own family history.

Displaying the cinematic influence of Bunuel and Cocteau, and inspired by a short story by French writer JMG Le Clézio, Bill’s most experimental short depicts a psychiatric patient who travels to Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, to warn anyone who will listen about the impending nuclear holocaust.

When Jamie's maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated - Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.

When Jamie's maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated - Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.

Early 8mm silent short by Bill Douglas.

The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.

The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.

A Hitchcockian psychodrama about an introverted man who pursues a woman with whom he becomes obsessed, demonstrating Bill’s improving grasp of advanced film language.

A young boy away at boarding school struggles when his mother and father split up.

Playing with the tropes of the spy genre, The Water Cress File charts the progress of a mysterious briefcase, passed between several characters on the streets of Soho and, in a metaphysical flourish, into a film showing in the Pavilion cinema.

Set in the Necropolis graveyard, Glasgow. A comic and magical tale about the meaning of life and a hunt for a missing diamond ring. An ex-B movie starlet and her daughter search for the ring, lost many years ago whilst the mother was making love with a travelling salesman. Their antics are observed by a small boy who is spending the day with his Grandfather, the custodian of the graveyard. As the story unfolds, the day at the graveyard moves from comedy and tragedy to magic, fantasy and resurrection