John McGrath

In their songs, comedy and exuberant music, a travelling theatre company give a fiercely polemic account of Scottish history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the oil boom. Their production before a live audience is intercut with filmed reconstructions of the Highland Clearances and the Victorian obsession with hunting stags.

imagine... tells the story of Aviva Studios, Manchester’s colossal new cultural venue, and goes behind the scenes at the world premiere of its opening production, Free Your Mind.

Peter Watkins recounts the short-lived, happy period making his classic documentary Culloden and discusses, as he sees it, the tragic decline television has taken since it was made.

A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom?

The Swashbuckling legend of Robin Hood unfolds in the 12th century when the mighty Normans ruled England with an iron fist.

In the first part, The Compartment, an insane man boards a quiet railway coach and starts to annoy a patient man trying to read a paper with incessant small talk in an increasingly menacing manner until he finally pulls out a gun and screaming class hatred bile, humiliates the man until his stop is reached. In part two, Playmates, he breaks into a lonely house and proceeds to terrorise a spinster woman who lives there.

Michael Marler, a successful businessman in London, is about to make his way to the top. After 37 years, the death of his father brings him back to his hometown of Liverpool, where he’s confronted with his lost Irish roots. He finds out that his father died in a fight with some Anglo-Saxon teddy boys. It becomes a matter of honour for him to take his revenge without involving the police.

FADE TO BLACK follows the history of movie theatres in and around Kansas City. From its humble beginnings as family-owned single screens in the early 20th century to the large multiplexes of today. Theatre owners have overcome technological advances in entertainment but can they overcome a pandemic and a wearing public.

The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscripted soldier named Private Brigg, a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll, and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency.

In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.

A national service NCO (David Warner) comes face to face with an embittered Irish Gunner (Nicol Williamson) who is determined to humiliate him.

In their songs, comedy and exuberant music, a travelling theatre company give a fiercely polemic account of Scottish history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the oil boom. Their production before a live audience is intercut with filmed reconstructions of the Highland Clearances and the Victorian obsession with hunting stags.

Painter Dora Carrington develops an intimate but extremely complex bond with writer Lytton Strachey. Though Lytton is a homosexual, he is enchanted by the mysterious Dora and they begin a lifelong friendship that has strangely romantic undertones. Eventually, Lytton and Dora decide to live together, despite the fact that the latter has fallen in love with military man Ralph Partridge, whom she plans to marry.

An elderly woman learns that she is dying of cancer. She and her husband leave their small farm on the Isle of Skye to visit their children to inform them of the news. During the journey, the couple rediscover their love for each other.

In 1871, 'tired of the speakers of English', Mairi Mhor began writing resistance songs in Gaelic, protesting at the displacement of the Scottish Highland and Island folk by the Southern landlords. Unjustly imprisoned in Inverness at the age of 51, she expresses her anger in song, discovering a talent for music; these songs became central to the identity of the region and are still sung today. The achingly beautiful landscape of Skye, and the music it inspired, provide a haunting canvas for this valuable piece of historical research.

A woman looks back on her life as a political activist in Scotland from the 1950s to the 1970s.

A woman looks back on her life as a political activist in Scotland from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.

Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Saturday 12th December 1964 - as part of the 'Six' strand.

A young couple have a baby boy. However, the new father doesn't take to his new position quite as well as expected.

In his further adventures Frank finds success and unhappiness.

In his further adventures Frank finds success and unhappiness.

A frank dialogue on sexual likes and dislikes that place between a man and his mistress in bed together.

A dramatized account of the Scott Inquiry about the sales of arms to Iraq.

A dramatized account of the Scott Inquiry about the sales of arms to Iraq.

The story of a long love affair is told from three different viewpoints.

The story of a long love affair is told from three different viewpoints.