James Bolam

Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in.

A psychological romantic drama about teenage twins Owen and Kristen who fall under the sway of a charismatic young loan shark who offers love to one of them but on one condition.

The heads of Wall Street's biggest investment banks were summoned to an evening meeting by the US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, to discuss the plight of another - Lehman Brothers. After six months' turmoil in the world's financial markets, Lehman Brothers was on life support and the government was about to pull the plug. Lehman CEO, Dick Fuld, recently sidelined in a boardroom coup, spends the weekend desperately trying to resuscitate his beloved company through a merger with Bank of America or UK-based Barclays. But without the financial support of Paulson and Lehman's fiercest competitors, Fuld's empire - and with it, the stability of the world economy - teeters on the verge of extinction.

All the action takes place in a swish London restaurant where two coarse-grained strategy consultants are dining with their respective wives. At an adjacent table a banker and his wife banter over his recently discovered affair. But while Pinter gets a lot of laughs out of these gold-plated philistines, he also suggests they are displaced people. Shorn of any inherited values, they live in an eternal present of sex, food and conspicuous consumption. - Michael Billington, Guardian

This compelling drama/documentary details the events leading up to, and surrounding the resignation of Harold Wilson as Prime Minister in 1976.

A recounting of the relationship between General Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, as they try to cope with the consequences of deposing King Charles I.

James Bolam portrays serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman in this made-for-TV drama. The film follows the story of Shipman, a general practitioner who throughout his career is believed to have killed as many as 250 of his patients. When the high death rate of his practice was investigated, it was discovered that he had given lethal doses of diamorphine to a vast number of his patients. He was put on trial where he was convicted of 15 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests.

An ex-con gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Martin Clunes plays Edward, an English tutor at an Oxford language school. Seemingly charming and thoughtful, Edward is really a calculating liar and manipulator. A series of events triggered at a dinner party leads Edward down a very precarious and hilarious path.

On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.

A look at the history of this legendary manager

When an absorbing new manuscript finds its way across his desk, Marcus Walwyn (Gideon Turner), an impressionable young publisher, befriends the book's author (Peter Davison) and suddenly has trouble leaving his work at the office. Intrigued by the volume's step-by-step instructions on how to stalk and murder an unsuspecting victim, Marcus grows obsessed with becoming an expert. This made-for-television drama is based on the book by M.S. Power.

A young Glaswegian prostitute in London tries to start a new life.

Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.

When Dorset postman Clive Peacock is forced into early retirement, the years ahead look bleak. But on his last day in the job, in a moment of unexpected rebellion he makes a decision that will change his life. As he makes his final collection from the postbox in the small seaside town where he lives, he decides to deliver the letters himself, by hand, no matter the destination. Mounting his trusty bicycle, he sets off on what proves to be an odyssey of self-discovery. Pursued by the police and lionised by the media, Clive becomes both a fugitive and a reluctant hero.

A curtain raiser for the 1995-6 football season and a state of the Premiership comedy drama about the corrupt world of football. Sir Bob is a football club chairman and megalomaniac. As the season draws to a climax his club are staring into the abyss of relegation. Can new manager Ted save City from the drop?

When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.

It's a big night at the New Dragon Inn when a coach of distinguished Germans arrives. But disaster looms - it's the local cricket team's annual fancy dress bash and the theme is the Second World War.

Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop there, and things supernatural combine to bring the Macbeths down.

A couple move to a country estate that turns out to be haunted.

Directed by Mohamed Shukri Jameel.

Two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, stuggle to survive in the countryside after escaping from an animal research laboratory. They are pursued by search parties and then the military after rumors spread that they could be carrying the bubonic plague.

Orlando is forced to work like a servant for his brother Oliver, so he goes to win his fortune in a wrestling contest, where he meets a lady of the court, Rosalind. Rosalind (daughter of the deposed duke) is companion to Celia, niece of the deposed Duke, and when the current duke banishes Rosalind from the kingdom, she, Celia, the court jester (and incidentally Orlando) all end up in the forest or Arden, where the deposed Duke holds court. Romantic mixups, cross-dressing, love poems nailed to trees, and a lion await them all.

With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair them off for good via planning first a dinner party and then that mainstay of 70s comedy, a camping expedition. Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and before you can say ‘I can see the way this is going’ we are set up for japes, larks and embarrassing incidents aplenty, which culminate in the lads getting rather fed up with their partners’ attempts to inflict the rugged outdoor lifestyle upon them and trying to hitch up and drive off with the girls still asleep in the caravan.

The original play by Christopher Hampton, was adapted into this made-for-TV movie and it offers witty dialogue in the midst of remarkable conflict among its privileged characters.

In a Yorkshire mining town, three educated brothers return to their blue-collar home to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents, but dark secrets come to the fore.

They no longer live together because, after 11 years, the marriage is over. They're both agreed on that. So why is she always turning up to see him at the most embarrassing times? And why doesn't he feel inclined to send her away?

This sprawling, surrealist comedy serves as an allegory for the pitfalls of capitalism, as it follows the adventures of a young coffee salesman in modern Britain.

Brenda moved to London to begin living those intoxicated fantasies that all young women imagine city life to offer. Soon after her arrival she begins a relationship with Peter with whom she is tremendously happy. When she becomes pregnant Peter's behaviour towards her alters as he reveals the most frightening and unpredictable side of his personality. He forces Brenda to listen to a series of recordings, exposing a past of shocking cruelty of sadistic murder.

An obsessed sculptor kills a young women to make a perfect bronze sculpture of her. Years later at his secluded home a number of people become trapped in a web of revenge, murder and horror.

A petty crook finds himself mistaken for a murderer and a secret agent.

The joyous screen version of the Broadway and London musical hit. "If I had the money, I'd buy me a banjo!" says struggling sales clerk Arthur Kipps. Soon he'll inherit enough to buy a whole bloomin' orchestra. But can his newfound wealth buy happiness? Multi-talented Steele brings his London and New York stage smash to the screen in this big, cheerful tune-filled production based on H.G. Wells' charming novel "Kipps."

A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his innocence. Once again she begins her own investigation.

A rebellious youth sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as a prized athlete.

Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.

As Vic Brown vacillates between infatuation and disinterest for his co-worker Ingrid Rothwell, she finds out that she is pregnant and Vic has to reconcile how he thought his life would go with what life actually has in store for him.

In the business end of a kitchen, a polyglot staff strives to cope with a superhuman task. A microcosm of the world, the kitchen looms around and encloses its workers; they include Peter, the German cook, who is in love with waitress Monica, and constantly asks her to leave her husband. The pressure of the day becomes unendurable, and when Peter realises that Monica does not mean to divorce her husband his grief and pain cause him to run berserk!