Arthur Lowe

Terry Wogan presents a compilation programme celebrating the unique talent of Arthur Lowe. Featuring interviews with those who knew him, and footage from both his classic comedy performances and his many straight roles.

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

William McClusky (Sam Waterston) is a dashing and eccentric Scotsman whose charms rapidly overwhelm the sweet and naive Ann Walton (Jenny Agutter), but she nearly as quickly begins to comprehend that her new beau is anything but a one-woman man. In addition to his two ex-wives, with whom he remains remarkably close, William exhibits a disturbing attraction for nearly any female who crosses his path -- Ann's friends among them.

Composed of three shorts – Ride of the Valkyrie, The White Bus, and Red and Blue – from three of Britain’s most-celebrated directors - Lindsay Anderson, Peter Brook, and Tony Richardson. Comic legend Zero Mostel stars as an opera singer (in full costume) navigating the London transport network as he attempts to reach Covent Garden in 'Ride of the Valkyrie'. Scripted by Shelagh Delaney, 'The White Bus' blends realism, drama, and poetry as a despondent young woman travels home to the North of England. And Vanessa Redgrave stars in Tony Richardson’s romantic reverie and musical featurette 'Red and Blue'. Produced in 1967, but ultimately shelved.

Classic short British comedy, full of stars, about two workmen delivering planks to a building site. This is done with music and a sort of "wordless dialogue" which consists of a few mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion. TV remake of the 1967 short.

On the eve of World War II, zany heiress Amanda Kelly travels by train to Switzerland. While passing through Germany, she meets a sweet elderly lady, who suddenly vanishes. Distraught, she questions her fellow passengers who claim that the woman was never there. Unsure if it's all in her mind or if there's a more sinister plot afoot, Amanda teams up with photographer Robert Condon to discover the truth.

A young man becomes infatuated with the exotic Lady Pitts whose much older husband is not pleased.

A humorous look at the preparation and writing of reports. Details the essential elements of good report writing. Intended for management in industry, commerce and public service. This film features Jeff Rawle as the young employee and Arthur Lowe as his boss (and some other characters as well).

John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, he only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.

Recruited by the Russians during their days at Cambridge, three young Englishmen rise to become high-ranked MI5 agents until their exposure in 1949.

Another stab at Henry Fielding's hilarious novel about the amorous misadventures of a dashing young man in 18th century England. The brilliant 1963 version, starring Albert Finney as the lusty hero, won four Oscars. Joan Collins does a great job as a Wicked Lady style highwaywoman.

An unscrupulous property developer wants to flatten the street to make way for new buildings.Householder George Roper is happy to take the offered money and run but his wife Mildred and their lodgers join with other residents to take a stand and keep things as they are, finally winning the day

A porn-store owner orders some new stuff from his supplier, but the delivery address gets mixed with the address of the local Barclays Bank. Here, David (the bank's assistant manager) and his new wife are shocked when photos, then films and finally two girls are sent to them in their bank-supplied flat. They and the banks' head cashier then hatch a plan to get rid of the porn—without letting their boss, the local police and David's mother in on what is happening.

London, 1940. Aspiring jazz musician and future comedy legend Terence "Spike" Milligan reluctantly obeys his call-up and joins the Royal Artillery regiment at Bexhill, where he begins training to take part in the War. But along the way Spike and his friends get involved in many amusing - and some not-so amusing - scrapes. A film adaptation of the first volume of Spike Milligan's war diaries.

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.

A Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition.

When the Earl of Gurney dies in a cross-dressing accident, his schizophrenic son, Jack, inherits the Gurney estate. Jack is not the average nobleman; he sings and dances across the estate and thinks he is Jesus reincarnated. Believing that Jack is mentally unfit to own the estate, the Gurney family plots to steal Jack's inheritance. As their outrageous schemes fail, the family strives to cure Jack of his bizarre behavior, with disastrous results.

Dad's Army was a 1971 feature film based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Directed by Norman Cohen, it was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series. The film told the story of the Home Guard platoon's formation and their subsequent endeavours at a training exercise.

Three workmen assigned to dig a hole in a road for an electrical cable run into problems with local officials who believe the hole is being dug in the wrong place and should be closer to the home of a prissy fashion designer.

Fresh-faced young Michael Rimmer worms his way into an opinion poll company and is soon running the place. He uses this as a springboard to get into politics and in the mini-skirted flared-trousered world of 1970 Britain starts to rise through the Tory ranks.

A stern father and lenient mother try to deal with the ups and downs of their four children's lives in working class Bolton.

A reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt.

Four people go to great lengths to obtain the fortune left in a will by a very wealthy practical joker.

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

A fading seaside resort attempt to revive its fortunes with a summer show.

In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. But three Lower Sixth students, leader Mick Travis, Wallace and Johnny decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.

Follows the creation of Lindsay Anderson's The White Bus (1968), from pre-production to the shoot and in post.

A despondent young woman travels home to the North of England.

A motley group of soldiers are set loose on swinging England in an initiative test to collect a selection of esoteric items

When developer John Goggin plans to build a civic center, only Emma Mannering's corset shop stands in the way, and she refuses to sell, so he sends his unscrupulous assistant Ed Crayshaw to "fix" things, but instead, he's double-crossed.

In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by local employer Weaver.

A gang of aspiring bank robbers involve themselves with arsonists and purchase their very own fire truck in an attempt to create the ultimate diversion. But posing as firemen leads them to disaster.

London at the turn of the century. Three men is on a mission from the IRA to steal all the gold in the vaults of the Bank of England. Norgate, their leader, discovers the bank's weak spot: an old forgotten sewer straight under the vaults.

Against the wishes of his domineering mother, Albert Stokes attends a work party. But the evening is not the escape he was hoping for.

After murdering his lover, cross-channel swimmer Joy Webster, Derek Bond attempts to do same to her other boyfriend, Sheldon Lawrence. John Ireland plays an Interpol detective who stems Bond's homicidal hijinks. Black Tide was produced by Monty Berman in his pre-Saint days.

US Army Officer Dan Adams, blinded during the war, is framed for a diamond smuggling rap. Upon regaining his sight, Adams goes after the real thieves in an effort to clear his name. In order to trap the wily criminals, Adams pretends that he's still bereft of his vision.

A vacationing journalist investigates the mysterious death of a composer and debunks the theory that it was suicide.

A reporter tries to prove that his wife is not responsible for the murder of a famous newspaper columnist.

Unknown to everyone but his shady Middle Eastern bosses, watchmaker Hawkins is actually a professional hired assassin with a predilection for killing his targets with bombs. After disposing of a dictator and millionaire, Hawkins is assigned to kill a politician who is heading to a remote hotel, The Green Man, for a secret tryst with his secretary. There, however, Hawkins' plot is discovered by vacuum salesman William Blake, who determines to stop him.

When Johnny Matlock whisks away a cold war secret from under the noses of Berlin's top secret agents, his every move is followed when he returns to England. His girlfriend Paula is kidnapped but her handbag is discovered at the scene of the crime by the aristocratic private eye, Duke Martin. Inside it he discovers the secret formula that the agents are searching for and tracks down her sister Paula. As Johnny grows frantic for the safe return of his girlfriend, Duke Martin plays a deadly game of double bluff with the enemy agents.

This movie debut for saucy British TV comic Benny Hill has Benny leaving his job as a sweeper after winning some money. He becomes a private detective and investigates a plot to assassinate British scientists.

A tragedy played in standard cops and robbers costume. A policeman faced with deep moral choices finds that once he's set foot on the path of corruption he is trapped by an ever more complex web of lies and intrigue. A lifetime of personal honour is at stake and we wonder if redemption is possible.

A money-to-burn and girl-chasing Texas oilman, and a sensitive, dignified entomologist find themselves in charge of a brood of wild kids whose parents, both famous explorers, are reported lost while on an African safari.

A pair of reporters try to discover the link between three unsolved, seemingly isolated murders. The only connection between them is they all took place on the same day in three successive years. The police don't trust their instincts - but as 10th July nears again, a solicitor has started receiving threatening letters...

Based on a short gothic horror story “Markheim” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

A young woman, Judith Moray, deserts her prospective fiance, the nice doctor Alan Kearn, for an old flame, the dashing but roguish former wing commander Bill Glennan. Glennan makes her pregnant and marries her, but leaves her on the morning after the wedding when he learns that her father can't offer him financial support. Two years later she - having been told that Glennan is dead - has married Kearn and borne him a son. But then Glennan suddenly reappears and begins to blackmail her.

"The Spider and the Fly is set in Paris during the cloud-cuckoo days before WW I. The storyline intertwines the destinies of three people. Guy Rolfe plays Phillipe de Ledocq, a resourceful safecracker who always manages to elude arrest. Eric Portman is cast as police-chief Maubert, who will not rest until Ledocq is behind bars. And Nadia Gray is Madeleine, the woman beloved by both Ledocq and Maubert. Just as Maubert has managed to capture his man, Ledocq is released at the behest of the government, who wants him to steal secrets from the German embassy revealing the whereabouts of the Kaiser's secret agents. And just how does Madeleine figure into all of this? Spider and the Fly is a diverting precursor to the 1960s TV series It Takes a Thief." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.

A young woman leaves her backwards hometown to go to London to find a runaway suitor. What she doesn't know is that she has inherited a strange ability; if she's in the vicinity of a machine for more than fifteen minutes, it stops working.