A look back at the life and work of one of Britain's greatest comediennes, featuring interviews with those who worked alongside Victoria.
This Christmas the pupils of St Bernadette's and their much-loved, madcap teacher Mr. Poppy are back for their biggest adventure yet involving fantastic flashmobs, excitable elves, Christmas carols and of course Archie the donkey! When their new teacher Mr. Shepherd loses his memory and forgets all about Christmas, as well as his fiancée Sophie and the whereabouts of the beloved Archie, it's up to the pupils of St Bernadette's to save the day. Led by the ever enthusiastic Mr Poppy, they embark on a Christmas journey like never before - but time is against them if they are to help Mr Shepherd get to New York in time for his magical yuletide wedding!
A Psammead is 'It', an ancient, irritable, ugly sand fairy, which five children find one day in a gravel pit. As a reward for finding him, It grants the children one wish a day, the results of which will last until sunset.
Forty-five-year-old Adrian has been living with his mother Lucy and running their Wiltshire dairy farm all his adult life. When Lucy unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, a rogue's gallery of family members show up at the farm to argue over the execution of Ruth's will. The one object that everyone seems to want, and several people try to steal, is Ruth's valuable Modigliani painting. In the midst of all this confusion over Ruth's death, a mysterious visitor named Ilaria inserts herself onto the scene and has a surprising effect on those gathered.
Unexpected events occur when Pat, a glamorous British-born star of American soaps, returns home to plug her auto-biography on television and meets, for the first time since they were teenagers, Margaret her plain and frumpy younger sister. The meeting is painful for both women highlighting the vast differences in their lives and resurrecting painful memories of their unhappy childhood with an uncaring, errant mother. The tabloid press smell a juicy story and a race ensues to trace the whereabouts of the long lost parent.
A television comedy special broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day 1992. Sketches, stand-up comedy and songs combine to create the latest daytime show to be hosted by a popular husband-and-wife team. There are tips on female problems like seriously split ends, calorie reports, keep-fit with Jolly Polly, Agony Uncle Gerard's phone-in and Britain's first four times daily soap, set in a cosy corner of a shopping mall.
Gerald and Susannah, an affluent young couple, inspect a shabby town house for sale. Gerald has plans to renovate it and sell it on for a big profit. But their expedition quickly turns into a nightmare when three criminals arrive, searching for the money they hid in the building years ago.
Buddy (1986) is a BBC schools drama, based on the novel of the same name by Nigel Hinton. It was shown as part of the social studies strand. It starred Wayne Goddard as Buddy Clark, a teenager dealing with various life problems, Roger Daltrey as his father Terry and pupils from the Cavendish School in Eastbourne. Daltrey reprised his role in the 1991 film Buddy's Song with Chesney Hawkes as Buddy.
Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed.
Macbeth is a 1978 videotaped version of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play by William Shakespeare. Produced by Thames Television, it features Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth. The TV version was directed by Philip Casson. The original stage production was performed at The Other Place, the RSC's small studio theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It had been performed in the round before small audiences, with a bare stage and simple costuming. The recording preserves this style: the actors perform on a circular set and with a mostly black background changes of setting are indicated only by lighting changes.