Mel Smith

Mel Smith: I've Done Some Things

A tribute to British comedian Mel Smith, who died in July 2013, aged 60, featuring home video footage, rare archive material and many classic sketches. Far more than a comic actor, Smith also wrote and edited a host of celebrated TV comedies in the 1980s and 90s. He was a theatre and film director, and as a TV producer he was responsible for several innovative comedy series. Friends and colleagues, including Griff Rhys Jones, John Lloyd and Richard Curtis, talk about Smith's talents, both in front of- and behind the camera. The programme also traces his time at Oxford and, before that, Latymer Upper School, where Smith's talents were first spotted.

My Angel

Fifteen year old Eddie's mother falls very ill after a serious car accident. Eddie and his brother Stewart end up having to take care of themselves and one night when they have ran out of food and electricity, Eddie dreams that his mother asks him to find an angel's halo so that she can be saved. Will Eddie be able to save his mother in time for Christmas?

Rock & Chips

Prequel to Only Fools and Horses, set in the 1960s. Joan Trotter is in an unhappy marriage with the work-shy Reg, with whom she has a teenage son, Derek ('Del Boy'). However, the reappearance in Peckham of bank robber, 'art connoisseur' and womaniser Freddie Robdal, recently released after a ten year prison sentence, would bring about changes in her life.

Not Again: Not the Nine O'Clock News

A look behind the scenes of satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News.

The Riddle

A journalist investigates a series of murders that follows the discovery of an unpublished novel by Charles Dickens in the cellar of an old Thames pub.

Consenting Adults

Fifty years ago, a Home Office committee chaired by Wolfenden, then vice-chancellor of Reading University, recommended the decriminalization of homosexuality. But behind the scenes of what was to become a turning point in British social history, there was an even more extraordinary story. Jack's son Jeremy, then a brilliant undergraduate at Oxford, was himself gay, something his father could not bring himself to acknowledge.

The Best of Not The Nine O'Clock News

Attention, comedy fans: NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is the real thing. This is scathing, no-holds-barred Brit humor at its best. Rapid-fire skits starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) are as politically incorrect as they are side-bustingly funny, sparing no one as they take on the British Royal Family, Margaret Thatcher, Scotland Yard, country music, Christianity, devil worship, punk rock and bathroom etiquette. NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is so irreverent that when the pilot was due to air in April 1979, the BBC cancelled it due to its incendiary political content. When at last it aired, the greatest comedy group to hit England since Monty Python's Flying Circus stormed the airwaves and revolutionized British and American television alike. Discover the show that set the standard for the anarchic cynicism that defined the alternative comedy of the 80's.

Blackball

Blackball follows the fortunes of Cliff Starkey, a working-class fine of lawn bowls with an exceptional talent. Wanting to take on the Aussies he manages to become regional champion, only to get banned. Sports agent Rich Schwartz picks him up and makes him so popular the Bowls Committee deem to lift the ban. Now the question is whether he can regain his form and his friends to beat the Aussies.

Peter Cook: At a Slight Angle to the Universe

TV documentary tracing the life of the comedian and satirist from his school days, through the Cambridge Footlights, to Beyond the Fringe and his partnership with Dudley Moore. With contributions from Cook's school friends Peter Rabey and Jonathan Harlow; Cook's first wife Wendy Cook; Cambridge University friends Tim Harrold and Roger Law; Adrian Slade (ex-president of Cambridge Footlights); Jonathan Miller; Sir David Frost; Ned Sherrin; John Bassett (creator, Beyond The Fringe); Willie Donaldson (producer, Beyond The Fringe); John Cleese; Eric Idle; Michael Parkinson; Brenda Vaccaro; John Fortune; Nicholas Luard (co-owner with Cook of The Establishment club); actress Gaye Brown; Christopher Booker; Ian Hislop; Victor Lownes and Michael Bawtree (friends of Cook); Joe McGrath; Dick Clement; Mel Smith; Clive Anderson; tv producer and executive Paul Jackson; Harry Enfield, radio presenter Clive Bull, and archival interview footage of both Cook and Dudley Moore.

High Heels and Low Lifes

A nurse eavesdrops with a friend on a cell phone conversation that describes a bank heist. She and the friend then conspire to blackmail the robbers for $2 million.

The Story of Bean

Pending release of the movie "Bean," Rowan Atkinson reflects on his comedy career and reveals how his comic creation Mr Bean evolved. This 1997 documentary includes career clips as well as interviews with Atkinson, writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, British comedians Lenny Henry and Mel Smith and movie celebrities Jeff Goldblum and Burt Reynolds.

Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.

Some Interesting Facts About Peter Cook

A documentary about the life of British satirist and founder of 'Private Eye' Peter Cook.

Milner

Stephen Milner is a solicitor, but he fits uneasily into the world of Lewis Strange and Partners, who are an upmarket firm of solicitors. The film follows Milner's fraught relationship with a lucrative client, Ron Jesson. When one of his offices goes up in flames, the press are convinced that Ron arranged the fire for insurance purposes. Milner also has to cope with an estranged wife, batty mother and debt ridden younger brother.

Smith & Jones - One Night Stand

Smith and Jones debate on an awe inspiring range of themes from Devon to death, self assembly furniture to the summer of love and aids to anal retention.

Art Deco Detective

While investigating the murder of a movie star, a detective finds that he himself is being set up for the crime.

Brain Donors

Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.

Amnesty International's Big 30

In the tradition of the acclaimed series of British concerts known as The Secret Policemen's Ball, Amnesty International celebrates its 50th Anniversary live at Radio City Music Hall.

Father Christmas

Classic animation based on Raymond Briggs' book. What does Father Christmas do with himself for the other 364 days of the year ?

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

A Dickensian mock-Gothic tale of resourceful children, evil governesses, forged wills, cruel orphanages, and goodness triumphant set against an isolated country house, in an alternate 19th century where savage packs of wolves roam the snowbound countryside.

Wilt

Henry Wilt is a more or less failed teacher who fantasizes about murdering his dominant, non-attentive wife Eva. At a party who gets stuck in an inflatable doll and makes a complete fool of himself. Eventually, he dumps the doll in a hole at a building site. However, he has been witnessed getting rid of the doll and when his wife disappears on the night after the party, the police and Inspector Flint have strong suspicions on Mr Wilt.

The Tall Guy

An American actor in England tries to find love and work.

Smith and Jones: The Home-Made Xmas Video

Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jone star in festive special about a family with a video camera. Christmas usually means a little over-indulgence, but to the Aldershot family it is an orgy of hitherto uncharted proportions.

The Princess Bride

In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.

The Grand Knockout Tournament

The Grand Knockout Tournament (colloquially also known as It's a Royal Knockout) was a one-off charity event which was shown on British television on 19 June 1987. It followed the format of It's a Knockout, a slapstick TV gameshow which was broadcast in the UK until 1982. The event was staged on the lakeside lawn of the Alton Towers stately home-cum-theme park.

Finland For Adults

A short film staring British comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that seeks to update the Santa Claus myth. Made for the Finnish tourist board

Comedians Do It On Stage

A Group of Britain's top comedy and music performers gather at a London Theater, to give their support to the Oncology Club Fund. The Fund is a charitable organization which provides training for young doctors in the practical day to day care of patients with cancer.

National Lampoon's European Vacation

The Griswolds win a vacation to Europe on a game show, and so pack their bags for the continent. They do their best to catch the flavor of Europe, but they just don't know how to be be good tourists. Besides, they have trouble taking holidays in countries where they CAN speak the language.

Live Aid

Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"

Restless Natives

Two lads in Edinburgh embark on a non-violent spree of robberies. They dress up in clown masks and act as modern highwaymen, robbing coach loads of tourists in the highlands. In the process they become folk heroes to the locals. Their adventures make for a whimsical and gentle comedy, in the Bill Forsyth vein.

Morons from Outer Space

The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refueling station. On board are a group of four aliens, Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian. During a particularly tedious period of their stay at the station, the other three begin playing with the ship’s controls while Bernard is outside playing spaceball. They accidentally disconnect his part of the ship, leaving him stranded while they crash into a large blue planet close by...

Number One

A down on his luck Irishman in London decides to play snooker for money.

The Snowman

A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes him on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Slayground

Stone (Peter Coyote) hits an armored truck without his usual driver. The ensuing getaway leads to the death of an innocent. The payback is swift and brutal. The wronged father hires a twisted, sociopathic assassin to avenge his loss. One by one the offenders are punished through grisly executions. Stone uses his wits to find a reclusive friend Terry (Mel Smith) just in time for a psychedelic funhouse showdown with his stalker.

Bullshot

The dashing Captain Hugh "Bullshot" Crummond - WWI ace fighter pilot, Olympic athlete, racing driver, part-time sleuth and all round spiffing chap - must save the world from the dastardly Count Otto van Bruno, his wartime adversary. And, of course, win the heart of a jolly nice young lady.

Babylon

Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

Bloody Kids

Contemptuous of the fallible police force (Mike has already filched a police hat from an accident scene), two 11-year-old boys - the cold, manipulative Leo, and his weaker, more impressionable friend, Mike - arrange a staged knife fight outside a football stadium with the aid of a bag of stage blood and a real blade.

Dreams of Leaving

William came to work in Fleet Street in 1971. London meant girls, as many girls as he could find. Then he met Caroline and so it began, that very strange summer ... Caroline said the best of her life.

The Lord of the Rings

The Fellowship of the Ring embark on a journey to destroy the One Ring and end Sauron's reign over Middle-earth.