lyn's - Rented List
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The explorers who searched for the source of the Nile were some of the most colourful and controversial in all history. Fueled by faith, greed and obsession they endured the hardships of grueling African expeditions while locked in fierce rivalries, each determined to claim the prize of discovery. The stories of their epic adventures are brought to life in this sumptuous 6 hour BBC production from 1971, digitally remastered and released on video for the very first time. The Emmy Award winning series, shot entirely on film in authentic locations in East Africa, was one of the most expensive and ambitious of its time and enthralled a huge audience worldwide. Today, 'The Search for the Nile' remains a powerful classic of BBC period drama. - Director:
- Fred Burnley
- Cast:
- James Mason, Kenneth Haigh, John Quentin
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This provocative and riveting four-part drama tells the story of Sugar (Romola Garai) an alluring, intelligent young prostitute who yearns for a better life away from the brothel she is attached to, run by the contemptible Mrs Castaway (Gillian Anderson). However, things change for her when she meets wealthy businessman William Rackham (Chris O'Dowd). Sugar is a thrilling antidote to William, who is saddled with a pious brother, Henry (Mark Gatiss) , and fragile wife, Agnes (Amanda Hale) who regularly endures visits from the invasive physician Doctor Curlew (Richard E Grant). William ensconces Sugar as his mistress and she soon grows accustomed to her new life. Yet unbeknownst to William, Sugar begins to hatch a plan which sets a series of events in motion that will change their lives forever... - Director:
- Marc Munden
- Cast:
- Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Amanda Hale
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Can you believe what your leaders tell you - even if you are the British Ambassador in Washington? In this high octane, action-packed, conspiracy thriller, a terrifying plot is played out along the dark corridors of power. When a flight explodes in mid-air near Washington DC, the shocked capital struggles to come to terms with the disaster. For Mark Brydon, British Ambassador to Washington, the incident has immediate consequences and, driven into a web of tangled relationships and conflicting interests, his abilities are tested to their very limits. As truth and lies are sacrificed for expediency, where nothing is what it first appears, Brydon slowly realises that he is being manipulated by a powerful, invisible puppeteer. Torn between his duty and his conscience, unable to trust anyone, Brydon is about the throw away the Foreign Office manual and try to get to the heart of the conspiracy... - Director:
- Michael Offer
- Cast:
- Jason Isaacs, Ben Daniels, Eva Birthistle
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After transferring from a big city to the small town of Brokenwood Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd (Neill Rea) has settled into the relaxed rhythms of country life. His methodical young assistant, Detective Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland), has adapted to Shepherd's unconventional ways - and even tolerates listening to country music in his 1971 "classic" car. Despite the growing accord between the mismatched pair, all is not well in Brokenwood, where passions simmering beneath the sleepy surface regularly erupt into gruesome crimes. In these four feature-length mysteries, Shepherd and Sims contend with a potential serial killer, a group of egocentric thespians, a family of territorial fishermen, and the mysterious death of Snepherd's favourite singer. Filmed on location in New Zealand's beautiful North Island, these engrossing mysteries boast compelling characters, dry humour and piquant wit. - Director:
- Mike Smith
- Cast:
- Neill Rea, Fern Sutherland, Pana Hema Taylor
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Trevor Eve is Felix Cramer, a mediocre and frustrated novelist who is fast approaching middle age and suffering writer's block. When Cramer develops a fascination for the eighteen year old daughter of his best friend Richard (Jim Carter) an illicit affair gradually begins. Sally (Rudi Davies) is about to leave for university but falls hopelessly in love. When the affair is exposed, simmering family tensions finally explode and Cramer's actions come to dramatically affect the lives of everyone around him. From author Andrea Newman, this gripping drama examines the damaging consequences of a dangerous affair and features Trevor Eve in one of his most anti-heroic roles. So convincing was his portrayal that Newman received letters from women claiming to know the real-life love-rat she based the character on. This seven part BBC series is widely hailed as a classic drama exploring the complexities and contradictions of love, friendship, marriage and adultery. - Director:
- Bruce MacDonald
- Cast:
- Trevor Eve, Lisa Harrow, Jim Carter
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Massacre in Rome (1973)Rappresaglia
Rome 1944 - The last days of the Nazi Occupation. A group of partisans plan an attack on a German Wehrmacht 'police' column. At German headquarters, Lt. Col, Herbert Kappler (Richard Burton), the Gestapo chief, warns his commanding officer General Kurt Maezler (Leo McKern) not to allow the column to march the next day for fear of an attack. Tension mounts as the partisans carry out their bomb attack with 32 Germans dead and then seek refuge with Father Antonelli (Marcello Mastroianni). The German High Command gives orders for one of the war's most unforgiveable acts of revenge - "The Massacre of Rome". - Director:
- George P. Cosmatos
- Cast:
- Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Leo McKern
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This three disc set contains three feature length episodes of the cutting edge television drama penned by Lynda La Plante. Amanda Burton returns in the role of Lynda la Plante's The Commander, featuring an outstanding supporting cast including Mark Lewis Jones, Paul Brightwell, Celia Imrie, Penny Downie And Gerard Kearns. - Director:
- Michael Whyte
- Cast:
- Amanda Burton, Matthew Marsh, Nicholas Jones
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Hollywood star Sean Bean heads an impressive cast in this poignant and powerful series centred around Father Michael Kerrigan, a Catholic priest presiding over an urban parish in northern England. Father Michael must be a confidant, counsellor and confessor to a congregation struggling to reconcile its beliefs with the challenges of daily life in contemporary Britain. With a chequered past and a complicated relationship with his own family, the priest is determined to help his parishioners through their troubles. But despite his best efforts, Father Michael can't always fix what's broken in their lives. - Director:
- Ashley Pearce
- Cast:
- Adrian Dunbar, Sean Bean, Fin Campbell
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Newly divorced journalist Dicte Svendsen (Iben Hjejle) has returned with daughter Rose to her hometown of Aarhus where she is trying to escape the past and build a new future. But working as a crime reporter, she soon finds herself caught up in a case that is destined to open old wounds when she discovers the body of a murdered young woman. Brash, quick-witted, and not afraid to put herself in danger, she will do what it takes to uncover the truth, throwing herself into each investigation, jeopardising not only her life, but sometimes the lives of those around her. These five gripping tales told over ten episodes are drawn from the crime novels of bestselling Danish author Elsebeth Egholm. - Director:
- Jannik Johansen
- Cast:
- Iben Hjejle, Lars Brygmann, Lærke Winther Andersen
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Starring Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, "The Hundred-Foot Journey" is an uplifting and feel-good comedy bursting with flavour, passion and heart. When the icy proprietress (Mirren) of a Michelin-starred French restaurant in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val gets wind of the Kadam family opening an Indian restaurant just 100 feet from her own, her protests escalate to all-out war between the two establishments. But as these two worlds collide, despite their different tastes they find an unlikely source of compromise that will change both sides forever. - Director:
- Lasse Hallström
- Cast:
- Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal
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Queensland miner, Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell), undertrained and never having faced hostile fire before, finds himself on the Western Front leading a secret team of Australian tunnellers fighting to defend a leaking, labyrinthine tunnel system packed with high explosives. If Woodward and his men can hold out, the massive mines will produce the biggest explosion the world has ever known and could change the course of the war. But the Germans have discovered the Australians' underground activity and as zero hour approaches, the whole allied strategy could be in jeopardy... - Director:
- Jeremy Sims
- Cast:
- Brendan Cowell, Harrison Gilbertson, Steve Le Marquand
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Made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death in 1883, Wagner is the epic production of the life of one of the most extraordinary figures of the 19th Century. Richard Wagner remains an enigma. His was a rags-to-riches story with a fairytale end. He was loved yet hated, admired yet despised, a villain yet a hero who was worshipped, a man whose fame and exploits were the gossip of Europe. Above all, he as an incurable romantic whose love affair with Liszt's illegitimate daughter rivals that of Romeo & Juliet in excitement and drama. But he was also a dangerous political revolutionary whose influence penetrated the whole fabric of German society. He was a scoundrel, joker, philosopher, orator, con-man, poet, refugee, political orator, a legend in his own lifetime and one of then greatest composers who has ever lived. - Director:
- Tony Palmer
- Cast:
- Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, László Gálffi
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In 1906, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, having lost his first wife, was overcome with grief; even Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson refused his call. It was only when his secretary, Woodie, presented him with an apparent real-life miscarriage of justice, that he could be roused to action. The case in question was that of George Edalji, a Parsee solicitor, who was imprisoned for writing obscene letters and killing livestock in Great Wyrley, Staffordshire. George needed Arthur's help to clear his name. However, as the twists and turns of the case unfold, Arthur himself questions George's innocence. It is only by finding the true culprit, that Arthur can finally put the case, and his grief, to rest; whilst simultaneously becoming influential in a major reform to the English judicial system. - Director:
- Stuart Orme
- Cast:
- Martin Clunes, Arsher Ali, Charles Edwards
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At the outbreak of the First World War three cousins reigned over Europe's greatest powers - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and King George V of Britain. This two-part series looks at the role played by the three monarchs, and their relationships with each other, in the outbreak of war, arguing that it is far greater than historians have traditionally believed.
A House Divided
'A House Divided' tells the story of the emerging divisions and rivalries between the inter-related royal houses of Europe and features the little known story of the two Danish sisters, Princess Alexandra and Princess Dagmar, who had pulled off the dynastic coup of the 19th century by marrying the heirs to both the British and Russian thrones. Following the invasion of their native Denmark by Prussia in 1864 during the Wars of German Unification, the sisters became the core of an anti-Prussian coalition that prefigured the great anti-German alliance of 1914. Their sons, King George V and Tsar Nicholas II were also close friends. It looks too at the tangled relationship between the German Kaiser and his English mother, Vicky -the oldest daughter of Queen Victoria. Disabled from birth, Kaiser Wilhelm had a complex love/hate attitude towards Vicky, which transferred itself to Britain as a whole, strongly influencing his foreign policy.
Into the Abyss
'Into the Abyss' looks at the realignment of the European powers and the emergence of the alliance system in the years following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. It examines the key role played by royalty in smoothing the path to the Anglo-Russian entente of 1907, and at the part played by the Kaiser's erratic, unstable personality in the growing isolation of Germany in the years leading up to 1914. It explores the role played by each of the three monarchs in the frantic, desperate days of July and August 1914. And it tells the tragic story of King George's refusal to grant his cousin, and close friend, Tsar Nicholas asylum in Britain following the Russian Revolution of 1917 - a refusal that would lead directly to the brutal murder of the Tsar and his family by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918.- Director:
- Richard Sanders
- Cast:
- Princess Alexandra, Princess Dagmar, King George V
- Formats:
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Long before the FBI and the Secret Service, the Pinkertons were the most feared law enforcement organisation in the US. Experts of undercover operative and masters of disguise, no one ever saw them coming! Set in a wild and young America, original action adventure crime procedural series 'The Pinkertons' follows founder Allan Pinkerton, his son, William, and America's first female detective, Kate Warne, as they solve crimes throughout the 'Wild West' of the 1860s. William is the shoot-first-ask-questions-maybe kind of guy, while Kate is a brilliant forensics expert, and master of undercover work. The two of them mix like lantern oil and creek water. Where Kate believes thoughtful analysis and forensic technology is what it takes to solve crimes, William lives by the words his father taught him: to catch a criminal, you have to think like a criminal. Over the course of the first season, what they learn is that, to catch a criminal, it takes both brains and bravery. - Director:
- Paul Fox
- Cast:
- Jacob Blair, Martha MacIsaac, David Lawrence Brown
- Formats:
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