smw's - Rented List

Redford stars as Joe Turner, a junior analyst in the C.I.A., scrutinising published texts from around the world for coded messages. But once he discovers an unusual anomaly, his own existence comes crashing down, with every error carrying potentially fatal consequences.

Show moreShow less

Straight talking detective duo, Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey, return with more challenging cases and twists in their personal lives...

Despite Janet's marriage breakdown and Rachel's family secrets coming to the surface, the Manchester Major Incident Team detectives face up to a number of disturbing and gruesome investigations. With a murder suspect putting Rachel's life in danger and Janet facing another encounter with serial killer Geoff Hastings, the detectives are in need of some light relief. Good-looking old flame Sean provides a diversion for Rachel and a stressed Janet turns to colleague Andy Roper - but is either woman really ready for another serious relationship?

Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman star in this offbeat delicious slice of life about a down-on-her-luck southern teen who , after gaining 15 minutes of fame for giving birth to "The Wal-Mart Baby", begins to put her life together with the help of the kind, quirky strangers who become her surrogate family.

Show moreShow less

"Manhunt" is a captivating mini series based on the true story of a murder investigation that kept the people of Britain gripped - and defined a detective's career. Starring Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) as DCI Colin Sutton, the story begins in August 2004 when a young woman's body is found.

Sutton is appointed senior investigating officer but initially struggles: there's no forensics, motive or witnesses. Painstaking detective work finally delivers a suspect - Levi Bellfield (Celyn Jones), but now the hunt is on for enough evidence to arrest him and make sure he's found guilty at trial. 'Manhunt' follows the compelling story of how DCI Sutton charged one of Britain's most notorious killers with two murders, as well as an attempted murder, whilst also impelling Surrey police to consider Bellfield as prime suspect in the high-profile murder of Milly Dowler.

Show moreShow less

Soured by civilisation, Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) sets out in the mid-1800's to be a mountain man, seeking solitude in a wilderness whose purity he never questioned. His first Rocky Mountain winter almost kills him.

Starving and nearly frozen, he finds refuge with a wily old trapper (Will Geer) whose survival teaching includes going eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly.

Show moreShow less

The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a young woman takes the throne...a new era is dawning.

Queen Elizabeth II is a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill.

Show moreShow less

Double bill of true stories...

A Long Way Home (2003)

He Committed the Worst of Crimes. Now He Must Win Back Their Hearts. Jack stands accused of committing probably the worst crime a father can commit against his child: sexual abuse. Having inflicted deep psychological damage on his entire family, Jack must now struggle to win back their hearts. But if the father himself was abused as a child, does this at least explain, though not excuse, his crime? And if, deep beneath their wounds, Jack and his family still love each other, can that love prove powerful enough to withstand the sins of the past? Starring Robert Urich (Spenser for Hire) and Meredith Baxter (Family Ties), this emotionally charged drama poses complex and controversial questions as it explores one of the darkest aspects of family life.
Doing Life (1986)
He Fought for His Own Rights - And for the Rights of Others. Convicted of cop-killing, Jerry Rosenberg seemed destined to die in the electric chair. The remarkable and inspirational story of how he turned his life around and fought a very personal battle to get his sentence commuted is told in this compelling drama, starring Tony Danza of Taxi fame. In the early 1960s, Brooklyn-born career criminal Rosenberg faced the death penalty for a double cop-killing. But Rosenberg swore he was innocent and set about squashing his conviction. Through a correspondence course in law, Rosenberg even gained a degree, and he went on to establish a considerable reputation for counselling and defending his fellow inmates and to earn the title 'America's Greatest Jailhouse Lawyer'.

Show moreShow less

Janet Scott and Rachel Bailey are Detective Constables in Manchester Met Police's Major Incident Team, Syndicate 9 murder unit. Part ot a team working for the formidable DCI Gill Murray, their intuition, research and interview skills are integral to putting brutal killers behind bars.

Despite their differences - the impulsive, funny and single Rachel contrasting with her elder colleague, a reflective, married mother-of-two - the two detectives are a great partnership. Thrown together in the toughest of cases, they have become the best of friends, ready to support each other both in and away from the incident room.

Show moreShow less

She was buried in his past. Now she's come to haunt his future. Wayne Rogers and Bonnie Bedelia star in this complex emotional drama, in which a Vietnam veteran's life is shattered by a past infidelity.

Craig Weston's quiet life in Houston with his wife, Janet, and their two daughters changes forever when he is contacted out of the blue by Lien Van Huyen, a woman with whom he had an affair while serving in Vietnam. Lien (Tina Chen) drops two bombshells: Craig is the father of her son, Quan (Bryan Price), and she is terminally ill and wishes him to adopt the boy. Torn between fear of losing his family and his moral obligation to Lien, Craig feels he must tell Janet about this devastating secret. But how will she react to her husband's infidelity?

Show moreShow less

When two girls mysteriously disappear in the wilds of Tasmania in similar circumstances, 15 years apart, Dr. Anna Macy finds herself inextricably linked to both cases.

Anna must confront the traumatic events of her troubled past and discover her connection to the truth of what is really happening in the Kettering forest.

Show moreShow less

With the smoke finally settled on Finn and Ruby's dramatic departure, all eyes are on Allie (Sarah Parrish) and Gavin (Jason Merrells), who are happily back together - with big plans for the future.

Not content with running the family salon, Allie sets her sights on opening a hairdressing academy for the next generation of Manchester super-stylists, with financial backing from ex boy-band member Liam (James Murray). When she discovers she might be pregnant, she thinks she can have it all - Gavin, the baby, her salon and the academy. But just as things are looking rosy, fate deals a shocking blow that threatens to change the Henshall-Ferraday partnership forever.

Show moreShow less

'Our Friends In The North' is the biggest and most ambitious contemporary serial ever produced for BBC 2, an epic drama spanning 30 years in the lives of four Georgie friends and the world that shaped them.

The eleven hours took forty weeks to film and feature a cast of thousands, with 160 speaking parts and 3000 extras, exploring three decades of corruption, vice, violence and collapsing ethical standards in Britain's corridors of power from 1964 to 1995.

Show moreShow less

Sarah Lancashire returns in the acclaimed BBC thriller written by Sally Wainwright. No-nonsense police sergeant Catherine Cawood is back heading up her team of dedicated police officers in the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire. While on duty, she makes a gruesome discovery - a body.

The victim's injuries bear a striking similarity to a string of other murders over the previous few months, suggesting a serial killer is on the loose. But the case becomes even more shocking when it emerges that Catherine knows the victim - something that could have serious repercussions for both herself and her family.

Show moreShow less

An immensely compelling movie starring Claudette Colbert as American author Agnes Newton Keith on whose autobiography the film is based. It depicts how the author and her husband, a British administrator were trapped in Borneo when the Japanese forces invaded.

The Keith's were taken prisoner but because of their different nationalities are separated and sent to separate camps. The camp commander Colonel Suga (Sessue Hayakawa) takes a particular interest in the authoress but his humanitarian tendencies cannot help the stricken Agnes as she is subjected to torture, starvation and humiliation at the hands of the guards.

Show moreShow less

Sarah Lancashire stars as Catherine Cawood, a police sergeant in a small town where drunkards, drug addicts and teenage pregnancies are a way of life. Her world is turned upside down when the man she thinks is responsible for her daughter's death - Tommy Lee Royce - is released from prison.

Meanwhile, quiet middle-class accountant Kevin Weatherill feels underappreciated and underpaid at work. Desperate to give his daughters a decent education, he asks for a pay rise so he can send them to private school. But when his wealthy boss Nevison refuses, something finally snaps for Kevin and he enlists the help of local drug lord Ashley to kidnap Nevison's daughter and hold her for ransom. Things quickly spiral out of control when Ashley involves Tommy Lee in the plan. How far will any of them go to get what they really want?