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For many of us Brits, just the mere mention of "The Great Escape" provokes an urge to tuck into a large plate of turkey sandwiches. When I was growing up, John Sturges' rousing prisoner-of-war thriller seemed like it was on telly every Boxing Day, and it is still regarded as a festive favorite in many U.K. households. At three hours long, it was perfect holiday viewing, ideal for killing off an afternoon drifting in that post-Christmas funk, with the grown-ups grazing steadily in front of the TV while the kids played with their new toys.

In his list of 10 great prisoner-of-war films for the BFI, critic Samuel Wrigley described it as the "epitome of war-is-fun" action films. From an era well before films like "Saving Private Ryan" showed us that war was hell in harrowing detail, "The Great Escape" is an upbeat war adventure for the whole family, playing...

At the intersection of big-star international dealmaking, the 70mm epic, and the humble sword ‘n’ shield actioner, this comic book viking saga stacks one absurd, borderline bad taste action scene on top of another. It’s an irresistible mash-up of earlier successes, well directed visually by Jack Cardiff. Richard Widmark at forty must play the Viking action hero, Russ Tamblyn at thirty is still a physical dervish, and Sidney Poitier takes on the strangest casting of his career. Plus, low sexist comedy from a platoon of hearty Brit thesps!

The Long Ships

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 137

1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from Viavision / Aus 34.95

Starring: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Oskar Homolka, Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Beba Loncar, Clifford Evans, Gordon Jackson, Colin Blakely, Paul Stassino, Leonard Rossiter, Jeanne Moody, Julie Samuel.

Cinematography: Christopher Challis

Production Designer: Vlastimir Gavrik, Zoran Zorcic

Art Director: Bill Constable...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Russian Roulette (originally titled Kill Kosygin!) starts out promisingly enough but ultimately ends up being unsatisfying and misguided. Produced by Elliott Kastner, who was an old hand at making good, populist entertainment, the production was shot entirely in Vancouver. George Segal plays a renegade cop (were there any other kind in the 1970s?) who has been suspended from the local police force for various infractions. Suddenly, he is recruited by Canadian secret intelligence to help thwart a reputed plot to assassinate Soviet Premier Kosygin, who is due to arrive in a matter of days for a high profile conference. Segal learns that he is being set up in an elaborate and confusing plot that involves traitorous Kgb agents who want to kill their own premier in order to prevent him from initiating an era of detente with the West. Their plan involves kidnapping a local dissident (Val Avery...

I must have at least 7 home video releases of John Sturges’ classic, starting from VHS, but they’ve come up with a good reason to return: a 4K transfer with color and contrast grading that to me better represents the movie. The thrilling, not-too-violent escapades of Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, David McCallum, James Coburn, Charles Bronson & James Donald are no longer timed so that everything looks like a washed-out high noon: both the 4th of July and much of the mad-dash escape scramble are meant to take place near the crack of dawn. In this case ‘Much darker’ is much richer; faces don’t get blown out. And I do see more detail in the enhanced image. So here we go again, happily.

The Great Escape 4K

4K Ultra HD

Kl Studio Classics

1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 172 min. / Street Date January 11, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner,...

We loved James Bond but diehard ’60s spy fans hold a special admiration for Len Deighton’s ‘thinking man’s secret agent’ Harry Palmer. Viavision pulls off a slick trick by assembling the three top Michael Caine Harry Palmer pictures, each from a different studio, in a single deluxe gift box. Harry fights the Brain Drain, encounters criss-crossing conspiracies at the Berlin Wall, and witnesses a privatized invasion of the U.S.S.R., in The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, three great pictures by three very different directors. The presentations come with a glut of special edition extras.

The Harry Palmer Collection

All-Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 75, 76, 77

1965-67 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date October 20, 2021 / Available from Amazon / 109.99

Starring: Michael Caine

From the novels by Len Deighton

Produced by Harry Saltzman

Directed by Sidney J. Furie, Guy Hamilton, Ken Russell

It didn’t seem possible that there...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Those who have a weakness for British spy movies will find plenty to like in "The Whistle Blower", a largely unheralded 1986 production that boasts a fine performance by Michael Caine. He plays Frank Jones, a nondescript middle-aged Brit with a somewhat convoluted background. He was a fighter pilot in the  military but his career came to an end when he struck a superior officer. It's then implied that he went on to work for British Intelligence in some capacity, though in reality his act of military insubordination would probably have excluded him from that position. When we are introduced to Frank he is a widower and owner of a small office supply business who is paying a visit to his 28 year-old son Bob for a low key celebration of his offspring's birthday. It turns out that Bob is employed by Government Communications Headquarters (Gchq), which is a branch of the intelligence community.

It’s finally back on Blu in Region 1, the ‘sixties spy movie beloved by enthusiasts that yearned for something a bit more substantial & nutritious than James Bond. This first Harry Palmer adventure seems even more perfect than when it was thanks to a great espionage recipe and quality ingredients. Michael Caine is sensational as the anti-007, the feel of London streets is intoxicating, and John Barry’s music score is beyond praise. Are Sidney Furie’s directorial mannerisms too show-offy, too fussy? I only raise the question to defend him.

The Ipcress File

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date October 27, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, Gordon Jackson, Aubrey Richards, Frank Gatliff, Thomas Baptiste, Oliver MacGreevy, Freda Bamford, David Glover, Mike Murray, Anthony Baird.

Cinematography: Otto Heller

Film Editor: Peter Hunt

Production Designer: Ken Adam

Original Music: John Barry

Written by W.H. Canaway,...

Rafiki Welcome to this week's round-up of films to catch on telly and streaming services, don't forget to check out our latest Streaming Spotlight, which is all about dinosaur movies.

Pink String And Sealing Wax, Talking Pictures TV (Freeview Channel 81), Wednesday, June 24, 3.15pm

Robert Hamer would go on to direct comedy classic Kind Hearts And Coronets, but he started his career with this darker mix of comedy and melodrama. Although its shifting tone takes a bit of getting used to, this is well worth watching for Googie Withers' commanding central turn as a pub landlady who is desperate to escape the clutches of her drunken husband and who settles on an innocent mark (an almost impossibly young Gordon Jackson) to help her execute her poisonous plan. Although Withers' Pearl is a conniving, she's also shown to be a victim of circumstance as the film scrutinises the patriarchy not just...

Images from this picture were burned into our Boomer childhood brains … we actually sat still for almost three hours to watch it. John Sturges’ epic show is like a fine-tuned watch — its unbreakable story is populated by ideal characters that become instant heroes, just for acting like normal men that want free of confinement. It’s really about freedom — after two hours in the Pow compound, the fugitives set loose in the wide, green beauty of Germany might as well be escaping into a wonderland of light and space. In its own way this show made our parents’ wartime experience come alive — it’s The picture to interest kids in events of the past.

The Great Escape

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1027

1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 172 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 12, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer,...

Some critics wondered if Alec Guinness and John Mills should have swapped roles for this adaptation of James Kennaway’s incisive novel about popularity vs. discipline in the command structure of a Scots army brigade. Ronald Neame’s direction is exemplary, showcasing the powerhouse performances yet avoiding theatrical flourishes. And the movie introduces Susannah York as well. Criterion’s 4K remaster greatly improves on their older DVD release.

Tunes of Glory

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 225

1960 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 3, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Gordon Jackson, Duncan Macrae, Percy Herbert, Allan Cuthbertson.

Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson

Film Editor: Anne V. Coates

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Written by James Kennaway from his novel

Produced by Albert Fennell, Colin Lesslie

Directed by Ronald Neame

1960’s Tunes of Glory hasn’t persisted in revivals, and neither is it...

By Fred Blosser

A naive but principled young guy from the sticks gets embroiled with outnumbered and outgunned rebels in an uprising against a tyrannical empire, has his life saved more than once by a roguish outlaw, is menaced by an older relative, and goes on the run with a spirited young woman of royal lineage, all in a 1970s movie featuring a talented cast of fresh newcomers and distinguished veteran British actors. What, “Star Wars”? Well . . . yeah, I suppose so . . . but actually I was thinking of a substantially more obscure picture, Delbert Mann’s 1971 production “Kidnapped,” now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Mann’s movie was based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, once widely read by teenage boys but now supplanted, I guess, by “Minecraft” and Japanese Manga. I saw the film in a nearly empty theater during its U.S. release in early 1972, a rare, intelligent...

Sue Milliken and Bruce Beresford (centre) with the cast of ‘Ladies in Black.’

Bruce Beresford’s Ladies in Black has grossed $11.4 million in seven weeks, encouraging Sony Pictures, which acquired the worldwide rights, to start devising plans to release the comedy-drama in offshore markets.

“The film was always required to establish itself here first before leveraging that success internationally,” Sony Pictures Releasing executive VP Stephen Basil-Jones tells If.

Produced by Sue Milliken and Allanah Zitserman, the 1959-set film is heading for $13 million here and in New Zealand is about to surpass $NZ1 million, which Basil-Jones rates as a superb result, particularly considering Oz films often struggle when they cross the ditch.

In Los Angeles last week he discussed with his colleagues rolling out the film, which stars Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Ryan Corr, Alison McGirr, Noni Hazlehurst and Vincent Perez, in the UK and North America. Also he...

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger officially become ‘The Archers’ for this sterling morale-propaganda picture lauding the help of the valiant Dutch resistance. It’s a joyful show of spirit, terrific casting (with a couple of surprises) and first-class English filmmaking.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy /103 82 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Bernard Miles, Hugh Burden, Emrys Jones, Pamela Brown, Joyce Redman, Googie Withers, Hay Petrie, Arnold Marlé, Robert Helpmann, Peter Ustinov, Roland Culver, Robert Beatty, Michael Powell.

Cinematography Ronald Neame

Film Editor David Lean

Camera Crew Robert Krasker, Guy Green

Written by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Produced by The Archers

Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

There are still a few more key Powell-Pressburger ‘Archer’ films waiting for a quality disc release, Contraband and Gone to Earth for just two.

'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

The good news is that Timeless Video is releasing multiple films in one DVD package. The bad news is that one of these releases, although featuring two highly-watchable leading men, presents two stinkers. Love and Bullets is a 1979 Charles Bronson starrer that Roger Ebert appropriately described at the time as "an assemblyline potboiler". The film initially showed promise. Originally titled Love and Bullets, Charlie, the movie had John Huston as its director. However, Huston left after "creative differences" about the concept of the story and its execution on screen. The absurdity of losing a director as esteemed as Huston might have been understandable if the resulting flick wasn't such a mess. However, one suspects that, whatever the conceptual vision Huston had for the movie may have been, it must have been superior to what ultimately emerged. Stuart Rosenberg, the competent director of Cool Hand Luke took over...

Admit it, we've all wanted to step into the batsuit and kick crime's ass. Well, Gordon Jackson of Armatus Designs is one step closer to that dream, having built a impact resistant (check out the second video where we see how it fares against an iron pipe), stab resistant, and down right bad ass looking replica of Batman's iconic suit. Check it out below.

We pay tribute to Brian Clemens, a screenwriter and producer whose work lit up 1970s cult TV and beyond...

Brian Clemens, who died earlier this week aged 83, was a highly respected screenwriter and producer both for TV and Film. He will chiefly be remembered for his work on The Avengers, The New Avengers and The Professionals but his credits were numerous and encapsulated a real golden age of cult, escapist television from the 1950s onwards.

Clemens was born in Croydon in July 1931. He spent his National Service as a Weapons Training Instructor. After spending time as a copywriter, he established himself as a scriptwriter - sometimes using the pseudonym "Tony O'Grady" - O'Grady being his mother's maiden name. He received his first commission from the BBC at the age of 24 - a thriller called Valid For Single Journey Only. He went on to write for many of the big TV...

By Adrian Smith

Although by the late 1970s Richard Burton's reputation was based more on his hard-drinking and turbulent marriages, he was still capable of demonstrating his powers as a dangerous and magnetic performer. Arguably by this time he had lost some of his former box-office draw and was taking roles in horror films like Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Medusa Touch to pay the bills, yet he was still a mesmerising screen presence and in this film can even command the attention of the audience whilst lying on a hospital bed in a coma.

The Medusa Touch is set in London and begins with a murder. In the opening scene we see renowned author John Morlar (Richard Burton) watching news of a space shuttle disaster on TV. Within seconds he is being bludgeoned to death by a blunt instrument. It is something of a shock to see...

Feature Alex Westthorp 28 Mar 2014 - 07:00

In a new series, Alex talks us through the film roles of the actors who've played the Doctor. First up, William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee...

We know them best as the twelve very different incarnations of the Doctor. But all the actors who've been the star of Doctor Who, being such good all-rounders in the first place, have also had film careers. Admittedly, some CVs are more impressive than others, but this retrospective attempts to pick out some of the many worthwhile films which have starred, featured or seen a fleeting cameo by the actors who would become (or had been) the Doctor.

William Hartnell was, above all else, a film star. He is by far the most prolific film actor of the main twelve to play the Time Lord. With over 70 films to his name, summarising Hartnell's film career is difficult at best.

To mark the release of The Professionals Mk1 on 31st March, we’ve been given 1 copy to give away on Blu-ray.

Bodie and Doyle need little by way of introduction, but if the series had at all escaped you since its debut in 1977, their boss George Cowley, head of CI5 couldn’t put it more succinctly than his opening gambit: “…anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I’ve got special men experts from the army, the police, from every service. These are The Professionals”. Featuring the perfect ensemble cast of Martin Shaw, Gordon Jackson (completely against type here) and the much-missed Lewis Collins, the series ran for 57 action-packed episodes and made an immediate impact on British and then international audiences, which has been sustained for 35 years. Painstakingly restored from the camera-original negatives, the series could have been made yesterday. No matter how many times you have seen The Professionals,...

The gifted film-maker, winner of the top prize at Cannes in 1973, did not always get the acclaim he deserved in his native Britain

The death of the British director Alan Bridges at the age of 86 is a great sadness. Bridges was a brilliant poet and cinematic satirist – in tones both mordant and melancholy – of the English class system of the early 20th century, and a director with a flair for psychology and interior crisis, as evidenced by movies like The Return of the Soldier (1982) and The Shooting Party (1985).

A film-maker to bear comparison with Joseph Losey and John Schlesinger, he was one of the few British directors to win the top prize at the Cannes film festival. Bridges earned that accolade with his wonderful 1973 movie The Hireling, when the award was called the Grand Prix – jointly, in fact, with Jerry Schatzberg's marvellous Scarecrow, another film only recently being rediscovered.

Actor who was both heart-throb and hardman as Bodie in The Professionals

In a 1980 episode of the hit British cop show The Professionals, an ill-advised villain tries to threaten the ex-mercenary William Bodie with his snarling doberman pinscher. After a brief altercation, Bodie, all sang-froid and minimally curled lip, inquires: "Would your little dog like to chew this electric fire? Or maybe you'll just leave."

This kind of butch badinage, along with rugged good looks, helped make Lewis Collins, who played Bodie in all 57 of the show's episodes from 1977 and 1983, and who has died aged 67 after suffering from cancer, into a household name. During that time he formed one half of Britain's answer to Starsky and Hutch, a crime-fighting duo called Bodie and Doyle who worked for a shadowy criminal intelligence agency, CI5, headed by Gordon Jackson's strait-laced George Cowley. At its height, The Professionals was watched by 12 million viewers a week,...

In the 70s and early 80s most little boys in the UK wanted to be wisecracking Bodie from The Professionals. One writer remembers being in awe of Collins' brooding action hero

I wanted to be Lewis Collins when I was a boy. I'd kick open the kitchen door with a water pistol in my hand, shouting at my mum to: "Get down on the ground, hands where I can see them!" This must have been quite annoying. She was probably wearing yellow Marigolds, for a start, which wasn't very villainous.

Two decades later, I got to interview Collins. It was only 15 minutes on the phone but I was still in awe. I'd been told he was a bit moody and didn't like talking about The Professionals any more, both of which proved untrue. He was charm personified, only too happy to reminisce. He had a mischievous sense of humour, a...

He blazed across our TV screens as one part of The Professionals team in the 1970s, but Lewis Collins was more than just Bodie. So it’s sad to report that the star of stage and screen, has died at the age of 67.Collins, who was born in Cheshire, didn’t immediately embrace acting as a career. He started his working life as a hairdresser and played with various music acts including The Mojos before deciding to try his luck treading the boards. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and then segued into rep theatre in Chesterfield and Glasgow before a touring session with Prospect Theatre Company.His first TV break was in Z-Cars in 1974, which kicked off a run of guest star parts in a variety of other series. But in 1977, he got the role that he’d be best remembered for: tough nut copper Bodie in The Professionals.

 

Tonight, Turner Classic Movies (North America) presents a rare showing of the 1957 British B&W gem Hell Drivers. The film centers on the conflicts that occur when an honest driver for a lorry company (Stanley Baker) confronts corruption in the organization and takes on the criminal ring leader (Patrick McGoohan). The film, directed by Cy Endfield, was regarded as a "B" movie in its day, but has developed a cult following that appreciates its intelligent script and fine cast. Shot mostly at Pinewood Studios, featured actors include Sean Connery, Herbert Lom, David McCallum and his real-life wife Jill Ireland, Sidney James, Gordon Jackson and Alfie Bass. A trivia note is that McGoohan, Connery and McCallum would all shoot to stardom in the next decade playing legendary cinematic spies.

Star of British film thrillers who specialised in the role of the classy girlfriend

In the 1950s, while watching a second feature before the "big picture" at their local cinema, regular British filmgoers would often have seen Rona Anderson, who has died aged 86. Anderson starred in 20 movies between 1950 and 1958, mostly well-crafted, low-budget thrillers. Opposite such luminaries as Robert Beatty, Jimmy Hanley, John Bentley, Paul Carpenter and Lee Patterson, Anderson was the classy girlfriend who helps the hero solve a murder, usually via a visit to the criminal underground, all within the hour allotted to the film.

According to the Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter, Anderson "had this incredible, porcelain-like face, too beautiful for film … The camera likes angularity, to see the edges, and I think Rona's face was just too perfect." Whatever the reason, Anderson made few major movies, though she appeared in many popular television series, such as The Human Jungle...

Some films age poorly, some age well, and some, the lucky few, just don't age at all. John Sturges's 1963 WWII prison break film The Great Escape falls into the latter category, and no single one element of the film can take credit for its timeless quality. Maybe it's because of the stellar cast filled to the brim with Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Gordon Jackson and more, or maybe it's how it manages to make every minute of its nearly three-hour runtime entertaining, but save for the very light time stamp that puts it roughly three years into WWII and the loose characterization of the enemy soldiers as Germans The Great Escape could be imagined to occur during any prolonged conflict. Its specific context has less to do with the 'when' or 'where' and instead lets us focus on the imaginative 'how'...

The Great Escape Contest Giveaway Sweepstakes. This The Great Escape Blu-ray contest, giveaway, sweepstakes illustrates The Great Escape‘s release on Blu-ray on May 7, 2013. John Sturges‘ The Great Escape stars Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Nigel Stock, [...]

Continue reading: Contest: The Great Escape (1963) Blu-ray: McQueen Absconds with POWs...

Ben Affleck's smart comedy about a bogus film shoot cooked up by the CIA to rescue Americans trapped in Tehran takes an unfortunate last turn

Ben Affleck's new movie as a director is an amazing real-life caper straight out of Ripley's Believe It or Not! It tells the true story of some imaginative derring-do on the part of a brilliant and unorthodox CIA agent called Tony Mendez. This is a watchable, enjoyable film, with some hilarious and nail-biting moments, but it sets its face disconcertingly against satire and mischief with a final lurch into schmaltzy, liberal-patriot piety. It is as if Aaron Sorkin, in his most solemn mood, had suddenly taken over screenwriting duties for the final 10 minutes.

The movie is, in effect, based on Mendez's own testimony; as with all spies' tales, we're entitled to our pinch of salt, but his story is just so incredible it...

Blackadder

By Kieran Kinsella

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Without butlers the British would never have been able to solve any murders that involved the rich and famous. British TV butlers have always been key figures in both period dramas and anything involving Agatha Christie. With so many men in black to choose from, narrowing down the 10 best British TV butlers was no easy task but here are our men.

Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) in Blackadder III. Blackadder III (to use his American name) treated all men in the same manner – with complete contempt. His dislike for fellow man was understandable given that he worked for a playboy prince (Hugh Laurie) and a man called Sod-off (Tony Robinson).

Angus Hudson (Gordon Jackson) in Upstairs Downstairs. In The Great Escape Gordon Jackson caused Richard Attenborough to get killed as a result...

Throughout the classic comedies produced by Ealing Studios in the ’40s and ’50s run both a lightness of touch and a subtly unsentimental look at human character. Their classics all involve crime and greed: for money and the freedom that comes with it in The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob, for money and social standing in Kinds Hearts and Coronets. But the (amateur) criminals in the latter two are gentlemen; very English and very charming. In The Ladykillers, the gentility is merely a disguise for professional criminals. Often, the apparent civility of polite society helps their characters veil their repressed, anarchic sides.

The first of Ealing’s run of classic comedies – which also includes The Man in the White Suit and Passport to Pimlico – was Whisky Galore!, the first movie directed by Boston-born Scotsman Alexander Mackendrick. It was produced by Ealing’s legendary Michael Balcon and co-edited by Charles Crichton,...

"To the west, there is nothing, except America."

Revived at Edinburgh Internbational Film Festival, Alexander Mackendrick's first film, Whisky Galore! (released in the USA as Tight Little Island) is regarded as a perennial classic in Britain but not so well-known elsewhere. Inspired by a real-life incident, the wrecking of a ship carrying a cargo of whisky off the coast of a Scottish island where that vital social lubricant had been cut off by wartime shortages, it's an easy-going comedy and in some ways the ur-text behind Bill Forsyth's Local Hero (1983). 

Even in his modest first film, Mackendrick's indebtedness to German expressionism leads to some rousing sequences, kinetic montages of conspiratorial islanders, who have to circumvent the English home guard official who is determined that the shipwrecked cases of scotch should sink to the sea bed rather than be illicitly salvaged. As with all the great Ealing comedies, the...

Tom Hardy, Gerard Butler, Jason Statham, Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman are the professionals! You have no idea what we’re talking about? Well, guess what, it looks that UK television show from the 70s, titled The Professionals is getting a remake!

Or, if you prefer, it’s getting turned into a movie. And what a movie that will be with this kind of cast on board? Judge yourself!

Ok, ok, nothing is confirmed at this moment, but it sounds interesting to know that Lionsgate UK is reportedly eyeing Tom Hardy, Gerard Butler and Jason Statham to play the secret agents Bodie and Doyle, while Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman are being eyed to play their boss.

So, yes, that (unfortunately) means some of them will get the part, and no, they’re (unfortunately) not all going to be in the movie, but you must admit that it will be a difficult decision indeed!

Will Tom Hardy be a Professional?

The Inception and Dark Knight Rises actor is one of several Brit stars rumoured for the film adaptation of the popular 70s TV series, The Professionals.

Producer Richard Whelan (Captain America: The First Avenger) is also believed to be coaxing Gerard Butler and action star Jason Statham to take part, in the roles of Bodie and Doyle.

Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman are considered possibles as boss George Cowley.

Lionsgate UK announced the project yesterday, saying that they felt, “there was an opportunity for a bigger British action film" and that, “the ambition is to make a powerful commercial movie with the best of British talent”.

The original series starred Lewis Collins as Bodie, Martin Shaw as Doyle and Gordon Jackson as George Cowley. It chronicled the adventures of Britain’s Criminal Intelligence 5 as they handled cases too tough for the police.

Many episodes...

1970s cops Bodie and Doyle to come back to life as Lionsgate announces plans make an action movie of The Professionals

It was a simpler time when bubble perms and Ford Capris were to be aspired to. They were sexy and macho because we saw them on The Professionals and, frankly, we knew no better. Now, 28 years later, Bodie and Doyle, along with bad-tempered boss George Cowley, are coming back.

Film company Lionsgate said it has acquired the rights to the series, which ran for five adrenaline-fuelled seasons on ITV, and plans to begin shooting a film version later this year.

Zygi Kamasa, the chief executive, admitted he can hum the theme tune on demand. "I was a big fan," he said. "We all grew up with it in the 70s so the idea of bringing it back for the big screen is perfect. There aren't many British TV shows...

Updated: Deadline have a follow-up on this earlier story claiming producer Richard Whelan is now in L.A. trying to lockdown a cast for the remake with the obvious & usual bunch of names said to be wanted;

Brit actors Tom Hardy, Gerard Butler and Jason Statham are cited (no word on whether they are up for Bodie or Doyle), with vets Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman apparently on the wishlist to play their boss, who was Scottish in the show. The movie will be an origin story depicting how the duo came to work for the CI5.

Statham is probably favourite to end up with one of the roles as he just made Lionsgate UK’s second film to date Blitz, that’s out May 6th, and he is Britain’s box office action star answer to Bruce Willis after all.

As we said below, no director is attached after Neil Marshall (The Descent,...

The UK arm of Lionsgate will start pre-production on its big-budget remake of cult 1970s British TV series The Professionals this fall. The action series about secret agents was a hit across Europe and in Australia but never made it to the U.S. The series was hatched by The Avengers creator Brian Clemens and made local stars of actors Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins, who played the agents. Gordon Jackson -- best known as the butler in Upstairs Downstairs -- played their dour Scottish boss. Producer Richard Whelan is now in Los Angeles trying to lock down a director. Lionsgate UK will court Tom Hardy, Gerard Butler and Jason Statham to play secret agents Bodie and Doyle, with Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman on their list to play their boss. Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa acknowledges The Professionals is an unknown quantity in brand-happy Hollywood. He said the success...

Here’s a TV programme I’m sure my dad watched religiously which I know next to nothing about other than the crazy haircuts!

The Professionals was a TV series which spanned for five seasons between the years 1977 and 1983. It starred Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins and at its peak, pulled in millions of viewers with even the re-runs in the late 90s attracting over over million views on the now deceased TV channel, Granada. The show was created to mimic Us rivals like Starkey and Hutch and had a rather memorable opening soundtrack which I’ve placed below in a clip.

This press release announces the news that Lionsgate UK and Eight Wonder pictures will produce the cinematic version and we’ll obviously keep you up to date with casting and release dates etc.

Here’s a clip from the original series… you’ll see what I mean about the haircuts!

If, like me, you grew up in the 90s and were weaned on Public Television, then you’ve seen shows just like Upstairs, Downstairs, if not the show itself. At the very least you know the type: low budget British dramas from the seventies, with one set, a large ensemble cast, simple camera work but a high minded conceit, clichéd characters going through powerful storylines. If you’re like me, you find this kind of television show very comforting, like an old blanket. If not, you’ll probably find it in turns charmingly naïve, embarrassingly old-fashioned and powerfully insightful.

Upstairs, Downstairs follows the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family, owners and residents of 165 Eaton Place, and their live-in servants and cooks (who, as in the British townhouse style, work in the servants quarters downstairs, hence the title). The series entire takes the family and its employees from 1903 to 1936, but season...

Network DVD have announced the UK DVD release of the classic horror series Mystery and Imagination on July 5th 2010. This critically acclaimed and extremely popular anthology series presents a selection of Gothic tales by legendary 19th Century writers: Robert Louis Stevenson’s nihilistic The Suicide Club, Sheridan le Fanu’s Uncle Silas plus Edgar Allen Poe to name but a few, not to mention a most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Famous faces and well – known names lend this most chilling collection of tales authenticity and truth. Ian Holm, Denholm Elliot and Patrick Mower are among the many who turn in powerhouse performances for each of the six specially commissioned, featured-length TV plays. Freddie Jones’s performance as the demented pie-maker, Sweeney Todd, lingers in the memory long after the credit has rolled and the television turned off!

This release contains every remaining episode of Mystery and Imagination,...

UK director Neil Marshall ("Centurion") is developing a big screen adaptation of the 1977 British TV series "The Professionals".

"They deal with anti-terrorism, assassinations, political intrigue," said Marshall.

The original crime-action drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. 57 episodes were produced, starring actors Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson as agents of 'CI5', a law enforcement department, instructed by the Home Secretary to use any means, dealing with crimes of a serious nature that go beyond the capacity of the police.

Created by Brian Clemens of "The Avengers" TV series, Clemens and Albert Fennell were executive producers, with Laurie Johnson providing theme music. Sidney Hayers produced the first series in 1977, and Raymond Menmuir the remainder.

Led by 'George Cowley', CI5 is known for using unconventional and sometimes illegal methods to bust criminals, assigning agents 'Ray Doyle'...

1943/45, PG/U, Optimum

Having released DVDs of all the familiar Ealing titles, Optimum is now bringing out largely forgotten ones like this pair that resulted from Ealing boss Michael Balcon hiring documentary film-makers during the Second World War to bring a new realism to the studio's output.

Nine Men, the feature debut of documentarist Harry Watt, director of Night Mail (1936), is a morale-raising propaganda entertainment set in North Africa but shot on a Welsh beach. Character actor Jack Lambert, then serving as an army officer, plays a tough training sergeant inspiring a platoon of recruits by recalling how nine gallant soldiers (a regional cross-section including Ealing stalwart Gordon Jackson) held off a numerically superior Italian force in the Libyan desert.

Charles Crichton's semi-documentary Painted Boats is a quieter affair, both realistic and lyrical, about life on England's canals and a romance between a boy and a girl from rival barge families.