Peter Ustinov

Sir Michael Parkinson looks back over his 50 years as a broadcaster, revealing some tricks of the interview trade and remembering some of his favourite encounters.

Open details →

We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.

Open details →

Italy, Europe and America during the 'Dolce Vita' years narrated with unseen and rare footage from NBC Archives in New York.

Open details →

In a series of four documentaries, Marcel Ophuls pays tribute to his father Max, and in this last one discusses his role as an assistant director on "Lola Montès".

Open details →

A selection of highlights from Sir Peter Ustinov's appearances on Parkinson. A look back at a multitalented writer, director, actor and ambassador for Unicef.

Open details →

Open details →

When Elfrida Philips abandons London for a country village, she settles in quickly. She is very poor, but has a tiny cottage, her four-legged friend Horace, and friendships of good neighbors. Tragedy upsets her newfound tranquillity, and she takes refuge in a rambling house with a new gentleman friend in Corrydale. But the group proves to be greater than the sum of its ill-fitting parts, and as the solstice passes, and as Christmas approaches, the healing power of love, begins to work its magic. (Filmed at Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland)

Open details →

During the early 16th century, idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Open details →

While silent-film star Charlie Chaplin may have charmed American audiences with the onscreen antics of his lovable "Tramp" character, the actor's private life was marred by a series of public scandals that eventually pushed him into exile. In addition to his penchant for much younger women, Chaplin was unjustly hounded by Senator Joe McCarthy's notorious anti-Communist witch hunts, for which the U.S. revoked his visa in 1952. A bitter and disenchanted Chaplin responded by moving his family to Switzerland, where he remained until his death in 1977. This documentary chronicles Chaplin's life and career during those so-called "forgotten years" (during which he became a prolific and highly respected film-score composer) through previously unreleased archival footage and intimate interviews with his friends and family, including his children Geraldine, Michael, and Eugene.

Open details →

Salem, Massachusetts. A small town—with no clear governing body—became embroiled in a scandal that forever stands as one of the darkest chapters in American history. For those accused of witchcraft by their neighbors and friends, there was little chance of clearing their names; the mass paranoia that ravaged through the community took the lives of 19 innocent men and women.

Open details →

Schönbrunn is a world of marvels and mystery, of public glamour and curious secrets. The wealth of its building and landscape architecture, the grand views and hidden details, the wildlife, tamed nature as well as its past and present human population supply more stories and images than even the most insatiable camera can record.Schönbrunn in the protean succession of the seasons, of light and shadow, day and night is presented by Sir Peter Ustinov and was broadcasted in the “ORF-UNIVERSUM”-series for the 250th anniversary of the Schönbrunn Zoo.

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

The passionate love story that was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's lengthy marriage. Beginning in 1837, the year of King William IV's death and 18-year-old Victoria's ascension to the throne, the series charts the tumultuous period in 19th Century England where Victoria comes to terms with the enormous duties that lay ahead of her, while also falling deeply in love with her beloved Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The marriage and birth of their nine children are featured, as is Albert's frustration by the inactivity he experienced in the early years of his role as Prince Consort.

Open details →

Lavish two-part dramatisation of the passionate love story that was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's marriage.

Open details →

Series on the unsung heroes of British pop.

Open details →

Open details →

An Australian woman fights to save her orphanage in Cambodia against the country's ever-changing political backdrop.

Open details →

Having struggled to crack his brief, Dennis Hopper decides the only honourable act is to throw himself off a roof. Before this final act, Sir Peter Ustinov appears and bestows the Ten Commandments of Creativity upon the desperate advertising executive. The Ten Commandments become a template to navigate the state of creativity. Featuring Tarantino, Jeff Koons, Sean Penn, and Malcolm McClaren.

Open details →

Jimmie is seeing his single friends get married one by one. He isn't too worried until his girlfriend Anne catches the bouquet at his friend Marco's wedding. Suddenly, his wild mustang days are numbered. He finally decides to propose to her, but he sticks his foot in his mouth and botches the proposal. Being insulted by the defeatist proposal, Anne leaves town on an assignment. After she's gone, he finds out that his recently-deceased grandfather's will stipulates that he gets nothing of a multi-million dollar fortune unless he's married by 6:05pm on his 30th birthday: tomorrow! Not being able to find Anne, Jimmie begins backtracking through his past girlfriends to find a wife.

Open details →

A documentary about Germany's last emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Open details →

Animals on a farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands. However this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.

Open details →

Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?

Open details →

Reinhold Beckmann hosts a weekly talk show.

Open details →

Open details →

Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

Open details →

In-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives.

Open details →

Open details →

An Evening with Peter Ustinov is a fireworks of polyglot humour. Two-time Oscar winner and ennobled Sir Peter Ustinov in was an actor, writer, entertainer and world citizen. In his 1996 One Man Show, he lets review his moving life. Encounters with famous personalities of contemporary history become tangible through his own amusing and concise representation. It brings personal characteristics to life and gives the evening an atmosphere of the unpredictable. A gala evening with prominent guests in the Konzerthaus Berlin, Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt.

Open details →

Spoken word album narrated by Peter Ustinov.

Open details →

The Harald Schmidt Show is a German late night talk show hosted on Sky Deutschland by comedian Harald Schmidt. The show first aired from 5 December 1995 to 23 December 2003 on Sat.1. Schmidt then moved his show to Das Erste as Harald Schmidt and Schmidt & Pocher, but he returned to Sat.1 on 13 September 2011. After cancellation on Sat.1, the show continued on Sky Deutschland in September 2012.

Open details →

Four Edwardian children find a strange egg in their newly-arrived Persian carpet. It hatches into a Phoenix bird that grants wishes and also transforms the rug into a magic carpet, which takes them on a series of adventures all over the world and at home.

Open details →

Open details →

In 1920s Turkey, a young peasant is smitten with a beautiful young girl, who has been promised in marriage to the fat, dullard cousin of the province's powerful and corrupt governor. When an assassination attempt is made against the official, the young man flees his village and joins up with a group of outlaws fighting against the wealthy and powerful landowners who control the lives of the locals and make life miserable for them. The outlaws' successes prompt the governor to call in the Turkish army to capture or kill them.

Open details →

Open details →

A con artist gains employment at an insurance company in order to embezzle money by re-programming their "new" wonder computer.

Open details →

Lady L is an elegant 80-year-old woman who recalls her amorous life story, including past loves and lusty, scandalous adventures she has lived through.

Open details →

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

Open details →

Billy is an innocent, naive seaman in the British Navy in 1797. When the ship's sadistic master-at-arms is murdered, Billy is accused and tried.

Open details →

Political satire has Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet story updated for the cold war era, with the children of the US and Russian ambassadors falling in love.

Open details →

The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.

Open details →

DuPont Show of the Month is an acclaimed 90-minute television anthology series that aired monthly on CBS from 1957 to 1961. The DuPont Company also sponsored a weekly half-hour anthology drama series hosted by June Allyson, The DuPont Show with June Allyson. During the Golden Age of Television, DuPont Show of the Month was one of numerous anthology series telecast between 1949 and 1962. Superficially, it resembled Playhouse 90 and other anthologies, but DuPont Show of the Month focused less on contemporary dramas and more on adaptations of literary classics, including Oliver Twist, The Prince and the Pauper, Billy Budd, The Prisoner of Zenda, A Tale of Two Cities and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Open details →

A BBC television series of forty-five-minute excerpts from stage plays running in London.

Open details →

Open details →

Omnibus is an American, commercially sponsored, educational television series.

Open details →

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Open details →

A British ex-convict in colonial Australia and his fragile wife, haunted by the past crime that binds them, struggle to rebuild their lives when a young newcomer stirs long-buried passions and secrets.

Open details →

Angelo has been drafted into the Italian Army in World War II. He does not like people shooting at him, so he tries all sorts of tricks to avoid being caught up in the action. However, events always seem to lead him back to the fighting.

Open details →

Businessman Paul Bultitude is sending his son Dick to a boarding school. While holding a magic stone from India, he wishes that he could be young again. His wish is immediately fulfilled and the two change bodies with each other. Mr Bultitude becomes a school boy who smokes cigars and has a very conservative view on child upbringing, while his son Dick becomes a gentleman who spends his time drinking lemonade and arranging children's parties.

Open details →

Wartime tale of a group of British scientists efforts to develop the first radar system. They did it just in time for it to be used in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Without it the little island could well have been overrun.

Open details →

A mismatched collection of conscripted civilians find training tough under Lieutenant Jim Perry and Sergeant Ned Fletcher when they are called up to replace an infantry battalion that had suffered casualties at Dunkirk.

Open details →

A new batch of Army recruits, from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of commitment, is shaped into an efficient fighting unit.

Open details →