Ken Russell

Twiggy takes a comprehensive look at the life story of UK model and cultural icon Twiggy, real name Lesley Lawson, whose career kickstarted in the 1960s. It features interviews with Twiggy and her husband Leigh Lawson, as well as commentary from Erin O’Connor, Paul McCartney, Lulu, Poppy Delavigne, Brooke Shields, Pattie Boyd and Zandra Rhodes.

Open details →

The story of Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar), John Entwistle (bass) and Keith Moon (drums): The Who, one of the most original, creative and relevant British bands of the sixties and of the entire history of pop music.

Open details →

Behind the scenes of the making of Ken Russell's 1971 film 'The Devils. Shown are the construction of the sets, filming of the courtroom scene, the performance of the musical score for the execution scene.

Open details →

Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy and The Devils. Friends and admirers - including Glenda Jackson, Terry Gilliam, Twiggy, Melvyn Bragg, Robert Powell and Roger Daltrey - recall a pioneering documentary-maker, talented photographer and fearless film director.

Open details →

On-set footage of the film The Devils (1971) with commentary by editor Mike Bradsell

Open details →

Biopic about 1970s Welsh marijuana trafficker Howard Marks, whose inventive smuggling schemes made him a huge success in the drug trade, as well as leading to dealings with both the IRA and British Intelligence. Based on Marks' biography with the same title.

Open details →

A cine-opera retelling of the legend of Boudica, warrior queen and her uprising against the Roman occupiers of Britain.

Open details →

A plucky young Jewish boy traverses the globe on a quest to warm the Führer's heart with the gift of a cuddly feline. (The result of a challenge from Melvyn Bragg to produce a film that Ken Russell himself would be eager to see banned.)

Open details →

A line up of star performers celebrate the very best of Edward Elgar's music in the 150th anniversary year of his birth.

Open details →

An investigation into nunsploitation, and why men find images of nuns involved in sexual situations erotic. The programme also controversially covers the Muslim hibab and burka.

Open details →

Trapped in a house of horror, seven people discover that the only way they'll get out alive is to tell their scariest stories.

Open details →

In the 1970s a music promoter plucks Siamese twins from obscurity and grooms them into a freakish rock'n'roll act. A dark tale of sex, strangeness and rock music.

Open details →

The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him.

Open details →

The adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over.

Open details →

A short directed by Ken Russell.

Open details →

Documentary, based on a British poll, listing the 100 sexiest movie and TV moments. Supplemented by new interviews with performers, filmmakers, and authors/critics.

Open details →

Documentary looking at how nudity has been used in the movies, sometimes shrewdly and other times without thought.

Open details →

Hell on Earth is a documentary about Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils. Film critic Mark Kermode chats to Russell as well as two of the film’s stars, Georgina Hale and Murray Melvin. Also included are scenes that were cut from the released film for being too controversial.

Open details →

Russell revisits the life of composer Edward Elgar, using his own music as the score and featuring evocative, visually rich scenes, often set in the Malvern Hills where Elgar grew up.

Open details →

Rock star Roddy Usher is confined to an insane asylum after murdering his wife. There, he is given various shock treatments by Nurse Smith and Dr Calahari, resulting in a series of bizarre and nightmarish adventures.

Open details →

A detective team apply new techniques to old crimes as they solve cold cases.

Open details →

Celebrity Big Brother is a British reality television game show in which a number of celebrity contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize being donated to the winner's nominated charity at the end of the run.

Open details →

A documentary portrait about the life and times of the infamous hellraiser, who died in May 1999, having starred in more than 100 films.

Open details →

A short musical directed by Ken Russell.

Open details →

Filmmaker Ken Russell poses the question: "What is a true English folk song, if there is such a thing?" After recieving an indifferent response from his dog, Russell journeys around the English countryside seeking for an answer. He encounters and interviews such famous artists as Donovan, Fairport Convention, Osibisa, Eliza Carthy, So What, Edward II and The Albion Band, among others.

Open details →

Four erotic short films, all with similar unexpected endings: 'The Dutch Master': a woman who enters a living painting; 'The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch': a woman is lured by noises from a chamber; 'Vroom Vroom Vroooom': a motorcycle transforms into a woman; and 'Wet': a hot tub salesman seduced by a woman.

Open details →

The history of film and video censorship in Great Britain.

Open details →

Documentary covering the career of French composer Georges Delerue, famous for film scores for such films as Platoon, Contempt, Shoot the Piano Player, and Jules and Jim.

Open details →

A young girl named Alice travels through a century of Russian history, from Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embody ideological conflicts crossing politics, art and cultural movements.

Open details →

A writer taking a rest in a country hotel is obsessed with a strange woman in the same hotel. The woman seems to observe him in provocative ways, but he does not dare to approach her. One day he follows her to her room and listens to strange “erotic” sounds from inside, and begins to have erotic thoughts.

Open details →

Frank Stubbs (Timothy Spall) is a down-at-heel ticket tout with grand ideas. He has an ambition to become a 'high class' promoter of famous and talented performers. In reality, his ambitions tend to outstrip his capabilities.

Open details →

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Open details →

Utilising the music of eminent composer Arnold Bax, this biographical docudrama focuses on Bax's complex relationships with pianist Harriet Cohen and dancer Annie.

Open details →

This melodrama investigates the life of a sex worker, in a pseudo-documentary style.

Open details →

In his hometown of Southampton, Ken Russell takes his young son and his aunts out to dinner, but the new traffic restrictions mean he can't get near the place. Traffic signs force him onto a sightseeing tour of town, then the ferry port looms ...

Open details →

Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.

Open details →

A cine-opera retelling of the legend of Boudica, warrior queen and her uprising against the Roman occupiers of Britain.

Open details →

A plucky young Jewish boy traverses the globe on a quest to warm the Führer's heart with the gift of a cuddly feline. (The result of a challenge from Melvyn Bragg to produce a film that Ken Russell himself would be eager to see banned.)

Open details →

A 'radical Brontë' ballet for young people.

Open details →

A short directed by Ken Russell.

Open details →

Russell revisits the life of composer Edward Elgar, using his own music as the score and featuring evocative, visually rich scenes, often set in the Malvern Hills where Elgar grew up.

Open details →

Rock star Roddy Usher is confined to an insane asylum after murdering his wife. There, he is given various shock treatments by Nurse Smith and Dr Calahari, resulting in a series of bizarre and nightmarish adventures.

Open details →

A short musical directed by Ken Russell.

Open details →

Marine veteran and former middleweight boxing champion Julian Taylor loses control in a bar fight and ends up serving time for aggravated assault. Soon after his arrival, Julian is introduced to Captain Brown, a menacing, overbearing guard who tags him "Dogboy" and orders him to a claustrophobic dormitory called the doghouse. There, Julian meets fellow inmate Willy Owens and learns that the prison's vicious attack dogs are used to catch and kill escaping prisoners.

Open details →

Filmmaker Ken Russell poses the question: "What is a true English folk song, if there is such a thing?" After recieving an indifferent response from his dog, Russell journeys around the English countryside seeking for an answer. He encounters and interviews such famous artists as Donovan, Fairport Convention, Osibisa, Eliza Carthy, So What, Edward II and The Albion Band, among others.

Open details →

Scientist Joe Hartman introduces self-proclaimed Middle Eastern psychic Uri Geller to America.

Open details →

Four erotic short films, all with similar unexpected endings: 'The Dutch Master': a woman who enters a living painting; 'The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch': a woman is lured by noises from a chamber; 'Vroom Vroom Vroooom': a motorcycle transforms into a woman; and 'Wet': a hot tub salesman seduced by a woman.

Open details →

A young girl named Alice travels through a century of Russian history, from Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embody ideological conflicts crossing politics, art and cultural movements.

Open details →

A writer taking a rest in a country hotel is obsessed with a strange woman in the same hotel. The woman seems to observe him in provocative ways, but he does not dare to approach her. One day he follows her to her room and listens to strange “erotic” sounds from inside, and begins to have erotic thoughts.

Open details →

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Open details →

Utilising the music of eminent composer Arnold Bax, this biographical docudrama focuses on Bax's complex relationships with pianist Harriet Cohen and dancer Annie.

Open details →

A biopic of Czech composer Martinu in two parts: the first part is a recurring dream; the second, a Freudian analysis of the dream.

Open details →

This melodrama investigates the life of a sex worker, in a pseudo-documentary style.

Open details →

In his hometown of Southampton, Ken Russell takes his young son and his aunts out to dinner, but the new traffic restrictions mean he can't get near the place. Traffic signs force him onto a sightseeing tour of town, then the ferry port looms ...

Open details →

An exploration of composer Anton Bruckner's numeromania during a nervous breakdown and stay at a sanatorium.

Open details →

Born to a rich landowner in the waning days of the Victorian era, Ursula Brangwen grows into a beautiful young woman full of imagination and ambition. The free-spirited Ursula begins to feel trapped by her prim surroundings, but her life changes when she has an erotic experience with Winifred, a bisexual teacher. From then on, Ursula puts all of her passion and creativity into the pursuit of sexual fulfillment. But her insatiable quest becomes a source of anguish.

Open details →

Moving with astonishing assurance through time and space, Russell recreates his life in a series of unconventional interconnected episodes – his thirties childhood in Southampton; his first sexual experience (watching Disney’s Pinocchio); his schooldays at the Nautical College, Pangbourne; early careers in the Merchant Marine and the Royal Air Force; dancing days at the Shepherds Bush Ballet Club; and of course his career as a filmmaker, beginning with an extraordinary interview with Huw Weldon for a job on Monitor.

Open details →

When an archaeologist uncovers a strange skull in a foreign land, the residents of a nearby town begin to disappear, leading to further inexplicable occurrences.

Open details →

London, England, November 5th, 1892, Guy Fawkes Night. The famous playwright Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas discreetly go to a luxury brothel where the owner, Alfred Taylor, has prepared a surprise for the renowned author: a private and very special performance of his play Salome, banned by the authorities, in which Taylor himself and the peculiar inhabitants of the exclusive establishment will participate.

Open details →

A feat that fully matches its title, an alphabetical trawl through both the history of British music and Russell's own likes and dislikes, the latter summed up by a scene in which he takes a phone call and listens for a bit before concluding that 'it's either an obscene call or the beginning of Michael Tippett's Fourth Symphony.' Gleefully exploiting an already contrived format, Russell uses alphabetical coincidence as an excuse to throw wildly disparate material together: Elgar is fused with Elton John, Holst with Heavy Metal and Punk with Purcell.

Open details →

Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.

Open details →

Ken Russell's engrossing examination of the great 20th-century composer tells Williams' story through the eyes of his widow, Ursula, with personal remberances from those who knew him.

Open details →

Between 1798 and 1812, the wild, romantic country of the English Lake District saw an intense concentrated flowering of literary genius. At its centre is poet William Wordsworth, born in the region, who lived there almost all his life with his beloved sister Dorothy. Around him, as the genius of the age, gathered other poets and writers – Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas de Quincey.

Open details →

The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.

Open details →

In the 19th century, Romantic composer/pianist Franz Liszt tries to end his hedonistic ways but keeps getting sucked back in by his seductive fellow composer Richard Wagner.

Open details →

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

Open details →

Famed composer Gustav Mahler reflects on the tragedies of his life and failing marriage while traveling by train.

Open details →

In the Paris of the 1910s, brash young sculptor Henri Gaudier begins a creative partnership with an older writer, Sophie Brzeska. Though the couple is 20 years apart in age, Gaudier finds that his untamed work is complemented by the older woman's cultural refinement. He then moves to London with Brzeska, where he falls in with a group of avant-garde artists. There, Gaudier encounters yet another artistic muse in passionate suffragette Gosh Boyle.

Open details →

When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place.

Open details →

In 1634 France, charismatic Father Urbain Grandier becomes the target of a sexually obsessed nun’s witchcraft accusations, which corrupt church and state officials are all too happy to exploit.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Open details →

Composer, conductor and teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexual tendencies by marrying, but unfortunately, he chooses wacky nymphomaniac Nina, whom he is unable to satisfy.

Open details →

Russell's composer biopics were usually labours of love. However, this was the opposite: Russell regarded the music of Richard Strauss 'bombastic, sham and hollow', and despised the composer for claiming to be apolitical while cosying up to the Nazi regime. Strauss is depicted in a variety of grotesquely caricatured situations: attacked by nuns after adopting Nietzsche's philosophy, duels with jealous husbands, literally batters his critics into submission with his music, and glorifies the women in his life and fantasies.

Open details →