Movies: Derek Jacobi

How did ancient Egyptians build the Great Pyramid at Giza, joining two million blocks of heavy stone with amazing precision? Who were the leaders who built these enormous structures, and what did these tombs signify? Host David Macaulay explores the...

Two orphaned brothers turned radical Christian hitmen venture to rural Ilkley under the instruction of Father Enoch. Their mission: assassinate the famed atheist writer Professor John Huxley....

After a violent storm, Ali awakens on a deserted beach, sick and disoriented. They'll be looking for him and he must keep moving. Ivan, a local Cuban, takes Ali to the apartment of his sister Manuela, a dancer in Havana. At first, she is apprehensive...

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns f...

Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chanse...

Author David Macaulay hosts CATHEDRAL, based on his award-winning book. Using a combination of spectacular location sequences and cinema-quality animation, the program surveys France's most famous churches. Travel back to 1214 to explore the design o...

At the age of forty Dame Margot Fonteyn is considered to be past her best as a prima ballerina and Ninette de Valois is reducing her roles at the Royal Ballet. Then the exciting young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, a recent defector to the West, come...

This existential comedic drama follows an ailing film director as he begins to shoot what he believes to be his final work of art. What starts out as a normal film for him changes dramatically as the deterioration of his health progresses. The result...

The journalist Alf Mattson gets thoroughly drunk at his birthday party, where his wife announces that she intends to divorce him. He is knocked down on the street and is later carried home by a friend. The next day he is to fly to Budapest in order t...

The Mischief Theatre Company return as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are this time determined to ignore a BBC blacklisting by hijacking a live production of Charles Dickens' famous festive fable. Yet they struggle with studio direction an...

Superficial people are revealed and drastically changed by circumstance or luck in this a tale of death, seduction, blackmail and theft among British and Americans in Florence in the turbulent days just before World War II....

The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests....

Luca is the pre-eminent artist of his generation and at the peak of his career, lauded, feted and collected by all. He is the ultimate showman however, his fortune and fame have left him agoraphobic and crippled by depression. He hasn't left his hous...

The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion....

A journalist investigates a series of murders that follows the discovery of an unpublished novel by Charles Dickens in the cellar of an old Thames pub....

General Othello's marriage is destroyed when vengeful Ensign Iago convinces him that his new wife has been unfaithful....

Complex tale about small and big players in the African diamond business wrapped around a murder of US senator's daughter....

Broadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. Award-winning filmmaker Rick McKay filmed over 100 of the greatest stars ever to work on Broadway or in H...

IN 1988, rising star Kenneth Branagh tackled the role of Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark for the first time in his professional career under the guidance of celebrated actor Derek Jacobi. Narrated by Patrick Stewart, this hour-long film documents how...

Swords fly as Beowulf battles the evil Grendel in this exciting animated adaptation of the epic poem. Incorporating fascinating sketch art and featuring the voice of Joseph Fiennes as Beowulf. found....