Alan Bennett
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- DirectorStuart BurgeStarsThora HirdSteven BeardDoris, aged seventy-five, is a tidy woman - and when she suffers a fall after trying to clear up after her considerably less thorough home help, Zulema, it becomes apparent that her constant nagging may have been responsible for her husband's early death. Alone and injured, she wonders whether the only place left for her in society is a care home which she distrusts. Resisting this with all her being, she decides she'd rather die on her own in considerable pain than live in a care home 'smelling of pee'.
- DirectorStuart BurgeStarsThora HirdViolet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her one hundredth birthday. This, however, perplexes Violet as she wanders far back in her memory to an age where telegrams brought news of death on a battlefield. Violet ruminates about a long-lost love to her only real friend, a gay male nurse at the home named Francis, who ultimately dies of AIDS.
- DirectorPatrick GarlandStarsPatricia RoutledgeMiss Fozzard, a spinster in late middle age who works in a department store, is slightly ridiculous, but aware that she is. Her emotionally-impoverished life takes a definite turn for the worse when she's forced to take in her disabled older brother, to whom she's never been close and who, since his brain injury, openly mocks his sister. Then some slight foot trouble brings her to the attention--and brings her the attentions--of a podiatrist. In a way that's not what she dreamed of or would have imagined, Miss Fozzard is about to get a taste of life.
- DirectorStuart BurgeStarsAlan BennettMild, middle-aged Graham Whittaker (who we learn is a repressed homosexual with a history of mild mental health problems) finds life becoming complicated as his mother, with whom he still lives, reunites with an old flame named Frank Turnbull. Graham becomes increasingly jealous when Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mam, especially when Frank proposes marriage while simultaneously suggesting Graham moves out of the house to a hostel. But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out he triumphantly confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process.
- DirectorStuart BurgeGiles FosterStarsJulie WaltersLesley is an aspiring actress, who, after a series of unpromising extra roles on television programmes such as Crossroads, finds what she believes to be her big break as the adventurous Travis in a new film for the West German market. It is not clear to what extent Lesley understands that she is appearing in a soft pornographic film.
- DirectorGavin MillarStarsJulie WaltersClean freak Marjory gradually comes to realise that her husband, Stuart, who works in a slaughterhouse, is using his employment to cover the fact that he's a particularly dangerous criminal. He regularly goes out with his Alsatian, Tina, (whom Marjory has barred from entering the house), and returns late at night. This usually culminates in brutal sexual advances which Marjory finds distasteful but feels powerless to reject. She is so alienated from the outside world that she subsumes all emotion in her domestic routine - her control of which becomes gradually more threatened as her husband becomes the subject of both police and media attention. When he is arrested and tried for a series of murders, Marjory struggles to maintain a low profile, and to continue with her routine as normal, but in the process discovers a damning piece of evidence which links her husband to the killings. However, she receives a telephone call announcing that he has been acquitted (due to lack of evidence) before she is able to decide upon a course of action. When he returns home, Marjory now has to deal with the horrific realisation that she'll be sharing her home with a serial murderer. As an ultimate sign of her lapsed control, Tina finally gains entry into the house. Marjory contemplates making the evidence known.
- DirectorGiles FosterStarsPatricia RoutledgeA middle-aged woman contemplates her life after she is admitted to hospital.
- DirectorAlasdair MacmillanStarsJulie WaltersVictoria WoodAlan BennettJulie Walters stars in new sketches by four accomplished writers who helped make her famous.
- DirectorGiles FosterStarsThora HirdHugh LloydJulie WaltersMr and Mrs Rhodes get a visit from a novice social worker trying to help, but her inefficiency soon shows through.
- DirectorRichard EyreStarsTrevor PeacockAlan MacNaughtanRobert HinesFranz, a young man, works in a dye factory in Prague. One day he notices a skin-rash, like eczema, growing on his hands. All attempts to treat it with ointment fail, and the rash gradually spreads over his body. After complaining to the management he is laid off work; his relationship with his fiancee is affected. In an attempt to get compensation from his former employers he goes to insurance firm Assicurazion Generali, where he encounters an enigmatic clerk called Kafka.
- DirectorGavin MillarStarsAlan BennettHelen FraserDavid MajorWhen Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sure he's there if his father ever regains consciousness. As he hates his job as a schoolteacher, and his home-life with his wife, her senile mother and their insolent teenage son, he has no qualms about lingering around the hospital. But as days turn into weeks, his father obstinately refuses to 'slip away', and Denis' motivation for staying by his father's bedside has more and more to do with Valery, a young nurse.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsHugh LloydPatricia RoutledgeAlan BennettArthur Dodsworth has recently retired. He lives alone except for his budgie and memories of his late wife Winnie. One afternoon his nap is interrupted by the doorbell; his former secretary, Peggy Prothero, has come to visit. A brash, charmless woman who seems to take no pleasure in anything but putting people down, Miss Prothero wants to fill her old boss in on all the changes that have taken place at work since he left. Dodsworth isn't very curious, and as the visit wears on it puts a little strain on his politeness and patience. Miss Prothero doesn't enjoy it much either, but lingers on as there's a bombshell she wants to drop. The docketing system Dodsworth introduced thirty years earlier, which revolutionised the firm, has been scrapped by her adored new boss Mr Skinner. The crowning achievement of Dodsworth's career has just become obsolete, and she wants to tell him all about it.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsPrunella ScalesPatricia RoutledgePete PostlethwaiteDoris and Doreen work for a large unnamed corporation. Changes are afoot, though they are not entirely sure what they are. Equipped with an indepth knowledge of regulations and paperwork they feel compelled to get to the bottom of it.
- StarsPeter CookDudley MooreChris KaranNot Only...But Also, most famously showcased Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in there so-called 'Dagenham dialogues' in which Pete (a nasal know-all who has utter confidence in his surreal and ill-informed philosophies on life) and Dud (credulous, dim-witted and scruffy) discuss all manner of subjects, bedecked in cloth caps and Macs.
- DirectorJonathan KentStarsImelda StauntonSpinster Irene puts pen to paper to complain about the many, many wrongs she sees around her. However, she ends up on the wrong side of the law when she misreads completely the situation of the family living in the house opposite.
- DirectorNicholas HytnerStarsLesley ManvilleSusan is not cut out to be the vicar's wife. When she meets Mr. Ramesh in his shop, she discovers what else life can offer.
- DirectorJonathan KentStarsKristin Scott ThomasCelia runs an antiques shop. But after she is given an old frame containing the smudgy drawing of a finger, she discovers she's less of an expert than she thought.