Alan Bates

When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.

Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.

In 1930s England, a group of pretentious rich and famous gather together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.

An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.

Sentenced to spend out the rest of his adult life laboring in the harsh deserts of Egypt, the Thracian slave Spartacus gets a new lease on life when he is purchased by the obese owner of a Roman gladiator school. Moved by the defiance of an Ethiopian warrior, Draba, Spartacus leads a slave uprising which threatens Rome's status quo. As Spartacus gains sympathy within the Roman Senate, he also makes a powerful enemy in form of Marcus Lucinius Crassus, who makes it a matter of personal honor to crush the rebellion.

Growing up in the sheltered confines of a 1920s English coal-mining community, free-spirited sisters Gudrun and Ursula explore erotic love with a wealthy playboy and a philosophical educator, with cataclysmic results for all four.

A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.

An ambitious Judge and an exacting Colonel re-open the sixty-year-old case of Pierre Brossard, an escaped Nazi collaborator accused of murdering seven Jews. Now an old man living a sheltered life within the Catholic Church, Brossard is also being trailed by mysterious hit men, determined to kill him before he's arrested.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.

A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employer while attempting to please her glamorously stuck-up roommate Meredith.

British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.

Bathsheba Everdine, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men.

A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.

Martin, an I.R.A. hitman, is seen by a Catholic priest while carrying out a hit. He grows a bond with the priest and his niece. But his past and his former employers put all their lives in danger.

When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.

Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.

Mad with grief after the death of his Kiowa wife, Roe awaits death under a tree with her body beside him. She begins to haunt him because he won't bury her. His father, who bought him the wife, thinks her sister might reason with Roe.

Rock-and-roll singer Mary Rose Foster's romantic relationships and mental health are continuously imperilled by the demands of life on the road.

An Englishman with a grudge against an insurance company for a disallowed claim fakes his own death and escapes to Spain, but is soon pursued by an insurance investigator.

At the memorial for his father, WWII hero Major James Prentis (Alan Bates), John (Lambert Wilson) confesses a dark family secret to his own son Martin (David Oakes), something that he has harbored for over twenty years. A suspense drama, it explores the complex nature of heroism, betrayal, and father-son relationships. This is a reworking of the director's original 1993 film entitled simply, Shuttlecock.

In the not-too-distant future Berlin is shocked by a series of spectacular suicides; a policeman's investigations lead him to a beautiful, enigmatic woman and the revelation of a sinister plot to manipulate the population through mass hypnosis.

An adaptation of the classic, "The Prince and the Pauper" is the retelling of Edward Tudor and young Thomas Canty, two amazing look-alikes caught up in imperial intrigue and scandal. In fleeing from his violent father, Tom stumbles into the palace courtyard, and is seen by young Prince Edward, who takes him in. Each desiring to see what the other's life is like, the boys impulsively switch identities... little knowing what disaster lies ahead at this fault of thought. And soon Thomas becomes a pawn in the hands of Edward's malicious and greedy uncle, who would have the kingdom for himself.

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

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.

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories.

Anthology drama series.

Targeted for assassination by his first wife and his evil brother, a young sultan must marry by the next full moon or he will lose his kingdom. His uncertainty over his newfound bride causes her to stall the sultan with a series of fantastic stories to ease the tension and stall her impending execution.

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Laurence Olivier Presents is a British television series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978. The plays, with the exception of Hindle Wakes, all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on productions staged at the National Theatre during the period when Olivier was Artistic Director. In addition to distinguished English actors, the casts assembled for these productions included several Hollywood stars, such as Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton.

Spartacus, who was enslaved by the Romans after they murdered his father, leads fellow slaves in an attempt to overthrow the repressive Roman Empire.

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.

In the Beginning is a 2-part biblical television miniseries directed by Kevin Connor. It stars Martin Landau and Jacqueline Bisset and it premiered on NBC on November 12, 2000.

Dramatization of Nancy Mitford's novel about three aristocratic young girls' adventures in love.

Oliver is a middle-aged lecturer in Comparative Religion, with a passion for trivia, crosswords, and anagrams, and a very strange sense of humour. Having been fired from the University of the Rhondda Valley, and with no family ties, he decides to set off on a quest to find 'Aristotle', a setter of crosswords. He teams up with WPC Diane Priest, who has just been suspended for asking too many questions about a local murder that seems to implicate the Chief Constable. Pursued by 'The Man with No Name', the unlikely duo visit Shrewsbury, North Yorkshire, Durham, Hadrian's Wall, and Kirkleven in the Scottish highlands on their journey to find 'Aristotle' in the Orkney Isles.

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a 1978 BBC seven-part serial based on the eponymous 1886 book by the British novelist Thomas Hardy. The six-hour drama was written by dramatist Dennis Potter and directed by David Giles, with Alan Bates as the title character. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser, gets drunk at a fair and, for five guineas, sells his wife and child to a sailor. When the horror of his act finally sets in, Henchard swears he will not touch alcohol for twenty-one years. Through hard work and acumen, he becomes rich, respected, and eventually the mayor of Casterbridge. But eighteen years after his fateful oath, his wife and daughter return to Casterbridge, and his fortunes steadily decline.

Charles Dickens' bleak, passionate novel about the challenges of life in 19th-century London comes to life.

An English playwright sacrifices his health waiting for his play's make-or-break opening on Broadway.