William Boyd

An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealth and comedic fame from poverty, his turbulent personal life and his run-ins with the FBI.

The Trench tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on the front lines.

An epic about anthropologists who hunt and capture pygmies for study back in Europe, in an attempt to illustrate the link between man and ape.

In this sophomoric comedy, a lusty adolescent British hockey team heads for Holland where they find something far more interesting than tulips and windmills: gorgeous, lusty women. They are so busy pursuing romance that they forget all about their upcoming match.

A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.

In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.

Morgan Leafy is a secretary to the British High Commissioner to an Africa nation. Leafy is a man that makes himself useful to his boss, the snobbish Arthur Fanshawe, who has no clue about what's going on around him, but who wants to use his secretary to carry on his dirty work, which involves getting one of the most powerful men in the country to do business with his country.The young secretary has an eye for beautiful women around him, especially Hazel, a native beauty, with whom he is having an affair. Things get complicated because Sam Adekunle, a man running for president of the country, wants a favor from Leafy in return after he has accepted the invitation to visit London. The proposition involves swaying a prominent doctor's opposition to a plan that will make Adenkule filthy rich.

Martin works at the local radio station, which just hired a new scriptwriter with a reputation for great drama, Pedro Carmichael. Martin’s aunt Julia, not related by blood, returns home after many years away and Martin falls for her. Once Pedro finds out about this romance, he starts incorporating details of it into the script of his daily drama series. Soon, Martin and Julia are not only hearing about their fictional selves over the radio, but about what they are going to do next.

Scoop is a 1987 TV film directed by Gavin Millar, adapted by William Boyd from the 1938 satirical novel Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It was produced by Sue Birtwistle with executive producers Nick Elliott and Patrick Garland. Original music was made by Stanley Myers. The story is about a reporter sent to Ishmaelia (a fictional African state) by accident.

Guy Crouchback joins the war effort during World War 2, an idealistic quest to join the forces of good in the fight against evil. But his efforts is not rewarded, he never has any chance to join any real fighting, circumstances always prevent it. Instead he finds himself in the middle of an army full of cowards, incompetents and a few outright evil men. They of course reap the fortunes of war, promotions and fame, but never Crouchback. His war is just an endless list of transfers and an hopeless but noble quest for righteousness.

In 1609, William Shakespeare published a collection of 154 sonnets, creating what is arguably the greatest lyric sequence in English literature - and at the center of this masterpiece lies a mystery that has endured for centuries. What are the identities of “the young man” and “the dark lady” to whom all but two of the sonnets allude? This moving performance brings to life the gritty reality of Shakespeare’s England, bits of the Bard’s plays and poems, and the consummate poet and dramatist himself as it exposes these personages unseen but so keenly felt in Shakespeare’s sonnets and in his life. Rupert Graves, Tom Sturridge, Indira Varma, Anna Chancellor, and Zoë Wanamaker star. Contains mature themes and explicit language. Some content may be objectionable. Produced by the Open University.

A young boy is taken from his boarding school by a secretive stranger known simply as "the Captain".

Based on William Boyd's short story collection, The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth follows 22-year-old Bethany as she flits from one possible career to another looking for answers to life's most important questions.

Novelist William Boyd looks back on his long friendship with fellow writer Martin Amis, who died in May 2023 at the age of 73. Boyd's focus is on what many consider to be Martin's most successful work, 1984's Money, which introduced readers to the hedonistic would-be film-maker John Self. The character would be portrayed by actor Nick Frost in the BBC's dramatization of the novel in 2010, and here Boyd also discusses the challenges of screen adaptation generally, and why bringing Amis's work to the small screen was always going to be particularly challenging.

After a defector is murdered, British agent Fielding Scott is assigned to track down a mole in his own ranks in 1961 Berlin. His investigation leads him into a deadly web of crime, betrayal and paranoia. Who can Scott trust in the city of spies?

Logan Mountstuart, writer and adventurer, narrates his life, from the Paris of the twenties to the eighties in London, passing through the New York of the fifties.

A young woman finds out that her mother worked as a spy for the British Secret Service during World War II and has been on the run ever since.

The biggest names in writing, acting and directing come together in a series of shorts on Sky1 HD this festive period. Experience a novel Noel with these original, uplifting and highly creative slices of silent cinema that prove actions do speak louder than words. Starring Mackenzie Crook, Bill Nighy, Peter Capaldi, Ross Kemp, and a host of major stars, each of the 10 Minute Tales promises to be a unique and engaging look at life, loss, and love.

Sword of Honour is a two-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s semi-autobiographical World War II trilogy, initially aired Channel 4 on 2 January 2001. Guy Crouchback embarks on a heroic quest to regain his honour and manhood; however, his encounters with the absurd reality of life in the British Army — strewn with bureaucratic blunders, military debacles, and indelibly eccentric characters — proves to be more of a challenge than facing the enemy itself.