Silver Sirens

What’s On

Screenings of classic films on UK television and at the BFI cinema

Today

Appointment in London (1953)
1 1 1 +

The exploits of a squadron of Bomber Command during one month in 1943.

War Requiem (1989)

The Silent Enemy (1958)
1 1 1

The World War II exploits of a naval frogman in the Mediterranean.

Dick Powell Theatre

Persecution (1974)
1 1

A rich American woman in England is hated by her son and fearful that her murky past will be revealed.

The Way to the Stars (1945)
1 1 1 1 +

World War II as seen by the guests at a small hotel near an airfield.

Tomorrow

A Case for Dr Morelle

Dentist in the Chair (1960)
1 1

Students at a dental college discover that the instruments they have sold to their colleagues were stolen, and try to recover them with the aid of a burglar.

The Arrangement (1969)
1 1 1 1

A wealthy advertising man fails in a suicide attempt and spends his convalescence reflecting on his unsatisfactory emotional life.

The Great Escape (1963)
1 1 1 1

Allied prisoners plan to escape from a German prison camp.

Cottage to Let (1941)
1 1 1 +

Evacuated to Scotland, a Cockney helps prevent spies from kidnapping his inventor foster-father.

What a Carve Up! (1961)
1 1 1

A madman fakes his own death in order to murder his relatives.

Calling Paul Temple (1948)

A detective is called in to catch the murderer of the patients of a doctor who specialises in nervous disorders.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
1 1

Holmes and Watson meet as teenage students and trace mysterious murders to an eastern cult.

Beyond This Place (1959)

An American visiting London finds his supposedly dead father in prison serving a life sentence for murder; he delves into history and finds the real culprit.

Death Goes to School (1953)
1 1

Police investigate the murder of a teacher at an all-girls school and discover that the staff room is full of suspects.

Tuesday, 22nd August

A Case for Dr Morelle

The King and I (1956)
1 1 1 +

In the 1860s an Englishwoman becomes tutor to the children of the embattled King of Siam.

The South Bank Show

Angel Face (1952)
1 1 1

A demented girl murders her father and stepmother, involving her chauffeur, whom she finally kills, and commits suicide.

The Mill on the Floss (1937)
1 1

A Victorian mill owner and the lord of the manor start a family feud, which ends in tragedy.

Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945)

In 1880 Brighton, a publican’s wife plans to have her husband poisoned.

Not Wanted on Voyage (1957)
1 1

A necklace is stolen on an ocean liner.

Born Free (1966)
1 1 1 1

A Kenyan game warden and his wife rear three lion cubs, one of which presents them with a family.

Q Planes (1939)
1 1 1 +

A secret ray helps spies to steal test aircraft during proving flights.

Things to Come (1936)
1 1 1 1 1

War in 1940 is followed by plague, rebellion, a new glass-based society and the first rocketship to the moon.

The Final Test (1953)

My Brother Jonathan (1948)
1 1 1

The life of a small-town doctor who wanted to be a great surgeon.

Alcoa Theatre

13 East Street

Wednesday, 23rd August

A Case for Dr Morelle

Shadowlands (1993)
1 1 1 1 +

The emotionally repressed C S Lewis, Oxford don and famous writer of children’s books and works of popular theology, enters into a marriage of convenience with an American woman, whom he grows to love, only to learn that she has terminal cancer.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
1 1 1 1 1

An adventurer’s life with the Arabs, told in flashbacks after his accidental death in the thirties.

The Cruel Sea (1953)
1 1 1 1

Life and death on an Atlantic corvette during World War II.

Persecution (1974)
1 1

A rich American woman in England is hated by her son and fearful that her murky past will be revealed.

The Good Die Young (1954)
1 1 1 +

Four crooks, all with private problems, set out to rob a mail van.

Thursday, 24th August

Seance on Wet Afternoon (1964)

A Case for Dr Morelle

D’ye Ken John Peel

The Cruel Sea (1953)
1 1 1 1

Life and death on an Atlantic corvette during World War II.

A Place to Go (1964)
1 1 1

A young man depressed by his urban environment turns to crime.

Next to No Time (1958)
1 1

A meek-and-mild engineer crossing the Atlantic gains confidence when told than anything is possible during the hour ‘lost’ every day.

Alcoa Theatre

The Pickwick Papers (1952)
1 1 1 +

Various adventures of the Pickwick Club culminate in Mrs Bardell’s suit for breach of promise.

Treasures of the British Library

Dulcima (1971)
1 1

A farmer’s daughter reluctantly moves in with a persistent, lecherous old miser.

Friday, 25th August

A Case for Dr Morelle

Brandy for the Parson (1952)
1 1 1 +

A couple on a yachting holiday find themselves unwittingly smuggling brandy into Britain.

Gandhi (1982)
1 1 1 1 +

The life of the young Indian advocate who became a revolutionary, a saint and a martyr.

Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
1 1 1 1

Star-studded sinister and amusing stories, each with a twist in the tale, created by Roald Dahl.

The Final Test (1953)

The Shining (1980)
1 1 1 +

Under the influence of a desolate hotel where murders had occurred, a caretaker goes berserk and threatens his family.

Alcoa Theatre

Saturday, 26th August

My Brother’s Keeper (1948)
1 1 1

Two convicts escape, handcuffed together; one is violent, the other innocent.

A Case for Dr Morelle

Stage Struck (1958)
1 1 1 1

A young actress comes to New York intent on stardom....

The Man in the White Suit (1951)

A scientist produces a fabric that never gets dirty and never wears out. Unions and management are equally aghast.

The Baby and the Battleship (1956)
1 1

Two sailors hide an Italian baby on their battleship.

Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944)
1 1 1

Affected by childhood rape, a demure lady has a second chance in life as a daring gypsy.

The Dock Brief (1962)
1 1

An incompetent barrister defends his client on a murder charge. The client is found guilty but the sentence is quashed on the grounds of inadequate defence.

The Way Ahead (1944)
1 1 1 1 +

Adventures of a platoon of raw recruits during World War II.

Hobson’s Choice (1954)
1 1 1 1 +

In the 1890s a tyrannical Lancashire bootmaker is brought to heel by his plain-speaking daughter and her simple-minded husband.

Sky West and Crooked (1966)
1 1 1

A mentally retarded girl falls in love with a gypsy.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
1 1 1 1

Victorian scientists at sea are wrecked and captured by the mysterious captain of a futuristic submarine.

Sunday, 27th August

Marathon Man (1976)
1 1 1 1 +

A vicious Nazi returns from Uruguay to New York in search of diamonds that had been kept for him by his now-dead brother, and is outwitted by the young brother of an American agent he has killed.

The Baby and the Battleship (1956)
1 1

Two sailors hide an Italian baby on their battleship.

Old Mother Riley (1937)

Jurassic Park (1993)
1 1 1 1

Genetically re-created from blood taken from ancient mosquitoes, dinosaurs run amok in a theme park.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
1 1 1 1 1

British POWs in Burma are employed by the Japanese to build a bridge; meanwhile British agents seek to destroy it.

Hot Enough for June (1964)
1 1

A penniless writer is sent to Czechoslovakia on a goodwill mission and finds himself being used as a spy.

Treasures of the British Library

Murder at 3am (1953)
1 1

A police detective suspects that his sister’s boyfriend is a murderer.

The Great Escape (1963)
1 1 1 1

Allied prisoners plan to escape from a German prison camp.

Beyond This Place (1959)

An American visiting London finds his supposedly dead father in prison serving a life sentence for murder; he delves into history and finds the real culprit.

The Wild Geese (1978)
1 1 1 +

Adventures of four British mercenaries in a central African state.

Cross of Iron (1977)
1 1 1 +

Militarily and emotionally at the end of its tether, a German battalion is decimated while fighting the Russians in 1943.

Acknowledgements

Programme and film information obtained with thanks from myDigiGuide and BFI.