Brian Hall Movies

Veteran comedian and comedy writer Tim Brooke-Taylor played the title role in this British sitcom. The story concerned the various misadventures of Tom and Alice Hammond (Brooke-Taylor and Diane Keen), who had been comfortably married for 20 years. Long the breadwinner of the family, Tom found his status diminished when wife Alice, an aspiring writer, managed to publish a best-selling novel. The humor arose from the sudden fame thrust upon Alice and the equally sudden subordinate position that Tom ended up assuming in the household -- and in the eyes of the reading public. The 13 episodes of You Must Be the Husband were beamed out to British viewers in two "series," from September 8 to October 20, 1987, and from February 29 to April 4, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Mackenzie's masterfully directed British crime drama features a star-making performance by Bob Hoskins as Harold Shand, a successful London gangster whose world falls apart over the course of one weekend. Shand controls the London docks and is planning a big real estate deal, financed by money from the American mob and given the okay by the London organization. His world is sweet -- he lives in a fancy penthouse, he owns a yacht, and has a sensitive and intelligent mistress. But suddenly a bomb explodes inside his Rolls Royce, another bomb destroys a pub he owns, and a third is found inside his casino. Shand can't understand who would suddenly want him dead, particularly over the Easter weekend, when representatives from the American mafia are coming into town to discuss investing in Shands's real estate project. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Originally broadcast from February 19 to October 25, 1979, the second and final season of BBC2's Fawlty Towers finds Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) continuing to insult and terrorize guests and staffers alike, while Basil's wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) proves anew that she is the most spectacularly unhelpful "helpmate" in the history of domestic relations. The first of the season's six episodes, "Communication Problems," finds Basil the prime suspect when a wealthy and deaf-as-a-post guest insists that she's been robbed. In "The Psychiatrist," Basil's inherent paranoia and Sybil's suspicions that her husband is cheating on her reach hitherto unimagined heights. An American guest's demands for after-hour room service drives Basil batty and the other guests to mount a "revolt" in "Waldorf Salad." "The Kipper and the Corpse" is set in motion by the death of a guest after being served breakfast in bed, obliging Basil to hide both the body and the breakfast! "The Anniversary" is a slapstick comedy of errors involving a surprise party and a missing guest of honor. And in the concluding episode, "Basil the Rat," the hotel's Spanish waiter, Manuel (Andrew Sachs), courts disaster when he adopts a "Siberian hamster." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A former policeman investigates a series of murders by centering on an organization which re-creates medieval battles. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Terminally rude hotelier Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and his garrulous, supremely unhelpful wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) open the doors of their Torquay inn to a wide variety of hapless customers as Fawlty Towers launches its first season on BBC2. Originally telecast on September 19, 1975, the first of the season's six episodes is "A Touch of Class," in which Basil is (mis)led to believe that his latest customer, one Lord Melbury, will at last bring some prestige to his seedy establishment. Next up is "Builders," wherein waitress Polly (Connie Booth) is left in charge of the hotel while "repairs" are made in the lobby. This is followed by "The Wedding Party," in which snoopy Basil goes to ridiculous extremes to catch his guests committing extramarital shenanigans. Also: in "Hotel Inspectors," Basil agonizes over the possibility that he has insulted an important government functionary; our hero holds a "Gourmet Night" at the hotel, with disastrous results; and in the classic season finale "The Germans," a chaotic fire drill threatens to spark a nasty international incident. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The British "Confessions" film series was reminiscent of the "Carry On" series, albeit far, far dirtier. Many fans consider the first entry, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, to be the best of the batch. Based on a supposedly autobiographical novel by Timothy Lea, the film stars Robin Askwith as an apprentice window washer with a voyeuristic streak. Nearly everyone with whom Askwith comes in contact is an oversexed, underdressed female. Potato-shaped
Dandy Nichols plays the protagonist's mother. An anachronism even before it was released, Confessions of a Window Cleaner was nonetheless successful enough to inspire several sequels, none of which were released to American theatres. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi