BBC Movies

The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie team up with UNIT to fend off a worldwide invasion of Cybermen. Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart puts you in the picture concerning the action in the missing episodes.

Screen newcomer Ruth Wilson assumes the role of Charlotte Brontë's eponymous heroine in director Susanna White and screenwriter Sandy Welch's adaptation of the classic 1847 novel. Jane Eyre is a plain but spirited woman who leaves behind the cruel confines of a charity home to work as a governess for the enigmatic Edward Rochester (Toby Stephens). The master of Thornfield Hall, Rochester hires Jane to watch over the young Adele. As a series of increasingly strange occurrences begin to unfold in Thornfield Hall's North Tower, the young governess attempts to maintain her virtue while entering into a soulful relationship with her unrepentantly lecherous employer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

When the BBC revived Doctor Who, its long running cult sci-fi series, in 2005, it snared an outstanding lead in Christopher Eccleston, but failed to anticipate Eccleston's withdrawal from the program, one year in. The network's apparent fear of a decline in viewership given the arrival of a new doctor (David Tennant) caused it to segue away from storylines centered around that character. Thus, the Series 2 episodes place far greater emphasis on the doctor's sidekick, Rose Tyler (Bille Piper) (and the members of her clan, including her mom, ex-boyfriend, and deceased dad) than on Who himself. In Series Two, the network also attempts to revive long-dormant Dr. Who characters from the 1970s, including Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen), in an episode about the fate of one of the Doctor's former assistants. As the Series opens, Dr. Who assumes control of the TARDIS and embarks, episode by episode, on a number of disparate adventures. These include episodes in which: Queen Victoria battles vampires, Charles Dickens battles evil spirits, Dr. Who fights Satan in the pit of a black hole, a little girl discovers that her illustrations automatically come to life, cybermen wrest control of London, and television sets transform thousands of viewers into flesh-devouring zombies. The one connecting story that links all of the episodes in Series Two involves the shady and mysterious doings of a nefarious group called The Torchwood Institute, which later received its own spinoff program. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Most of the six episodes in the first season of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras follow a similar plot arc: bitter day player Andy (Gervais) trades barbs with his friend and colleague Maggie (Scottish actress Ashley Jensen), lobbies unsuccessfully for his agent (Merchant) to find him a proper acting gig, ingratiates himself with one of the big-name actors on whose films he's working, and finds himself stymied by either Maggie's verbal diarrhea or his own prickly personality. Within these narrow confines, however, Gervais and Merchant find just as much comic material as they did in the quotidian workplace of their breakout hit, The Office. The two shows definitely share an aesthetic, from their dry comedic sensibility to the laugh-track-free style that underscores their long, uncomfortable silences. Unlike the ensemble-style The Office, however, Extras focuses on just three core characters and a revolving cast of guest stars, including the celebrities who lend their names to the episode titles. Hollywood stars Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart all spoof their public personae with glee, as do U.K. personalities Ross Kemp and Les Dennis. Written and directed jointly by Gervais and Merchant, Extras is a joint production of the BBC, where it ran in its native England, and HBO, where it appeared in America. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

 

 

 

 

Tony (Neil Morrissey) arranges his roommate Gary's bachelor party after Gary (Martin Clunes) agrees to marry longtime girlfriend Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) in "Stag Night," the opening salvo of the sixth and final season of Men Behaving Badly. This episode is followed, perhaps inevitably, by "Wedding," with both prospective bride and prospective groom wondering if they're making the right move. In "Jealousy," Gary, Tony, Dorothy, and upstairs neighbor Deborah (Leslie Ash) take a weekend motor trip that is blighted by jealousy and an unshakeable smoking habit. "Watching TV" finds Gary, Dorothy, and Deborah seemingly ganging up on Tony during an evening in front of the tube. Gary and Dorothy visit a relationship counselor and Tony wants to get (mildly) kinky with Deborah in the next episode, "Ten." The following installment, "Sofa," revolves around Gary's reluctance to part with a favored piece of furniture. "Jingle B***s" features a Christmas celebration all but ruined by Gary. Though this last-named episode officially brought the series to a close, Men Behaving Badly returned for a trio of Christmas specials in 1998, "Performance" (will Gary and Dorothy have a baby?), "Gary in Love" (an eventful business trip to Worthing), and "Delivery" (Tony gets a job at the same time father-to-be Gary loses his). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi