Sam Miller Movies

Premiering May 13, 2002, on BBC1, the British espionage-adventure series Spooks pitted undercover agents of the country's MI-5 squad (the U.K. equivalent of the NSA) against international troublemakers and terrorists. Though extremely violent and almost unbearably tense, the series scored its biggest points by dramatizing the pressures brought to bear against "average" people engaged in a top-secret profession: For example, one of the many plot threads involved the love life of Senior Case Officer Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen), whose girlfriend was convinced that Tom was merely a lower-level computer tech. Other members of the "Spooks" team included Quinn's second-in-command, Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes), technical genius Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo), reckless Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter), and department head Harry Pierce (Peter Firth). During the series' first season on the air, Spooks made headlines throughout the British Isles by virtue of its explosive second episode, in which a popular soap opera actor, misleadingly advertised as one of the series' "stars," was abruptly and nastily killed off; thereafter, audiences could never take anything that happened on the series for granted -- and the viewership soared. Spooks debuted over the American A&E cable network under the title MI-5 on July 22, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Simon Beaufoy, of The Full Monty, scripted this British romantic comedy-drama. Like The Full Monty, this is also set among the working class of Sheffield, England. With his pal Steve (James Thornton) and others, Ray (Pete Postlethwaite) paints electrical pylons across the Yorkshire countryside, and that work separates him from his wife. When young Australian hitchhiker Gerry (Rachel Griffiths) wants to join the paint crew, Ray signs her up. Despite the age gap, it's not long before they're a twosome. Gerry moves in with Ray, and at one point, they both run about nude in an abandoned nuclear power plant. When Gerry decides to seduce Steve, triangular tensions escalate. The BBC's Sam Miller made his feature directorial debut with this film, shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this episode of This Life, Anna (Daniela Nardini) gets used to her new job dealing with the dregs of the legal system as she prepares to defend Truelove (Keith-Lee Castle), an out-of-work graphic designer accused of cheating the Housing Authority. His girlfriend, Delilah (Charlotte Bicknell), claims she'll testify on his behalf, but the devious young model is too busy seducing Miles (Jack Davenport) in the courtroom toilets. Meanwhile, Egg (Andrew Lincoln) experiences his own troubles settling into his new job, especially because fellow trainee Warren (Jason Hughes) seems so sorted. Warren's constant therapy-speak gets on Egg's nerves -- until Warren explains the working-class origins of his eagerness to please and helps Egg sort out some of his own issues. Meanwhile, Anna, keen to reduce her share of the rent, places an ad for the final room in the flat she shares with Miles, Egg, and Milly (Amita Dhiri). Warren confides to his therapist (Gillian McCutcheon) that he feels slighted by the close friendship the others share; finally, he plucks up his courage and asks if he can take the extra room. The others agree, but Warren's troubles are just beginning; Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White), his carefree young cousin, shows up looking for Warren to set her up with a job. Worried that she'll find out he's gay and blab to the family, he gives her the cold shoulder. Meanwhile, Delilah moves in on Miles -- and into the house. Season one, episode two of the cult-favorite British soap, This Life: Happy Families first aired on BBC 2 on March 25, 1996. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Often described as a more realistic alternative to Friends (or a less comprehensively gay Queer as Folk), this 1996-1997 British television hit tracked the sexual, personal, and professional misadventures of a quintet of young lawyers living together in a South London flat. Created by writer Amy Jenkins, who collaborated on the first three episodes with director Sam Miller, the show's high-drama, party-hard ethos brought the acid-house generation back into the TV fold and paved the way for a number of subsequent twentysomething soaps, from the aforementioned Queer as Folk to the Internet-themed Attachments. Although American audiences didn't get to see the show until it was broadcast in seemingly perpetual reruns on BBC America a few years later, only the program's Brit-pop- and trip-hop-heavy soundtrack seemed dated. The 11-episode first series, from 1996, chronicles the lives of brash, boozy junior barrister Anna Forbes (Daniela Nardini); Miles Andrews (Jack Davenport), Anna's posh, public-school arch nemesis/soul mate; Andrew "Egg" Cook (Andrew Lincoln), Miles' boyish, football-loving best friend; Milly Nassim (Amita Dhiri), Egg's cool, conflicted, control-freak of a girlfriend; and their therapy-addicted, working-class, defiantly gay friend, Warren Jones (Jason Hughes). Although these five characters share the same alma mater, it isn't until they all end up working at a pair of London legal firms that they enter the domestic constellation that will drive the program's drama. Some American audiences may not grasp the class and professional intricacies that add nuance to the characters' lust, envy, love, and friendship; others will savor the irony that crisp Milly is a more experienced solicitor than her inexperienced boyfriend; that hardworking "pouf" Warren is initially such a threat to likably laddish Egg; and that rich Miles and by-the-bootstraps Anna both long for the same exalted position as successful barristers. Indeed, professional intrigue, as much as sex, drives This Life's plot lines; Egg ditches his job in hopes of finding himself, leading to domestic tension with Milly and ultimately a new career; Anna angles for better cases any way she can, including a cozy friendship with a lesbian barrister; Miles finds himself on the opposite side of the courtroom from his manipulative father and feels threatened by Anna's burgeoning success; Milly indulges in a flirtation with her '60s-survivor boss and nurses a deep hatred of a beautiful blonde co-worker; and Warren finds his brash sexuality in conflict with his profession -- and with his desire not to scandalize his family. By the end of its first series, cult-favorite This Life had grown into a bona fide hit; but after 1997's 21-episode second series -- which featured heavier contributions from the supporting cast of Ramon Tikaram, Luisa Bradshaw-White, Steve John Shepherd, and Natasha Little -- the BBC decided not to continue. Some fans still trace rumors of a forthcoming third series, while others express gratitude that their favorite program went out on top. None of the principal participants besides Davenport (The Talented Mr. Ripley) has found further high-profile success, although Nardini, Jenkins, and Miller re-teamed for the similarly themed British film Elephant Juice. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The highly volatile and public marriage of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew is given a superficial once-over yet once again in this rash of 1990 "royalty" movies. The couple's highly-publicized scandals are touched on in this not so happily ever after ending to the fairy tale beginning of this royal romance. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Peter Davison stars as bespectacled, aristocratic private detective Albert Campion in this two-part adaptation of Margery Allingham's novel The Case of the Late Pig. The title character is Roland Isidore "Pig" Peters (Mike Charles), a lifelong bully who had been Campion's principal tormentor during his school days in the early 1900s. Although Campion would just as soon never see Peters again, he accepts a curiously poetic invitation to "Pig"'s funeral. Three months later, a former girlfriend of Campion asks him to solve a recent murder -- and the victim is none other than "Pig" Peters, who apparently has died twice! Ingredients essential to the story include the wrong body (and wrong species) in Peters' coffin, a shady information peddler (played by Michael Gough, better known as Alfred the butler in the Batman theatrical films), and a handful of ice cubes. In America, "The Case of the Late Pig" was telecast October 12 and 19, 1989, as the first "Campion" story to appear on the PBS anthology Mystery! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide