Tim Pigott-Smith

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) -- a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

A privileged middle-class girl raised in rural southern England gets a rude awakening to the world when a family move forces her to contend with the unseemly inhabitants of a northern mill town in director Brian Percival's adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's timeless love story. Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) is the daughter of a middle-class parson and a girl accustomed to decidedly refined company. When her family is uprooted and forced to move to the northern mill town of Milton, the prim and proper country girl is notably contemptuous of her new working class neighbors - and especially of charismatic mill owner John Thornton (Richard Armitage. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

British filmmaker Simon Cellan Jones directs the BBC drama Eroica, starring Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven. Shot on digital video, this TV movie concerns the first performance of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3" on June 9, 1804, in Vienna. Prince Lobkowitz (Jack Davenport) has invited all his friends to his palace to watch Beethoven perform his new piece with a full orchestra. Among the aristocratic attendees are Count Dietrichstein (Tim Pigott-Smith), Countess Brunsvik (Claire Skinner), and composer Josef Haydn (Frank Finlay). The actual musical score is performed by the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Paul Greengrass (The Theory of Flight) wrote and directed this powerful look at January 30, 1972 -- better known as "Bloody Sunday." Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) attempts to organize a peaceful protest after Protestant leaders imprison Catholics without a trial. His actions conflict with hard-line IRA members who have no interest in a "peaceful" response, as well as the military men responsible for keeping the peace who are led by Major General Robert Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith) and Brigadier Patrick Maclellan (Nicholas Farrell). By the end of the day, the military will fire on the protestors and kill 13 people. The events of this day still haunt the peace process in Ireland. Bloody Sunday was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

After the critical and commercial success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the Walt Disney Pictures animation studio embarked on their most serious and ambitious animated feature to date with this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo (voice of Tom Hulce) is a grotesquely deformed but kind-hearted young man who was abandoned by his parents as an infant and thrown down a well; he was rescued by the priests of Notre Dame, the massive cathedral in the heart of Paris, and he lives there, earning his keep as a bell ringer. Quasimodo has become the ward of Judge Frollo (voice of Tony Jay), an outwardly pious but deeply hateful man who treats Quasimodio with indifference and violently loathes the Gypsies who spend their days in the cathedral's courtyard. Frollo hopes to clear the Gypsies out of Paris with the help of Phoebus (voice of Kevin Kline), leader of the troops under Frollo's command. However, Phoebus does not share Frollo's racist views and harbors no ill will against the Gypsies. When Quasimodo is crowned King of the Fools after leaving Notre Dame during the annual festival of Topsy Turvy Day, the hunchback is ordered beaten by the guards as punishment, but Esmerelda (voice of Demi Moore), a hot-blooded but compassionate gypsy beauty, shows pity on him and helps free him from his chains. The lovely Esmerelda is the first woman to show kindness to the unfortunate Quasimodo, and the hunchback soon falls in love with her. However, the dashing Phoebus is also infatuated with her, and Esmerelda is attracted to Phoebus as well, though she feels a motherly affection for the hunchback. Judge Frollo finds that he also desires Esmerelda, which only inflames his hatred for the Gypsies when she refuses his proposals. Darker and less outwardly comic than most of Disney's features, The Hunchback of Notre Dame does feature comic relief in the form of Victor (voice of Charles Kimbrough) and Hugo (voice of Jason Alexander), a pair of gargoyles who befriend Quasimodo, as well as several songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Filmed with the usual meticulous attention to period and detail of films from Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, The Remains of the Day is based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Anthony Hopkins plays Stevens, the "perfect" butler to a prosperous British household of the 1930s. He is so unswervingly devoted to serving his master, a well-meaning but callow British lord (James Fox), that he shuts himself off from all emotions and familial relationships. New housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson) tries to warm him up and awaken his humanity. But when duty calls, Stevens won't even attend his own dying father's last moments on earth. The butler also refuses to acknowledge the fact that his master is showing signs of pro-Nazi sentiments. Disillusioned by Hitler's duplicity, the master dies an embittered man, and only then does Stevens come to realize how his own silence has helped bring about this sad situation. Years later, regretting his lost opportunities in life, he tries once more to make contact with Miss Kenton, the only person who'd ever cared enough to seek out the human being inside the butler's cold veneer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two young geneticists join fellow scientists in their search for the secrets to the structure of DNA, knowing that the first scientist to actually crack the pattern will be the Nobel Prize winner. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

This British made-for-television movie tells the story of the 1950s competition to unlock the mystery behind DNA, and the personal and political tribulations that accompanied the endeavor. Jeff Goldblum stars as American scientist Jim Watson, and Tim Pigott-Smith is Britain's Francis Crick. Together, the non-traditional scientists raced to find the structure of the DNA molecule before their contemporaries did the same. The film was based on the book of the same name by James Watson. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Kenneth Colley stars in this four-part miniseries (originally produced for British television) which dramatizes the life and adventures of England's best-known naval officer, Lord Horatio Nelson. I Remember Nelson chronicles the great man's life by telling his story as seen by several people who were close to him: his wife, a handful of good friends, a young soldier who served under him in a crucial battle, and his first officer. I Remember Nelson was aired in the United States as part of the award-winning anthology series Masterpiece Theater. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, this British miniseries concentrated on the years between the two world wars, when the eminent Winston Churchill (Robert Hardy) was politically out of favor in his own country. Acutely aware of the danger looming in a newly re-armed Germany, Churchill vainly tried to warn his fellow Britishers that Hitler was not a man to be trusted. It was only after the benighted PM Neville Chamberlain (Eric Porter) saw the promise of "Peace in Our Time" blow up in his face that Churchill was ensconced in his proper position as leader of his nation. First telecast in the U.K. in 1981, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years aired in the U.S. two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The eschewing of modern optical effects techniques in favor of the classic stop-motion animation work of special effects legend Ray Harryhausen was a delightful highlight of this action adventure that attempted to give Greek mythology the Star Wars (1977) treatment. Harry Hamlin stars as Perseus, a mortal who, due to the interference of the mighty god Zeus (Laurence Olivier), finds himself in the city of Joppa, far away from his island home. There, he falls in love with Andromeda (Judi Bowker), an imprisoned princess. To free her, win her hand, and thus half of the kingdom, Perseus solves a riddle, but Joppa's enraged ruler orders Andromeda fed to the Kraken, a towering sea monster that's the last of the powerful Titans. In his quest to save Andromeda, Perseus must endure a series of trials with the help of the winged horse Pegasus and a friendly playwright, Ammon (Burgess Meredith). His ultimate goal is to secure the head of the grotesque Gorgon named Medusa and use it to turn the Kraken into stone, but dangers await, including the hideously deformed Calibos (Neil McCarthy). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide