Peter Blythe Movies

In this British drama, Ellen (Sorcha Brooks) and Jack (Antony Edridge) recall a time when they traded partners, and their remarks set a partner-swapping party in motion among four other couples. As the long night's journey into sex progresses, various fears and anxieties surface. Shown at Montreal's 1997 World Film Festival and the 1997 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

An undercover cop finds that the line between his own personality and that of the character he's created have begun to dangerously blur in this drama. John (Reece Dinsdale) is a British police detective whose skill is matched only by his arrogance. Acts of brutal hooliganism have become commonplace at the football matches featuring one of London's minor league teams, Shadwell Town, and the police suspect that there is a more criminal undercurrent to these actions than merely fandom gone wrong after a few pints of beer. So John is made part of an undercover team along with Trevor (Richard Graham) and two other officers; they are to blend in with the most rabid fans and learn what is behind the violence. John also makes the acquaintance of Lydia (Saskia Reeves), a barmaid at a pub where many of the hooligans hang out, he and becomes friendly with her as a way of obtaining more information. But as John sinks deeper into a life of alcohol and violence while hanging out with the Shadwell Town hooligans, he finds he likes it more and more, and in time, he finds that he's becoming one of the brutal thugs he set out to capture. He also finds his relationship with Lydia is no longer just a matter of business, much to the chagrin of his wife Marie (Claire Skinner). I.D. marked the feature debut for British director Philip Davis, who also directed several distinguished productions for U.K. television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After an absence of two years, Rumpole of the Bailey returned to the British airwaves with a sixth season of six new episodes, initially telecast from from October 28 through December 2 1991. The delightfully dishevelled barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) starts things rolling by defending a chef accused of violating health ordinances in "Rumpole a la Carte", which features a subplot wherein Rumpole's formidable wife Hilda (Marion Mathie) uncharacteristically dallies with her handsome cousion. In "Rumpole and the Summer of Discontent", the client is a trade unionist, and at issue is the right to strike--both in the courtroom and in the Rumpole household. In the next episode, "Rumpole and the Right to Silence", an accused murderer stubbornly refuses to supply Rumpole with evidence that may clear his name. "Rumpole at Sea" finds Rumpole and Hilda reluctant sharing an ocean voyage with the blustery barrister's old nemesis Judge Graves (Robin Bailey), getting mixed up in a missings-person case along the way. In "Rumpole and the Quacks", it is Rumpole's own doctor who is the client, with his colleague Phyllida (Patricia Hodge) as the prosecutor--said Phyllida having a personal score to settle with our hero. The season ends with "Rumpole for the Prosecution", as Rumpole is placed in the unenviable position of prosecuting his old friend Claude (Julian Curry) on a charge of intellectual thievery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A dry spell of nearly four years separated the third and fourth seasons of the internationally popular British legal series Rumpole of the Bailey. Not surprisingly, fans rejoiced when the series finally returned on January 19, 1987, with six new hour-long episodes in the docket. Leo McKern, as ever, heads the cast as the disheveled but brilliant British barrister Horace Rumple, while Marion Mathie takes over from Peggy Bates-Thorpe in the role of Rumple's formidable wife Hilda, better known as "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed." The first case on the Season Four manifest is "Rumpole and the Old, Old Story", in which Rumpole's defense of a businessman charged with attempted murder is muddled up by his domestic problems with Hilda. Episode #2, "Rumpole and the Blind Tasting", finds our hero once more called upon to defend a member of the scurrilous Timson family, even as he endeavors to "break in" his new law pupil Liz Probert (played by Leo McKern's daughter Abigail Kern). In "Rumpole and the Official Secret", his client is a sweet little old lady accused of leaking top-secret government information. In "Rumpole and the Judge's Elbow", a case involving a massage-parlor owner accused of procuring is compromised when Rumpole is (in so many words) offered a judgeship. "Rumpole and the Bright Seraphim" finds the feisty barrister in West Germany, defending a British soldier charged with killing a non-com. The season ends appropriately with "Rumpole's Last Case", wherein the strain of his job may have finally forced Rumpole to hang up his wig for good--but not before one final duel of wits with an old enemy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charlotte Bronte's classic Victorian novel is once again put through the paces, this time by Delbert Mann, in this stodgy Masterpiece Theater style television adaptation. Susannah York is Jane Eyre, the orphan girl who secures a position as a governess to the ward of Edward Rochester (George C. Scott), lord of an English manor house called Thornfield, whose halls hide a dark and sinister secret. Jane and the moody and the tyrannical Rochester fall in love and agree to marry. But at their wedding ceremony, Rochester is revealed to have been already married. Suddenly his dark past comes crashing in on both himself and the innocent Jane. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A top-secret government project to broadcast electricity on radio waves is suddenly cancelled. Even so, several people are found burned to death, apparently the results of the aborted project. It's all the handiwork of a disgruntled -- and artificially superpowered -- scientist, whom Steed and Emma hope to neutralize before he can "shock" again. Written by Tony Williamson, "The Positive Negative Man" was originally telecast in England on November 4, 1967, and in America on January 17, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hammer Studios followed up Evil of Frankenstein with this entertaining sequel, again starring Peter Cushing as the quintessential mad scientist obsessed with the reanimation of dead bodies and the creation of superhuman creatures. His latest project involves transferring the mind of a wrongly-executed man into the body of his lover (former Playboy centerfold Susan Denberg), whose own suicide left her horribly disfigured. After restoring her beauty, the Doctor performs the mind-transference, which comes off without a hitch... until the lust for revenge against his executioners begins to surface. He/she then pursues this vendetta by seducing and murdering those who wronged him. Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher directs this quirky entry with his usual flair -- aided considerably by a decent budget -- and spices things up with a fair share of titillation (courtesy of Ms. Denberg). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide