Ferdinand Fairfax Movies

Created by Anthony Horowitz, the British anthology series Murder in Mind consisted of seven unrelated 60-minute crime tales, each told from the viewpoint of the murderer. The opening playlet was "Teacher," with David Suchet in the title role. Subsequent episodes included "Flame," with Steve McFadden as a cuckolded fireman; "Motive," about the killing of a babysitter; "Mercy," with William Collins as a country doctor who knocked off his wife; "Vigilante," all about the mob murder of an accused pedophile; "Neighbours," starring Kevin Whately and John Thomson as a most un-neighborly duo; and "Sleeper," with Keeley Hawes as a woman who believed herself to be an "unconscious" killer. Murder in Mind joined the BBC1 lineup on April 22, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tara Fitzgerald stars as Lady Dona St. Columb, an affluent Londoner who takes refuge from stifling London society at her family's estate on the Cornish coast. It is there that she meets Jean Aubrey (Anthony Delon), a dashing French privateer who promptly offers her a life of romance and excitement. Leaving her dull husband, Sir Harry (James Fleet), Lady Dona takes to the high seas with her lover, but their plot to steal a ship from the English results in her having to choose between a life of duty with her husband or a life of adventure with Jean. Based upon the novel by Daphne Du Maurier. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Based on the novels of W.J. Bailey, the British drama series Wycliffe concerned itself with the exploits of an extremely thorough Cornish detective. Jack Shepherd starred as Det. Supt. Wycliffe, whose beat included virtually the length and breadth of the Cornwall coast. The series first aired August 7, 1993 with the 90-minute pilot episode "Wycliffe and the Circle of Death." Making its "official" debut on July 24, 1994, Wycliffe yielded 38 hour-long episodes over a four-year period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-cable adventure chronicles the fictionalized exploits of the famed British reporter cum novelist who created the character "James Bond." Starring Jason Connery, the son of the first feature-film 007 Sean Connery, the story alleges that Fleming based Bond's adventures on his own extraordinary experiences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally telecast on The Disney Sunday Movie, A Fighting Choice stars Patrick Dempsey as an epileptic teen suffering from grand mal seizures. When the possibility arises that an experimental form of brain surgery may alleviate his agony, Dempsey wants to go for it. His parents (Beau Bridges and Karen Valentine were playing parents by 1986) are terrified that the operation will fail, and refuse permission. Dempsey is persistent, taking his case all the way to court. A few too many punches are pulled for Fighting Choice to be any more than a standard "disease of the week" TV movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After wiping out half a village of native South Pacific tribesmen, Captain Bully Hayes (Tommy Lee Jones) is eventually captured, put in prison, and the rest of this swashbuckling action film is told in a series of flashbacks as he remembers the recent past. The lead-in scene may be off-putting, but its larger context is soon revealed. Hayes had just left a young couple, Nate (Michael O'Keefe) and Sophie (Jennie Seagrove) on an island so they could set up housekeeping and follow in the missionary footsteps of an uncle, when the villain Ben Pease (Max Phipps) shows up, kidnaps Sophie and leaves her husband for dead. Pease runs into a German naval officer who feels it would be advantageous to join up with him -- so when Captain Hayes saves Nate and, the two go looking for Sophie, their enemies are formidable villains indeed. Laced with humor and acting in the grand pirate-movie tradition, Nate and Hayes has enough adventure and style to stay entertaining for its 100-minute running time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone) directed this Cold War action thriller. Gregory Peck is the American Dr. John Hathaway, a Noble Prize-winning scientist, teaching at a university in London. Lieutenant General Shelby (Arthur Hill), from the American Embassy, asks Hathaway to go on a mission to Communist China to obtain an enzyme, being developed by his old teacher Soong Li (Keye Luke), that permits crops to grow in any climate. Since the country holding the formula to this growth enzyme would be able to control the world, Shelby tells Hathaway that both the United States and the Soviet Union are anxious that the enzyme not stay in China. Hathaway doesn't want to go because of a burgeoning love affair with attractive professor Kay Hanna (Anne Heywood) and an opposition he holds to American foreign policy. But a call from the President changes his mind, and he is off to China. A transmitter is placed in his skull so that he can communicate with London. But Hathaway doesn't realize that the head implant can also be detonated from London, if necessary, and blow Hathaway's brains out. In China, Hathaway works with his old mentor Soong Li to perfect the enzyme. As they are near completion, the Red Guard storms the laboratory and attack Soong Li because of his opposition to the new movement in China, and Hathaway has to flee the country. Detecting the transmitter in Hathaway's head, the Chinese are in full pursuit. Hathaway makes it to the Sino-Soviet border, but then Shelby decides to activate the explosive device in Hathaway's head once he crosses over into Russia. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide