The programme offers unique access to Julia Donaldson, her family, her rich archives and home movies, and the remarkable cast of characters that have sprung from her imagination. Specially commissioned animations from Julia's long-term illustrator Axel Scheffler bring her biography to life. With contributions from well-known admirers and collaborators, this is a tribute to the woman who has created the characters and stories that have become a fixture of children’s bedtime routines all around the world and spawned multi-award-winning adaptations for stage and screen. Looking at her works, the programme uncovers the surprising stories behind how Julia's iconic characters were created and what they mean to a generation of readers. It also explores why Donaldson’s books appeal to both children and adults alike – tackling serious themes of love, loss, fear and bullying in a poignant but subtle way.
narrator
The programme offers unique access to Julia Donaldson, her family, her rich archives and home movies, and the remarkable cast of characters that have sprung from her imagination. Specially commissioned animations from Julia's long-term illustrator Axel Scheffler bring her biography to life. With contributions from well-known admirers and collaborators, this is a tribute to the woman who has created the characters and stories that have become a fixture of children’s bedtime routines all around the world and spawned multi-award-winning adaptations for stage and screen. Looking at her works, the programme uncovers the surprising stories behind how Julia's iconic characters were created and what they mean to a generation of readers. It also explores why Donaldson’s books appeal to both children and adults alike – tackling serious themes of love, loss, fear and bullying in a poignant but subtle way.
2020-12-25
10
A celebration of the life and work of Julia Donaldson and the remarkable cast of characters that have sprung from her imagination.
6.4Japanese master spy Daka operates a covert espionage-sabotage organization located in Gotham City's now-deserted Little Tokyo, which turns American scientists into pliable zombies. The great crime-fighters Batman and Robin, with the help of their allies, are in pursuit.
5.6An unfortunate highschooler finds an ancient book that summons Allentown's deadliest maniacs back from the dead.
7.0The Straw Hats visits an island, known as Mecha Island, where a fisherman sings an old folk song about a Golden Crown. Searching for that mysterious treasure, they find a hidden entrance into the island. The island's leader, Ratchet, impressed with the find and in search of the Golden Crown himself, invites the crew to join him in his search and the crew along with Ratchet and his henchmen enter the cave. As it turns out, the islands true form, is that of a giant turtle. Ratchet, who had known this all along, uses his mechanical castle to take control of the turtle, in order to use it, to take over the world. Now the Straw Hats have to stop not only Ratchet, but also the helpless turtle, from crashing into a nearby island.
6.2Four bodies are found at a cave accident and forensics point to the only survivor as the culprit. He denies guilt, accusing his wife of committing the crime. But how is this so? She is one of the deceased.
5.7Set in 1960s India, Archie and the gang navigate romance, friendship and the future of Riverdale as developers threaten to destroy a beloved park.
7.0Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast.
6.8A doomed love affair blooms against the beautiful and exotic backdrop of the deserts of India in this romantic drama. Samantha Hartley (Kelli Garner) is a woman in her early twenties who travels to Rajapur in India to visit a resort where her mother stayed years ago. While tracing the steps of her mother, Sara (Lynn Collins), Samantha learns the true story about her mother's stormy marriage to Jeremy (Justin Theroux), a charming but moody alcoholic. Only a few days after their wedding, Sara began to wonder if marrying Jeremy was a mistake, and while visiting India on their honeymoon, Sara met Jai Singh (Manoj Bajpai), a handsome and sensitive widower living in Rajapur. Jai Singh, who speaks fluent English, soon strikes up a friendship with Sara that quickly grows into a romance, but both are aware of the transgressive nature of their love, and their affair takes a tragic turn, leaving its scars on all parties involved.
6.0Olivia and her friends go on a vacation. After Olivia nearly drowns with a slit wrist in her bathtub after her fiancé's funeral, her friends suspect that she tried to kill herself, but she believes someone attacked her.
6.5Lina Inverse and Naga the White Serpent are back! What begins as a routine bandit-stomping turns into the adventure of a lifetime involving magical golems, an ancient Elven weapon and even someone bent on destroying the world. It's a predicament only Lina and Naga could get themselves in to.
7.3Groot discovers a miniature civilization that believes the seemingly enormous tree toddler is the hero they’ve been waiting for.
3.8When Marty's car is stolen, he sets out on a mission to find it; however, he soon realizes that the person who stole it is much more dangerous than he thinks.
5.3Esen, a young man who has been expelled from his village, escapes with the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the village. Whilst being pursued, he is forced to fight for her hand in a battle that results in the destruction of a sacred totem tree. This puts the whole village in jeopardy, and it is up to Esen to redeem himself and save them all.
7.5A young college student is given a disturbing ultimatum when a dark secret from his past is resurrected.
6.3Verity and Peter’s trip to the old family mansion takes a turn when the floor of their room suddenly gives way and they fall into an underground chamber where they are met by a civilization of creatures. The leader tells them that Peter's arrival was foretold as he’s the one who can use Great Clock of the Citadel to restart time and destroy the Shroud, a malevolent creature who feeds on fear itself...
7.9A man dies of cancer—and then wakes up, decades in the future, because his body was cryogenically preserved. Now he’s not only cured of cancer, but also rejuvenated. And his wife is also alive again, restored to health and youth by miraculous future technology. It’s a post-scarcity future, in which the biggest problem is learning how to start over when everything is new and different.
6.7The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
8.0The life and career of controversial F1 and political figure, Max Mosley.
10.0Swedish writer Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) was a literary sensation who after a few productive years, suddenly fell silent. Struggling with writer's block, Dagerman wrote the essay "Our Need for Consolation" about his inner demons and his quest for freedom. For the first time in English, featuring Stellan Skarsgard as an on-camera narrator, this film brings Dagerman's powerful words to life in the form of a visual poem.
6.7Unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali's personal archive of "audio journals" as well as interviews and testimonials from his inner circle of family and friends are used to tell the legend's life story.
7.7In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
7.3Ethan Hawke directs this intimate documentary portrait of classical pianist, composer, author, teacher and sage Seymour Bernstein.
7.8Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
7.0The grail is not the gold, nor the books of ancient wisdom, but the 3,000 year old DNA of the mummies, which may lead to a cure for malaria.
When two women with a video camera follow an HIV research team to Eritrea, Africa, they find a strange and magical country which transforms their documentary into an intimate investigation of their own capacities to love, suffer and forgive.
4.7This Carey Wilson Miniature takes a further look at prophecies by 16th century seer Nostradamus.
10.0As a young missionary, Richard Wilhelm in 1899 to China, which was then exploited by the colonial powers. He lived there revolts against foreigners, the end of the imperial dynasties and the First World War. In these times of turbulent upheavals he was indefatigable in search of the deepest truth that helps people deal with change and able to shape their own lives. Richard Wilhelm baptized not only Chinese, but accomplished one of the largest translation services of the 20th century: Confucius, LAOTSE the most important texts of Daoism and especially the I CHING THE BOOK OF CHANGES. The book also served many readers in the West as inspiration. Wilhelm is still one of the most important mediators of Chinese culture in Europe.
7.5Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
7.9A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.
7.7Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.
7.5The portrait of a woman who remembers. Sheila tells the story of Sheila, without concessions or evasions. Her childhood, her parents, her beginnings, the rumors, her love affairs, her marriage, her son, her successes, her farewells, her return, her mourning. The journey of an extraordinary popular icon who never stopped fighting. The courage of an artist who never gives up. "Sheila, toutes ces vies-là" is also a journey through time. 60 years of pop music, punctuated by numerous archives, personal films, timeless hits and illustrations by Marc-Antoine Coulon. But also 60 years of fashion, through a legendary wardrobe (her TV show outfits) that Sheila invites us to rediscover.
7.2Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
7.4Composed of numerous archives and film clips, this documentary is the story of a transgressive actor, a pirate who came to crack America's too perfect mask to reveal its most infantile and moronic face, right in the heart of the Hollywood system.
7.5Documentary following the life of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly.