John Thaw

Heart-warming WW2 drama starring John Thaw. A curmudgeonly widower living in a small village takes in a shy evacuee from London, and teaches him to read, write and draw. (1998)

When one of his informants is murdered, Detective Inspector Jack Regan is drawn into a deadly political game. He is soon a marked man and, after being framed, is suspended from duty.

Both poetic and polemical, Doris Lessing exploded onto the literary scene with her first novel in 1950. Set in her native Rhodesia, it boldly lifted the lid on themes of psychology, racism, feminism and colonialism.

Directed by Sir Richard Attenborough and starring Robert Downey, Jr. and an extraordinary cast, Chaplin is a loving, grand scale portrait of the Little Tramp's amazing life and times. His poverty-stricken childhood in England comes to life, along with his friendships with Mack Sennett and Douglas Fairbanks, his many wives and scandalous affairs, and his relentless pursuit.

The tension and terror that is present-day South Africa is powerfully portrayed in director Richard Attenborough's sweeping story of black activist Stephen Biko (Denzel Washington) and a liberal white newspaper editor who risks his own life to bring Biko's message to the world.