Role Play

Danny and Wheeler, well into their 30s, lack something: Danny feels stuck; he's sour and has driven away his terrific girlfriend. Wheeler chases any skirt he sees for empty sex. When they get in a fight with a tow-truck driver, they choose community service over jail and are assigned to be big brothers - Danny to Augie, a geek who loves to LARP (Live Action Role Play), and Wheeler to Ronnie, a pint-size foul-mouthed kid. After a rocky start, things start to go well until both Danny and Wheeler make big mistakes. Can the two men figure out how to change enough to be role models to the boys?

Its cynical and bleak portrayal of men in war is only matched by its lack of notoriety which is a shame considering how powerful the films message is. Admittedly Caine is a little wooden as the straight laced British Officer, but it is the much less known Nigel Davenport who steals the show as the hard bitten second in command. The films cynicism is the sum of it's ending which is suitably negative but still unsuspected. With all the flag waving war films out there its good to see the odd one which suggests the end never justifies the means.

Tony Garnett, one of British television's most critically acclaimed figures, has been responsible for producing some of the most radical and controversial UK drama, and is associated with ground-breaking directors such as Ken Loach.
His directorial debut, Prostitute, is the tale of two women - Sandra (Eleanor Forsythe), an ambitious but naïve Birmingham working girl who moves to London with the hopes of securing wealthier patrons, and Louise (Kate Crutchley) her social worker friend who is fighting to change the antiquated and hypocritical prostitution laws. As both strive to achieve their goals, a cold dose of reality dashes their hopes, and the built-in biases against women in society are unmasked. This frank and controversial exposé is finally presented here fully uncut and uncensored.

The Anton Chekhov Collection from BBC Video is a six disc set that mines their extensive archives of works created by British master thespians performing the greatest works of the Russian playwright's career. From 1959 to 1991, these plays are presented with excellent production values and sure-handed direction. The transfers are full screen and sometimes spotty in quality, but it is amazing to see these legendary pieces performed by the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench. The result is over eighteen hours of sublime theatre loaded down with significant extras and supplemental material.

Stanislas Hassler blazes the development of modern art in his gallery, packed with works of surprising shapes, colours and textures, and where exhibitions turn into media events. Gilbert Moreau is one of the artists whose sculptures are on display in the gallery. His wife, Josée, is intrigued by the stern Stanislas, who devotes his free time to photography in an apartment that highlights his sophisticated artistic tastes. But besides enlarged pictures of calligraphic samples, Stanislas is amassing a collection of photographs that reveal a disturbed character. So why would Josée endanger her mature relationship with Gilbert for the morbid observation of Stanislas's hidden personality?

Two-part series which tells the story of children's outdoor games in 20th-century Britain begins by looking at British children at play between the 1900s and the mid-1950s.