In Charles Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

A humble orphan boy in 1810s Kent is given the opportunity to go to London and become a gentleman, with the help of an unknown benefactor.

Just after World War I, the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. They live an ordinary life throughout the years, but everything changes when World War II breaks out.

Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.

Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

Widower Henry Hobson refuses to let his three daughters get married because he doesn't want to pay settlements, so they'll just have to outsmart him.

A woman meets a man whose love she rejected years ago.

Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.

This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

A young and idealistic woman, who has adopted the Salvation Army and whose father is an armament industrialist, will save more souls directing her father's business.

An all-star, large scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

An American spinster's dream of romance finally becomes a bittersweet reality when she meets a handsome--but married--Italian man while vacationing in Venice.

Madeleine's middle-class family cannot understand why she puts off marrying a respectable young man; they know nothing about her long-term affair with a Frenchman.

A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife.

David Lean had great faith in his regular film crew, once saying "Good films can be made only by a crew of dedicated maniacs". This is a profile of four of those key men.

An intimate look at the career of David Lean, this 1971 documentary by Thomas Craven features an extensive interview with the director, who discusses his work and his approach to filmmaking.

Considered by many to be the greatest director of the 20th century, David Lean knew filmmaking and the art of film directing. If David were alive today, he would be celebrating his 100th year. In 1973 in a rare and candied interview at the American Film Institute, then aspiring filmmaker, Allan Holzman, got to meet the man himself. Now for the first time, that interview, hosted by Charlton Heston, has been restored and expanded. Come and hear tales of the making of masterworks such as Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia (recognized as the highest cinematic achievement of the 20th century by ASC). Film enthusiasts, students of film and admires of Lean's art are in for a royal treat as the spirit of David Lean lives again in Allan Holzman's The Art of Directing: David Lean.

A look back at television appearances by legends of the silver screen, using BBC archive footage to tell the story of their lives and careers.

ITV's long-running arts series presented by Melvyn Bragg.

Wide-ranging arts program.