Miniseries

8:30pm – Sunday, December 20 on ABC1

A two-part series. On a dark and stormy winter’s night in a miserable, dank room lit only by a few candles, Oliver (William Miller) is born into a life of poverty and misfortune. His unmarried mother dies only moments later, leaving Oliver alone in the world.

Ten years on and after growing up in a workhouse overseen by the awful Mr Bumble (Gregor Fisher), watching the suffering and cruelty endured by the children, Oliver finally decides he wants more. He gets sold to local undertaker, Mr Sowerberry (John Sessions), before escaping to London.

When Oliver arrives in the big city, vulnerable and scared, he meets the Artful Dodger (Adam Arnold), Nancy (Sophie Okonedo), Fagin (Timothy Spall) and the boys, and gets the first warm welcome of his life. But naive and innocent, he’s unaware that this kindness requires its own type of payment to be collected by the evil Bill Sikes (Tom Hardy). And without any other guidance, will Oliver be forced into a life of crime.

A chance meeting with Mr Brownlow (Edward Fox) and his beautiful ward Rose (Morven Christie) sees Oliver’s fortunes change for the better and the opportunity to start a new life.

But there are those unknown to Oliver who hold the truth to his real identity and are determined to ruin and destroy him.

Starts October 12, Mondays at 8.30pm (concludes October 19)

An intensely personal drama, the story of T.E. Lawrence is a story of courage and guilt, betrayal and triumph. The British Army Officer’s role in the unification of the Arab tribes against the Turks during WWI endeared him to a generation of Bedouins, but it also set in motion a chain of events that Lawrence would be powerless to stop – events that would profoundly shape Arab-Western relations for generations to come. Filmed in England and throughout the Middle East, and including rare archival footage, Lawrence Of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World draws upon eyewitness accounts of Arabs, Westerners, and Lawrence himself to tell the poignant and dramatic tale of one of the 20th century’s most influential yet enigmatic figures.

Part One – Sunday, September 20 at 7.30pm

Stars Timothy Bottoms, Jane Seymour, Bruce Boxleitner, Karen Allen, Anne Baxter, Lloyd Bridges, Sam Bottoms and Warren Oates.

Winner of two Golden Globe Awards, John Steinbeck’s ‘East Of Eden’ is an epic spanning three generations of American family. The story opens in New England where two brothers Adam and Charles Track are cast into life of opposition to each other by their domineering father. Their lives are forever changed by the scheming seductress and murderess, Cathy. Adam and Cathy move to California, to “Eden” in the lush hills of Salinas Valley. Cathy embarks on a life of sin that leaves Adam a broken man, with two sons to raise. A battle of good versus evil is played out in the lives of the sons, the innocent Aron and the brooding Cal. This modern version of the ‘Cain and Abel’ story examines the passions and conflicts between brothers and the ability of man to control his own destiny.

Part One – Monday, September 14, at 8.30pm

Powerful factual drama based on one of the most shocking crimes of the 20th Century. This is the chilling story of child killers Ian Brady (Sean Harris) and Myra Hindley (Maxine Peak) and how they were finally brought to justice. Convicted of the torture and killing of five youngsters, the Moors Murderers remain two of the most hated figures in Britain. See No Evil reveals the untold story and is based on two years of intensive research and interviews with detectives and the key trial witness. Produced in consultation with the murdered children’s relatives. Starring Maxine Peak and Sean Harris.

Part Two – Monday, September 21.

9:40pm – Friday, July 31 on ABC1

In this two-part thriller Martin Kemp shines as a self-made millionaire betrayed by those he trusts.

Life should be sweet for Mark Terry (Martin Kemp) but the reappearance of an old school friend with a score to settle leaves him fighting for his marriage, his freedom and ultimately, his life.

Mark’s marriage to ex-model Zara (Claire Goose) has been in trouble since the cot death of their baby son.

Zara is still extremely fragile, resentful of how Mark seems to be just getting on with things, while he feels he can do nothing right and even begins to suspect she is having an affair.

It’s not the way their life was supposed to be.

He built a successful property development business on the back of an unexpected windfall and, until the death of their son, he and Zara seemed to have everything.

But their different reactions to the tragedy exposed huge flaws in their relationship.

Enter Mark’s old school friend Stuart Milburn (Hugo Speer) who just happens to have an old score to settle.

Now a senior police detective, Stuart and Mark haven’t met since they were teenagers and his reappearance brings 30-year-old secrets back to the surface…

Starts July 19, Sunday at 7.30pm
(Continues weeknights at 8.30pm, concluding Friday, July 24)

The winner of three Emmy Awards, the critically acclaimed mini-series The Winds of War will screen on FOX Classics in the week commencing July 19. Robert Mitchum heads an all star cast including Ali McGraw, Jan Michael Vincent, John Houseman, Polly Bergen, David Dukes, Topol, Peter Graves, Ralph Bellamy and Victoria Tennant. Based on a bestselling work of historical fiction by Herman Wouk, The Winds of War is an admirable production reminiscent of the era of Hollywood’s epic features. At the centre of the globe-trotting story is the Henry family, whose laconic but straight-shooting patriarch is United States Navy Commander Victor “Pug” Henry , sent to Hitler’s Berlin in the spring of 1939 as a naval attaché to the then-neutral American embassy. A keen observer, Pug deduces that Germany is not preparing for war on two fronts (Western Europe on one side, Russia on the other) despite what the Nazis want the world to believe, meaning that Hitler must be working out a secret peace deal with Stalin. Pug’s prescience makes him a favourite eyewitness in Berlin for Franklin D. Roosevelt; the irony is that Pug is far less sagacious when it comes to the realities of his family.

Monday, 26 January 2009 6:00pm

A Queen For All Seasons covers Elizabeth II’s reign (the longest since Victoria’s and still going strong). It is a romantic story of a princess who fell completely in love with a prince called Philip. As a young mother, she was called suddenly to the throne and ruled with calm authority. All four of her children brought trouble to the Queen’s door as adults.

Failed royal marriages were a tabloid dream in what became the ‘nasty nineties’, and Diana’s death left its scars . . . Yet as the 21st century arrived, Queen Elizabeth II was hailed as the great survivor, the calm at the centre of the storm. Now in her eighties she seems indestructible.

Monday, 19 January 2009 6:05pm

The King Who Saved The Crown is the story of Bertie, the Duke of York – the most shy and unlikely of kings. He had a stammer and hated public occasions, yet his brother’s abdication compelled him to do his royal duty. With the help of his gifted wife, Elizabeth, he grew into the role of King George VI and crucially re- established confidence in the monarchy.

On the outbreak of World War Two, the King was broadcast telling his people that they had to ‘meet the challenge of a principle, which if it were to prevail would be fatal to any civilised order in the world’. He conducted himself with enormous dignity and courage in Britain’s darkest hours during the horrors of the Blitz. His early death from cancer would bring his perfectly prepared daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to the throne at 25.

Monday, 12 January 2009 6:05pm

The House Of Windsor: A Royal Dynasty is a new three-part series that follows the Royal family’s life stories. They are woven into a fascinating tapestry set against the major events of nine decades. The narrative is built on remarkable – in some cases previously unseen – archive film including rare 1930s colour footage of a Coronation, a Silver Jubilee and a Royal tour of Canada.

Witness the triumphs of the crowned heads calmly steering their country through two world wars, their moments of public splendour (the fireworks that saluted George V’s Silver Jubilee and the tide of love that swept Elizabeth II aloft on her Golden Jubilee), their days of personal joy (Prince William’s graduation day, Prince Harry’s passing-out parade) and their days of sorrow (the failed marriages and the deaths of Princess Margaret and Princess Diana).

The Windsor dynasty was born in 1917 during the darkest days of World War One. Criticised for being a blood relation of the German enemy, the reigning Monarch, George V, suddenly changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg to the resoundingly English, Windsor. Episode 1: The First Windsors follows the reign of George V and his devoted wife Queen Mary. The couple were a dedicated but deeply conservative couple, shocked by modern fashions in dress and manners. They were suspicious of their eldest son, Edward, and his passion for everything new.

George’s first great crisis came during the Great War when he was forced to change the Royal name. His second crisis haunted the last ten years of his life. His belief that his son Edward would be a disastrous King proved right. Edward VIII would be forced to abdicate in 1936 after less than a year on the throne. But, proud to be the King of a ‘wonderful people’, George stirred loyalty and affection throughout the country.

Saturday December 27, 8:30pm

In the conclusion of TIN MAN tonight, the journey continues with the future of the Outer Zone hanging in the balance.

The adventurous group ventures deeper into a perilous road that will find them doing battle with nightmarish flying monkey bats and Azkadellia’s malevolent henchmen as they attempt to break a spell with the power to destroy them all.

Perhaps before their journey is over, D.G. and her new friends will discover a few things that they never even knew about themselves as well.