Throng

Saving Ed Mitchell
Friday 18 January 2008 8:00pm - 8:30pm on ITV1.

In December 2007 it emerged that former ITN newsman Ed Mitchell was living homeless on the streets of Brighton.

In Saving Ed Mitchell his friend and former ITN colleague Carol Barnes sets out to discover why Mitchell’s life has taken such a dramatic turn.

Barnes - famously photographed with Mitchell in Downing St back in the early 1980s - paid Mitchell a surprise visit and the cameras followed him before he checked the Priory in a bid to conquer his alcoholism.

The 30 minute film has been made by TwoFour Productions and the executive producers are Joe Houlihan and Emma Morgan.

Saving Ed Mitchell was commissioned by ITV controller of documentaries Jeff Anderson and will air later this month.

Lose 30 Stone or Die
Tuesday 18 December 2007 9:00pm - 10:00pm on ITV1.

Lose 30 Stone or Die is a unique film about a man who is so overweight that his own body is going to kill him within a year, and his painful struggle to reclaim his life. Thirty-six-year-old Colin weighs 48 stone and is a prisoner in his own home because his weight means he can’t even manage to walk more than a few steps.

He is in constant pain, has severe difficulty breathing during the night, needs someone to dress him each day and feels so low he has contemplated suicide.

Doctors have warned Colin that unless he loses weight, he will die. Lose 30 Stone or Die is a poignant and moving account of Colin’s battle to lose the pounds. In emotional scenes, Colin is seen as he prepares to undergo a series of major operations to reduce his stomach and drastically cut his weight.

Britain's Biggest Storm
Tuesday 16 October 2007 9:00pm - 10:30pm on ITV1.

In October 1987 Britain was hit by the biggest storm on record – it claimed 19 lives, was four times as big as a hurricane, had wind speeds of 110mph and caused a billion pounds worth of damage. And we had no warning it was coming.

Now, 20 years to the day since it struck, ITV1 uses reconstructions, computer graphics and actual footage to recapture the moment the country was hit by the worst weather on record. Experts explain what caused the storm to build up and the Met Office reveals the reason why they had little warning about how bad the weather was and in which direction it was heading.

Teachers and students who felt the brunt of the gale during a geography field trip relive their evacuation from their caravan park in the middle of the night as the winds started lifting the holiday homes and overturning them.

One couple tells the film how they battled through high winds and past fallen branches to try to make it to the hospital in time for the birth of their second child. An overturned tree blocked their path and the heavily pregnant mum had to climb over tree trunks and walk for two-and-a-half hours to get back home.

Margaret Thatcher – The Long Walk to Finchley is Great Meadow Productions' first wholly independent commission from the BBC.

Commissioned for BBC Four by Jane Tranter, BBC Controller, Fiction, this light-hearted and imaginative single film delves under the skin of the Iron Lady for the first time, taking a look at her early political career.

Focussing on the young Margaret Thatcher's steely determination to get selected to a "winnable" Tory seat in the Fifties, successful novelist and TV newcomer, Tony Saint's script imagines what might have gone on behind the scenes during her ten–year struggle as she was rejected by a succession of five home counties Tory selection committees until – against considerable local opposition – she was finally selected for the seat that she became identified with for the rest of her political career.

"... the Conservatives of Finchley and Friern Barnet have armed themselves with a new weapon – a clever woman."
– Finchley Press

From Gandhi, Four Weddings And A Funeral, to Brief Encounter and Bend It Like Beckham, Britain has been a major player in world cinema for over 100 years and continues to produce award-winning talent.

The Summer Of British Film on BBC Two is a season dedicated to home grown cinema, encompassing all genres from thriller and comedy to the kitchen sink drama.

This unique television event celebrates the rich heritage of British film and has at its centrepiece British Film Forever a seven-part primetime series for BBC Two.

Jessica Hynes (Shaun Of The Dead) guides us through the series examining British film by genre, with highlights from over 200 exclusive interviews from leading actors and directors including Sir Michael Caine, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Ewan McGregor, Gurinder Chadha and Richard Curtis.

The series is being made with the support of the British Film Institute and the UK Film Council.

As well as being an enjoyable romp through the greatest films and stars, the series looks at what makes British films unique and what they reveal about British culture.

BBC Two has commissioned an original drama about renowned taste and decency campaigner Mary Whitehouse – 40 years after her battle with the BBC Director-General over the Beatles' use of the word "knickers."

With Julie Walters starring as Mary Whitehouse and Hugh Bonneville playing her arch-enemy, BBC Director-General, Hugh Carleton Greene, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story will bring to life the battle for Britain's morals that raged in the Sixties.

Julie Walters said: "I am very excited to be playing Mary Whitehouse, and to be looking at the time when she attacked the BBC and started to make her name."

In an era that spawned Carnaby Street, the Profumo scandal, and the Fab Four, Mary Whitehouse was the voice of a majority that had no desire to join the permissive age.

Armed only with her own sense of good Christian values and a sharp tongue, Mary Whitehouse was on a mission to stop "filth" entering family homes via the media.

Backed by her loyal husband Ernest (Alun Armstrong), Mary set out to fight an almighty war with some heroic and surprising victories along the way.