Movies: Ian McKellen

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and t...

This documentary celebrates one of Britain’s greatest actors, Dame Judi Dench, and looks back over her remarkable 60-year career....

While Old England is being ransacked by roving Danes in the 9th century, Alfred is planning to join the priesthood. But observing the rape of his land, he puts away his religious vows to take up arms against the invaders, leading the English Christia...

From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, David Tennant, Catherine Tate and guests mark the life of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death....

A radical cinematic investigation into the myth of Hamlet, the avenging prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare's creature; his origins and his unending influence on many diverse cultures....

Set in Leningrad. Follows the lives of three young Russians from the terror of the German siege of Leningrad through the uncertainty of the postwar years to the space age....

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a ma...

A tale of revenge that has stood the test of time, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is reimagined for the modern day as a gripping psychological thriller! Transcending the confines of the stage, the film utilises nearly every room of the Theatre Royal W...

The making of the sequel to the first X-Men film, trying to make it bigger and better than the previous film, and the challenges that come with that goal...

In a story weaving the past and present together, Emile seeks redemption from the family he abandoned....

A razor-witted entertainer who found fame as two people - first his drag queen alter ego, Lily Savage, and then as himself. This documentary film charts the unique career of a working class Merseysider whose life away from the spotlight has often bee...

Documentary exploring the parallels between 'The Return of the King' and real events and people in history....

The BBC delves into its archives to discover British acting greats as they take their first tentative steps on the road to success. Long before they were knighted for their services to drama, we see early appearances from Michael Caine in a rare Shak...

Intimate documentary exploring how Paul O'Grady's creation, Lily Savage, took mainstream TV by storm. Unravel the real story of Lily with insights from Paul's daughter and famous pals....

Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, where Lawr...

'For the Love of God' is the wickedly irreverent tale of Graham (Coogan); an over-grown man-child still living at home under the suffocating glare of his elderly Mother, in her dusty and forgotten Christian bookshop. Graham has a terrible secret - a...

The Tragedy of King Richard II, by William Shakespeare. The actions and repercussions of a proud King, whose vanity and selfishness lead to his downfall....

A man with learning difficulties suffers neglect and ill-treatment, and this is only exasperated when his parents die and nobody seems to know what to do with him. A sequel to this film, titled "Walter and June", was released in 1983 and set 19 year...

An exploration into the history of Shakespeare's plays, from the silent era to the modern day featuring archive interviews with movie directors including Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh and more....

8 part series behind the scenes at the famous Theatre Royal, Haymarket, with a focus on a production Waiting for Godot featuring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Ronald Pickup and Simon Callow. Also covers the early stages of Breakfast at Tiffany's sta...