Real life events there's yet to be a good dramatisation of

[kngen]

There's never been an Orwell biopic has there? I mean, he led a pretty extraordinary life, and think of the locations: Burma, Spain, Paris, Jura, Bermondsey ...

[dr beat]

Didn't Chris Langham play Orwell in some TV thing a while back?

[phantom_power]

I remember reading while ago about a book that told the story of the love/hate relationship between Napoleon and his "jailer" on Elba and always thought that sounded like a good Apatow style buddy comedy

[Blumf]

Didn't Chris Langham play Orwell in some TV thing a while back?

Yep:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell:_A_Life_in_Pictures

Quiet a good likeness, I think:


That (very short) wiki article points out "No surviving sound recordings or video of the real George Orwell have been found" which is weird when you think about it.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

Not a film but I noticed tonight that they've turned the coughing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal in to a play. I'd buy tickets for a musical version, but a straight retelling? I'm surprised there's an audience for that.

It's not a bad play actually, as it's not a straight retelling but rather an odd Rashomon style piece that seeks to tell the story from multiple perspectives and ruminate on the role of the gameshow in modern English/capitalist society.

[Blinder Data]

That (very short) wiki article points out "No surviving sound recordings or video of the real George Orwell have been found" which is weird when you think about it.

Even more recently, no footage exists of Nick Drake as an adult.

I know football films are rarely successful - and there was a recent TV drama about Bobby Moore and his wife - but I can't think of a dramatisation of England's 1966 World Cup win. Does one exist? It's crazy if not, considering how much everyone bangs on about it.

[itsfredtitmus]

GG Allin

[Small Man Big Horse]

It's not a bad play actually, as it's not a straight retelling but rather an odd Rashomon style piece that seeks to tell the story from multiple perspectives and ruminate on the role of the gameshow in modern English/capitalist society.

Ah, just noticed it's by James Graham whose Labour of Love I didn't really get on with. I'd probably give it a chance if it was given a tv screening but I'm not paying West End prices. Then again I pretty much never do, and only saw the above due to their £10 ticket deal. But thanks for the info anyway, it is appreciated.

I know football films are rarely successful - and there was a recent TV drama about Bobby Moore and his wife - but I can't think of a dramatisation of England's 1966 World Cup win. Does one exist? It's crazy if not, considering how much everyone bangs on about it.

Throw in the Pickles story and make him a talking dog and you've got a family friendly film for generations to come.

[mothman]

aint been a good mothman film yet

Well, maybe, but I like the one we have...

Gere's only good film.

I've become quite fond of it, almost by necessity, after the fact; the fact being that I chose my username at random the day after I'd happened to watch the film.

[Attila]

Ooh, good one. In fact, I think lots of Greek history and myths are yet to be faithfully depicted, rather than just by Americans with 1960s haircuts in carefully-pressed chitons.

Yes! There's loads of Roman Republic stuff ripe for a good dramatic treatment; I'd be down for something on the Gracchi  (one of  my students last year proposed a sitcom called the 'Whacky Gracchi' complete with synopses of six episodes). But everything on the Republic is all Pompey, Caesar, Octavian' and Antony, &c. Done to death! Do something on Fabius Maximus or the Punic Wars or something.

[George White]

The 1979 Fatima Hijacking
A proper film about the showbands. There was a good RTE documentary from 1998 that's online. But the likes of Breakfast on Pluto and the RTE Kerry Katona (when she was Kerry McFadden)miniseries Showbands pasted it in this nostalgic light, esp. the Heartbeat-esque latter.
It wasn't a good time - yes they brought glamour to the small towns of Ireland, but it's a great seedy setting.
Also country and Irish - and not in a jokey Stetsons and Stilettos way, but again there's a dark side.

[George White]

Ah, just noticed it's by James Graham whose Labour of Love I didn't really get on with. I'd probably give it a chance if it was given a tv screening but I'm not paying West End prices. Then again I pretty much never do, and only saw the above due to their £10 ticket deal. But thanks for the info anyway, it is appreciated.

Throw in the Pickles story and make him a talking dog and you've got a family friendly film for generations to come.

They did this with Harry Enfield c.2006.

I'd like  a Confessions of a Dahgerous Mind-style biopic of Denis Donaldson - the IRA member who was roped into becoming a British spy because of a James Bond fixation, which ended up costing his life.

[kngen]

Didn't Chris Langham play Orwell in some TV thing a while back?

Well that obviously passed me by completely - was it any good?

[honeychile]

Amazed that there's never, to my knowledge, been a biopic of the extraordinary cyclist Gino Bartali. Gifted athlete (began winning major races at 20); overcame youthful trauma (his brother died early in his career which caused Bartali to consider retirement); experienced the archetypal sporting lows (came from a long way behind to lead the 1937 Tour de France, but then crashed off a bridge and fell into a river, and had to withdraw due to his injuries) and highs (victories in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France induced hysterical fandom from the italian public and media); performed genuine acts of heroism during the war (hid a jewish family in his basement, transported documents to the resistance by hiding them in the tubing of his bicycle, and used the same method to transport photographs for forging documents to help jews out of the country, also transported refugees themselves to safety in Switzerland by hiding them in a secret compartment of a wagon which he had towed to his bicycle "for training purposes" and dropping them off over the border and gathering intelligence about raids on safehouses, and stared down the security services when they took him in and threatened him); and had a textbook rivalry which became obsessive (Bartali - a conservative, deeply religious (nicknamed "the pious"), rural southerner who prayed regularly - was contrasted with Fausto Coppi who was a younger, flasher, irreligious northerner, their rivalry culminating in them both climbing off their bikes at the world championships, rather than help the other win, and Bartali over the years becoming convinced that Coppi was doping, often sifting through Coppi's bins and scouring the roadside when Coppi threw things away for evidence of what he'd been taking).

The best stuff in the story (the war stuff) only came to light comparatively recently (2000-2010) but even so i wonder why no-one's pounced in it since then.

[George White]

The 1979 Fatima Hijacking
A proper film about the showbands. There was a good RTE documentary from 1998 that's online. But the likes of Breakfast on Pluto and the RTE Kerry Katona (when she was Kerry McFadden)miniseries Showbands pasted it in this nostalgic light, esp. the Heartbeat-esque latter.
It wasn't a good time - yes they brought glamour to the small towns of Ireland, but it's a great seedy setting.
Also country and Irish - and not in a jokey Stetsons and Stilettos way, but again there's a dark side.

Was in Castleblayney.
And realised why so little factual has been written about country and Irish.
Went to Castleblayney and realised, "Nah. There isn't really anything to say about country n Irish. THAT is why there is so little written, why Stetsons is the way it is, why Margo's book when not hinting at dodgy business is mostly boasts about US stars. YES, there might be a few freakish relics but everyone is dead, old or uninteresting. Everything that'd been or needs to be said behind the scenes has been said. There are stories but they are tied into the troubles. Plus everyone takes it far too seriously. On the bus up I met by an expat Dub who told me not to be so flippant because the locals don't see it as a bit of light ent fluff but something akin to a religious experience, because like late era Northern Soul, it is the dancing that counts. They call it the Nashville of Ireland, and even the Vegas of Ireland, but I noted that Branson was a fairer comparison, which would anger them. She also said that never tell a boyfolk act they are not country or they will get very angry.

[Bazooka]

A CGI heavy telling of the time David Cameron stuck his pork into another pork.

[Ferris]

Not a film but I noticed tonight that they've turned the coughing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal in to a play. I'd buy tickets for a musical version, but a straight retelling? I'm surprised there's an audience for that.

I'm already mentally writing the main theme, Major Cheat (How Will We Do It?). Couple of juicy parts portraying Major Ingram / Tecwen Whittock / Chris Tarrant.

I'm hoping me and Tecwen
Will take the money back when,
We win the whole damn thing

But being a Major Cheat
And avoiding Tarrant's heat
Is even harder when we sing!

[spoken] how will we do it? How can we communicate the right answers? It'll be tough to get it past the production company. Wait, I've got it!

A cough! A cough!
And with Endemol's money, we'll make off

Etc etc. It's catchy.

[Z]

There will be a really exaggerated version of all the drama surrounding the origins of zip compression made at some point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz#Lawsuits

[idunnosomename]

MOATY

[biggytitbo]

There will be a really exaggerated version of all the drama surrounding the origins of zip compression made at some point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz#Lawsuits

Zipedeedodah as the title?

[Custard]

Purple Aki

7 series, and a Christmas special

[George White]

Amazed that there's never, to my knowledge, been a biopic of the extraordinary cyclist Gino Bartali. Gifted athlete (began winning major races at 20); overcame youthful trauma (his brother died early in his career which caused Bartali to consider retirement); experienced the archetypal sporting lows (came from a long way behind to lead the 1937 Tour de France, but then crashed off a bridge and fell into a river, and had to withdraw due to his injuries) and highs (victories in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France induced hysterical fandom from the italian public and media); performed genuine acts of heroism during the war (hid a jewish family in his basement, transported documents to the resistance by hiding them in the tubing of his bicycle, and used the same method to transport photographs for forging documents to help jews out of the country, also transported refugees themselves to safety in Switzerland by hiding them in a secret compartment of a wagon which he had towed to his bicycle "for training purposes" and dropping them off over the border and gathering intelligence about raids on safehouses, and stared down the security services when they took him in and threatened him); and had a textbook rivalry which became obsessive (Bartali - a conservative, deeply religious (nicknamed "the pious"), rural southerner who prayed regularly - was contrasted with Fausto Coppi who was a younger, flasher, irreligious northerner, their rivalry culminating in them both climbing off their bikes at the world championships, rather than help the other win, and Bartali over the years becoming convinced that Coppi was doping, often sifting through Coppi's bins and scouring the roadside when Coppi threw things away for evidence of what he'd been taking).

The best stuff in the story (the war stuff) only came to light comparatively recently (2000-2010) but even so i wonder why no-one's pounced in it since then.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457648/

[imitationleather]

I went to see Alistair McGowan in the very good play An Audience with Jimmy Savile. It made me realise that while I think there is so much in there that would make a great drama, it's going to be a long time before it can be handled properly and actually broadcast in the mainstream. It's just too raw and traumatic for a lot of the victims. It would be hugely controversial and I can't imagine the BBC, for instance, touching it with a bargepole. It would also inevitably invite criticism over whether or not the drama spent enough time discussing how complicit the BBC as an organisation was in what happened. Further, the fact that Savile is so ludicrous-looking means that portrayals of him feel like they're about to turn into a comedy at any point. Which wouldn't really be appropriate.

It will definitely happen at some point, but probably not while Savile is so clearly remembered as a TV personality by a lot of the population.

EDIT: Missed the bit where BBB says one is in production. Well blow me!

[itsfredtitmus]

id like a semi-doc exploitation film based on undertaker vs mankind king of the ring

[honeychile]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457648/

Blimey. There's a region 4 (Australia etc.) DVD on eBay, doesn't say if it has english subtitles. Apart from that barely a sign of it online. One for the "hard to find" films thread. Some indication that it may have been broadcast as a two-parter on italian TV.

It's from 2006, so i'm guessing doesn't include the "basement jews" part.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Costa Concordia tragedy of 2012?
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/11/world/costa-concordia-trial/index.html

[idunnosomename]

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MADELEINE MCCANN

[Camp Tramp]

Yes! There's loads of Roman Republic stuff ripe for a good dramatic treatment; I'd be down for something on the Gracchi  (one of  my students last year proposed a sitcom called the 'Whacky Gracchi' complete with synopses of six episodes). But everything on the Republic is all Pompey, Caesar, Octavian' and Antony, &c. Done to death! Do something on Fabius Maximus or the Punic Wars or something.

There is a good series of books about Marius and Sulla that would be suitable miniseries material.

[holyzombiejesus]

That girl who thought she had a Christmas job at the Post Office but didn't.

[idunnosomename]

When that lady put a cat in the bin

Brexit

Richard Bacon's departure from Blue Peter