The Edwardians – The Birth Of Now
Eccentrics week
Mark Gatiss And the Penguins: The Worst Journey in The World (working title)
(91Èȱ¬ Four)
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Written by and starring Mark Gatiss, The Worst Journey In The World tells an often overlooked story of epic endurance.
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To this day Captain's Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition in 1912 remains a testament to an age of courage and tragic heroism - but it's rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.
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One such task saw three men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity – all for a penguin egg.
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There is a reason why this was called the worst journey in the world - the expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of our hero's life and his downfall.
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This charming and moving film tells this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.
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The Double Life Of Saki (91Èȱ¬ Four)
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Saki is the pseudonym of writer Hector Hugh Munro whose subversive comedies have generated a group of loyal and passionate fans.
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His macabre, witty tales were a forerunner for Roald Dahl - James And the Giant Peach might even be based on Saki's early childhood.
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Saki had a miserable childhood. His mother was killed by a runaway cow in an English country lane. He and his two siblings, Ethel and Charlie, were brought up by two vicious spinster aunts who loathed each other and their young charges. Saki created his own private world where his pets were his best friends.
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It's hardly surprising then that in many of his stories - for example Sredni Vashter and The Lumber Room - unpleasant, and occasionally fatal, things happen to cruel or pompous governesses.
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Based around an interview Munro gave for The Bodleian Magazine in 1911, letters he wrote to his sister Ethel and other correspondence, the programme will take a close look at his unhappy childhood, his loneliness as an adult and his closet homosexuality.
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The reconstructions will be interwoven with interviews from Will Self, Jack Langguth (Saki biographer), Jeffrey Archer, Roy Hattersley, Sandie Byrne (author of forthcoming book on Saki), Alexei Sayle and Adam Newell (editor of A Shot In The Dark, a collection of Saki stories).
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Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? (91Èȱ¬ Four)
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Based on three short popular stories written by Saki in the 1900s – and using the original text – Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? is a unique drama.
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Ben Daniels (State Within, Cutting It) plays the storyteller and Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones Diary, Harry Potter) is Mrs De Ropp.
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The film takes the short stories – The Storyteller, The Lumber Room and Sredni Vashtar – and uses them to tell a bigger tale of a family of children oppressed by their aunt and guardian.
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Despite her best efforts the vivid imaginations of the children manage to save them from their situations.
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The Storyteller
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On a train from London, Mrs De Ropp is losing control of the children when a mysterious bachelor offers to tell them a story. This tale of a young girl who was so "horribly good" that she got herself killed by a hungry wolf is the best thing the children have ever heard, but for Mrs De Ropp it is an "improper story". The children's imaginations are fired... this can only mean trouble for her.
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The Lumber Room
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As a punishment for putting a frog in his bread and milk, Nicholas is told to remain at home with his aunt while the other children are taken to the seaside. On no account, she says, is he allowed to play in the Gooseberry Garden, but Nicholas has his plans to visit the Lumber Room. He steals the key and lets himself into this great room full of the house's junk. Here his imagination runs wild among the strange pictures and artefacts.
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Sredni Vashtar
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Conradin, the sickly 10-year-old, has been harbouring a secret. In a shed at the bottom of the garden he keeps the two most important things in the world, a hen and a ferret. The ferret represents the god Sredni Vashtar! Conradin is the only member of the cult of Sredni Vashtar, and in the damp shed he performs rituals, festivals and ceremonies in honour of the great god. When Mrs De Ropp becomes suspicious that something is going on, Conradin asks Sredni Vashtar to "do one thing for me". The unspecified "thing" is indeed done: Mrs De Ropp investigates, but how will she fare?
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