Screen and Cinema
7 total works
Two major new screenplays by the award-winning Stephen Poliakoff made for the BBC and HBO Films and due to be broadcast in November 2007. A stellar cast led by Michael Gambon and Dame Maggie Smith feature in these exquisite, major new films that are linked by a grand house and memories of the past. In Joe's Palace, the first of two screenplays, Stephen Poliakoff explores the relationship between a reclusive billionaire (played by Michael Gambon), and the teenage boy he employs to take care of a grand house. This is a lavishly shot contemporary film about loneliness and loss. In Capturing Mary, the companion film for BBC2 set in the same exquisite empty house, Poliakoff takes his characters into a dark and terrifying exploration of the past and its power to capture and destroy a person's life. Dame Maggie Smith plays the lead role. Included also is A Real Summer, a glorious companion drama to Capturing Mary charting the development of an unexpected friendship between a young aristocratic woman and Mary before she enters the dangerous world of Mr Graham's house.
A series of three-hour-long linked plays for BBC2 plus two shorter plays Oswald and Marilyn, played by Timothy Spall and Lindsay Duncan, are the custodians of the collection of 10 million black and white photographs housed in a beautiful period building on the edge of London. Their peaceful old fashioned existence is threatened when some Americans buy the property to turn it into a business school. They have to use their resources and ingenuity to fight the forces of the modern world and as they do so their battle uncovers a mystery from the past, hidden away amongst the photos which has a dramatic effect on the lives of all those involved. "A meditation on the nature of photographic images, a celebration of old-world English eccentricity at threat in a world of high-technology glossiness, and a reminder that nothing in our heritage is sacred" (Sunday Times)
Glorious 39 is the screenplay of the new blockbuster film by award-winning writer/director Stephen Poliakoff released in cinemas in November 2009. In this tense psychological thriller set on the eve of WWII, a young woman stumbles across evidence of a sinister Nazi appeasement plot that will stop at nothing to achieve its aims. As close friends die in suspicious circumstances, she finds herself in extreme danger from an increasingly menacing and powerful enemy. Besides the screenplay the book features an exclusive Q&A with writer/director Stephen Polikoff, a colour photo section and full cast and production credits. The film features a stellar cast of leading British actors: award-winning British actress Romola Garai (Atonement), alongside BAFTA-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually). They are joined by Oscar-winning actress Julie Christie (Finding Neverland), Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl), David Tennant, Charlie Cox (Stardust), Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park) and the legendary Christopher Lee (Lord of The Rings) as Walter.
Glorious 39 is writer/director Stephen Poliakoff's return to the cinema after an absence of a decade since his previous feature films which include the multi-award winning Close My Eyes.
Glorious 39 is writer/director Stephen Poliakoff's return to the cinema after an absence of a decade since his previous feature films which include the multi-award winning Close My Eyes.
Set in a time of immense change, Dancing on the Edge tells the story of a black jazz group, the Louis Lester Band, as they rise to fame, entertaining guests at exclusive high society gatherings in 1930s London. While many recoil at the presence of black musicians in polite society, the capital's more progressive socialites, including younger members of the Royal Family, take the band under their wing.
In this explosive five-part series, Stephen Poliakoff returns to television with his most ambitious work to date. Dancing on the Edge provides a new angle on an extraordinary time in history, giving us a piercingly original vision of Britain in the 1930s; a time of glamour, hardship, vibrant new music and financial meltdown. Combining the rich characterisation of Shooting The Past with the epic sweep of The Lost Prince and inspired by true stories of the era, Dancing on the Edge was produced by Ruby Film and Television for BBC2.
Also included is the innovative epilogue to the whole drama, Interviewing Louis, where music journalist Stanley conducts a combative in-depth interview with Louis Lester. This funny and disturbing drama complements the main story perfectly while leading us towards a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
In this explosive five-part series, Stephen Poliakoff returns to television with his most ambitious work to date. Dancing on the Edge provides a new angle on an extraordinary time in history, giving us a piercingly original vision of Britain in the 1930s; a time of glamour, hardship, vibrant new music and financial meltdown. Combining the rich characterisation of Shooting The Past with the epic sweep of The Lost Prince and inspired by true stories of the era, Dancing on the Edge was produced by Ruby Film and Television for BBC2.
Also included is the innovative epilogue to the whole drama, Interviewing Louis, where music journalist Stanley conducts a combative in-depth interview with Louis Lester. This funny and disturbing drama complements the main story perfectly while leading us towards a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
The screenplay of Poliakoff's award-winning BBC drama about the forgotten son of King George V and Queen Mary The Lost Prince follows the life and times of Prince John, the forgotten youngest son of King George V and Queen Mary, who was born in 1905. Although remembered as a charming boy, he was diagnosed as epileptic and suffering from learning difficulties similar to autism and shut away at the age of twelve at the in Wood Farm near Sandringham to prevent the family from public embarrassment. He died there when he was just thirteen. Dramatising the historical facts, Poliakoff portrays with extraordinary sensitivity, a child's experience of the Royal Family in the late Edwardian period and during the First World War. Set against a backdrop of unprecedented upheaval in Britain, The Lost Prince tells the very human story of a unique family and an extraordinary boy. Published to tie in with the BBC's production, broadcast in two feature-length instalments in January 2003, The Lost Prince stars Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Gina McKee, Tom Hollander, John Sessions, Billy Nighy and Bibi Andersson.
From Stephen Poliakoff, acclaimed author the Emmy Award-winning The Lost Prince, come two unforgettable screenplays broadcast by the BBC in 2006. Friends & Crocodiles is an intoxicating story following the shifting balance of power between a visionary and hedonistic boss, Paul Reynolds, and his secretary Lizzie. Against a backdrop of flamboyant parties, maverick business plans and the boom and bust of corporate Britain in the eighties and nineties, a magnetic relationship of success and failure, aspiration and antagonism is played out. Gideon's Daughter, winner of two Golden Globes and a Peabody Award, is a powerful narrative of ambition, loss and redemption. As the century draws to a close, a new Labour government comes to power and leading PR guru Gideon Warner finds himself feted by politicians, businessmen and starlets eager for his assured touch. But as he reaches the pinnacle of his career, national grief at the death of Princess Diana becomes the emotional backdrop to Gideon's increasing sense of loss at the distance between himself and his daughter.
As his ambitions unravel, a chance encounter with the extraordinary Stella begins a relationship that might yet offer him a chance of salvation. As well as the two screenplays, the volume features an entertaining and provocative essay by the author.
As his ambitions unravel, a chance encounter with the extraordinary Stella begins a relationship that might yet offer him a chance of salvation. As well as the two screenplays, the volume features an entertaining and provocative essay by the author.
The script of BBC's major 3-part drama for Spring 2001, starring Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Lyndsey Duncan and Toby Stephens If you take any family and get them together, and get them to stay up long enough, the stories will come tumbling out ...there are at least three great stories in any family...At an elaborately organised reunion, held in a grand London hotel, Raymond, his wife Esther and their son Daniel are slowly drawn into their ancestors' family tree. Meeting distant - and not so distant - relatives for the first time they begin to establish their positions within this eccentric and eclectic family. Helping them on their way, Stephen, the appointed 'pedigree-hunter' and archivist, unravels their entwined stories with the aid of his extraordinary collection of family photographs. In an attempt to pieces together and make sense of their forgotten or obscured personal histories, the past impacts on the present and they come face to face with the darkest of family secrets.