Dave Allen in Search of the Great English Eccentric (1974)

1974-10-0850m

A 1974 documentary in which comedian Dave Allen meets a variety of eccentrics including Alexander Stuart Wortley who lives in a box on wheels, a cowboy vicar and the artist/filmmaker Bruce Lacey showing his set-up where he pretends to fly a Lancaster bomber in his garage.

Related Movies

1218270-thumbnail

Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son (2024)

Now a successful filmmaker, Lorna Tucker was once a teenage runaway sleeping rough on the streets of London. For this frank, forceful and inspiring documentary, she returns to her former haunts and speaks to current and former homeless people about why, twenty-five years later, record numbers of people are still reduced to living on Britain's streets.

728396-thumbnail

Think of England (1999)

Shown as part of the BBC's Modern Times series. Think of England shows Parr talking to the many people he encountered in the summer of 1999. He innocently asked people what it took to be English, and this simple question provided many revealing answers.

251860-thumbnail

Video Nasties: Draconian Days (2014)

The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A time when Britain plunged into a new Dark Age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.

252143-thumbnail

Mortified Nation (2013)

Adults share their most embarrassing teenage writings and art in front of total strangers at Mortified stage shows across the country, as the filmmakers explore what the show's popularity says about all of us.

252346-thumbnail

Face to Face: The Schappell Twins (1999)

Two bodies and one mind, this is the extraordinary story of one pair of conjoined twins in today's world.

407016-thumbnail

Meaning of Robots (2012)

This short film profiles the benevolent Mike Sullivan, who has been in the process of shooting a stop-motion robot sex film in his New York City apartment for the last ten years. Obsessed with the meticulous construction of the miniature robot porn stars, his apartment now overflows with thousands, leaving him only tiny paths to navigate and no place to film his epic.

1263801-thumbnail

The Canal Map of Britain (2024)

A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.

576660-thumbnail

Britain's Favourite Foods - Are They Good for You? (2015)

Professor Alice Roberts discovers which are Britain's most popular fresh foods and uses the latest science to uncover the surprising health benefits of our favourite foods.

30142-thumbnail

Vernon, Florida (1981)

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

31557-thumbnail

The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story (2003)

The full bizarre, tragic but celebratory story of Syd Barrett, the co-founder of Pink Floyd.

25099-thumbnail

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)

Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.

579213-thumbnail

Brexit: The Battle for Britain (2016)

Laura Kuenssberg tells the inside story of how David Cameron's referendum plan backfired, and Vote Leave won. How will this political revolution reshape Britain's politics?

1082377-thumbnail

James Baldwin Abroad (2023)

Showcasing three short films by American writer James Baldwin, wherein he muses about race, sexuality and civil rights, among other topics, in Istanbul, Paris and Great Britain.

17346-thumbnail

Grey Gardens (1976)

Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.

450014-thumbnail

Elton John: A Singular Man (2016)

An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.

39452-thumbnail

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner.

1260043-thumbnail

Forward a Century (1951)

Commissioned by the Festival of Britain to show the similarities and contrasts between 1851 and 1951, by means of the Great Exhibition and the Festival.

436244-thumbnail

Land of Tradition (1950)

This Traveltalk series short visits an array of locations associated with England's heritage. Included are Runnymede, Windsor, Ascot, Lincoln, Wells, Salisbury, Glastonbury, and the ancient Stonehenge site.

742944-thumbnail

Aunt Lili (2020)

A short documentary about my lovely aunt Lili. The film shows just a small part of her life. She is always on the lookout for luck, whether in love or with scratch-off tickets.

34229-thumbnail

The Main Stream (2002)

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.