Drama > V Drama > Havers, Nigel

How many stars does it take to do Dickens?

Advantages: A beautifully fresh presentation
Disadvantages: Some poor "English" accents

...A brief plot outline Nicholas Nickleby is dead. (This seems to be a theme of how Dickens starts his novels!) But we are not concrned with that Nicholas Nickleby, it is his son ... young Nicholas Nickleby who is the hero of our tale. After his father's suden death leaving his family with little money the young Nicholas goes to his uncle in town for advice. As you can imagine the uncle is loaded but does not help the Nickelby's at all. He manages ...
...Hall. Now Nicholas is warned that this school is not pleasant by an old friend of his fathers but he goes none the less. When he arrives at Dotheboys he is greated by malnourished, down trodden young boys who seem closer to death than receiving a good education. In particular the young boy Smike is the Headmaster's servant boy and often beaten. As you can imagine Nicholas is there to become the boy's saviour and helps Smike to escape. He then beats ...

nkemp_99 03.02.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Nicholas Nickleby (DVD)

Sexual Tension… Whew [film only]

Advantages: Intriguing, great acting, stunning scenery
Disadvantages: If you don't like drama films, you might find it too long

A Passage to India [1984] . . . In the film which is an almost faithful adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1924), Adela Quested (Judy Davis) and Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) travel to India to visit the latter's son Ronny (Nigel Havers), who is also Miss Quested's fiancé. Ronny works there as a civil magistrate who is surrounded by other English employees, and these prefer to stay secluded in a milieu which they created to ...
...but this experience ends as a rather tragic one for both. They get the chance to meet Dr. Aziz who seems to have a revolutionary spirit that is not satisfied with how the English treat his fellow countrymen. When he talks to these two ladies, he notices that they are different from the rest, or so he thinks, and he invites them to go with him and discover certain mysterious caves in India. Here things take a different turn. They start by visiting ...

sottovoce82 24.12.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Passage To India (DVD)

Dennis Potter at his ABSOLUTE BEST!

Advantages: Funny, touching, fantastic music, unusual, brilliant cast
Disadvantages: Not for those who dislike 30s music or surrealism

Pennies from Heaven- Review -Introduction- There have only been two drama series shown on the BBC (or in fact on TV at all) in my lifetime which have given me total and utter enjoyment, and this is one of them. (The other, for those wondering, is Stephen Poliakoff's "Shooting the Past"). Pennies from Heaven was first shown on TV in 1978 and being only 2 at the time I naturally did not see it. However, it was repeated when I was about 14 and ever ...
...which is very evident in Pennies from Heaven, is the propensity for characters to spontaneously break into song at odd moments in the story, and in the case of Pennies from Heaven it means the actors lip-synching to popular songs from the 1930s and 40s, when the story is set. This gives the play a slightly "stage musical" feel as the songs do help the story line along slightly. It gives a slightly bizarre feel to proceedings, but as a huge fan of ...

cladach29 31.08.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Pennies From Heaven (DVD)

A very poor film but with a very good sound track.

Advantages: A very good sound track composed by John Williams.
Disadvantages: Poor plot, acting and screenplay in my opinion.

This is quite a strange film in my opinion and at the end of it all if you are like me you will think that you've watched a real load of incredibly boring rubbish but that the sound track was very good and brilliant in places. Not surprisingly then the sound track is composed by John Williams. The story is about a middle class English schoolboy, Jamie, who is living with his parents in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of China in the second ...
...boy gets separated from his parents and the bulk of the film is then about him living off of scraps on the streets and in prisoner camps and barracks. But for me the real narrative of the film heavily focuses on Jamie's obsession with various war planes that often fly over in the sky and his boyish fascination with them. There are one or two momentary highlights in the film but put against so many bad and uninteresting parts they do just do not make ...

bella6789 04.03.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Empire Of The Sun (Special Edition) (DVD)

Race for glory

Advantages: Emotional and engrossing story
Disadvantages: none

Chariots of Fire is based on a true story about two British athletes for glory in the 100 metres race, at the 1924 Olympic Games, in Paris. Hugh Hudson directs a multi-Oscar winning film The two athletes which the film focuses on are, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), an Englishman who is Jewish and has to face prejudice over his religion and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a Scottish man who is very religious and wants to become a missionary. Both men ...
...This is a poignant and touching story made even more uplifting by the fact that it is based on a true story. Although you know the outcome of the races, you can’t help but be exited watching the story unfold, thanks to the stunning direction and acting. Ben Cross and Ian Charleson are brilliant as the determined athletes out for glory. The supporting cast features some great performances from such names as Nigel Havers, Ian Holm and John Gielgud. ...

mozzie76 15.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Chariots Of Fire (DVD)