Docuseries chronicling the rise of one of the biggest and most loved bands in British culture.
Is it a Drama? A Comedy? Or Music Hall dream? Director Julien Temple (The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners) takes a stage show, adds some drama, archive, animation and music, then shakes it all up for MY LIFE STORY where singer Suggs, takes a hilarious, yet moving, look back at his life in music and words. The death of Suggs' beloved cat on his 50th birthday triggers a personal quest to discover what happened to the father he never knew. Stunned by what he learns Suggs is taken back through his life to a childhood on the streets of Soho featuring music written by The Kinks, Ian Drury and, of course, his beloved Madness.
WW2 Treasure Hunters pairs Britain's foremost amateur WW2 detectorist with Madness frontman Suggs, as they uncover historical finds from across the UK. Using state-of-the-art technology, original WW2 archives and maps, the pair work together to identify the best places to dig at forgotten sites, including former military bases, airfields, POW camps and barracks. Once located, they then go on to perform extensive digs to excavate the relics. As the artefacts are unearthed, the presenters turn detective, revealing the stories and people behind the finds. They meet with survivors, experts and historians to understand what happened at each of the locations.
As the BBC makes its exit from the iconic west London site of Television Centre, BBC Four presents a special night of celebration of the building and its 53-year history. To kick start proceedings, the nation's favourite nutty boys and national treasures Madness take to the stage at the front of BBC Television Centre to perform an hour-long concert in front of an assembled audience nine days before TV Centre closes its doors. To help launch this celebration of over 50 years of programme-making at TVC Madness treat us to new material and classics alike, such as One Step Beyond, I Never Knew Your Name, Baggy Trousers and Our House.
From the moment the ship sank, a series of powerful myths grew up around the Titanic. Perhaps the most potent of all was that of the band standing on deck, bravely playing on until the last lifeboat had left and there was no hope of escape. For the first time, Titanic: The Band Played On tells the story of those unsung heroes who were about to play for the last time.
Director Julien Temple's film celebrates Canvey Island's Dr Feelgood, the Essex R 'n' B band that exploded out of the UK in the prog era of the early Seventies, delivering shows and albums that helped pave the way for pub rock and punk.
'Madness' are about to release a new album after 10 years, which consists of an interrelated, song cycle about London called 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate'. Although the songs are on one level about different areas of London, they focus musically on the waves of immigration to the city - Irish, Jewish, Caribbean, Asian etc and the musical legacy they have contributed to the city. The concert is at the Hackney Empire, a show with powerful connections to the grand Music Hall traditions of the place, situating Madness where they belong, clearly within a uniquely English Popular Musical Culture with its roots in the Victorian period. Weaving through the concert, Suggs and Carl, take us back in time to the London of Karl Marx and Jack the Ripper. Humorously introducing the subject of each song, they take us on a tour through the psycho geography of the Old East End, Spitalfields, Smithfield, Wapping, Bethnal Green, ending down on the beaches of the Thames beyond Tower Bridge Finally.
When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many years, Vera is swept off her feet by a dashing officer, William Killick, and finds herself torn between the open adoration of her new found beau and the wily charms of the exotic Welshman.
Adrian Edmondson narrates a documentary chronicling the story of Stiff Records, a tiny independent that took music out of the boardroom and gave it back to the fans. Stiff's successes included Nick Lowe, the Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness, Tracey Ullman and the Pogues. Contributors include Captain Sensible, Jonathan Ross, Suggs, Shane MacGowan and label founders Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson.
Well meaning friends try to persuade Suzanne, a beautiful widow, to remarry and the choice seems to be between Frank, a philandering dentist, and Tony, a sensitive, failing sports trainer who helps her son.
Graham McPherson, known by the stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the ska band 'Madness'.
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