HÉLIOGABALE

Lady Sings the Blues

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

Elvis and Me

Priscilla remembers her life and her relationship with Elvis Presley since she was 14 years old. When she moves to Graceland, she feels like a princess. But her lover, the world-famous musician Elvis Presley, is rarely at home and increasingly resorts to drugs. Nevertheless, she decides to marry Elvis. After a while, the fairy tale slowly turns into a nightmare and the two seem to become estranged.

Beecham

1990 TV adaptation of a 1979 biographical play by Ned Sherrin & Caryl Brahms, based on the life of conductor and impresario Sir Thomas Beecham. With Timothy West as Beecham.

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.

Suarez: The Healing Priest

When Fernando was given the gift of healing at 16, he hid it for many years until he became a priest only to find himself in scandals and squabbles with the Catholic Church. Unfazed, he challenged head on but pauses when faced with the question - what if the gift is taken away from him? Based on the true to life story of Fr. Fernando Suarez.

Contemporary of the Century

About the fate of a communist, who has come a long and difficult life from a simple worker to the director of the largest automobile plant. The prototype of the main character was the image of I. A. Likhachov (1896-1956) - the director of the Moscow Automobile Plant (ZiL).

Postcards from the Edge

Substance-addicted Hollywood actress, Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who still treats her like a child. Despite these and other problems, Suzanne begins to see the funny side of her situation, and also realises that not only do daughters have mothers—mothers do too.

Kansas City

A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.

Caravaggio

A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.

Something the Lord Made

A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

Goodnight, Mister Tom

A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.

Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years

The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during their 12-year stay at the White House.

Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking

A biography of President Harry S. Truman.

My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn

The life and wanton times of Errol Flynn

The Critic

A starry-eyed actress with a troubled past faces her harshest critic during an interview gone wrong.