Directed byGavin Millar GenresDrama, Historical ThemesPolitical films ActorsVictoria Wood, Stephanie Cole, Sylvestra Le Touzel, David Threlfall, Ben Crompton, Marcia Warren Rating77% The Mass-Observation project was set up in 1937 by Charles Madge, a poet and journalist and Tom Harrison, an anthropologist to 'record the voice of ordinary people'. They recruited volunteer 'observers' to report to them and in 1939 invited people to send them an account of their lives. Nella Last was one of 500 people who took up this offer. Nella Last's war page vi. Her diaries sent weekly are headed "Housewife, 49", her age when she first began the correspondence. Nella Last's War page ii. Her diaries to Mass-Observation, often written in pencil, provide the narrative of the play as it unfolds her life. Edited versions of her diary have been published: Nella Last's War edited by Richard Broad and Suzy Fleming appeared first in 1981 and has been more recently re-published by Profile Books in 2007. Housewife, 49 is based on this book which covers the years 1939–45. Nella Last's Peace, which appeared in 2009, includes diary entries from her immediate post-war years. A third volume, Nella Last in the 1950s: Further diaries of Housewife, 49 which includes material not published in Nella Last's War was published in 2010.
, 1h43 Directed byGavin Millar OriginUSA GenresDrama, Thriller ThemesSpy films, Political films ActorsDenholm Elliott, Christian Bale, Joss Ackland, Glenda Jackson, Billie Whitelaw, Ronald Pickup Rating62% George Smiley, at the request of his old wartime colleague Ailsa Brimley, investigates the murder of Stella Rode. A letter had previously come to Brimley from Rode detailing a plot supposedly by her husband, Stanley Rode, who teaches at Carne School, to kill her. Upon investigating, Smiley learns of many secrets that were kept by the victim, and one being that Terence Fielding, a house master at Carne, was being blackmailed by her due to past homosexual activities. Smiley solves the investigation when it is revealed that it was not Stanley Rode who murdered his wife, but Terence Fielding.
Directed byGavin Millar OriginUnited-kingdom GenresComedy ThemesFilms about writers, Films about journalists ActorsMichael Maloney, Denholm Elliott, Michael Hordern, Herbert Lom, Donald Pleasence, Robert Eddison Rating59% In a case of mistaken identity, a naive young columnist for the Daily Beast is sent to cover a war in Ishmaelia. A confused editor, Mr. Salter (Denholm Elliott), acting on the orders of his much feared 'boss', Lord Copper (Donald Pleasence), tells William Boot (Michael Maloney) to cover the ongoing war as the correspondent for the Beast. Boot normally writes about British country life, but is too timid, and worried about losing his job for good, to say otherwise when he is ordered overseas. Boot is soon up to his neck in intrigue. All the foreign journalists are confined to the capital of Ishmaelia, and they are not allowed to leave unless permission has been given by the Minister of Propaganda. The journalists stick together, drinking and trying to pass time, but they watch each other jealously for signs that someone may have a story to send home. However, Lord Hitchcock, the correspondent for the Daily Brute, is noticeably absent, and this sends the reporters on an insane quest into the desert in the hope of finding the sought-after 'scoop'.