OLIVER PARKER

THE GREAT ESCAPER (2024)
Starring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson. Directed by Oliver Parker.

In the summer of 2014 - the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings - octogenarian Bernie Jordan made global headlines. He’d staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades.

It was a story that captured the imagination of the world - Bernie seemed to embody the defiant, “can- do” spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing. But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was the story we all tell ourselves to make war and old age bearable. The bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart.

Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Irene - the story celebrates their love without sentimentality and with an eye to the lessons we can all learn from the Greatest Generation.

SWIMMING WITH MEN (2019)
Starring Rob Brydon, Jim Carter, Rupert Graves, Charlotte Riley, Jane Horrocks, Daniel Mays, Nathaniel Parker, Thomas Turgoose, Adeel Akhtar and Christian Rubeck. Directed by Oliver Parker.

The story of a man who is suffering a mid-life crisis and eventually finds new meaning to his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged amateur synchronised swimming team.

REVIEWS Swimming with Men - Sync or swim?

DORIAN GRAY (2009)
Starring Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Emilia Fox, Ben Chaplin, Fiona Shaw, Caroline Goodall, Maryam D'Abo, Douglas Henshall and Rachel Hurd-Wood. Directed by Oliver Parker.

A vain London playboy offers his soul in exchange for eternal beauty in this adaptation of the chilling tale by author Oscar Wilde. Seduced into the decadent world of Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) becomes obsessed with maintaining his youthful appearance, and commissions a special portrait that will weather the winds of time while he remains forever young. When Gray's obsession spirals out of control, his desperate attempts to safeguard his secret turn his once-privileged life into a living hell.

DAD'S ARMY
Starring Bill Nighy, Catherine Zeta Jones, Toby Jones, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon and Bill Paterson. Directed by Oliver Parker.

It is 1944 and World War II is reaching its climax. The Allies are poised to invade France and finally defeat the German army. But in Walmington-on-Sea morale amongst the Home Guard is low. Their new mission then – to patrol the Dover army base – is a great chance to revive spirits and reputation, that is until glamorous journalist Rose Winters arrives to write about their exploits, setting the pulses racing and putting the local women on red alert. MI5 then discover a radio signal sent direct to Berlin from Walmington-on-Sea. There’s a spy on the loose! The outcome of the war is suddenly at stake, and it falls to our unlikely heroes to stand up and be counted.