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A remake of Straw Dogs reminds us that 1971, which also spawned A Clockwork Orange and 10 Rillington Place, was a wonderful annus horribilis of shock cinema in Britain

Recently, in honour of this week's release of the Straw Dogs remake, an interviewer from Film 2011 listened to me indulgently while I rambled on the subject of 1971 And All That.

1971 was the year of highly controversial and violent movies like Sam Peckinpah's original Straw Dogs and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. It was also the year of Dirty Harry, and I have myself blogged about William Friedkin's 1971 film The French Connection, a pretty brutal film positively drenched in 1971-ness. What was it that made the year 1971 the annus mirabilis (or horribilis) of shock cinema in Britain? It could have been something to do with the fact that this was the year of John Trevelyan's retirement as a markedly liberal director of...

Man behind early Bond films was seen 'security risk' and BBC warned against giving him staff job

Wolf Mankowitz, one of the men behind the early James Bond films, was suspected of being a communist agent, according to MI5 files released today.

Mankowitz, who died in 1998 aged 73, introduced the Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to one another. He was also involved in writing the script for Dr No and wrote the screenplay for the 1966 spoof Casino Royale.

He was one of the most successful British screenwriters of the 1950s with A Kid for Two Farthings and Expresso Bongo, a music industry satire starring Cliff Richard. The security service file released at the National Archives today shows that for more than a decade after the second world war, Mankowitz was in MI5's sights as a possible communist agent.

The file includes covert surveillance photographs of Mankowitz showing him...

Sir Ludovic Kennedy has passed away at the age of 89. The former journalist died at a nursing home in Salisbury, Wiltshire after contracting pneumonia, the BBC reports. Kennedy presented Panorama and Did You See...? during his TV career and appeared as himself in several episodes of sitcom Yes Minister. The campaigner also investigated miscarriages of justice and his book 10 Rillington Place argued that the executed Timothy (more)...

British author, broadcaster and journalist Sir Ludovic Kennedy has died at the age of 89.

Kennedy was most familiar to British audiences for his work as a newsreader and television presenter, which spanned six decades. He also wrote more than a dozen books and television films, often about miscarriages of justice - most notably his 1961 book Ten Rillington Place.

That project argued the case of Timothy Evans, who was executed for the murder of his baby daughter. The culprit was later uncovered as serial killer John Christie.

Evans was later posthumously pardoned.

Kennedy's book was turned into a 1970 movie starring Richard Attenborough and John Hurt.

According to his family, Kennedy died in a nursing home in Salisbury, England on Sunday - just a month before his 90th birthday. He had been ill for some time after contracting pneumonia following a fall.

The Red Shoes movie star and ballerina Moira Shearer died on Tuesday. She was 80. The Scottish dancer passed away in Oxford, England, according to her husband Ludovic Kennedy. Following her acclaimed performance in The Red Shoes, Shearer experimented further with her Hollywood career by starring in The Man Who Loved Redheads and Peeping Tom, before returning to her dancing roots. As a ballerina, Shearer starred in classic shows including Les Sylphides, as well as playing Sleeping Beauty's Aurora. Kennedy paid tribute to his late wife, saying, "She was full of spirit and also she was very beautiful. She moved wonderfully gracefully as you would expect of a ballet dancer."...