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Writer and director whose best-known films captured London life over several decades

The director and writer Anthony Simmons, who has died aged 93, had a flair for conveying a sense of time and place that owed much to the films he saw on his travels as a young man. “I make European films,” he once said. “My first real contact with film was in Rome watching the neorealists filming in the streets. I never had any training as a film-maker. I came into the industry as an outsider who never quite fitted into the slots of the British film industry.”

Simmons worked across that industry, as a maker of documentaries and shorts, then feature films and, later, as a jobbing director on television dramas. It was at the heart of postwar European cinema that he was first recognised, receiving the Venice film festival grand prix for his documentary Sunday By the...

Recently, CBS delivered the new,official synopsis/description for their upcoming "Criminal Minds" episode 12 of season 11. The episode is entitled, "Drive," and it turns out that we're going to see some pretty interesting and dramatic stuff as an UnSub that's been leaving dead bodies right out in the open, prompts a huge investigation for the Bau crew, and more! In the new, 12th episode press release: The Bau Looks For An Unsub Killing Victims Who Are Discovered In Public Places Throughout Boston, On "Criminal Minds," Wednesday, Jan. 20. Press release number 2: When bodies are discovered in public places throughout Boston, the Bau will investigate whether a taxi or ride-share service the victims used before their deaths, could lead the team to the UnSub. Guest stars feature: Eric Nenninger (James O'Neill), Jenna Willis (Amy Gibb), Leslie Murphy (Detective Connie Lawlor), Matt Odachowski (Male Reporter), Dorcas Tejada (Female Reporter), Melissa Ciesla (M.

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Red Riding Trilogy" (2010)

Directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, and Anand Tucker

Released by IFC Films

Jarrold ("Brideshead Revisited"), Marsh ("Man on Wire") and Tucker ("Shopgirl") take on the epic true crime story of the Yorkshire Ripper, the serial killer that haunted England throughout the '70s and '80s in this three-part series of films: Jarrold's "1974," which stars future Spider-Man Andrew Garfield as a journalist investigating the crime, Marsh's "1980," which follows Paddy Considine's veteran cop who suspects corruption within his own department, and Tucker's "1983," which tracks David Morrissey's detective as he makes the connection between a current kidnapping and those of years ago. (Aaron Hillis' interview with James Marsh is here.)

"Beatdown" (2010)

Directed by Mike Gunther

Released by Lionsgate

Don't you hate it when your brother's murdered, leaving you to make up his debt to a local gangster by...