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Yet like many other of his contemporaries or successors – Frederick Forsyth, Desmond Bagley, Jack Higgins, Alistair Maclean, et al – with whom his works usually adorned bookshelves in houses of avid readers in the late 20th century, Nevil Shute has gradually faded away from public memory and interest.

An accomplished aeronautical engineer and pilot, who began writing novels as a hobby, Shute was much in demand for most of the 20th century, with his two-dozen-odd engrossing and eminently readable books with compelling plot lines – straddling various genres from romance to redemption, religion to reincarnation, and cross-cultural relations to a post-apocalyptic scenario, and sometimes, some supernormal elements – but not enough to stretch credulity.

Exotic and unconventional settings – spanning from South Pacific islands to dense Canadian forests to the Australian outback, themes revisited without getting repetitive, and sometimes, a framing device of a narrator – who introduces the main story but otherwise does not...

Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.

Bryan Brown will receive this year’s Longford Lyell Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta).

Director Ian Dunlop was the first recipient of the honour named after film pioneers Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell at the 1968 AFI Awards.

The roll call of honorees includes Peter Weir, Geoffrey Rush, Fred Schepisi, Jan Chapman, David Stratton, Don McAlpine, Al Clark, Jacki Weaver, Andrew Knight, Cate Blanchett and, last year, Phillip Noyce.

“In the 38 years since Bryan received his first AFI Award we have seen him firmly established as one of Australia’s most respected actors. As one of our earliest performance winners it is fitting that we honour Bryan this year as AFI | Aacta celebrates its 60th anniversary,” said AFI | Aacta CEO Damian Trewhella.

“We are full of admiration for Bryan’s commitment to his craft, his role...

One of the most ambitious television dramas of the 1980s has found a new home on True Entertainment. It should also find a new audience there, as it has done continuously since its final Reunion special aired in 1985, bringing the four year run to a close. It began as something of a revelation to many, choosing to tell the stories of a group of women during the Second World War. With so many movies and television production telling and re-telling the stories centering around men during the war Tenko’s initial success proved that there were many more stories to tell.

The series starred Stephanie Beachem, Stephanie Cole and Doctor Who’s Louise Jameson, along with Jean Anderson, Patricia Lawrence and well known comedy actor Burt Kwowk as Major Yamauchi. It dramatised the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese, taken after the Fall of Singapore in 1942, and how their...

Can a pirate be a substitute monster? Hammer Films gives yet another genre a spin with this box-office winner that launched a sideline in costume adventures. The Hammer crew makes it work: Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, Marie Devereaux, Michael Ripper, Oliver Reed and Andrew Keir, plus yank assistance from Kerwin Mathews and Glenn Corbett.

The Pirates of Blood River

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date October 17, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Kerwin Mathews, Christopher Lee, Andrew Keir, Glenn Corbett, Marla Landi, Michael Ripper, Peter Arne, Oliver Reed, Marie Devereux.

Cinematography: Arthur Grant

Production Design: Bernard Robinson

Art Direction: Don Mingaye

Film Editor: Eric Boyd-Perkins

Original Music: Gary Hughes

Written by John Hunter, John Gilling, Jimmy Sangster

Produced by Michael Carreras, Anthony Nelson-Keys

Directed by John Gilling

Hammer Films didn’t start out as a horror studio, but after their big Technicolor successes in 1957-...

No Highway in the Sky

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 99 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring : James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Janette Scott, Niall MacGinnis, Kenneth More, Ronald Squire, Elizabeth Allan, Jill Clifford, Felix Aylmer, Dora Bryan, Maurice Denham, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Bessie Love, Karel Stepanek.

Cinematography: Georges Périnal

Film Editor: Manuel del Campo

Original Music: Malcolm Arnold

Written by: R.C. Sherriff, Oscar Millard, Alec Coppel from the novel by Nevil Shute

Produced by: Louis D. Lighton

Directed by Henry Koster

A few years back, whenever a desired title came up on list for a Fox, Columbia or Warners’ Mod (made-on-demand) DVD, my first reaction was disappointment: we really want to see our favorites released in the better disc format, Blu-ray. But things have changed. As Mod announcements thin out, we have seen an explosion of library titles remastered in HD.

The BBC First British Film Festival has revealed its full program.

Featuring 31 titles, the program aims to capture the magic, unique humour, romance, traditions and new age vitality of British culture.

The festival will open with Paolo Sorrentino.s film, Youth, nominated for the Palme d.Or at this year.s Cannes film festival, and the follow up to his Academy Award-winning film, The Great Beauty (2013)..

Following two old friends, retired composer Fred (Michael Caine) and film director Mick (Harvey Keitel), on vacation at a prestigious hotel in the Swiss Alps, the film is an introspective and thought-provoking, wry buddy comedy — and it employs Sorrentino.s hallmark stunning visuals to majestic effect.

Straight from its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Man Who Knew Infinity — the retelling of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan.s life — will close the festival..

Featuring performances from Dev Petal (Slumdog Millionaire) as Ramanujan, and...

Voice cast of Raymond Briggs’ adaptation also includes Luke Treadaway and Virginia McKenna.

Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn are to voice the lead characters of Ethel & Ernest, a new hand-drawn animated feature based on Raymond Briggs’ classic graphic novel and tribute to his parents.

Production is underway on the film, set for theatrical release in 2016, and the cast also includes Luke Treadaway as Raymond, Olivier award winner for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and star of Fortitude; Virginia McKenna (Born Free, A Town Like Alice), June Brown (EastEnders), Pam Ferris (Matilda), Simon Day and Roger Allam.

The film will also showcase the voice of 11-year-old Harry Collett as young Raymond, who provides the voice of Buzzbee in Disney Junior’s animated series The Hive.

Ethel & Ernest marks the feature debut of Roger Mainwood, who worked as an animator on Briggs’ classic short The Snowman and was lead animator on the 2012 sequel, [link...

British film star known for her roles in A Town Like Alice and The Spanish Gardener

Never having had the chance to justify her initial build-up as "the next Vivien Leigh", the svelte brunette Maureen Swanson, who has died of cancer aged 78, deserved much better than she was given in the 1950s by the Rank Organisation, to whom she was under contract. Although Swanson was not a graduate of the much-maligned Rank Charm School, she was, to her chagrin, often referred to as a "Rank starlet", which implied that she was merely on screen in order to look glamorous. But unlike Rank charmers such as Diana Dors, Joan Collins and Belinda Lee, Swanson was not a "naughty" sex symbol, but more of a "good girl".

She might have gone on to better parts had not her marriage in 1961 to William Ward, Viscount Ednam (later the 4th Earl of Dudley) terminated her acting career for good.