Showing titles in Film & TV

For 13 years, 22 series and 175 shows, Richard Porter was script editor of Top Gear, from the first faltering pilot episode in 2002 until the very last show presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May in 2015. Along the way they destroyed cars, sparked diplomatic incidents, set fire to caravans, almost killed one of the presenters, and somehow transformed Top Gear from a shabby BBC Two motoring show into an Emmy-winning, record-breaking, planet-straddling behemoth.

The official celebration of All Creatures Great & Small and its incredible setting: the Yorkshire Dales. Featuring an in-depth look at the characters and real-life inspiration for the show, this book tells the fascinating story of the program’s main character: the Yorkshire Dales.

When Brian De Palma agreed to allow Julie Salamon unlimited access to the film production of Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Bonfire of the Vanities, both director and journalist must have felt like they were on to something big. How could it lose? But instead Salamon got a front-row seat at the Hollywood disaster of the decade.

When beloved host Johnny Carson announced his retirement after 30 years on The Tonight Show, millions of Americans mourned. But inside the television industry, the news ignited a battle between two amazing talents - Jay Leno and David Letterman - who both yearned to occupy the departing legend's chair. For NBC, it would be a decision with millions of dollars at stake. Soon these two comedians with strikingly different styles, who had once shared a friendship as they worked the clubs together, would be engaged in a fierce competition for the prize.

From their modest beginnings in Byker Grove through to their 'unique' time as pop stars and an award-laden TV career, those three decades have flown by in the blink of an eye. They've also featured an incredible cast of supporting characters, including their first scriptwriter - (an unknown comedian called David Walliams), Saturday night fun and games with countless Hollywood A-listers and celebrities they torture - sorry, work with - every year in the jungle.

This witty and unexpected show brings you toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang and Greek gobbledegook. Find out the meaning of words like giff-gaff, knock-knobbler and buckfitches; the difference between French marbles, French velvet and the French ache; hear the glorious poetry of the English language, as practiced from writers varying from William Shakespeare to Vanilla Ice; and spend time laughing and learning with some of the finest Wordaholics in the business.

For 10 years, Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to discover what motivates them, why they believe the things they believe, and to find out what has happened to them since he last saw them.

Josephine Alibrandi is 17 and in her final year of school. Dealing with her mum and the ways of her Nonna are daunting enough as she prepares for her exams. But Josie is about to discover real life gets in the way of her carefully-made plans.

From working-class Glasgow to the glamour of breakfast TV - this is the witty and charming autobiography of one of TV's most-loved presenters. National treasure Lorraine Kelly has been great company for years: a sunny, vivacious, and loveable presence in your home. Now it's possible to get to know her even better as, for the first time, she opens up about her eventful life and tells her story in her own words.

Zombies, aliens, a little skin, lots of gore - and even more laughs - the cinematic universe of Charles Band is legendary. From the toilet-invading creatures of Ghoulies to the time-travelling bounty hunter in Trancers to the pandemic-crashed Corona Zombies, Band has spent four decades giving B-movie lovers exactly what they love. In Confessions of a Puppetmaster, this congenial master of Grindhouse cinema tells his own story, uncut.

Joanna Lumley is one of Britain's undisputed national treasures. A single mum, iconic actress, voiceover artist and author, best known for her roles in ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS and THE NEW AVENGERS, she is a former model and Bond girl, a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign, and is now considered a 'national treasure' of Nepal as well as the UK.

When Monty Don's golden retriever, Nigel, became the surprise star of BBC's Gardeners' World, inspiring huge interest, fan mail and even his own social media accounts, Monty Don wanted to explore what makes us connect with animals quite so deeply. In many respects Nigel is a very ordinary dog - charming, handsome and obedient, as so many are. He is also a much loved family pet. He is also a star. By telling Nigel's story, Monty relates his relationships with other special dogs in his life in a memoir of his dogs past and very much present.

Born to Estonian parents in 1950s Bradford, Tamm's rise to fame took her from a Northern childhood to life in the fast lane: via TV appearances in Coronation Street and Girls of Slender Means to leading roles in feature films – including the cult Tales that Witness Madness, and The Odessa File, which pitched her career into the international arena. In 1978, Mary became part of essential Saturday night television as she joined the cast of Doctor Who, alongside Tom Baker, as the superlative Time Lady, Romana!

After first meeting over sixty years ago while filming a costume drama for the BBC, Prunella Scales and Timothy West have enjoyed a partnership like no other. In this book, Tim traces their united steps through life professionally and personally, and covers the highs and lows of caring for Pru since her dementia diagnosis, twenty years ago. As with all things in life, she and Tim have tackled it together, often with a glass of wine in hand and almost always with a smile.

Sometimes things are more ordinary than you think. And sometimes they're a whole lot odder than you can possibly imagine.

Rebecca Front has always drawn on experiences from her life in her award-winning acting and comic writing. In her debut book, she reveals herself as a master storyteller: sharp, witty, honest, and highly attuned to the absurdities of life and the oddities of human nature. By turns poignant, comic, and uplifting, Curious is a book of stories, all of them true, though sometimes perhaps a little bent out of shape in the telling.

The legendary Academy award-winning writer and director takes the listener on a unique joyride of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history. For the first time, in his own words, explore the mind, the myth, and the movie magic of the one and only Quentin Tarantino.

Chris Evans' extraordinary career has seen him become one of the country's most successful broadcasters and producers and a well-known face in his own right. From his early years on Manchester's Piccadilly radio to Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, The Big Breakfast, and TFI Friday for Channel 4, Chris changed the TV landscape during the '90s. And on BBC Radio 1's Breakfast show and as owner of Virgin Radio, he ushered in the age of the celebrity DJ.

The complete Genius radio series, in which Dave Gorman and his celebrity guests consider the ridiculous, unworkable, but sometimes genius inventions of the public. Guests such as Stewart Lee, Johnny Vegas, Germaine Greer and Charlie Brooker peruse a parade of proposals, be they innovations, gadgets, gizmos, philosophies or follies, in an attempt to sort the worthy from the worthless. Will they unearth some genuine gems of genius? And which pitch will win the legendary Genius trophy?

Comedy has been Shaun Micallef’s guiding light, his refuge, his passport, his lifebuoy, his drug, his mask, his means, his end, his lingua franca, his Self. But it’s not everything. Join Shaun on a journey from his earliest days as a gangly, bespectacled comedy nerd growing up on the mean streets of Adelaide to his rightful place today as a glittering star in Australia’s TV firmament. Though his road to success has not been without its failures – in fact, many, MANY failures – only a few of them can be blamed on others.

At last, the definitive audiobook about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View from the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow. In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most 'insubstantial' people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don't care about. It's a journey deep within, in a way that's respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you've waited for the smaller paperback edition. Ayoade argues for the canonisation of this brutal masterpiece.