Best movies & TV Shows like Give us a Break
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Give us a Break Starring Robert Lindsay, Paul McGann, David Daker, Shirin Taylor, and more. If you liked Give us a Break then you may also like: Withnail & I, Mike Bassett: England Manager, Absolute Beginners, I Am Steve McQueen, The Secret Policeman's Ball and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Geoff McQueen's classic BBC comedy drama set in the wheeler-dealing world of London's snooker halls starring two of Britain's most popular actors. Micky Noades (Robert Lindsay) describes himself as 'an overall concepts man'. He is an ace promoter, the only problem is he has nothing to promote. Enter his brother-in-law Mo (Paul McGann) with one redeeming feature: his outstanding talent at snooker. Created by Geoff McQueen this vintage British comedy drama gave Paul McGann his breakthrough role, and features an outstanding performance from British TV icon, Robert Lindsay.
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Mike Bassett: England Manager
After England's football (soccer) manager has a heart attack, Mike Bassett is hired as the new manager and promptly announces the team will win the World Cup.
Absolute Beginners
A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...
I Am Steve McQueen
"I Am Steve McQueen" tells the incredible life story of this legendary actor, racer, and cultural icon. Extensive interviews, movie clips, archival footage and sound bites chronicle his extraordinary career while focusing on the correlation between his on-screen and off-screen experiences. Narrated by Robert Downey Jr.
The Secret Policeman's Ball
Amnesty decided not to present a benefit show in 1978 in order to consider how to make better use of the performing talent so favourably disposed to assist it in raising funds. Peter Luff left Amnesty in 1978 and the organisation's new fund-raising officer, Peter Walker, was deputed to work with Lewis on reconfiguring the show to raise more money and greater awareness of Amnesty. Lewis proposed to Cleese that in addition to the comedy performances the show should feature some contemporary rock musicians. Cleese delegated this responsibility to Lewis who recruited Who guitarist Pete Townshend to perform, as well as New Wave singer-songwriter Tom Robinson.
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
Following the success of the 1979 show and the financial benefits accruing to Amnesty from the spin-off movie, TV special and record albums – Cleese, Lewis and Walker planned the next show to be a more spectacular event. Cleese focused on broadening the comedic talent to be presented at the show. In addition to the Amnesty show stalwarts drawn from the Oxbridge/Monty Python/Beyond The Fringe orbit, he invited newcomers such as Rowan Atkinson’s colleagues from the BBC TV show Not the Nine O'Clock News including Pamela Stephenson and Griff Rhys Jones; comedian Victoria Wood and regional comic Jasper Carrott. Lewis secured a return appearance by Billy Connolly and a debut appearance by "alternative" comedian Alexei Sayle who Lewis had recently discovered and was managing. Building on the success of Pete Townshend's 1979 appearance Lewis recruited other rock musicians to perform at the 1981 show including Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Donovan and Bob Geldof.
The Brighton Strangler
After suffering a head injury during the Blitz, John Loder, a theatre actor comes to believe himself to be the Brighton Strangler, the murderer he was playing onstage.
National Theatre Live: Amadeus
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna, the music capital of the world – and he’s determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy his name. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music, and ultimately, with God.
It's a Grand Life
Classic British comedy following an accident-prone army Private, played by music hall legend Frank Randle in his final screen role, as he attempts to rescue a Corporal (played by icon Diana Dors) from the attentions of a predatory Sergeant-Major.
David Bowie: Finding Fame
Coming 50 years after the release of Space Oddity, the 90-minute film explores the Bowie before Ziggy Stardust, following the period from 1966 when he changed his name from David Jones to Bowie. It includes footage from the BBC Archives including footage of a BBC audition in 1965 of David Bowie and the Lower Third, which included a performance of Chim-Chim-Cheree and Baby That's A Promise.
Mel Smith: I've Done Some Things
A tribute to British comedian Mel Smith, who died in July 2013, aged 60, featuring home video footage, rare archive material and many classic sketches. Far more than a comic actor, Smith also wrote and edited a host of celebrated TV comedies in the 1980s and 90s. He was a theatre and film director, and as a TV producer he was responsible for several innovative comedy series. Friends and colleagues, including Griff Rhys Jones, John Lloyd and Richard Curtis, talk about Smith's talents, both in front of- and behind the camera. The programme also traces his time at Oxford and, before that, Latymer Upper School, where Smith's talents were first spotted.
Eric Clapton: Slowhand at 70 - Live at The Royal Albert Hall
2015 was a year of landmark events for Eric Clapton. He turned 70 in March and then in May he performed his 200th concert at London's famous Royal Albert Hall fifty years after his first performance there with The Yardbirds. Clapton's 7 night run at the venue was acclaimed by the critics and adored by the fans. The set list blended vintage blues tracks and Eric Clapton classics from across his astonishing career. Clapton has become synonymous with the Royal Albert Hall and this concert is the perfect combination of artist and venue creating a truly magical night for Eric Clapton fans everywhere.
The Who: Quadrophenia - Live in London
Legendary rock band The Who captured live in performance at London's Wembley Arena in July 2013. The gig saw the band perform their 1973 concept album 'Quadrophenia' in its entirety to commemorate the 40th anniversary of its release. The group also performed a number of popular songs from throughout their career including 'Baba O'Riley', 'You Better You Bet' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again'.
Turandot
2013 revival of Andrei Serban's 1984 production. Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, September 2013. Andrei Serban's spectacular and thrilling 1984 production of Puccini's final and grandest opera has long been a classic at the Royal Opera House. First filmed for BBC TV in the 80s, this new recording – of its fifteenth revival – is in stunning HD and makes this famous production available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. The release will rightfully take its place alongside the outstanding Royal Opera Puccini DVDs of La Bohème, Tosca (on EMI) and Trittico. American Lise Lindstrom is one of the very few contemporary Turandots who can genuinely sing this ‘killer’ role, and is supported by a touching Liù from Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura and an unashamedly Italianite Calaf from Marco Berti. The young Hungarian conductor Henrik Nánási directs the large orchestra and all-important chorus.
Emeli Sandé: Live at the Royal Albert Hall
This beautiful film showcases Emeli Sandé’s incredible voice in front of a captivated crowd at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall. The multi-camera live concert spectacular, directed by Paul Dugdale - whose previous work include Coldplay Live 2012 and The Prodigy’s World on Fire - includes guest performances from Labrinth and Professor Green as well as the stunning tracks Next To Me, My Kind of Love and Heaven. A bonus CD of the live audio from the concert is also included.
The Big Story
Based on a popular radio series, each show tells a different reporter's Big Story, a true story selected from newspapers across the United States. Comments from the actual reporter open and close each show but the permanent narrator drives the plot line and a featured actor dramatizes the reporter's role.
The Bill
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
Call the Midwife
Drama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
Little Britain USA
Lucas and David Walliams, the stars of the smash-hit BBC comedy Little Britain, bring their unique blend of scripted comedy and characterization to America.
One Foot In the Grave
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. The series was largely filmed on location in Walkford, near New Milton in Hampshire, although several clues show that the series may have been set in Hampshire – possibly Winchester. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
The show where everything's made up and the points don't matter. Not a talk show, not a sitcom, not a game show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a completely unique concept to network television. Four talented actors perform completely unrehearsed skits and games in front of a studio audience. Host Drew Carey sets the scene, with contributions from the audience, but the actors rely completely on their quick wit and improvisational skills. It's genuinely improvised, so anything can happen - and often does.
How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? is an English reality television talent show that documented the search for an undiscovered musical theatre performer to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the 2006 Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian stage production of The Sound of Music. The series was devised by executive producer Gigi Eligoloff, and was announced by the BBC in April 2006. BBC One broadcast the programme, which was hosted by Graham Norton, on Saturday evenings from 29 July through 16 September 2006. The title derives from the refrain of "Maria", a song from the first act of The Sound of Music.
Top of the Pops
The biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
Linda La Hughes (Kathy Burke) shares a flat with Tom Farrell (James Dreyfus). Linda is overweight, loudmouthed and not particularly attractive. She thinks she's gorgeous and irrestible, however. She's also sex mad and obsessed with men. Tom is an aspiring actor. He's got an agent, but finds it difficult to get parts. He doesn't like Linda much, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that they share a flat. She isn't completely comfortable with his homosexuality, perhaps because she finds it difficult to live with a man who doesn't find her sexually attractive.
You Rang M'Lord
You Rang, M'Lord? is a British comedy series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC. The show was a comedy set in the house of an aristocratic family in the 1920s, contrasting the upper-class family and their servants in a house in London, along the same lines as the popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs. The series featured many actors who had also appeared in their earlier series, notably Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard, all of whom had previously been in Perry and Croft's holiday camp sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!. Also featured were Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles from Perry and Croft's It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Bill Pertwee and occasionally Frank Williams from Dad's Army. The memorable 1920s-style theme tune was sung by Bob Monkhouse.
The Protectors
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in contemporary times. It was also the only Gerry Anderson produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction elements, The Protectors became one of Anderson's most popular productions, easily winning a renewal for a second season. A third season was in the planning stages when the show's major sponsor pulled out, forcing its cancellation. The Protectors first aired in 1972 and 1973, and ran to 52 episodes over two series, each 25 minutes long - making it one of the last series of this type to be produced in a half-hour format. It starred Robert Vaughn as Harry Rule, Nyree Dawn Porter as the Contessa Caroline di Contini, and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet. Episodes often featured prominent guest actors.
Goodnight Sweetheart
Gary Sparrow is an ordinary bloke in 1990s Britain, married to the ambitious Yvonne and working as a TV repairman. Then his whole world changes when he stumbles upon a portal to WWII-era London and begins a dual life as an accidental time traveler.
Toast of London
Steven Toast, an eccentric middle-aged actor with a chequered past, spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it.
Was It Something I Said?
Was It Something I Said? is a British comedy panel show broadcast on Channel 4, presented by David Mitchell and featuring team captains Richard Ayoade and Micky Flanagan.
Live from the BBC
Showcasing some of the best new comedy talent, filmed in the iconic Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House.
Sick of It
A middle-aged man recently ditched by his long-term girlfriend, ‘Karl’ lives with his elderly Auntie and his closest companion is his doppelgänger alter ego.
The Beatles: Get Back
The three-part documentary series, compiled from over 60 hours of unseen footage, captures the warmth, camaraderie, and creative genius that defined the legacy of music’s most iconic foursome. The series also includes – for the first time in its entirety – The Beatles’ final performance at London’s Savile Row.
Loud Hearts
Two young artists become homeless and attempt to survive in London. Sharpie (Joshua Allsopp) and Guitar Man (Sidney Berthier) live on the street and use their talents to stay out of trouble.
BBC Electric Proms
The BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms was an October music festival in London run by the BBC for five years, 2006–2010, with each event broadcast domestically on both radio and television.
Withnail & I
Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.