In a world where everyone is striving for what is not worth having, orphan Becky Sharp sets out to claw her way to the top of English society.

Written by Gwyneth Hughes, this 7-episode Vanity Fair is a new adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 19th century literary classic. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Becky’s story of villainy, crime, merriment, lovemaking, jilting, laughing, cheating, fighting and dancing takes her all the way to the court of King George IV, via the Battle of Waterloo, breaking hearts and losing fortunes as she goes.‎

The internal political landscape of 1950's Soviet Russia takes on darkly comic form in a new film by Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated writer/director Armando Iannucci.

In the days following Stalin's collapse, his core team of ministers tussle for control; some want positive change in the Soviet Union, others have more sinister motives.

Their one common trait? They're all just desperately trying to remain alive in a film that combines comedy, drama, pathos and political manoeuvring.

All good things must come to an end. And so it was with Monty Python's Flying Circus, the most outrageously off-the-wall and brilliantly silly Comedy of All Time.

After four seasons of inspired lunacy, the Pythons hung up their TV spurs and became superheroes, repeatedly saving the world from diabolical villains and menacing threats from outer space.

But fear not! Their pre-heroic exploits are available to you on this gloriously remastered and utterly complete DVD of the Complete Fourth Season featuring such gems as "Buying an Ant", "The Batsmen of the Kalahari" and "The Golden Age of Ballooning".

Martin Sproale is a mild, conventional assistant postmaster living in a small English coastal town, the only exceptional thing about him being his obsession with Ernest Hemingway. This is confined harmlessly enough to an encyclopaedic knowledge of everything about the man and to living in a room surrounded by Hemingway memorabilia. But when an ambitious young outsider, Nick Marshall, is appointed postmaster over Martin and starts to transform the friendly local post office for privatization and the high-tech challenges of the 21st century, Martin is faced with a choice--to go along with the drastic changes, or to be like his hero and fight for what he believes in. Egged on by an American scholar, Ruth Kohler, who is living nearby while completing a book in Hemingway, Martin allows his obsession to take over more and more of his life, culminating in a final, reckless act of revenge against the ruthless modernizers.

_______________ THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: the remarkable true story of the exploration ship featured in The Terror In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. On the first, she ventured further south than any human had ever been. On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic, along with the HMS Terror. Her fate remained a mystery for over 160 years. Then, in 2014, she was found. This is her story. _______________ Now available: Michael Palin's North Korea Journals _______________ A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Beyond terrific . . . I didn't want it to end.' Bill Bryson 'Illuminated by flashes of gentle wit . . . It's a fascinating story that [Palin] brings full-bloodedly to life.' Guardian 'This is an incredible book . . . The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' Nicholas Crane 'Thoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life.' Sunday Times 'A great story . . . Told in a very relaxed and sometimes - as you might expect - very funny Palin style.' David Baddiel, Daily Mail 'Magisterial . . . Brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s.' The Times

'The pace of this kind of travel has not much changed since Fogg set out in 1872. Trains may be a little faster, but there are certainly no high-speed rail links yet across India, China or the USA. Passenger services have practically disappeared from the world's shipping lanes ... Recourse to air travel, even as a convenient means of escape, was not allowed.' Following the route taken by Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier, Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club to circumnavigate the world. The rules were simple, but nothing else about the trip was straightforward... From a tour of Venice on a rubbish barge to ship spotting at the Suez Canal and the bicycle rush hour and snake snacks in China, this is an unparalleled tribute to man's ability to make life difficult for himself.

May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a privileged glimpse into the private correspondence of the officers and sailors who set out in May 1845 on the Erebus and Terror for Sir John Franklin's fateful expedition to the Arctic. The letters of the crew and their correspondents begin with the journey's inception and early planning, going on to recount the ships' departure from the river Thames, their progress up the eastern coast of Great Britain to Stromness in Orkney, and the crew's exploits as far as the Whalefish Islands off the western coast of Greenland, from where the ships forever departed the society that sent them forth. As the realization dawned that something was amiss, heartfelt letters to the missing were sent with search expeditions; those letters, returned unread, tell poignant stories of hope. Assembled completely and conclusively from extensive archival research, including in far-flung family and private collections, the correspondence allows the reader to peer over the shoulders of these men, to experience their excitement and anticipation, their foolhardiness, and their fears. The Franklin expedition continues to excite enthusiasts and scholars worldwide. May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth provides new insights into the personalities of those on board, the significance of the voyage as they saw it, and the dawning awareness of the possibility that they would never return to British shores or their families.

Michael Palin's first televised travel adventure was screened as part of the BBC series Great Railway Journeys.

'Confessions of a Train Spotter' (1980) saw him travel the length of Britain by train. Setting off from Euston he includes diversions to lines beyond the inter-city network; a trip on the Flying Scotsman; visits to York's railway museum and Edinburgh at Festival time. He crosses the breathtaking Forth Railway Bridge, and after travelling over 785 miles reaches the Kyle of Lochalsh.

Palin's second Great Railway Journey (1994) takes him from the ancient walled city of Londonderry to the most western tip of Ireland. He travels his 'family line' as he attempts to trace his great grandmother who left Ireland for the USA over 150 years ago. His trip through a still war-torn Northern Ireland takes him on to Belfast before heading south to Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, and on to Wexford, Waterford, the little village of Buttevant and finally Kerry's Dingle Bay, the most western point of Ireland.

A winning combination of No.1 travel writer Michael Palin and one of the great literary figures of the century. When Michael Palin was researching for his novel HEMINGWAY'S CHAIR his interest was stimulated by Hemingway's appetite for travel and 'Papa's' evocations of the places he knew. Hemingway remains a compelling figure, and Palin's goal was to revisit Hemingway's world. This book includes the American West ('wide lawns and narrow minds'), Idaho, Michigan ('fly fishing, hunting'), Europe in the First World (where Hemingway was wounded serving in the Ambulance Brigade), Cuba (where Hemingway wrote FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS), Paris in the Roaring Twenties and Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Sun Valley and Key West - where the Hemingway lookalike competition is an annual event.

All 14 episodes from the British comedy series starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant as they deal with the global pandemic and attempt to continue their acting work through online video calls.

Michael Sheen and David Tennant (playing themselves) were due to star in a production of "Six Characters In Search Of An Author in the West End". The pandemic has put paid to that, but their director (Simon Evans - also playing himself) is determined not to let the opportunity pass him by.

He knows how big a chance this is for him and turns his attention to cajoling his stars into rehearsing over the internet with the help of some other famous faces.

The original Michael Palin adventure. A global journey against the clock.

A Venetian refuse barge, a battered taxi in Egypt, a primitive boat across the Persian Gulf, a Chinese steam engine and a container ship across the Date Line... Michael Palin's attempt to circumnavigate the world heralds a phenomenal journey of dhows, diarrhoea, hungry parrots and a world full of surprises.

When media baron Rod McCain (Kevin Kline) buys Marwood Zoo in England, he sends over his son Vince (also Kline) and the sexy Willa Weston (Jamie Lee Curtis) to ensure that it turns over a 20% profit. The zoo is being run by McCain employee Rollo Lee (John Cleese), who has instigated a policy that only fierce creatures should be on display. When Vince sets up advertising hoardings and arranges bogus celebrity sponsorship, the zookeepers, led by insect specialist 'Bugsy' Malone (Michael Palin), revolt. John Cleese reassembles the cast of 'A Fish Called Wanda' for this film, described as an 'equal' rather than a sequel.

Schoolboy Kevin is rescued from his dull suburban life when a gang of dwarves emerge from his wardrobe and carry him off through space and time. Their travels bring them into contact with some leading historical figures; John Cleese is Robin Hood and Sean Connery is Agamemnon in this bizarre comedy made by several Monty Python members.

Michael Palin's superb No. 1 bestseller about his incredible voyage across the Sahara. Michael Palin's epic voyages have seen him circumnavigate the globe, travel from the North to the South Pole and circle the countries of the Pacific Ocean, but this was perhaps the greatest challenge yet: to cross the vast and merciless Sahara desert. As the journey unfolds, the Sahara reveals not the emptiness of endless sand dunes, but a huge and diverse range of cultures and landscapes and a long history of commerce and conquest stretching from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the oil-rich Islamic republics of today. On his way, he encounters dangers such as camel stew, being run over by the Paris-Dakar rally and Dakar nightlife, as well as returning to the original spot where THE LIFE OF BRIAN was filmed.

No.1 bestseller Michael Palin's epic journey from the North Pole to the South Pole. 'The cracked and fissured ice-pack offers no comfortable reassurance - no glimmer of any reward to the traveller who has made his way to the top of the world. The Arctic Ocean, known to the Victorians as the Sea of Ancient Ice, stares balefully back as we descend towards it, reflecting nothing but the question: Why?' Michael Palin's adventure begins when he is enrolled in the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society... Travelling by train, truck, raft, Ski-Doo, barge, balloon and bicycle, Michael Palin experiences every extreme the world has to offer. Braving the cold grip of the Arctic Circle, and the swirling snowstorms of Spitsbergen, Palin has to cope with friendly locals, occasional gunfire and his own unruly digestive system before he can finally stand in Scott's shoes at the South Pole, in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he was determined to find out more about him. The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could. He studied every relevant official document. He tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry's diaries and letters, and pored over photographs of First World War battle scenes to see whether Harry appeared in any of them. He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France. And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him. Great-Uncle Harry is an utterly compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life. A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir this is Michael Palin at his very finest. ___________________________________________ PRAISE FOR EREBUS: 'Beyond terrific. I didn't want it to end.' BILL BRYSON 'Magisterial . . . Palin brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people.' THE TIMES 'Everybody's talking about it . . . A brilliant book.' CHRIS EVANS 'I absolutely loved it: I had to read it at one sitting.' LORRAINE KELLY

Emperor: The Perfect Penguin is a celebration of one of the world's most charismatic creatures. In temperatures that can reach -50 Degrees C with 150km/h winds, the emperor penguins ability to survive and thrive is nothing short of astounding. Over the past nine years, award-winning photographer Sue Flood has journeyed to remote Antarctic penguin colonies to capture the birds in their native home. Sue Flood's respect for her subjects emanates from every page. From the poignant sight of an egg abandoned on the sea ice, to majestic shots of emperor penguins returning from the sea and heart-warming photos of chicks clustering together for warmth, every shot explores a new angle of life in this remote and ice-crusted world. As well as following the difficult journey of the penguins across the sea ice, Emperor: The Perfect Penguin narrates the hardships that must be endured to catch the perfect photograph. Sue's behind-the-scenes experiences prove that it is only with patience, endurance, and several thermal layers that one can capture magical moments on Earth's most inhospitable continent.

THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT CHANNEL 5 DOCUMENTARY

A glimpse of life inside the world’s most secretive country, as told by Britain’s best-loved travel writer.

In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal, where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxurious underground train stations. His resulting documentary for Channel 5 was widely acclaimed.

Now he shares his day-by-day diary of his visit, in which he describes not only what he saw – and his fleeting views of what the authorities didn’t want him to see – but recounts the conversations he had with the country’s inhabitants, talks candidly about his encounters with officialdom, and records his musings about a land wholly unlike any other he has ever visited – one that inspires fascination and fear in equal measure.

Written with Palin’s trademark warmth and wit, and illustrated with beautiful colour photographs throughout, the journal offers a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines.

Having completed travelling around the World in 80 days, Michael Palin set out to travel along the 30 degree East line of longtitude - from the North to the South Pole. This, however, proved much more of a challenge and Palin, and his film crew, managed to use most modes of transport to travel through 17 countries over 5 months.