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Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English actor. His early roles include the films Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and television episodes of Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert. His breakthrough performances were in the films Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Road To Perdition, Layer Cake, Munich, and The Golden Compass.
Craig became well known internationally after he was cast as the sixth actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the film series. He made his début as the character in the 2006 film, Casino Royale. He was critically acclaimed, and was nominated for a BAFTA award, for his portrayal in the film. He most recently starred in the films Defiance, Cowboys & Aliens, The Adventures of Tintin, Dream House, and the English-language adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Craig was born in Chester, Cheshire, England. His mother, Carol Olivia (née Williams), was an art teacher, and his father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was the landlord of the pubs "Ring o' Bells" (in Frodsham) and "The Boot Inn" (Willington, Tarporley), and also served as a midshipman in the Merchant Navy. Both of Craig's parents were of half-Welsh descent. He was brought up on the Wirral Peninsula, and attended a primary school in Frodsham and Hoylake called Holy Trinity Primary School. He attended Hilbre High School in later years. He began acting in school plays at age six.
Craig moved to London when he was sixteen to join the National Youth Theatre after a stay at Calday. He and his older sister, Lea, attended Hilbre High School and Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby. He played for Hoylake Rugby Club. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican and graduated in 1991 after three years of study under Colin McCormack.
In 2005, Craig was contracted by EON Productions to portray James Bond. He stated that he "was aware of the challenges" of the James Bond franchise which he considers "a big machine" that "makes a lot of money". He aimed at bringing more "emotional depth" to the character. Being born in 1968, Craig is the first actor to portray James Bond to have been born after the Bond series already started, and Ian Fleming, the novels' writer, had died.
Significant controversy followed the decision, as it was doubted if the producers had made the right choice. Throughout the entire production period Internet campaigns expressed their dissatisfaction and threatened to boycott the film in protest. Craig, unlike previous actors, was not considered by the protesters to fit the tall, dark, handsome image of Bond to which viewers had been accustomed. The Daily Mirror ran a front page news story critical of Craig, with the headline, "The Name's Bland – James Bland.
Although the choice of Craig was controversial, numerous actors publicly voiced their support, most notably, four of the five actors who had previously portrayed Bond – Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Sean Connery and Roger Moore – called his casting a good decision. Clive Owen, who had been linked to the role, also spoke in defence of Craig.
The first film, Casino Royale, premièred on 14 November 2006 and grossed a total of US$594,239,066 worldwide, which makes the film the highest grossing Bond film to date. After the film was released, Craig's performance was highly acclaimed.
As production of Casino Royale reached its conclusion, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced that pre-production work had already begun on the 22nd Bond film. After s Everal months of speculation as to the release date, Wilson and Broccoli officially announced on 20 July 2006 that the follow-up film, Quantum of Solace, was to be released on 7 November 2008 and that Craig plays Bond with an option for a third film. On 25 October 2007, MGM CEO Harry Sloan r Evealed at the Forbes Meet II Conference that Craig had signed on for four more Bond films, through to Bond 25.
In 2006, Craig was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Craig at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009.
On 12 June 2008, Craig sliced the top of one of his fingers off while filming Quantum of Solace.The accident was the latest in a string of incidents surrounding the shoot, including a fire at one of the sets in Pinewood Studios, UK; a car crash that left the stunt driver in a serious condition; and an Aston Martin skidding off the roads in heavy rains while being transported to the set in northern Italy and plunging into Lake Garda.
Craig describes his portrayal of Bond as an anti-hero: “The question I keep asking myself while playing the role is, ‘Am I the good guy or just a bad guy who works for the good side?’ Bond’s role, after all, is that of an assassin when you come down to it. I have n Ever played a role in which someone’s dark side shouldn’t be explored. I don’t think it should be confusing by the end of the movie, but during the movie you should be questioning who he is.” Craig also states that his favourite previous Bond actor was Sean Connery, but says, "I'd n Ever copy somebody else. I would n Ever do an impression of anybody else or try and improve on what they did. That would be a pointless exercise for me". His favourite Bond film is From Russia with Love. On a James Bond-cent Ric episode of The South Bank Show, Connery divulged his thoughts on Craig's casting as Bond, whom he described as "fantastic, marvelous in the part." When he was told that Craig had taken particular note of his performances, Connery said that he was "flattered," and that Craig "really gets" the 'danger element' to Bond's character.
On 19 April 2010, Craig's expected third Bond film (the 23rd overall in the series) was announced to have been suspended indefinitely due to the crippling debt and uncertain future of MGM. How Ever, both Craig and Sam Mendes hoped to resume work on the film soon. The film has since resumed and Craig will return as Bond once again, with the film (now called Skyfall) due for release on 9 November 2012. Skyfall is expected to be part of year-long celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Dr. No. On December 23 2010, it was announced that Daniel Craig has signed on for five future Bond films, which would break by one film Roger Moore's record of the longest running actor to portray the character.
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Daniel Craig - news / articles
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Daniel Craig dozed off underwater in between Bond takes -
15 October 2012
-Daniel Craig enjoyed shooting underwater scenes in the new James Bond movie Skyfall - because they gave him a chance to catch up on his sleep.-The action man is a keen scuba diver and he admits he felt so comfortable in the water on set that he'd disappear to the bot
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Daniel Craig bonded with Javier Bardem over rugby passion -
11 October 2012
-Daniel Craig bonded with Javier Bardem on the set of the new 007 movie over their shared love of rugby.-The actor returns as James Bond in Skyfall, the 23rd movie in the superspy franchise, and he does battle with Bardem as villain Raoul Silva, but Craig reveals thei
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Daniel Craig accepted blame for Naomie Harris' mistakes on Bond set -
6 October 2012
-New Bond girl Naomie Harris has heaped praise on her Skyfall co-star Daniel Craig for helping cover up her mistakes on set by taking the blame himself.-The hunk reprises his role as 007 in the upcoming 23rd installment, while Harris plays special agent Eve.- The act
Daniel Craig - what members say
review by from Aberdeen
The blueprint for British drama. 22 October 2004
review by A customer from Market Harborough
Who's the daddy now? 20 September 2003
review by from Nottingham, England
The Brits can make excellent movies 2 March 2005
Daniel Craig - filmography
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Skyfall
on DVD
(2012)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem
Director: Sam Mendes
Certificate: 
Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
 
76%
from 6,110 members
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Dream House
on DVD
(2011)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz
Director: Jim Sheridan
Certificate: 
Watch now: Unavailable
Soon after moving into their seemingly idyllic new home, a family learns of a brutal crime committed against former residents of the dwelling.
63%
from 5,627 members
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One Life
on DVD
(2011)
Starring: Daniel Craig
Director: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes
Certificate: 
One Life offers you a close encounter with all things wild this Summer. Created for a family audience the film reveals the bonds that connect all living creatures on our planet through a series of imaginative and vividly captured stories.
A major feature length production from BBC Earth Films, ..read more »
70%
from 229 members
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One Life - Blu-ray
(2011)
Starring: Daniel Craig
Director: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes
Certificate:
One Life offers you a close encounter with all things wild this Summer. Created for a family audience the film reveals the bonds that connect all living creatures on our planet through a series of imaginative and vividly captured stories.
A major feature length production from BBC Earth Films, ..read more »
67%
from 78 members
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Cowboys And Aliens - Blu-ray
(2011)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ana de la Reguera, Toby Huss
Director: Jon Favreau
Certificate:
Sci-fi meets Western in this Jon Favreau-directed alien adventure based on the 2006 graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. In the 19th-century Wild West, loner Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) stumbles into the desolate Arizona desert town of Absolution, which is presided over with a rule of iron ..read more »
64%
from 15,042 members
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Quantum of Solace
on DVD
(2008)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric
Director: Marc Forster
Certificate:
Quantum Of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond (Daniel Craig) in Casino Royale. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr White (..read more »
66%
from 68,953 members
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Defiance - Blu-ray
(2008)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell
Director: Edward Zwick
Certificate:
Three Jewish brothers (Craig, Schreiber and Bell) escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger.
72%
from 11,584 members
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Flashbacks of a Fool
on DVD
(2008)
Starring: Jodhi May, Sid Mitchell, Eve
Director: Baillie Walsh
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Joe Scot (Daniel Craig) is a washed-up Hollywood star whose hedonistic lifestyle of sex, drugs and celebrity has taken its toll. Flashback to his childhood and small-town English seaside life set to the beat of Roxy music and Bowie. Joe¿s rites of passage as a young man lay the foundations for the ..read more »
61%
from 7,298 members
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Defiance
on DVD
(2008)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell
Director: Edward Zwick
Certificate:
Three Jewish brothers (Craig, Schreiber and Bell) escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger.
72%
from 48,731 members
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The Invasion - Blu-ray
(2007)
Starring: Jackson Bond, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. The mysterious crash of a space shuttle leads to the terrifying discovery that there is something alien within the wreckage. Those who come in contact with it are changing in ominous and inexplicable ways. Soon Washington D.C. psychiatrist Carol ..read more »
60%
from 4,427 members
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The Invasion
on DVD
(2007)
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
As an alien virus sweeps the planet, a Washington D.C psychiatrist (Kidman) thinks she has discovered the origin of the infection. In a desperate attempt to protect her son from certain death, she enlists the help of a colleague (Craig) to help her solve the mystery...
59%
from 37,316 members
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Infamous
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Daniel Craig, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: Douglas McGrath
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
1959 Manhattan was a party, and none of the glitterati glittered brighter than Truman Capote. Then he saw a story in The New York Times: "Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain," and the party ended for Capote. He plunged into the murder case that inspired his great "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood and ..read more »
64%
from 10,209 members
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Casino Royale - Blu-ray
(2006)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Martin Campbell
Certificate:
CASINO ROYALE introduces JAMES BOND before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to "00" status.Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar, where he is to spy on a terrorist, MOLLAKA (Sebastien ..read more »
80%
from 9,085 members
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Renaissance
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Catherine McCormack, Romola Garai, Laura Blanc
Director: Christian Volckman
Certificate:
Sci-fi film noir filmed in a unique style in which real actors are transformed through motion-capture animation to create a black and white comic-strip style. Set in a near-future Paris, the film depicts the city as a menacing place dominated by the vast and all-seeing Avalon Corporation, which has ..read more »
51%
from 10,681 members
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Fateless
on DVD
(2005)
Starring: Endre Harkanyi, Bela Dora, Aron Dimeny
Director: Lajos Koltai
Certificate:
After his father loses his business and is taken to a labor camp, Gyorgy Koves soon finds himself baffled and alone at Auschwitz-Birkenau, struggling to find meaning in his tragic fate. Gyorgy stoically suffers the slings and arrows of concentration camp life. Amid the deprivation and brutality, he ..read more »
64%
from 2,299 members
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Munich
(2005)
Starring: Arthur Chazal, Mathieu Amalric, Ziad Adwan
Director: Steven Spielberg
Certificate:
Steven Spielberg directs this tense and controversial thriller, following the actions of a team of Mossad agents dispatched by the Israeli government to seek revenge against the Palestinian terrorist organisation that funded and carried out the assassinations of eleven Israeli athletes during the ..read more »
66%
from 62,622 members
Currently unavailable
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Archangel
(2005)
Starring: Gabriel Macht, Lev Prygunov, Ekaterina Rednikova
Director: Jon Jones
Certificate:
BBC television adaptation of the post-Cold War thriller by Robert Harris. Washed-up historian Fluke Kelso (Daniel Craig), a specialist in Soviet studies, is attending a conference in Russia when he is approached by a former NKVD officer who offers him information that could uncover a vast ..read more »
66%
from 1,920 member
Currently unavailable
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Layer Cake
on DVD
(2004)
Starring: Dexter Fletcher, George Harris, Tamer Hassan
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Certificate:
British gangster film based on the London-set crime novel by J.J. Connelly. 'X' (Daniel Craig) is a successful, smooth-talking cocaine dealer - respected among London's crime elite - whose plan is to bankroll enough cash to make an early retirement from 'business' and lead a quiet, crime-free life. ..read more »
66%
from 75,271 members
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Enduring Love
(2004)
Starring: Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton
Director: Roger Michell
Certificate: 
On a beautiful cloudless day a young couple celebrate their reunion with a picnic. Joe has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside with his partner, Claire. But as Joe and Claire prepare to open a bottle of champagne, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. A hot air balloon ..read more »
53%
from 28,728 members
Currently unavailable
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Layer Cake - Blu-ray
(2004)
Starring: Dexter Fletcher, George Harris, Tamer Hassan
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Certificate:
British gangster film based on the London-set crime novel by J.J. Connelly. 'X' (Daniel Craig) is a successful, smooth-talking cocaine dealer - respected among London's crime elite - whose plan is to bankroll enough cash to make an early retirement from 'business' and lead a quiet, crime-free life. ..read more »
74%
from 3,781 members
Currently unavailable
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The Mother
on DVD
(2003)
Starring: Cathryn Bradshaw, Anne Reid, Oliver Ford Davies
Director: Roger Michell
Certificate:
Written by Hanif Kureishi, author of 'Buddha of Suburbia', this family drama tackles the taboo of an older woman falling in love with a much younger man. May (Anne Reid) and Toots (Peter Vaughan), a couple in their sixties, are staying with their grown-up children in London when Toots suffers a ..read more »
59%
from 3,934 members
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Sylvia
on DVD
(2003)
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner
Director: Christine Jeffs
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
A literary drama based on the real lives of two of the world's most famous poets, Sylvia Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig). The story begins at Cambridge University in the 1950s, where the two young poets meet at a party and fall passionately in love. They marry and ..read more »
58%
from 7,374 members
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Road To Perdition
(2002)
Starring: Dylan Baker, Liam Aiken, Paul Newman
Director: Sam Mendes
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Tom Hanks stars in this gangster drama set in the American Midwest during the 1930s. Twelve-year-old Michael Sullivan Jr is curious about what his father (Hanks) does for a living, and one night decides to hide in his car as he goes off to work. It soon transpires that the elder Sullivan is a ..read more »
69%
from 33,274 members
Currently unavailable
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Road To Perdition - Blu-ray
(2002)
Starring: Dylan Baker, Liam Aiken, Paul Newman
Director: Sam Mendes
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Tom Hanks stars in this gangster drama set in the American Midwest during the 1930s. Twelve-year-old Michael Sullivan Jr is curious about what his father (Hanks) does for a living, and one night decides to hide in his car as he goes off to work. It soon transpires that the elder Sullivan is a ..read more »
73%
from 459 members
Not available for rental
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Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: Iain Glen, Robert Phillips, Julian Rhind-Tutt
Director: Simon West
Certificate:
Big-screen version of the popular computer game that features the buxom heroine, Lara Croft. Angelina Jolie takes the role with her real-life father (Jon Voight) playing her father, Lord Croft, who has recently died. Lara is a well-educated English aristocrat who has a secret life; she looks for ..read more »
61%
from 22,560 members
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Sword Of Honour
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: Megan Dodds, Leslie Phillips, Daniel Craig
Director: Bill Anderson
Certificate:
Television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Second World War trilogy. Guy Crouchback (Daniel Craig) seeks purpose in the British army following his shattering divorce from Virginia Troy (Megan Dodds). However, the ups and downs of military life at the height of the war at times prove too much for Guy, ..read more »
62%
from 697 members
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Hotel Splendide
on DVD
(2000)
Starring: Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Katrin Cartlidge
Director: Terence Gross
Certificate:
The Hotel Splendide is on a remote and cold island, accessible only by a once-a-month ferry. It's a dark and dreary spa created by the late Dame Blanche, whose grown children now run the hotel according to her specifications, serving up ghastly seaweed and fish-based food and enema treatments. Kath,..read more »
50%
from 131 members
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I Dreamed Of Africa
(2000)
Starring: Kim Basinger, Vincent Perez, Daniel Craig
Director: Hugh Hudson
Certificate:
"I Dreamed of Africa" is inspired by the true story of the indomitable Kuki Gallmann, a beautiful, inquisitive woman who had the courage to escape from her comfortable yet monotonous life in Italy to start anew in the wilds of Africa with her son Emanuele and her husband Paolo. Though first in awe ..read more »
59%
from 658 members
Currently unavailable
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Some Voices
(2000)
Starring: David Morrissey, Kelly MacDonald, Nick Palliser
Director: Simon Cellan Jones
Certificate:
Upon being released from mental hospital, Ray (Daniel Craig) is taken in by his brother Pete (David Morrissey), who now runs their late father's cafe. Ray begins romancing the newly single Glaswegian Laura (Kelly MacDonald), but angers his brother when he suddenly takes her on a trip to Hastings ..read more »
59%
from 552 members
Currently unavailable
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The Trench
on DVD
(1999)
Starring: James D'Arcy, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Tam Williams
Director: William Boyd
Certificate:
Covering forty-eight hours in the days leading up to the Battle of the Somme in 1916, this film retells the story of war through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Billy McFarlane (Paul Nicholls). As Billy and his comrades await the signal that will send them into battle, they ponder their past and ..read more »
52%
from 2,019 members
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Love Is The Devil
on DVD
(1998)
Starring: Rifat Ozbek, Anita Pallenberg, Annabel Brooks
Director: John Maybury
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
This British biographical drama probes the life of painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992), critically acclaimed as the outstanding British painter of the latter half of the 20th Century. This unsympathetic portrait of Bacon (Derek Jacobi) begins when George Dyer (Daniel Craig), a small-time criminal ..read more »
60%
from 1,676 member
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Obsession
(1997)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Heike Makatsch, Charles Berling
Director: Peter Sehr
Certificate:
In order to solve a family mystery, John, a stonemason from Zimbabwe, travels to Berlin to search for 1928 footage of a tightrope walker at Niagara Falls.
62%
from 15 members
Currently unavailable
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Moll Flanders
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: James Bowers, Alex Kingston, Nicola Kingston
Director: David Attwood
Certificate:
A costume drama which follows the fortunes of Moll Flanders in 18th Century England. Her determination to reach a secure place in society results in incest, bigamy, adultery, wealth and poverty.
71%
from 1,310 member
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Our Friends In The North
(4 discs)
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Mark Strong, Christopher Eccleston, Malcolm McDowell
Certificate:
The entire series of the popular BBC Television series charting the lives of a group of four Geordie friends from their teens until middle-age: Nicky is a radical socialist, determined to devote his life to the class struggle; Tosker a Jack-the-lad with dreams of pop stardom; Mary, courted by Nicky ..read more »
80%
from 3,756 members
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The Hunger - Series 1
(4 discs)
on DVD
Starring: Terence Stamp, Jason Scott Lee, Lena Headey
Director: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott
Certificate:
The complete first season of the popular drama series introduced by Terence Stamp. This season includes an episode starring Daniel Craig who appears in 'Menage a Trois', the sensual tale of an elderly wheelchair bound woman who still retains a strong sexual drive. Jason Scott Lee features in the ..read more »
48%
from 377 members
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Daniel Craig facts
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...quality work for years (and many are now getting the attention they deserve ie. Daniel Craig, Mark Strong) put in bona fide classic performances in some gritty, demanding r...
