Director Michael Winterbottom is out to film the unfilmable novel: an adaptation of Laurence Sterne's sprawling 18th Century masterpiece of digression, ‘The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'. What begins as a seemingly straightforward attempt to recreate the frenetic novel - starring Steve Coogan as the title figure and Rob Brydon as his Uncle Toby - quickly derails into a behind-the-scenes document of the film's actual production. A funny, biting and occasionally touching ode to find out more...

Ralph Thomas's very watchable adaptation of Dickens's tale of revolutionary France. Bogarde plays the melancholy, self-pitying lawyer Sidney Carton, who finds his metier in the daring rescue of a French nobleman. Bogarde's laconic delivery makes the film. Excellent. find out more...

Winner of four Oscars, this film is shot with the most beautifully scenic backgrounds and with great attention to costume detail. An Irish adventurer, Barry Lyndon, crosses Europe from woman to job, but in the end returns to Britain seeking a wealthy marriage. find out more...

Energetic, stylish and often witty BBC dramatisation that alternates between the gripping love triangle involving the young Casanova, Henriette and her husband Grimani, and the swan song of the world's most notorious lothario. Written by Russell T. Davies, creator of 'Queer As Folk' and the scribe behind the new 'Doctor Who'. find out more...

The Italian adventurer and libertine Giovanni Jacopo Casanova lived from 1725 to 1798, but in this six-part series Dennis Potter attempted to find a contemporary relevance through his central themes of sex and religion. He commented that Casanova "was concerned with religious and sexual freedom, and these are the things we have to address ourselves to now." Casanova was imprisoned in Venice in 1755, and Potter used that event as a central device, constantly inter-cutting to contrast Casanova's a find out more...

In a relentless battle of intrigue the Marquise and her ex-lover the Vicomte set up a web of seduction and counter-seduction to exercise their rivalry. Their obsessive powerplay inevitably creates both pleasure and pain. Well adapted and beautifully set and shot, this is absorbing and disturbing. find out more...

A carnival in Venice is the prelude to a series of erotic encounters that follow Giacomo Casanova through the cities of 18th Century Europe. With an air of funereal solemnity and elegance, this forsakes realism in favour of a stylised romantic pessimism which confronts impotence, failure, sexuality and exploitation as fully as Pasolini's Salò. Although teetering at times dangerously close to Ken Russell, the visual daring and pure imagination of every image leave it as an elegiac farewell to an find out more...

Hailed as the TV programme of the decade this lavish production of Swift's classic book chronicles Gulliver's epic sea voyage and best known adventures, e.g. the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians. Shot in stunning locations with lavish special FX, this is a must for all families and age-groups. find out more...

A sumptuous swashbuckler, with romance, swordfights and a slyly subtle wit. It's 1699, and dashing young blade Lagardere (Daniel Auteil) becomes the best friend of the fabulously wealthy Duc de Nevers (Vincent Perez) who must produce a legitimate heir. Loitering with intent is Nevers's treacherous cousin, Count Gonzague, who rather fancies a bite of the cherry, and is prepared to do anything to get it. An excellent, highly entertaining adaptation of Paul Feval's novel. find out more...

Set during the height of the French aristocracy, Le Bossu is a classic swashbuckling romp, thick with skulduggery, revenge and some fantastic swordsmanship. A rip roaring period adventure. find out more...