Movies Similar to The Mechanical Genius of Big Ben: Blowing Up History

The Good Shepherd(2006)

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

6.4

London Street Scene / Turn Out of a Fire Brigade(1896)

The first part of the film shows an actuality street scene of traffic in the Strand. Behind the traffic we can see the entrance to the Gaiety Theatre on the Strand, advertising its latest show 'My Girl'. The second part is a different film altogether, spliced onto the first and is R W Paul’s Turn Out of a Fire Brigade filmed in November 1896 in Newcastle at the Westgate Road fire station. The film date is 1896.

5.0

Shakespeare in Love(1998)

Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written. When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love — and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship intensifies, the comedy soon transforms into tragedy.

6.8

Christmas at the Four Seasons: Park Lane(2024)

Exclusive access to the Four Seasons Hotel, London, in the run-up to Christmas. Expect festive photoshoots, afternoon teas, Christmas trees and sackfuls of presents.

6.0

The Magic of Chaos(2024)

Follows the journeys of four members at Headway East London’s Day Centre: Yoki, who began as a Headway member, now works with the charity, providing emotional support and advocacy to other brain injury survivors. Dave, a former chauffeur to the rich and famous, has embraced cooking and is developing his artistic talents. Margie, life and soul of the community, who spreads joy through her love for food and music, and Marie-Claire who has rebuilt her life after an aneurysm left her in a coma at forty.

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The Pedway: Elevating London(2013)

A documentary on the post-war redevelopment in the City of London — focusing on the attempt to build an ambitious network of elevated walkways through the city. Featuring interviews with professor of town planning Michael Hebbert (UCL), architecture critic Jonathan Glancey, city planning officer Peter Wynne Rees and writer Nicholas Rudd-Jones (Pathways), the film explores why the 'Pedway' scheme was unsuccessful and captures the abandoned remains that, unknown to the public, still haunt the square mile.

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Bombin'(1987)

First broadcast in 1987 on the UK's Channel 4, Bombin' is a documentary about Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu nation bringing American hip-hop culture to the UK for first time. The main focus is the graffiti art of Brim and the variety of reactions he is faced with from the British public and press.

7.7

Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin'(2013)

An account of the short life of genius musician Jimi Hendrix (1942-70), probably the most talented and influential guitarist of the twentieth century: his humble beginnings in Seattle, his time in New York, his rise to fame in swinging London… Live fast, love hard, die young.

7.5

Suffragette(2015)

Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.

7.2

The Man Who Invented Christmas(2017)

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

6.8

London 2012: Gymnastics - Going for the Gold(2012)

At the 1996 Atlanta Games, the Magnificent Seven became the first American women to ever win gymnastics team gold. Sixteen years later, in London, the Fierce Five joined them in the history books. Relive all the excitement as Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross take the lead from the first rotation and never look back on their way to gold. Follow Gabby Douglas on her way to the podium to make it three straight American gold medals in the individual all-around competition. Every individual event final is featured on this DVD, including Aly Raisman's historic gold-medal performance in the floor exercise, her bronze on the balance beam, as well as McKayla Maroney's silver medal in the vault.

10.0

Knees Up, Mother Brown(1964)

70 is definitely the new 20 in this heart-warming 1960s documentary portrait of the Darby and Joan Club for elderly Cockneys.

0.0

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Nigel 2(2019)

An orphan in 18th century London lashes out against the harrowing child labor market.

0.0

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society(2018)

Free-spirited writer Juliet Ashton forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during the occupation of Guernsey in WWII.

7.4

Cracking the Shakespeare Code(2016)

Norwegian researcher Petter Amundsen claims to have deciphered a secret code hidden in legendary playwright William Shakespeare's works that reveals a map leading to the location of certain treasures. British Shakespearean scholar Robert Crumpton embarks on a mission to prove he is spectacularly wrong. (A remake of “Shakespeare: The Hidden Truth,” including new discoveries.)

7.5

Six Rounds(2017)

Amongst the 2011 London riots, a former boxer needs must choose between his past or a new future.

0.0

West End Jungle(1961)

1961 documentary about the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho.

4.0

See Me: A Walk Through London's Gay Soho in 1994 and 2020(2022)

This film weaves across sound, image, time, rhythm and place and is made up of a number of layers both sound and visual layered on top of one another, talking to and informing each other. It is made using digital transfer versions of c90 tape compilations I made between 1992-1995, juxtaposed with moving image footage of me in 2018 and 2020 and a typeface font graphic ‘See Me’ that I designed in 2005. The c90 cassette on screen is the cassette compilation that I still have from 1994. The film also includes drawings and photographs and other artworks from my personal archive as an artist from the last 25 years. As I walk down the streets that were so important in shaping my life as a young gay man living in London, I revisit the gay bars and pubs that have been my safe spaces for the last twenty years and more, spaces that are now closed.

0.0

Wilde(1997)

Oscar Wilde is a married playwright who has occasionally indulged his weakness for male suitors. After much toil, Wilde debuts 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in London, and a chat at the theatre with Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas leads to a full-fledged romance. However, this affair leads to a legal dispute with Lord Alfred's oppressive father, the Marquess of Queensberry, and, given the local anti-gay laws, Wilde is jailed. Wilde's vast intellect helps him survive until he regains his freedom.

6.6

Harrods: The Rise & Fall of a British Institution(2025)

The history of arguably the most famous shop in the world, which has been based on Brompton Road in London for more than 175 years, employs more than 6,000 people and still welcomes 15 million customers every year. This documentary tells the story of the people behind the department store, including Robin Harrod, the great-great-grandson of the store's founder, and culminates with the recent allegations against former chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed

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