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Ken Russell

July 2025

  • Kenneth Colley as Admiral Piett, commander of Darth Vader's Executor craft in the Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Colley was a fan favourite at Star Wars conventions.

    Kenneth Colley obituary

    Actor known as Admiral Piett in the Star Wars movies, and for his many roles in the films of Ken Russell

June 2025

  • Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in Women in Love, 1969. For this fireside wrestling scene, Williams filtered all the lamps on set to be the same colour then created a flickering effect, shooting with a hand-held camera to allow more freedom to follow the action.

    Billy Williams obituary

    Cinematographer who won an Oscar for Gandhi but did his most adventurous work on Ken Russell’s Women in Love

March 2025

  • Roger Daltrey in Tommy, directed by Ken Russell, 1975.

    From the Guardian archive
    Ken Russell’s Tommy reviewed – archive, 1975

  • Ken Russell in 2011.

    Mark Kermode on film
    Mark Kermode on… director Ken Russell, the king of cult classics who was so much more than a sensationalist

March 2024

  • Christopher Hobbs (Designer 'Caravaggio') painting copies of Caravaggio paintings and interview

    Christopher Hobbs obituary

    Production designer who worked on Caravaggio and The Garden for Derek Jarman and provided the sets for the BBC’s Gormenghast

January 2024

  • Georgina Hale in Ken Russell’s film Mahler, 1974.

    Georgina Hale obituary

    Character actor known for a host of TV roles and for her award-winning work in the films of Ken Russell

June 2023

  • Byrne and Sands in Ken Russell’s 1986 film Gothic.

    double quotation markJulian Sands had the heart of a child-man in which scorpions and bluebirds nested

    Gabriel Byrne
  • Peter Bradshaw

    double quotation markFierce, sensual, cerebral: Glenda Jackson brought class to cinema

    Peter Bradshaw

April 2023

  • A Taste Of Honey - 1961<br>Editorial use only. No book cover usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by British Lion/Woodfall/Kobal/Shutterstock (5885351y) Rita Tushingham, Murray Melvin A Taste Of Honey - 1961 Director: Tony Richardson British Lion/Woodfall BRITAIN Scene Still Un goût de Miel

    Murray Melvin obituary

    Actor, archivist of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, and director, with a long career in theatre, film and television

January 2023

  • Brian Tufano in the 1990s, the decade in which he came into his own in cinematic work.

    Brian Tufano obituary

    Cinematographer who brought his imaginative sensibilities to films such as Trainspotting, Billy Elliot and Quadrophenia

December 2022

  • Composite of images of Emma Corrin in Lady Chatterley's Lover and English composer John Barry

    Down the rabbit hole
    What links Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Walkabout and William Hurt?

    The DH Lawrence classic inexorably leads to violent UK theatre, a stunning John Barry soundtrack and the erotic thriller Body Heat

June 2022

  • Glenda Jackson: ‘I’ve been very lucky in the parts I’ve had the opportunity to do’

    Film & Music reader interview
    Glenda Jackson answers your questions: ‘I think that’s a gross insult about politicians and actors, frankly’

    The groundbreaking actor and politician answers your questions about the difficulties of Ken Russell, the joys of Morecambe & Wise and whether she sends Tony Blair a Christmas card

February 2020

  • Richard Brooks

    double quotation markKen Russell’s banned film about Richard Strauss finally comes to light

    Richard Brooks
    Russell’s controversial portrait of Strauss as Nazi sympathiser, Times Radio’s launch editor continues working for Radio 4, and Flowers Gallery at 50

November 2019

  • Spiritual guru … Roger Daltry in the title role in Tommy.

    Tommy review – Ken Russell's mad rock opera is a fascinating time capsule

    Russell’s adaptation of the Who’s concept album about a blind pinball wizard features Oliver Reed, Elton John, Jack Nicholson, Tina Turner and Eric Clapton

May 2019

  • Dunshay Manor in Dorset

    Arts and crafts masterpiece Dunshay Manor reopens after legal wrangle

    Dorset country house left to the nation by pioneering sculptor Mary Spencer Watson is finally going on show

November 2017

  • Glenda Jackson in Women in Love, 1969.

    From the Guardian archive
    An interview with Glenda Jackson – archive, 1969

    28 November 1969 While starring as Gudrun in Ken Russell’s Women in Love should have made here instantly recognisable, Jackson maintains her anonymity is safe

June 2017

  • Appalling and delightful … Tony Hancock based his character in The Rebel on Walthamstow tutor William Green.

    Please keep the flames to six feet! The wild and wonderful world of Walthamstow art school

    In the early 1960s, the old guard running Walthamstow art school quit – and a riotous new spirit took hold, galvanising students from Ian Dury to Peter Blake. Now a new show, Be Magnificent, is celebrating the glory days

February 2017

  • Ted Burton and other teddy boys and girls

    That's me in the picture
    ‘Quiffs were a must’: teddy boys and girls in London, 1955

    Ted Burton and his friends pose for Ken Russell, the photographer and film director

November 2016

  • A Window on High Fashion, 1955

    Ken Russell's post-war London – in pictures

    Before his uproarious film career, Ken Russell started out with a Rolleicord camera, documenting teddy girls and bomb-scarred streets
    Gallery12

February 2016

  • RUDOLPH VALENTINO FOUR HORSEMEN ' THE APOCALYPSE 01/05/1921 CTC4894

    Silent but deadly!
    Last of the red-hot myths: what gossip over Rudolph Valentino's sex life says about the silents

    As Ken Russell’s quasi-biopic is released on Blu-ray, even the director noted that Valentino, possibly the silent era’s biggest star, was best appreciated in fiction
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