Actor Colin Firth (1960)

In 1943, the United Kingdom is deeply entrenched in World War II. Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu, a Jewish lawyer, remains in England while his wife, Iris, and children travel to safety in the United States. Montagu takes a hiatus from practising law when he is appointed to the Twenty Committee. His loyal secretary, Hester Leggett, comes with him. Winston Churchill has promised the United States that the Allies will invade Sicily by July of that year in order to push northward into Europe. However, Sicily is considered an obvious target and may be defended by the Wehrmacht. Admiral Godfrey informs the Twenty Committee that Britain must trick Nazi Germany into believing the Allies ...

On 6 April 1917, aerial reconnaissance has observed that the German army, which has pulled back from a sector of the Western Front in northern France, is not in retreat but has made a strategic withdrawal to the new Hindenburg Line, where they are waiting to overwhelm the British with artillery. In the British trenches, with field telephone lines cut, two young British lance corporals, William Schofield, a veteran of the Somme, and Tom Blake, are ordered by General Erinmore to carry a message to Colonel Mackenzie of the Second Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, calling off a scheduled attack the next morning that would jeopardise the lives of 1,600 men, including Blake’s ...

A year after defeating Richmond Valentine, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin has officially joined Kingsman, having taken his late mentor Harry Hart’s position of Galahad as well as Harry’s old house, and is dating Tilde, Crown Princess of Sweden, whom he saved from Valentine. On his way home from the tailor shop, he is ambushed by Charlie Hesketh, a rejected Kingsman applicant who lost only his right arm and vocal cords during the Valentine incident. Eggsy evades Charlie and his henchmen in a car chase across London, but Charlie’s cybernetic arm, severed in the skirmish, hacks into the Kingsman servers through the computer in Eggsy’s car. With the information ...

During a mission in the Middle East in 1997, probationary secret agent Lee Unwin sacrifices himself to protect his superior, Harry Hart, from an explosion. Hart, blaming himself for Lee’s death, returns to London to give Lee’s widow, Michelle, and her young son Gary “Eggsy” a medal engraved with an emergency assistance number. Seventeen years later, Eggsy is a stereotypical chav, having dropped out of training for the Royal Marines despite his intelligence and talents for both gymnastics and parkour. After getting arrested for stealing a car, Eggsy calls the number. Hart arranges his release and explains that he is a member of Kingsman, a private intelligence ...

In 1928, an illusionist, Wei Ling Soo, performs in front of a crowd in Berlin with his world-class magic act. Soo is actually a British man named Stanley, who wears a disguise in his act. In his dressing-room, he is greeted by old friend and fellow illusionist Howard Burkan. Howard enlists Stanley to go with him to the Côte d’Azur, where a rich American family, the Catledges, has apparently been taken in by a clairvoyant, Sophie; the son of the family, Brice, is smitten with her. Howard said he has been unable to uncover the secrets behind Sophie’s tricks, and is tempted to believe she really has supernatural powers. He asks Stanley, who has debunked many charlatan ...

In 1973, “Control”, head of British intelligence (“The Circus”), sends Jim Prideaux to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general who has the name of a mole at the top of British Intelligence. Prideaux, realising the meeting is a trap, is shot as he tries to leave. Control and his right-hand man George Smiley are forced to retire, and Control dies soon after. Percy Alleline becomes the new Chief, Bill Haydon his deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase his lieutenants. They had already begun receiving Soviet Intelligence from a secret source (Operation “Witchcraft”). Field agent Ricki Tarr warns civil servant Oliver Lacon that there is a mole at the top ...

On Christmas Eve 1843, in London, miserly business man Ebenezer Scrooge refuses to partake in the merriment of Christmas, declining his cheerful nephew Fred’s invitation to an annual Christmas dinner party and rejecting two gentlemen’s offer to donate money to charity. His employee Bob Cratchit asks Scrooge to give him a day off on Christmas Day to spend time with his family, to which Scrooge reluctantly agrees. Returning home that night, Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley, his business partner who died seven years ago, bound in heavy chains. Marley warns Scrooge to change his wicked ways or be condemned to a worse fate. Before leaving, Marley informs Scrooge ...

When a naive young Dorian Gray arrives in late Victorian London, by train, to inherit an estate left to him by his abusive grandfather, he is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic Lord Henry “Harry” Wotton, who introduces Gray to the hedonistic pleasures of the city. Lord Henry’s friend, society artist Basil Hallward, paints a portrait of Gray to capture the full power of his youthful beauty. When the portrait is unveiled, Gray makes a flippant pledge: he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture—even his soul. Gray meets and falls in love with budding young actress, Sibyl Vane. After a few weeks, he proposes ...

In 1593 London, William Shakespeare is a sometime player in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and playwright for Philip Henslowe, owner of The Rose Theatre. Suffering from writer’s block with a new comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, Shakespeare attempts to seduce Rosaline, mistress of Richard Burbage, owner of the rival Curtain Theatre, and to convince Burbage to buy the play from Henslowe. Shakespeare receives advice from rival playwright Christopher Marlowe, but is despondent to learn Rosaline is sleeping with Master of the Revels Edmund Tilney. The desperate Henslowe, in debt to ruthless moneylender Fennyman, begins auditions anyway.