Joe's palace - Stephen Poliakoff

Two major new screenplays by the award-winning Stephen Poliakoffmade for the BBC and HBO Films and due to be broadcast in November2007. A stellar cast led by Michael Gambon and Dame Maggie Smithfeature in these exquisite, major new films that are linked by a grandhouse and memories of the past.

In Joe's Palace, the first of two screenplays, StephenPoliakoff explores the relationship between a reclusive billionaire(played by Michael Gambon), and the teenage boy he employs to take careof a grand house. This is a lavishly shot contemporary film aboutloneliness and loss. In Capturing Mary, the companion film forBBC2 set in the same exquisite empty house, Poliakoff takes hischaracters into a dark and terrifying exploration of the past and itspower to capture and destroy a person's life. Dame Maggie Smith playsthe lead role.

Included also is A Real Summer, a glorious companion drama to Capturing Marycharting the development of an unexpected friendship between a youngaristocratic woman and Mary before she enters the dangerous world of MrGraham's house.