Jane Shore

1915
Silent
91m

Early attempt at medieval epic with impressive locations

A cast of thousands is used to great effect in this ambitious 1915 version of the much-told story of Jane Shore, a goldsmith's wife who becomes mistress to Edward IV to save her husband's life and then falls foul of the future Richard III. With gorgeous location work at the Devil's Punch Bowl in Surrey and Chepstow Castle in Wales, this early feature - an adaptation of the 1714 play The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe - demonstrates a love for historical drama that shows no sign of abating in British film today.

A romanticized story of Edward IV's mistress.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.