George Orwell: A Life in Pictures

This 2003 BBC docudrama, directed by Chris Durlacher, recreates the life of British author George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) using his own writings, letters, and essays, as no audio or video recordings of him survive. Actor Chris Langham portrays Orwell, narrating his experiences from a privileged yet unhappy Eton education and colonial service in Burma to his involvement in the Spanish Civil War, where he was shot in the throat, and his literary career marked by works like "Animal Farm" and "1984." The film interweaves dramatized scenes with archival footage and photographs to depict Orwell's commitment to socialism, his critiques of totalitarianism, poverty in Paris and London, and personal struggles, including his first wife's death and his own from tuberculosis in 1950 at age 46, offering an intimate portrait of the man behind the dystopian visions.