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David Lean, Mike Leigh, Terry Gilliam, Stephen Frears , Terrance Davies, Ken Loach, Danny Boyle

Ken Russell’s The Devils definitive 4K restoration to launch ahead of major BFI retrospective

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Censored for over half a century, Ken Russell’s visionary masterpiece The Devils will be back on the big screen in its definitive version on 30 October 2026, released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland by BFI Distribution in partnership with Warner Bros. Clockwork. Fully restored in 4K and cut to Ken Russell’s specific direction, Ken Russell’s The Devils is the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker. Fifty-five years after its initial release, the definitive version of The Devils was unveiled at the 79th Cannes Film Festival as an official selection in Cannes Classics. Warner Bros. Clockwork will be releasing the film in all other territories, beginning with the US on 16 October for an exclusive one-week engagement.

An enduring masterpiece of cinema starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, Ken Russell’s The Devils is a prescient epic of obsession and corruption, and a defining work of art from seminal filmmaker Ken Russell. Inspired by the true story of 17th-century priest Urbain Grandier, accused of bewitching a convent of nuns, the film lays bare the collusion of church and state through a searing vision of religious persecution, collective hysteria and institutional corruption. In addition to powerhouse performances from Reed and Redgrave, Ken Russell’s The Devils showcases the stunning work of artists at the peak of their craft: Academy Award-winning cinematographer David Watkin (Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire); editor Michael Bradsell (Local Hero, Jabberwocky); and visual artist Derek Jarman (Jubilee, Caravaggio), whose work as production designer marked his feature film debut.

Produced by Warner Bros. in 1971, the film received best director awards from two of the most prestigious institutions in the world: the 33rd Venice International Film Festival and the US National Board of Review. Its critical reception in the following decades has only become more impassioned, championed by artists and film historians including Guillermo del Toro and Mark Kermode.

Stuart Brown, BFI Director of Programme and Distribution said:

“Ken Russell’s The Devils is one of the great masterpieces of British cinema: a film of astonishing imagination, searing power and dazzling formal brilliance. The BFI is thrilled to be partnering with Warner Bros. Clockwork to present the new restoration, which reveals anew the extraordinary artistry of Oliver Reed, Vanessa Redgrave, Derek Jarman and the many others who collaborated to create a truly singular work. The BFI has long supported Ken Russell’s film and television work across BFI Southbank, BFI home entertainment and BFI Player, and so it is a fitting privilege to help bring this landmark restoration to audiences across the UK and Ireland.”

Ken Russell was a pioneering Academy Award-nominated British filmmaker, the disruptive visionary behind classics such as Tommy, Women in Love and Altered States. He directed an Academy Award-winning performance from Glenda Jackson in Women in Love.

To mark the centenary of Ken Russell’s birth on 3 July 1927, in July and August 2027 BFI Southbank will present the most extensive retrospective ever mounted of one of Britain’s truly pioneering figures. Spanning more than five decades of restless creativity, the season will explore Russell’s extraordinary work, from his amateur films of the 1950s through the form-breaking BBC productions of the 1960s that transformed the possibilities of television arts broadcasting, before he embarked on one of the most distinctive careers in world cinema. The BFI celebration will bring together every one of Russell’s theatrically released feature films, alongside rare television works – many screening from original film prints preserved in the BFI National Archive’s collections – later digital productions and newly created materials by the BFI National Archive.

Ken Russell’s The Devils is the definitive cut of The Devils, and no other director’s cut formally exists. This cut was originally reconstructed in 2004 under the supervision of Ken Russell and the film’s editor Michael Bradsell, in collaboration with Mark Kermode and Paul Joyce. The 4K restoration was completed using the original camera negative at WB Water Tower Color, with audio restoration completed using original composite 35mm magnetic film at WB Sound. Warner Bros. Clockwork’s release of Ken Russell’s The Devils marks the first time Russell’s defining masterpiece has been made officially accessible to the public.

Ken Russell’s The Devils will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 30 October 2026.

Samantha Morton: ‘I felt a lot of anger when I was a teenager in care’

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The actress, director and activist opens up to Jane Graham about her younger years, sharing her experiences of living in care

By Jane Graham /14 Feb 2019

At 16 I was living in a homeless hostel in Nottingham – it was called an independence unit but basically it was a dumping ground for kids who had to leave care. We were just forgotten about really, with no support or follow-up. The people who ran the unit were great, they were as helpful as they could be with helping you get your money or applying for college. But it was a very tough time. I felt a lot of anger when I was a teenager. I’d been in care since I was a baby, so it had been a massive part of my life.

I was angry at the system, the state, for failing to take care of me in the most basic common-sense way. Why was I being abused by residential social workers but I couldn’t stay the night at my friend’s house because their parents hadn’t been checked out? Of course I was angry.

My stepfather, who I adored, was Glaswegian and very outgoing. If I’m anyone’s child it’s not my mother’s or my father’s, it’s my stepfather’s. I’m very like him – he was very outspoken and a real character.

Despite my unstable upbringing, I was never shy. I loved fighting for the right to do or say something. I always had my hand up in class. And my stepfather supported me in everything I did. I lost touch with him for certain reasons. But when I was with him I did say thank you. He knew how grateful I was.

I told him I wasn’t into crime any more and I’d cleaned up my act,

Sometimes all you need to turn a child’s life around is one person who notices, who cares, who goes the extra mile. For me it was Mr Thompson at my junior school. He saw something in me. He knew I liked doing school plays and he encouraged me to visit the Central Junior Television Workshop run by Ian Smith. So I went to an audition and the rest is history. I found drama and I found Ian Smith.

Ian became my teacher, my mentor. He was the guy I phoned when I was in the cells again. He was incredible to me. I was in and out of the Workshop from age 14 and when I was 16, and ready to really turn my life around, I got back in touch with him. I told him I wasn’t into crime any more and I’d cleaned up my act, having been part of the rave scene. He put me back into the Workshop, got me to auditions, and I started to get proper speaking parts. I owe so much to those two teachers. 

1993: The year Samantha turns 16

  • Cult leader David Koresh is among 77 killed at Waco
  • The Queen opens up Buckingham Palace to the public for £8 a visit
  • Jurassic Park is released

 

If I hadn’t found drama I still believe I’d have had an amazing life. It would probably have been in socialist politics or activism but I always had a feeling I was going to be alright. I was bright and determined. By 16 I had found an inner strength, I felt I’d sorted myself by then, I’d found a calm. People have a misconception about kids in care. They assume they have no love in their life. The state were no help to me but I did feel love and support by certain individuals who were trying to do their best for me. So I always had hope. That’s what the film I made, The Unloved, was all about.

If I could go back in time and really impress the 16-year-old Sam I’d tell her about the family she’s going to have. Not the movies, the Oscar nominations – that world would seem shallow to young Sam. But she would be so excited to think that one day she’d have a family that she loved and loved her in return.

It was bloody hard work being a mum. And it was scary.

If I really wanted to show her a great achievement I’d show her Esme, my first child. It was bloody hard work being a mum. And it was scary. Having had 12 foster parents I didn’t have any reference points for that consistent kind of family. But I loved it from the start. I have three children and I’m proud of all of them and I feel dead lucky.  

When I had a daughter I didn’t feel sad for my younger self. What I felt was angry at the lack of support for my mother when she was suffering. She was in a very abusive marriage and when she tried to find help with her children everybody turned her away. And she didn’t know who to go to when she was running away. Now I think, God if I could go back and grab my mum and say, right Pam, this is what you need to do. Here are the agencies who can help. 

Read more ‘Letters To My Younger Self’ here

I think I’ve had some real close shaves. As a young unaccompanied actress going to auditions with strange people in strange places, being asked to do things that were not in the script but not feeling able to say no. I remember when I was in Band of Gold [the ITV series from the mid-Nineties), there was a scene a particular director wanted me to do topless, though that wasn’t in the script. I was 16 years old. Sixteen! And I was having a sex scene with a man in his sixties. I was sobbing in the trailer and it was all, ‘Sam’s being tricky…’ I didn’t understand that I had a right to say I didn’t feel comfortable. I felt I was from the streets and I’d won the lottery even being in the show, rather than feeling I had earned the right to be there. Some of the male directors working in TV drama in the Nineties were delicate and kind. And some were bullies and brutal. 

Once I started making films in America I’d started speaking out about the industry and lots of people just didn’t employ me. If, for instance, I saw crew being overworked, not being properly paid, having accidents because they’re so tired, I’d speak up against it. And lots of people don’t like that, they don’t like trouble causers. And there are plenty of people who are media trained and they go to work and they’re just not themselves. They put on a smile and they play the game. But if you grow up in the care system then work in the film industry, which is basically an old boys’ club… it used to put my back up quite a lot. 

I sometimes get very tired looking back at a life which was once… I feel like I lived 100 lives before I was 16. Now I don’t like big drama in my life, I like it to be smooth. So for me the good thing that come with age is peace inside. But with that peace is the fear of mortality. I think, I’m 41. If I’m lucky I might get to 80. Oh… I’ve done half my life.

I do for various reasons live each day as if it were my last. Which can be very intense. But I try to be in the moment as much as possible. I think I’m still very ambitious as I feel as an actress I get better as I get older. So I’m hungry for the big parts. But in my private life, I want to relax and enjoy it. I know what makes me happy now. And I feel lucky.

Source: Samantha Morton: ‘I felt a lot of anger when I was a teenager in care’

Gwenifer After Hours

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In this first instalment of our After Hours Sessions, Gwenifer Raymond performs a live acoustic guitar session in the Turnstone Guitars workshop with her haunting, percussive fingerstyle playing filling the same space where the guitar was made.

Filmed on a Turnstone Select Series TG model, this series invites exceptional artists to perform on our hand-built acoustic guitars after hours, capturing the sound of the instruments and the spirit of the place they’re crafted.