George Orwell – A Life in Pictures uses a bold and original approach to put him on the screen. Chris Langham plays the writer and every word he speaks is as written by Orwell himself. But the pictures are all ‘invented’ – a specially created ‘archive’ because there’s not a single frame of archive footage of Orwell in existence. Not even one word or one of his trademark hacking coughs on recorded audio. All that is left is one oil painting and a couple of hundred photographs. By bringing to life his extraordinary treasure trove of writing - nine books and some eight thousand pages of journalism, essays, diaries and letters – the film creates a unique dramatised biography of Orwell.

Written essays become authored documentary films shot in the style of the day; events described in diaries are ‘captured’ on home movies; and Movietone footage is manipulated to reveal Orwell in the trenches of the Spanish Civil War. From Eton and Burma to London and Paris, Orwell’s writing – poignant and polemical, scathing and sometimes just funny – is at last caught on film.

Observer - “An utterly engaging dramatic journey. Award-winning fare.”

The Guardian - "This was a cracking documentary. With no moving pictures or recordings of his voice, Chris Durlacher’s enjoyable, funny and inventive film took Orwell’s words and put them in the mouth of actor Chris Langham. He was a perfect Orwell. Such, such a joy."

Time Out - “There isn’t a single frame of footage on the man, nor are there any recordings of his voice. However, the people behind this week’s biodoc on Orwell have solved the problem brilliantly, in the process creating a new genre – a fictional programme that pretends to be fact… What makes the show take flight is the precision of it’s pastiche. The visual grammar and the syntax of the time are absolutely spot on, down to every last scratch on the film, every hiss, hum and tick on the sound track. A triumph of invention due to necessity.”

Daily Mail - “a wonderful picture of a great writer.”

The Independent - “If only half of today’s arts documentaries showed as much originality and inventiveness in their approach, we’d be lucky.”

The Times - “the programme was a tour de force.”

The Guardian - “A joy from start to finish.”