TCM Schedule for Fri, Nov 14, 2025: Brian Aherne/Director Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, 12 Monkeys, Brazil, Time Bandits)

[Auggie]

Brian Aherne (May 2, 1902 – February 10, 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States.

Aherne was one of the top cinema character actors in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. His first Broadway appearance in The Barretts of Wimpole Street in 1931 teamed him with Katharine Cornell, with whom he appeared in many productions. In films, he played opposite Madeleine Carroll, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Constance Bennett and Carole Lombard, and was Oscar-nominated for his role as Emperor Maximilian in Juarez (1939). On TV, he appeared in The Twilight Zone episode, "The Trouble With Templeton", Wagon Train and Rawhide.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Aherne




Terry Gilliam, born in Minneapolis on November 22, 1940, is an American-British filmmaker, comedian, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. Together they collaborated on the sketch series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) and the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, also co-directed), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). In 1988, they received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.[5] In 2009, Gilliam received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.

Gilliam transitioned to directing serious films with themes exploring imagination and oppositions to bureaucracy and authoritarianism. His films are sometimes set in dystopian worlds and involve black comedy and tragicomedic elements. He has directed thirteen feature films, gaining acclaim for Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), and 12 Monkeys (1995). Other directing credits include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018).

He started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. He joined Monty Python as the animator of their works, but eventually became a full member and was given acting roles. The only Monty Python member not born in Britain, Gilliam became a naturalized British citizen in 1968 and formally renounced his American citizenship in 2006.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam


DAYTIME: (EST)

6:00 AM | What Every Woman Knows (1934)
An ambitious wife backs her husband's political career.
Dir: Gregory La Cava | Cast: Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, Madge Evans

8:00 AM | Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
A female con artist masquerades as a boy to escape the police.
Dir: George Cukor | Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne

10:00 AM | Smart Woman (1948)
A crusading DA falls for a defense attorney with a criminal past.
Dir: Edward A. Blatt | Cast: Brian Aherne, Constance Bennett, Barry Sullivan

12:00 PM | The Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Dir: John Brahm | Cast: Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum

1:30 PM | First Comes Courage (1943)
A Norwegian resistance fighter seduces a Nazi officer to learn secrets during World War II.
Dir: Dorothy Arzner | Cast: Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne

3:00 PM | The Great Garrick (1937)
French actors set out to deflate the ego of legendary stage star David Garrick.
Dir: James Whale | Cast: Brian Aherne, Olivia De Havilland, Edward Everett Horton

4:30 PM | My Sister Eileen (1942)
Two sisters - one smart, one pretty - move to New York to build careers.
Dir: Alexander Hall | Cast: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Janet Blair

6:15 PM | What a Woman! (1943)
A female literary agent tries to make her star client as adventurous as his most famous character.
Dir: Irving Cummings | Cast: Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Willard Parker


PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING

8:00 PM | Brazil (1985)
A bureaucrat in a dystopian society becomes an enemy of the state when he falls in love with a mysterious woman.
Dir: Terry Gilliam | Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm

10:30 PM | 12 Monkeys (1995)
A prisoner of the state in the year 2035 can earn parole if he agrees to travel back in time and thwart a plague.
Dir: Terry Gilliam | Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt

1:00 AM | Time Bandits (1981)
A young boy accidentally joins a band of time travelling dwarves as they jump from era to era looking for treasure.
Dir: Terry Gilliam | Cast: John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall

3:00 AM Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
An absurdist send-up of the legend of King Arthur and his knight's quest for the Holy Grail.
Dir: Terry Gilliam Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle

4:45 AM | Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Born on Christmas day in a stable next to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Dir: Terry Jones | Cast: Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin