The Essex Island That Won the Lottery

2024

0h 47m

0.0(0 votes)

Overview

The uplifting story of a seaside town transformed by a £17.3M lottery win. Meet the working-class community of Canvey Island, who won a fantastic opportunity to improve their lives.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Similar Movies

6.2

1974

Uptown Saturday Night

Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.

Movie

10.0

2020

Purple Dictatorship

Yeda, the green-faced woman, sells homemade bread to support the house where she lives with her sick husband. Through the context of green-faced people, we know the reality of those who live on the fringes of a purple-faced society.

Movie

6.2

2001

Finder's Fee

Friends Tepper, Quigley, Fishman, and Bolan get together for a weekly poker night with two simple rules: Everyone contributes a lottery ticket to the pot, and no one checks the numbers until the game ends. But this particular, stormy night is different: Tepper plans to propose to his girlfriend, and just before the weekly game, he finds a wallet outside his apartment with a winning lottery ticket worth $6 million. Tepper calls the wallet's owner, Avery, to come collect what's his, but keeps the winning ticket for himself...only for Avery to show up and ask to play a hand.

Movie

7.1

2021

In the Heights

The story of Usnavi, a bodega owner who has mixed feelings about closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic or staying in Washington Heights.

Movie

6.1

1976

Lottovoittaja UKK Turhapuro

It is the first anniversary of Uuno and Elisabet. Uuno has placed a bet with his friend Härski-Hartikainen a year ago, that if Uuno can take just one year of marriage with Elisabet, Hartikainen will treat him a festive dinner. However, Hartikainen buys a lottery ticket for Uuno, who agrees to deduct it from his debt – and the festive dinner is reduced to a can of milk and half a sausage. As it happens, Uuno becomes the lottery winner of 1.5 million marks, only to soon realize he doesn't own a single penny yet. Mister Tossavainen arrives and offers to finance Uuno before he actually gets the jackpot. Thus, Uuno gets to live a rich live on credit. He buys a raccoon fur, leopard swimming trunks and a couple of Mercedes-Benzes. Women begin to fancy Uuno and so does his father-in-law. As time goes by it is revealed, though, that Uuno is not actually a lottery winner, and so he has to escape the anger of others to Härski's car repair shop.

Movie

8.5

2015

Doctor Who: The Doctor's Meditation

The Doctor contemplates a journey to see an old acquaintance and digs a well. Released in cinemas alongside the 3D double-bill of Dark Water and Death in Heaven.

Movie

7.0

2022

To Leslie

A West Texas single mother wins the lottery and squanders it just as fast, leaving behind a world of heartbreak. Years later, with her charm running out and nowhere to go, she fights to rebuild her life and find redemption.

Movie

5.7

2003

Bad Boys: A True Story

The story bases on four Finnish brothers, nicknamed 'the Eura Daltons' who received nation-wide notoriety for tearing gas pumps apart when they needed cash.

Movie

7.0

1977

Milioner

The protagonist of the film is Józek Mikuła, a "peasant worker" who runs a small farm with his mother and makes a living as a truck driver at a nearby cement plant. When one day he wins a million in a toto-lottery, news of his unexpected fortune spreads rapidly through the village. Józek decides to invest the money wisely: he buys more land, renovates farm buildings, brings in machinery. He has a gesture - he funds the village with a color TV, which he installs in the clubhouse. But neighbors are stung by Józek's unexpected wealth.

Movie

6.3

1937

Love from a Stranger

Ann Harding plays a lovely but somewhat naive young woman who goes on a European vacation after winning a lottery. Swept off her feet by charming Basil Rathbone, Harding finds herself married before she is fully able to grasp the situation. Slowly but surely, Rathbone's loving veneer crumbles; when he casually asks Harding to sign a document turning her entire fortune over to him, she deduces that her days are numbered.

Movie

5.9

1991

Speaking of the Devil

Bull Webster is a taxi driver with some work problems on his hands: the Spider Corporation, a giant financial holding company, has decided to buy out his taxi co-operative in order to make it go bankrupt and purchase its land at a low cost.

Movie

6.6

1981

Dragonslayer

A sorcerer and his apprentice are on a mission to kill an evil dragon to save the King’s daughter from being sacrificed according to a pact that the King himself made with the dragon to protect his kingdom.

Movie

7.1

1998

Waking Ned

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.

Movie

5.2

2000

Lucky Numbers

Russ Richards is a TV weatherman and local celebrity on the verge of losing his shirt. Desperate to escape financial ruin, he schemes with Crystal the TV station's lotto ball girl to rig the state lottery drawing. The numbers come up right, but everything else goes wrong as the plan starts to unravel and the game turns rough.

Movie

5.7

2000

Essex Boys

Billy has just scored an entry-level position with the local crime cartel. His first job is to mind Jason, a newly released thug with a vicious temper. Jason thinks it's his job to teach Billy about crime, drugs and women. Little does he know that Billy has his eyes on Jason's own wife, Lisa. When an ecstasy deal goes bad, Jason vows revenge on the boss, while Billy looks to take out Jason. Before long, bodies start turning up

Movie

6.5

1996

Golden Boy

Antoine a Union representative works in a financially troubled factory. He's not the sharpest tool in the box but he has a big heart and when he and his wife win the jackpot of the national lottery. Antoine will invest his gain to try and safe the factory.

Movie

7.3

1924

Greed

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

Movie

2015

Out of Luck

An in depth look at the full effect of State Lotteries on the players and the people around them.

Movie

7.0

1992

A Little Joke

Two middle-aged friends, Mićko and Đorđe, decide to make a joke with their childhood friend, teacher Svetislav, who is a stingy when it comes to paying for the bills at bars where they often hang out. After filling his lottery ticket with numbers that Mićko claims he saw in his dream, they invite him to his home to watch lottery live on TV, but instead they play a previously recorded video material in order to make him believe he scored all seven hits. However, a joke goes wrong after Svetislav ditches his wife, resigns at the school where he works, and raises a credit at the bank, believed he's about to make a new start.

Movie

2010

Ian Dury Sex Drugs Rock & Roll & Other Assorted Glimpses

Probably the most atypical star in the history of popular music, Ian Dury overcame Polio to be one of the most iconic figures of the late punk movement. With his supercharged live performances and unique blend of sexually poetic lyrics, Ian Dury achieved critical aclaim from both his fans and fellow artists. From his early days with Kilburn and the High Roads to his superstardom with the Blockheads, Ian Dury was a complicated cocktail of warmth, wit, bile and bombast... quite simply he was unique and unforgettable. To discover the legend that is Ian Dury this DVD contains amazing live performances of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, What A Waste, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Sweet Gene Vincent and many other hits from his heyday, alongside in-depth interviews that give an insight to the man himself.

Movie

Recommended Movies

7.4

2022

Jerry & Marge Go Large

The remarkable true story of how retiree Jerry Selbee discovers a mathematical loophole in the Massachusetts lottery and, with the help of his wife, Marge, wins $27 million dollars and uses the money to revive their small Michigan town.

Movie

7.1

1998

Waking Ned

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.

Movie

7.3

2025

The Ballad of Wallis Island

An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favourite musicians to perform at his home.

Movie

6.2

2001

Finder's Fee

Movie

7.0

2022

To Leslie

Movie

6.3

2012

Promised Land

A salesman for a natural gas company experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town, where his corporation wants to tap into the available resources.

Movie

7.3

1924

Greed

Movie

7.4

1995

Sense and Sensibility

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. After Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son. These circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's wife and daughters without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.

Movie

6.8

1983

Local Hero

An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.

Movie

6.6

2023

The Rat Catcher

In an English village, a reporter and a mechanic listen to a ratcatcher explain his clever plan to outwit his prey.

Movie

6.6

2008

Happy-Go-Lucky

A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.

Movie

6.6

2015

Joy

A story based on the life of a struggling Long Island single mom who became one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs.

Movie

6.6

2019

Bait

Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has repurposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.

Movie

6.7

1994

It Could Happen to You

Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.

Movie

7.3

2007

The Great Debaters

The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.

Movie

6.7

1996

Happy Gilmore

Failed hockey player-turned-golf whiz Happy Gilmore — whose unconventional approach and antics on the green courts the ire of rival Shooter McGavin — is determined to win a PGA tournament so he can save his granny's house with the prize money. Meanwhile, an attractive tour publicist tries to soften Happy's image.

Movie

6.5

2003

Calendar Girls

Members of a Yorkshire branch of the Women's Institute cause controversy when they pose nude for a charity calendar.

Movie

5.9

2015

Welcome to Me

A year in the life of Alice Klieg, a woman with Borderline personality disorder who wins the Mega Millions lottery, quits her meds and buys her own talk show.

Movie

7.2

2016

Queen of Katwe

A young girl overcomes her disadvantaged upbringing in the slums of Uganda to become a Chess master.

Movie

6.5

2022

The Lost King

An amateur historian defies the academic establishment in her efforts to find King Richard III's remains, which were lost for over 500 years.

Movie