Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film) his old Fleet Street shop, situated above Mrs. Nellie Lovett's meat pie shop, where she sells the "worst pies in London". Lovett tells him that Turpin raped Lucy, who then poisoned herself with arsenic. The couple's daughter, Johanna, is now Turpin's ward. Todd vows revenge, and re-opens his barber shop after Mrs. Lovett, who loves him unrequitedly, presents him with his old straight razors. Anthony becomes enamored with Johanna, but is caught by Turpin and driven away by his henchman, Beadle Bamford. Todd denounces faux-Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli's hair tonic as a fraud and humiliates him in a public shaving
The Tale of Sweeney Todd of seemingly high-quality elements . . . yet it falls flat because of an ill-conceived script and directorial miscalculation." Ben Kingsley was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie but lost to Christopher Reeve for "Rear Window". The film was released on DVD in January 2008. The Tale of Sweeney Todd The Tale of Sweeney Todd is a 1998 American crime-drama/horror television film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley. The teleplay by Peter Buckman was adapted from a story by Peter Shaw.