Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Todd to take up his old profession ("My Friends" and "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd – Reprise"). Elsewhere, Anthony spies a beautiful girl singing at her window ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"), and the beggar woman tells him that her name is Johanna. Unaware that Johanna is his friend Todd's daughter, Anthony is immediately enamored ("Ah, Miss") and he pledges to return for her, even after the judge and Beadle chase him away ("Johanna"). In the crowded London marketplace, flamboyant Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli and his simple-minded young assistant Tobias Ragg, pitch a dramatic cure-all for hair loss ("Pirelli's Miracle
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.