Thorley Walters
Birthday: Born in 1913-05-12 in Teigngrace, Devon, England, UK
Deathday: 1991-07-06
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thorley Swinstead Walters (born 12 May 1913, Teigngrace, Devon – 6 July 1991, London) was an English character actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedy film roles such as in Two-Way Stretch and Carlton-Browne of the FO. He also appeared in the acclaimed TV drama Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Walters played Sherlock Holmes sidekick Doctor Watson in four unrelated films: Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962), The Best House in London (1969), The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975), and Silver Blaze (1977). He featured in three of the St Trinian's movies, starting as an army major in Blue Murder at St Trinian's. He later appeared as Butters, assistant to Education Ministry senior civil servant Culpepper-Brown (Eric Barker) in The Pure Hell of St Trinian's and played the part of Culpepper-Brown in The Wildcats of St Trinian's. In the 1960s he also appeared in several Hammer horror films, including The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969). In the DVD commentary to The Man Who Haunted Himself, Roger Moore mentioned that co-star Walters lived in Dolphin Square, the prestigious apartment block in Pimlico, London in which some scenes of the film were shot. Thorley and Richard Hope-Hawkins visited the ailing Terry-Thomas in Barnes, London in 1989. Walters had starred with Terry in the Boulting Brother's film Carlton-Browne of the F.O., and was shocked at his appearance (he was ill with Parkinson's Disease). That visit resulted in the "Terry-Thomas Gala" held in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the same year which raised funds to help Terry live the rest of his life in comfort. Hope-Hawkins was with Walters and actress Siobhan Redmond, when he died in a London nursing home. Actor Ian Bannen gave the main address at his funeral held at Golders Green. Description above from the Wikipedia article Thorley Walters, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
Strangers
Character:
Strangers is a UK police drama that appeared on ITV between 1978 and 1982. After the success of the TV series The XYY Man, adapted from books by Kenneth Royce, Granada TV devised a new series to feature the regular characters of Detective Sergeant George Bulman and his assistant Detective Constable Derek Willis. The result was Strangers. The series began as a fairly standard police drama series with Bulman as its eccentric lead. Its premise was that a group of police officers have been brought...
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Harry Gold
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
The Persuaders!
Character: John Hatton
An English aristocrat and an American millionaire come together to tackle crime....
Crown Court
Character:
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984....
The Lotus Eaters
Character:
They say that once you have eaten from the lotus plant - you will never want to return home. To outward appearances Erik and Ann Sheppard (Ian Hendry and Wanda Ventham) are typical English ex-pats running a bar on a far-flung Greek island. But appearances can be deceptive - this is an arranged marriage of a different sort - with roots in international espionage. Stefan Gryff gives a great performance as the omniscient local police captain....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Stanley Baldwin
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
The Adventures of Don Quick
Character:
The Adventures of Don Quick is a science fiction comedy television series that ran from October–December 1970, on ITV. Starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, six 50 minute episodes were made, shown in a 60 minute time slot. As of 2008, only the first episode exists, the other five are now missing. A technologically impressive 30 foot model spaceship was built in the studio for the series. However the first three episodes in a prime time slot failed to draw the required ratings so the last three e...
Beasts
Character: Sir Ramsey
Beasts is a series of six television plays by Manx writer Nigel Kneale, unconnected but for a bestial horror theme, made by ATV for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in 1976....
Raffles
Character:
Raffles was a 1977 television adaptation of the A. J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television and written by Philip Mackie. The episodes were largely faithful adaptations of the stories in the books, though occasionally two stories would be merged to create one episode such as "The Gold Cup" which featured elements from both "A Jubilee Present" and "The Criminologist's Club"....
Bulman
Character:
Bulman is a Granada TV series which ran from 1985–1987 and followed the fortunes of the major character from the earlier XYY Man and Strangers series. Bulman was based - increasingly loosely - on the character featured in the XYY Man novels by Kenneth Royce. In this incarnation, Don Henderson appeared again as former Detective Chief Inspector George Bulman, ostensibly retired from police work and repairing old clocks but active as a private investigator, with Lucy McGinty as his assistant. The...
The Duchess of Duke Street
Character:
Set in London between 1900 and 1925, the story follows Louisa Leyton/Trotter, the eponymous "Duchess", who works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietress of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St. James's....
Paradise Postponed
Character:
This British series, based on books by John Mortimer, follows the rise of Leslie Titmuss from humble beginnings in the 1950s to Tory cabinet minister in the 1980s. The rise of the slippery Titmuss is contrasted with the more modest progress of his neighbours, the intellectual Simcoxes and the aristocratic Fanners. Made by Eustom Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television for the ITV Network....
Worzel Gummidge
Character: Colonel Bloodstock
Worzel Gummidge is a children's comedy series, produced by Southern Television for ITV, based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd. Starting in 1979, the programme starred Jon Pertwee in the title role and ran for four series in the UK until 1981. Channel 4 reprised the show in 1987 as Worzel Gummidge Down Under, which was set in New Zealand....
Treasure Island
Character:
Treasure Island is a 1977 television adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel. It was filmed in 1977 on location in Plymouth and Dartford, and in Corsica, and also at BBC Television Centre at Wood Lane, London. Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map and embarks on a journey to find the treasure, but pirates led by Long John Silver have plans to take the treasure for themselves by way of mutiny. This four-episode adaptation by John Lucarotti, while particularly faithful to the orig...
Life of Shakespeare
Character: Mr. Justice Fleminge
Biography of William Shakespeare....
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character:
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusivel...
Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill
Character:
Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series....
The Edwardians
Character:
It was a time when England was a nation on the cusp of change, an evolving landscape tht lay between Victorian England and the First World War. 'The Edwardians' explores the lives of and events in the lives of many who helped define the era, the "Belle Epoque"....
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Character:
George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears....
Thriller
Character: Dr. Ledworth
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits....
Minder
Character: Magistrate
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley....
Cousin Bette
Character: Baron Hector Hulot
Adaptation of the Balzac novel. A poor and homely spinster, who feels she's been walked on all her life, teams up with a scheming courtesan to wreak elaborate revenge on her rich and handsome relatives....
The Edwardians
Character: King Edward VII
It was a time when England was a nation on the cusp of change, an evolving landscape tht lay between Victorian England and the First World War. 'The Edwardians' explores the lives of and events in the lives of many who helped define the era, the "Belle Epoque"....
Play for Today
Character: Old Wedding Guest
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
The Wednesday Play
Character: Holland
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen....
Armchair Theatre
Character: Professor Mortimer
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968....
Cribbins
Character:
Comedy legend Bernard Cribbins had been a key presence in British film and television comedy for over a decade before he landed his own headlining television series at the tail-end of the 1960s. An off-beat revue of quickfire sketches in the "Cribbins style", this fast-moving mixture of comedy and song (including chart hits Hole in the Ground, Gossip Calypso and Right, Said Fred) featured a gallery of outrageous characters in a myriad of seemingly inexhaustible situations! Bank clerk, burglar, t...
Movie Credits
Murder She Said
Character: Cedric Ackenthorpe
Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own....
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
Character: Insp. Fritsch
Blackmailing a young couple to assist with his horrific experiments the Baron, desperate for vital medical data, abducts a man from an insane asylum. On route the abductee dies and the Baron and his assistant transplant his brain into a corpse. The creature is tormented by a trapped soul in an alien shell and, after a visit to his wife who violently rejects his monstrous form, the creature wreaks his revenge on the perpetrator of his misery: Baron Frankenstein....
Frankenstein Created Woman
Character: Dr. Hertz
A deformed tormented girl drowns herself after her lover is framed for murder and guillotined. Baron Frankenstein, experimenting with the transfer of souls, places the boy's soul into her body, bringing Christina back to life. Driven by revenge, she carries out a violent retribution on those responsible for both deaths....
The Man Who Haunted Himself
Character: Frank Bellamy
Executive Harold Pelham suffers a serious accident after which he faces the shadow of death. When, against all odds, he miraculously recovers, he discovers that his life does not belong to him anymore....
The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's
Character: Butters
The fourth form monsters' latest trick is their best ever – they have burned down St Trinian’s school! As the girls stand trial, the police breathe a sigh of relief, but miraculously the judge's infatuation with a student means the school is freed. For the authorities, it means a new reign of terror as the girls of St Trinian’s regroup with gleeful anticipation....
The People That Time Forgot
Character: Norfolk
Major Ben McBride organizes a mission to the Antarctic wastes to search for his friend who has been missing in the region for several years. McBride's party find themselves in a world populated by primitive warriors and terrifying prehistoric creatures, all of whom they must evade in order to get back safely...
Carlton-Browne of the F.O.
Character: Colonel Bellingham
Great Britain has had an international agreement for the last 50 years with a small pacific island. It has been ignored until the death of their king brings it to the attention of the Foreign Office in Whitehall. They decide to send Cadogan de Vere Carlton-Browne to re-establish friendly relations....
Vampire Circus
Character: Burgermeister
After a spate of murders, the villagers of Schtettel kill the depraved perpetrator, Count Mitterhouse. Fifteen years later the Circus of Nights appeared in the plague-ridden village and its performers include Mitterhouse's mistress, children and cousins. They have come to Schtettel to fulfil the Count's last words, an evil, vicious curse of death and destruction on those who participated in his impaling. The children of Schtettel become the targets for a brutal and devastating revenge as the Vam...
The Phantom of the Opera
Character: Lattimer
A London opera house is haunted by tragic events on its opening night, but when its star is kidnapped, a producer tracks down the Phantom who is intent on seeking his revenge....
In the Secret State
Character: Johnny Davenport
A Government Department with data on us all in its computers is not functioning quite as its ex-Head intended. Frank Strange sets out to clear his own name and finds he is investigating a murder....
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Character: Ludwig
Whilst vacationing in the Carpathian Mountain, two couples stumble across the remains of Count Dracula's castle. The Count's trusted servant kills one of the men, suspending the body over the Count's ashes so that the blood drips from the corpse and saturates the blackened remains. The ritual is completed, the Count revived and his attentions focus on the dead man's wife who is to become his partner; devoted to an existence of depravity and evil....
James and the Giant Peach
Character: Grasshopper
A TV adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic book....
The Psychopath
Character: Martin Roth
Inspector Holloway is investigating a series of brutal murders in which a doll of each victim is found at the scene. The dolls, as it turns out,were purchased by the crippled Mrs. Von Sturm, whose home is overcrowded with a doll collection. Her pale, wide-eyed, neurotic son is the prime suspect and the daughter of one of the victims discovers the shocking truth....
Onassis: The Richest Man in the World
Character: Winston Churchill
Biography of the life of Aristotle Onassis, a Greek who rose to become one of the world's most wealthiest men, detailing his rise to power and unhappy marriages....
Beasts: The Dummy
Character: Sir Ramsey
A washed-up actor has a nervous breakdown and believes that he really is the movie monster that he has been hired to play. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries....
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
Character: Dr. Watson
After spending decades living in the shadow of his more famous and successful sibling, Consulting Detective Sigerson Holmes (Wilder) is called upon to help solve a crucial case that leads him on a hilarious trail of false identities, stolen documents, secret codes... and exposed backsides....
The Sign of Four
Character: Major John Sholto
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world....
Petticoat Pirates
Character: Captain Jerome Robertson
Undistinguished British farce (in Technicolor and CinemaScope). Stoker Charlie (the diminutive Drake) helps 150 Wrens under Superintendent Maxine Audley, who've hijacked a frigate, HMS 'Huntress', to prove they're the equal of their male counterparts. Hardly a feminist masterpiece, but fans will relish the nightmare court-martial in which Drake plays all the parts...
Don't Panic Chaps!
Character:
During World War II, four British soldiers are commissioned to set up an observation post on a seemingly deserted island in the Mediterranean. However, while surveying the island, the Brits come across four German soldiers holed up in a monastery. The Brits and the Germans agree to a truce, sharing the monastery together until either the British or German troops arrive. But when a shipwrecked Slavic girl ends up on the island, a battle over her erupts amongst the men....
Suspect
Character: Special Agent Prince
A government team researching cures for plague find their results put on the Official Secrets list. One of their number is so incensed by this that he lets the maimed and jealous companion of a female colleague draw him into what, technically, could be a treasonable act....
There's a Girl in My Soup
Character: Manager of Carlton Hotel
TV personality Robert Danvers, an exceedingly vain rotter, seduces young women daily, never staying long with one. He meets his match in Marion, an American, 19, who's available but refuses any romantic illusions....
The Last Shot You Hear
Character: Gen. Jowett
Charles Nordeck is a successful marriage counselor whose own marriage is on the rocks. When his wife Anne seeks a divorce, Charles refuses to sign the papers fearing the bad publicity could ruin his career. The adulterous Anne then convinces her lover Peter to take care of the problem....
The Earth Dies Screaming
Character: Edgar Otis
A crack test pilot lands to find the planet has been devastated by unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots....
Happy Is the Bride
Character: Jim
In a quiet summer corner of Wiltshire that is forever England, David and Janet decide to tie the knot. Unfortunately this is the cue for everyone else to take over proceedings, to the dismay of the couple and the increasing despair of Janet's father....
Invasion Quartet
Character:
This British men-on-a-mission spoof set during World War II finds intrepid officer Bill Travers leading three colorful compatriots into Nazi-occupied France to destroy an obnoxiously large, loud, and destructive enemy gun. See if this fearless foursome can stomp their Fascist foes and get back to their game of cricket! Spike Milligan, Gregoire Aslan, and Thorley Walters co-star....
Rotten to the Core
Character: Chief Constable Preston
Rogues Jelly Knight, Scapa Flood, and Lennie the Dip leave prison expecting boss The Duke to have their stash ready to share out. Instead, Duke's girl Sara gives them the news Duke is dead and the money gone on nursing care. They soon discover that Duke is actually running Hope Springs Nature Clinic with the help of most of the local villains. Very strange - and the nearby army camp and Sara's encouragement of Lieutenant Vine would seem to be no coincidence either. Written by Jeremy Perkins...
Ring of Spies
Character: Cmdr. Winters
The film is based on the actual events of the Portland Spy Ring trial in the U.K. A disgruntled Navy Clerk is transferred to a secret research establishment and is subsequently black-mailed/paid by Czech intelligence to procure secrets for them. He seduces the secretary who controls the most secret documents, and they enjoy the fruits of their treachery until the British authorities begin to close in on them....
Waltz Time
Character: Stefan Ravenne
Waltz Time is a 1945 British musical film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Carol Raye, Peter Graves and Patricia Medina. In Imperial Vienna a young Grand Duchess is prevented from marrying the man she loves....
Crooks and Coronets
Character: Hubbard
Two crooks are hired to rob an eccentric old lady's estate, but once they get to know her, they can't bring themselves to do it....
The Best House in London
Character: Doctor Watson
In Victorian London, the British Government attempts a solution to the problem of prostitution by establishing the world's most fabulous brothel....
The Passionate Stranger
Character: Jimmy
Judith Wynter is a happily married novelist whose romantic works are eagerly devoured by scores of female readers. When Carlo, a handsome young Italian chauffeur, arrives to work for Judith and her husband, a professor currently recovering from an attack of paralysis, he causes quite a flutter; when he then reads the manuscript of Judith's latest novel, he jumps to a rather unfortunate conclusion... and life in the Wynter household becomes very complicated indeed!...
The Love Test
Character: Chemist
Romance set in a chemical factory....
The Birthday Present
Character: Photographer
Returning from a business trip, toy salesman Simon Scott is caught attempting to smuggle a wristwatch bought for his wife's birthday through Customs. He is arrested and, due to a bungled defence by his solicitor, obliged to serve a three-month prison sentence. It is only the beginning of his woes; his employer, Colonel Wilson, is understanding, but he is ultimately forced to sack Simon, who discovers that finding another job under such circumstances is extremely difficult. But Colonel Wilson is ...
Life of St. Paul
Character: Unidentified role
The Life of St. Paul, including reenactment of the Book of Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles....
You Can't Escape
Character: Chadwick
Novelist Peter Darwin is engaged to heiress Kay March. When he accidentally kills Claire, his former mistress, during a quarrel, he persuades a reluctant Kay to help him bury the body in a wood. When the body is found and with the truth close to being uncovered, Darwin resorts to desperate actions to cover his crime....
Trog
Character: Magistrate
Anthropologist Dr. Brockton unearths a primitive troglodyte -- an Ice Age "missing link": half-caveman, half-ape -- in a local cave. Through medical experimentation, she manages to communicate with him and domesticate him before he's let loose by an irate land developer and goes on a rampage, terrorizing the local citizenry....
Second Fiddle
Character: Charles
Deborah and Charles, young executives at the thriving Pontifex Advertising Agency, are very much in love. Deborah is recognised by her employers as the most brilliant TV executive in the country, while Charles is regarded as 'thoroughly reliable'. But there is one hard-and-fast rule at the agency: the board of directors will not allow any married women on their staff; as soon as a girl marries, she must resign!...
Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace
Character: Dr. Watson
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson embark on a search for Cleopatra's ancient necklace, which has been stolen....
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins
Character: Mr. Forbush Sr.
Life for Richard Forbush, brilliant biology student and conceited philanderer, is one long round of eat, drink and be merry. But his decision to accept a six-month research post in the Antarctic, making the first detailed study of a penguin colony, changes all that... Living in Shackleton’s derelict hut, Forbush is alone at the frozen edge of the world, his only links to civilisation a two-way radio and letters to his elusive, would-be girlfriend, Tara, in London. Through an often ferocious win...
Bartleby
Character: The Colleague
An asocial and enigmatic office clerk refuses to do his work, leaving it up to his boss to decide what should be done with him....
Medal for the General
Character: Andrew
A retired general helps out by sheltering some evacuees during WWII....
The Wrong Box
Character: Patience
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so....
The Truth About Women
Character: Trevor Eaton
A man recalls his relationships with the women he loved as he tries to help another man try to understand them as well....
Heavens Above!
Character: Tranquilax Executive
A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the...
The Wildcats of St. Trinian's
Character: Hugo Culpepper Brown
The girls of St. Trinian's decide they are being asked to do too much work so they go on strike....
Oh! What a Lovely War
Character: Staff Officer
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare....
Blue Murder at St. Trinian's
Character: Major Whitehart
With their headmistress under lock and key in her majesty's prison, the St Trinian's girls find themselves under the protection of the army. However, when the sixth form take a fancy to winning a trip to Italy through means fair or foul, the army discover this is one battle they can't win. Let loose in Europe, it is not long before St Trinian's have succeeded in endangering European relations....
Spider's Web
Character: Hugo Birch
Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat, is given to daydreaming. 'Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?' she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in the drawing-room of her house in Kent....
Design for Murder
Character: Huey Frazer
When a wealthy, lonely university music student is beaten and has his apartment trashed by a fellow dorm resident-bully and his gang, he goes mad, lures the bully into his room on pretense of forgiveness, slips him a paralyzing agent in a drink, throws him in a trunk and locks him in, and taunts the bully with the promise that he will be buried alive in the trunk. Only, once he gets his trunk and his prey to his country estate, the vengeful victim finds things keep going wrong......
Soft Targets
Character: Old Wedding Guest
Stephen Poliakoff's parody of the spy-thriller genre. A Russian diplomat becomes convinced that he is at the centre of a Foreign Office plot....
Soft Beds, Hard Battles
Character: General Erhardt
In this comedy, set during the Nazi occupation of France, Peter Sellers plays most major male parts, so he stars in nearly every scene, always bumbling in inspector Clouseau-style....
The Family Way
Character: Vicar
Young newlyweds Arthur and Jenny Fitton want nothing more than to get their marriage started on the right foot. But before they can depart for their honeymoon in Spain, they have to spend their first night together at the home of Arthur's parents. The couple are prevented from having any intimacy, but it only gets worse. They find out that their trip to Spain is canceled, which sets the tone for a rocky few weeks....
Twisted Nerve
Character: Sir John Forrester
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession....
Henry V
Character: Charles the Sixth, King of France
The life of King Henry the Fifth....
Silver Blaze
Character: Dr. Watson
1977 adaptation of Conan Doyle's The Adventure of Silver Blaze...
The Little Drummer Girl
Character: Ned Quilley
An American Actress with a penchant for lying is forceably recruited by Mosad, the Israeli intelligence agency to trap a Palestinian bomber, by pretending to be the girlfriend of his dead brother....
Once in a New Moon
Character: Beamish
When a small English town is dragged out into space by the force of a 'dead star' passing Earth, the populace try to organise a local government based on equal rights for all, but conflicts arise between the local aristocracy and the villagers....
Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood
Character: Ludwig (archive footage)
A retrospective of the films of Britain's Hammer Studios, renowned for making stylish horror films in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Included are clips from Hammer productions and interviews with actors, actresses, directors and producers who worked on these films....
Joey Boy
Character: Col. Grant
While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better. In a cellar beneath his East London fish shop, a gambling club thrives – and austerity provides a nice black-market sideline. But the dolce vita crumbles when police arrive in a lightning raid, and offer Joey and his fellow reprobates a stark choice: sign up for active service, or face another stint inside. Thus the lads find themselves heading off to Italy, determined to make the best of ...
Josephine and Men
Character: Salesman
The trouble with Josephine is that her ever-loving and over-sympathetic nature leads her to switch from needful men to even more needful men......
A Cup O' Tea An' A Slice O' Cake - Worzel Gummidge Christmas Special
Character: Colonel Bloodstock
Christmas is coming to Ten Acre Field and Worzel Gummidge (Jon Pertwee) is determined to enjoy it in style. He goes searching for Aunt Sally (Una Stubbs), hoping to invite her to the Scarecrow Ball, but before he can find her he runs into his old friend Saucy Nancy (Barbara Windsor), herself heading for a spell in panto. Then, before he gets much further, our multi-headed hero gets sidetracked again when he runs into angry Scots scarecrow Bogle McNeep (Billy Connolly) and his anti-Christmas brig...
Captain Boycott
Character: Army Officer (uncredited)
Based on real events, this historical drama is set in 19th-century Ireland, when poverty-stricken tenants dispossessed by greedy landowner Capt. Boycott (Cecil Parker) band together to assert their rights. Patriotic farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) leads the rebels. Choosing nonviolent resistance, the villagers ostracize their nemesis, who squanders his fortune to repair his ruined reputation and wagers what's left on a horse race....
Private's Progress
Character: Captain Bootle
Stanley Windrush has to interrupt his university education when he is called up towards the end of the war. He quickly proves himself not to be officer material, but befriends wily Private Percival Cox who knows exactly how all the scams work in the confused world of the British Army. And Stanley's brigadier War Office uncle seems to be up to something more than a bit shady too - and they are both soon working for him, behind the enemy lines....
A Murder of Quality
Character: Bishop Harry
At the request of his old war time colleague Ailsa Brimley, George Smiley agrees to look into the murder of Stella Rode. Brimley had only just received a letter from her saying she feared for her life at her husband's hand. The husband, Stanley Rode teaches at Carne School, but Smiley is doubtful that he had anything to do with his wife's death. As Smiley investigates, he learns that Stella was a nosy busybody who loved to learn other's little secrets and then gossip about them - or possibly bla...
Who Done It?
Character: Raymond Courtney
This movie debut for saucy British TV comic Benny Hill has Benny leaving his job as a sweeper after winning some money. He becomes a private detective and investigates a plot to assassinate British scientists....
A Lady Mislaid
Character: Mr. Smith
Esther and her sister Jennifer have just taken a remote country cottage. But there is strange gossip about the previous occupants....
Goodbye
Character: Chalcott-Bentinck
"All I said was the gramophone's too loud." Tony and Zoe Lyle 's silly row starts like any other, but Tony finds that Zoe means it this time. She's walking out and he's got a week to save a marriage that he hasn't looked at in 18 years, and with it all the trappings of a good life in Maida Vale....
On the Eve of Publication
Character: Holland
TV play by David Mercer. First in a trilogy concerning Marxist novelist Robert Kelvin. The occasion is a dinner party, Kelvin is concerned with a summation of his life, addressed in his head to his lover, Emma....
Two Way Stretch
Character: Col. Parkright
Three criminals plan to break out of prison the day before their release in order to carry out a daring jewel robbery, intending to establish the perfect alibi by returning to jail afterwards. First however they must get out, a task made more difficult by a new, stricter prison officer....
Ring Once for Death
Character: Dr. Ledworth
Recently widowed Laura Vallance returns home to England after many years living abroad. She knows few people in England, but she desires rest and seclusion in her time of grief. However, she is more alone than she bargained for when she hires Roger Masters as her butler. With small doses of poison, the ruthless butler plans to keeps his wealthy employer incapacitated... permanently....
The Dunroamin' Rising
Character: Mr Finister
Sixty years ago Ian Sinclair was a revolutionary leader. Today he is in an old folks' home, but has not lost his sense of humour, or his appetite for the struggle. In protest at the proposed closure of the home, the old socialist firebrand embarks upon a hunger strike that ends up having wide-range repercussions....
A French Mistress
Character: Colonel Edmonds
The boys of Melbury Primary School are plunged into turmoil when the new French Master turns out to be a Mistress! Madelin Leforge's (the French Mistress) effect on the boys is swift and amazing. Suddenly everyone wants extra French Lessons just to glimpse the teacher in revealing shorts and bikinis. As discipline crumbles, a scandal explodes when the Head discovers the mademoiselle's mother was an old flame. Madeline must be dismissed to save further embarrassments....
They Were Sisters
Character: Channing
The story of three sisters and the men they marry: one is happily married but childless, the second promiscuously escapes an unhappy, loveless marriage, and the third is tortured by the mental cruelties inflicted by a domineering husband....