Clive Swift
Birthday: Born in 1936-02-09 in Liverpool, England, UK
Deathday: 2019-02-01
Clive Swift was a British actor known to millions as Hyacinth Bucket's hen-pecked husband Richard in BBC One's 90s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. Swift, who spent 10 years at the RSC before breaking into television, also acted in such series as Peak Practice, Born and Bred and The Old Guys.
TV Credits
Keeping Up Appearances
Character: Richard Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket (whose name, she insists, is pronounced "Bouquet") is a suburban housewife in the West Midlands. She would be the first to tell you that she is a gracious hostess, a respected citizen, and a well-connected member of high society. If you don't believe that, just ask her best friend Elizabeth, held captive in Hyacinth's kitchen; or the postmen and neighbours who bristle at the sound of her voice; or Richard, her weary and compliant husband. In fact, Hyacinth's reputation could be ...
Doctor Who
Character: Jobel
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs....
A Very Peculiar Practice
Character:
A young and idealistic Doctor Stephen Daker arrives at Lowlands University to work at the Health Centre, but has to cope with an eccentric set of colleagues....
The Gentle Touch
Character:
The Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months....
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Latham
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....
Heartbeat
Character: Victor Kellerman
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines....
Inspector Morse
Character: Dr Bartlett
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses....
The Ray Bradbury Theater
Character: St. John Court
A Canadian-produced fantastic anthology series scripted by famed science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Many of the teleplays were based upon Bradbury's novels and short stories....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Ellis
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, ...
Beasts
Character: 'Bunny' Nettleton
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....
Hazell
Character:
Hazell is a British television series that ran from 1978–1979, about a fictional private detective named James Hazell....
Born and Bred
Character: Reverend Brewer
Born and Bred is a light-hearted British drama series that aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2005. Created by Chris Chibnall and Nigel McCrery, Born and Bred's cast was led by James Bolam and Michael French, who play a father and son who run a cottage hospital in Ormston, a fictional Lancashire village in the 1950s. Bolam and French's characters are later replaced by characters played by Richard Wilson and Oliver Milburn....
The Expert
Character: Graham Richards
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by a...
Dead of Night
Character: Dan
Dead of Night was a British television anthology series of supernatural fiction, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in 1972. It ran for a single series; of its seven 50-minute episodes, only three—"The Exorcism", "Return Flight", and "A Woman Sobbing"—are known to survive in the BBC's archives. Another programme made by the Dead of Night production team under Innes Lloyd, The Stone Tape, intended to be the eighth episode, does survive in the archives but was not broadcast under the Dead o...
The Old Guys
Character: Roy
The Old Guys is a British comedy television series that revolves around two aging housemates: Tom Finnan and Roy Bowden. The pair live across the street from Sally, whom they both find attractive. Tom moved in with Roy after Roy's wife Penny deserted him. Baby boomer Tom has little in life but his daughter Amber, who is dating Steve. Roy is a suburban pensioner who believes that he is one of the country's leading intellectuals....
First Among Equals
Character: Alec Pimkin
First Among Equals is a ten-part serial based on Jeffrey Archer's 1984 novel First Among Equals, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and first shown in 1986. As in the novel, the series follows the careers and personal lives of four fictional British politicians from 1964 to 1991, with each vying to become Prime Minister. Several situations in the novel are drawn from Archer's own early political career in the British House of Commons. While the novel depitcts the fictional chara...
Cuckoo
Character: Dr. Rafferty
Cuckoo is every parent's worst nightmare - a slacker full of outlandish, New Age ideas. Ken is the over-protective father of a girl who's impulsively married an American hippie on her gap year....
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...
Playhouse
Character:
BBC2 Playhouse is a one hour UK anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas created by Sara Pia Anderson and produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Among its many notable guest stars were Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Paul Scofield, Deborah Kerr, Ben Kingsley, Donald Pleasence, Brenda Blethyn, and Peggy Ashcroft. It premiered in the UK on March 13, 1974 and ran through May 20, 1983....
The Pickwick Papers
Character: Mr. Tupman
Mr Pickwick, Tupman, Winkle, Snodgrass and Sam Weller begin their travels through the England of stage-coaches and coaching inns....
Peak Practice
Character: Norman Shorthose
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based...
Bless Me Father
Character: Fred Dobie
Bless Me Father is a British sitcom starring Arthur Lowe, Daniel Abineri, Gabrielle Daye, Patrick McAlinney, David Ryall, Derek Francis and Sheila Keith. It was aired on ITV from 1978 until 1981 and described the adventures of an Irish Catholic priest, Father Charles Duddleswell and his young curate in the fictional parish of St. Jude's in suburban London. 21 episodes, written by Peter De Rosa, were aired. De Rosa wrote the books on which the series was based using the pseudonym of Neil Boyd whi...
Shadows
Character:
Shadows is a British Supernatural television anthology series produced by Thames Television for ITV between 1975 and 1978. Extending over three seasons, it featured ghost and horror dramas for children. Guest actors included John Nettleton, Gareth Thomas, Jenny Agutter, Pauline Quirke, Brian Glover, June Brown, Rachel Herbert, Jacqueline Pearce and Gwyneth Strong. The series was also notable for reviving the character of Mr. Stabs. Notable writers for the series included J. B. Priestley, Fay W...
Hustle
Character: Yusef
A motley group of London con artists pull of a series of daring and intricate stings....
A Ghost Story for Christmas
Character: Dr. Black
A strand of annual British short television adaptations of classic ghost stories, referencing the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. First broadcast on BBC One from 1971 to 1978, and revived in 2005 on BBC Four....
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
Character:
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversar...
Rosamunde Pilcher: Fighting for Her Family
Character: Edward Whiteley
Valentine is famous for writing parenting guide books and being the perfect woman, wife and mother. But out of the blue, her husband announces he wants a divorce, and their children side with him. As their daughter is about to marry, circumstances repeatedly force the estranged spouses back together....
The Barchester Chronicles
Character: Dr. Proudie
Against the sumptuous background of Peterborough Cathedral and its environs, one is carried into Trollope's world of the intriguing machinations of the clerical establishment of Barchester. Backed by the authenticity of the period detail, the portrayal of all the characters accurately conveys the whole range of human emotions within the stories....
Midsomer Murders
Character: Felix Hope
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty. ...
Dombey and Son
Character: Major Bagstock
Charles Dickens' classic novel is given its first television adaptation in this classic 1969 BBC production. Paul Dombey is a well-to-do shipping firm owner, who lacks a son to take over the family business. After rejecting his daughter's affection, he reconciles with her before his death....
Doctor Who
Character: Mr Copper
The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it....
Play for Today
Character: Savory
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....
Play for Today
Character: Air Steward
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 Frighteners
Character: Machen
A horror anthology series, with each episode featuring a different eerie tale....
Movie Credits
Frenzy
Character: Johnny Porter
After a serial killer strangles several women with a necktie, London police identify a suspect—but he claims vehemently to be the wrong man....
Death Line
Character: Inspector Richardson
There's something pretty grisly going on under London in the Tube tunnels between Holborn and Russell Square. When a top civil servant becomes the latest to disappear down there Scotland Yard start to take the matter seriously. Helping them are a young couple who get nearer to the horrors underground than they would wish....
Romeo and Juliet
Character: Friar Lawrence
Adaptation of Shakespeare's play....
The Sailor's Return
Character: Reverend Pottock
Based on the 1925 novel The Sailor's Return by David Garnett. A sailor returns to his hometown to open a pub bringing with him his new black wife. Very quickly they find themselves ostracised by the community....
Beasts: The Dummy
Character: 'Bunny' Nettleton
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....
Cause Célèbre
Character: P.P. Croom Johnson
When the ailing husband of an adulterous wife is discovered bludgeoned to death and suspicions fall on the older woman's young lover, the newly widowed woman claims that it was she who was solely responsible for the death despite evidence that points to the contrary in this dramatic account of true-life 1935 trial that shocked all of England. Though notable evidence and strong suspicion suggests that the murder may have been of crime of passion perpetrated by the jealous lover only half her age,...
Young Toscanini
Character:
A fanciful biopic of legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini as a very young man....
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Character: Snug
Peter Hall's film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, filmed in and around an English country house and starring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company....
Henry IV Part 1
Character: Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester
Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising....
Othello
Character: Brabantio / Gratiano
Noble Moroccan Othello finds his life with beautiful, fiercely loyal Desdemona thrown tragically out of balance when secretly jealous, scheming confidante Iago begins an insidious campaign of lies and treachery....
The Stalls of Barchester
Character: Dr. Black
Scholar Dr. Black's seemingly mundane assignment of sorting through the assets of the Barchester Cathedral library takes an eerie turn when he comes across the papers of the late Archdeacon, who plotted to gain his position through murder. However, he soon comes to discover something truly horrific about the wooden choir stalls in the church, which are tied to a famous local tree and a sinister local legend....
Catch Us If You Can
Character: Duffie
Dinah is a famous model and actress who is getting tired of life in the limelight and wants to take a break. While shooting a commercial spot for meat, she meets Steve, a stuntman. Dinah and Steve hit it off and decide to head to an island to get away from it all, bringing along four of Steve's friends. Before long, Dinah is reported missing and everyone is looking for her, making their getaway anything but tranquil....
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Character: Hastie Lanyon
Adaptation of the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson...
A Warning to the Curious
Character: Dr. Black
Paxton, an amateur archeologist, travels to the town of Seaburgh and inadvertently stumbles across one of the lost crowns of Anglia, which, according to legend, protect the county from invasion. On digging the crown up, Paxton is stalked by its supernatural guardian....
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
Character: Additional Voices (voice)
Being one of 101 takes its toll on Patch, who doesn't feel unique. When he's accidentally left behind on moving day, he meets his idol, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign....
All Together Now
Character: James
The weekly brass band rehearsal is an enjoyable, light-hearted occasion. Then Mathew, the conductor, introduces James, a newcomer to the village, who is an enthusiastic bandsman from the north, where they do these things properly....
Dead of Night: The Exorcism
Character: Dan
Four wealthy, middle-class friends gather for a Christmas dinner in a country cottage only to find that the past will not rest while they feast....
Mad Jack
Character:
Play dealing with the life of British Army lieutenant Siegfried Sassoon, and his protests against the inhumanity of the First World War...
The Kitchen
Character: Frank
Alvin Rakoff's adaptation of Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen for Play of the Week. The Kitchen, first preformed in 1957, was Wesker's first work and his most performed play. The Kitchen has been produced in sixty cities including Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Paris - where it was the first widely recognized production by Théâtre du Soleil in 1967, Moscow, Montreal and Zurich....
Comedy Classics: Keeping Up Appearances
Character: Self (archive footage)
Keeping Up Appearances remains one of Britain's best loved series. Running for 5 years throughout the 90s, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the delightfully monstrous Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) as she attempted to climb the social ladder, only to be endlessly let down by her family. In this 90-minute celebration we feature the very best and most hilarious moments from the series, and cast, crew and celebrity fans pay tribute to the show and share backstage secrets. Featuring an ex...
South Riding
Character:
An adaptation of Winifred Holtby's classic novel...
The War That Never Ends
Character: Athenagoras
The Peloponnesian Wars (Athens versus Sparta for twenty-seven years) told in the format of news broadcast-like monologues by Theucydides, Plato, and others....
The National Health
Character:
Peter Nichols adapted his own hit play to the screen, based on his experiences in hospitals. A riotous black comedy that's as timely today as ever, it contrasts the appalling conditions in a overcrowded London hospital with a soap opera playing on the televisions there. In an ingenious touch, the same actors appear in the "real" story as well as the "TV" one, thus blurring the distinctions even further. Jack Gould directs such outstanding British actors as Lynn Redgrave, Colin Blakely, Eleanor B...
Young Arthur
Character: Illtud
...
Man at the Top
Character: Massey
Northerner Joe Lampton becomes involved with Lord Ackerman, the powerful chairman of a pharmaceutical concern, his beautiful wife Alex, and daughter Robin. But trouble starts when Joe is made Managing Director of one of Ackerman’s companies and makes a shocking discovery: his predecessor committed suicide......
Praying Mantis
Character: Dr. Faure
A middle-aged professor's young bride and his assistant plan to commit a double murder disguised as a "Crime Passionel", but discover too late that one of their intended victims has become a fellow conspirator....
Excalibur
Character: Ector
A surreal adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur", chronicling Arthur Pendragon's conception, his rise to the throne, the search by his Knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail, and ultimately his death....
The Breakthrough
Character: Robbie
An adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1966 short story of the same title, broadcast as part of the BBC's "BBC2 Playhouse"....
Pack of Lies
Character: Ellis
A British couple are shocked out of their suburban malaise when British intelligence agent Stewart shows up at their door and wants to use their house for a stakeout. Stewart reveals that their neighbors are undercover Russian KGB spies, part of a Soviet espionage network....
The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket
Character: Richard
Daisy and Onslow find the secret diary of Hyacinth and start reading in it. The rest of this TV-special are clips from prevous episodes....
Journey's End
Character: Captain Hardy
A British Company in the WWI trenches await an inevitable German attack in this 1988 adaptation of R.C. Sherriff's play....
Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned
Character: Mr. Copper
When disaster hits the Titanic, the Doctor uncovers a threat to the whole human race. Battling alongside aliens, saboteurs, robot Angels and a new friend called Astrid, can he stop the Christmas inferno?...
A Passage to India
Character: Major Callendar
Set during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj, the story begins with the arrival in India of a British woman, Miss Adela Quested, who is joining her fiancé, a city magistrate named Ronny Heaslop. She and Ronny's mother, Mrs. Moore, befriend an Indian doctor, Aziz H. Ahmed....
The Pickwick Papers
Character: Mr. Tupman
The Pickwick Papers is a twelve-part BBC adaption of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, first broadcast in 1985. It starred Nigel Stock, Alan Parnaby, Clive Swift and Patrick Malahide, with narration spoken by Ray Brooks....
Roll On Four O'Clock
Character: Max Fielder
Compelling drama from screenwriter Colin Welland set in a city comprehensive school of low expectations and ambitions. Pupil Latimer does not conform to the macho culture and is labeled a homosexual, leading to bullying by both the pupils and some of the teachers....
What Mad Pursuit
Character: Bonwit Steinhauser
If you were a famous English novelist doing a whistle stop tour of the United States to promote your books, wouldn't you welcome with open arms the chance of a quiet weekend away from it all in a remote corner of Long Island? Of course you would. Well, let what happened to Evan Lorrimer be an awful warning.......
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Character: Lord Cerimon
When Pericles discovers the dread answer to Antioch's riddle, he flees for his life straight into famine, shipwreck, love, fatherhood, and another shipwreck; he loses his wife and daughter, and doesn't find them again until the story moves us through resurrection, attempted murder, pirates, prostitution, and divine revelation....
Aristocrats
Character: King George II
18th-century England and Ireland viewed through the eyes of four beautiful high-born sisters - Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians and peers....
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks
Character: Professor Jobel
At the Tranquil Repose mortuary, the Doctor and Peri uncover a sinister plot to create a new breed of Daleks under the supervision of the mysterious Great Healer....
Goodbye
Character: Savory
"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....
Buffet
Character: Air steward
A quick drink in the buffet before going home. Freddie's nerves are taking a hammering lately; the economy is in dire trouble and who can blame a businessman for the occasional drink? His wife and mistress for a start....
Excalibur: Behind the Movie
Character: Self
This retrospective documentary looks back on the making of director John Boorman's 1981 movie, Excalibur. Self-described as the toughest film he ever made, Excalibur told the tale of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone and helped start the careers of actors Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart. In this one hour film, they join other cast and crew to share their memories from the filming of this Arthurian masterpiece. Documentary originally released in 2013 with the tit...
Martin Luther, Heretic
Character: Johann Tetzel
Martin Luther inspires a breakaway from the Roman Catholic church and is the founder of Protestantism....
An Ordered Life
Character: Director of Austrian State Radio
Colin Jeavons is the German composer Anton Webern who survives Naziism only to be shot by an American GI in the closing days of WW2. Daniel Gerroll plays his son Stephen who, against his father's wishes, joined the Wehrmacht and was killed in a railway accident in 1943....
Home-Movies
Character: Alec Thorne
A 1979 production from BBC2 Playhouse by Denis Cannan...
The Potsdam Quartet
Character: Aaron Green
' They're mortal enemies, we just hate each other. So surely if they can agree about the destiny of mankind, we can save our quartet from the knacker's yard.' July 1945: The Potsdam Conference. 16 km south of war-devastated Berlin, Stalin, Truman, Churchill and Attlee are met to determine the shape of the new Europe. Having exchanged their white tie and tails for air force blue, an internationally famous string quartet waits to entertain the men of destiny. i When you're dividing up the world y...
Foreign Affairs
Character: Adamson
Moscow is the setting for a reunion between Susan and Viktor - a reunion which leads to unforeseen complications....
Beloved
Character: William Hepworth-Dixon
When Henry James Prince is dismissed from his post as a curate, he decides to found his own religion, called the Abode of Love....