Michael Hordern
Birthday: Born in 1911-10-03 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Deathday: 1995-05-02
Sir Michael Murray Hordern (3 October 1911 – 2 May 1995) was an English actor, knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre, which stretched back to before the Second World War. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Hordern, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
TV Credits
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Cyril Bixby
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....
Inspector Morse
Character: Doctor Starkie
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....
Lovejoy
Character: Wilfred Shotley
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Banquo
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, ...
Six Dates with Barker
Character:
Six Dates with Barker is a series of six one-off, half hour situation comedies showcasing the talents of Ronnie Barker. All were broadcast by London Weekend Television early in 1971. Writers on the series included John Cleese and Spike Milligan. The producer was Humphrey Barclay....
The Wind in the Willows
Character: Badger (voice)
The Wind in the Willows is a TV series that was originally broadcast between 1984 and 1987, based on characters from Kenneth Grahame's classic story The Wind in the Willows and following the 1983 film The Wind in the Willows. It was made by animation company Cosgrove Hall for Thames Television and shown on the ITV network. An hour-long feature, A Tale Of Two Toads, was broadcast in 1988, and a fifth season of 13 episodes was shown in 1989 under the title Oh! Mr Toad in some countries, whilst ret...
Edward the Seventh
Character:
Edward the Seventh is a 1975 television drama series, made by ATV in 13 episodes. Based on the biography of Edward VII by Philip Magnus, it starred Timothy West as the elder Edward VII and Simon Gipps-Kent and Charles Sturridge as Edward in his youth, Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria, Deborah Grant and Helen Ryan as Queen Alexandra, Robert Hardy as the Prince Consort, Alison Leggatt as the Duchess of Kent, and Felicity Kendal as Princess Vicky. It was directed by John Gorrie, who wrote episode...
Fall of Eagles
Character: Narrator
"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs)....
Shōgun
Character: Friar Domingo
An English navigator becomes both a player and pawn in complex political games in feudal Japan....
Paradise Postponed
Character: Rev. Simeon Simcox
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....
Middlemarch
Character: Peter Featherstone
19th century Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution brings both the promise and fear of change. In the provincial town of Middlemarch, the progressive Dorothea Brooke desperately seeks intellectual fulfillment in a male-dominated society and is driven into an unhappy marriage to the elderly scholar Casaubon. No sooner do they embark on their honeymoon than she meets and develops an instant connection with Casaubon's young cousin, Will Ladislaw. When idealistic Doctor Lydgate arrives, his new m...
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Mr. Posket
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character: Capulet
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...
Detective
Character:
A BBC anthology series featuring adaptations of detective stories over 45 episodes in three seasons that ran from 1964 to 1969. As with many BBC programmes made before the early 1970s, many of its episodes no longer exist. Of the eighteen episodes from the first season only twelve are currently known to exist; likewise six of the sixteen editions from the second run are considered lost, and just one of the final ten survives in the archives....
Daytime Live
Character:
...
BBC Play of the Month
Character: God
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
Chillers
Character: Colonel Eddie Phelps
Based on Patricia Highsmith short stories. Displaying a sinister atmosphere, delving into the darkest depths of human nature....
Paddington Bear
Character: Narrator
Paddington Bear is a series of British animated shorts based on the Paddington Bear book series by Michael Bond produced by FilmFair. This was the first television series based on the popular children's book Paddington Bear. In the United States it was usually shown on pay television as filler in between programs. Its narrator was actor Michael Hordern. It was one of the few television programmes to combine a puppet show with cartoon - Paddington himself was a puppet, but other characters in the...
Wogan
Character: Self
Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities....
The Green Man
Character: Gramps
An alcoholic pub landlord has visions of a 17th-century doctor of the occult, beginning a monumental clash between good and evil. Adapted from the novel by Kingsley Amis....
The History Man
Character: Prof Marvin
Ardently left-wing, or so it seems, Howard Kirk (Antony Sher) subtly extends his power over students and colleagues alike at a redbrick university....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Ben Weatherstaff
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, ...
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Cardinal Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII
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 Wonderful World of Disney
Character: Squire Banks
Walt Disney Productions has produced an anthology television series under several different titles since 1954. The original version of the series premiered on ABC, Wednesday night, October 27, 1954. The show, which was hosted by Walt Disney until his death and then from 1996 to 2002 by then-CEO Michael Eisner (with one-off hosts or no hosts during other periods) has since aired continually as either a weekly program or an irregular series of specials on several networks and streaming services, m...
A Ghost Story for Christmas
Character: Professor Parkins
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....
Sunday Night Theatre
Character: Epilogue spoken by (voice)
Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty...
Screen Two
Character: Lord Langland
Series of single made-for-television dramas....
Movie Credits
Genghis Khan
Character: Geen
This is the story of the shy Mongol boy Temujin who,during the 13th century, becomes the fearless Mongol leader Genghis Khan that unites all Mongol tribes and conquers India,China,Persia,Korea and parts of Rusia,Europe and Middle-East....
Where Eagles Dare
Character: Adm. Rolland
World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late....
Yellowbeard
Character: Dr. Gilpin
For years Yellowbeard had looted the Spanish Main, making men eat their lips and swallow their hearts. Caught and convicted for tax evasion, he's sentenced to 20 years in St. Victim's Prison for the Extremely Naughty. In a scheme to confiscate his fabulous treasure, the Royal Navy allows him to escape and follows him, where saucy tarts, lisping demigods and some awful puns and punishments await....
Anne of the Thousand Days
Character: Thomas Boleyn
Henry VIII of England discards his wife, Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn....
The Medusa Touch
Character: Atropos - Fortune Teller
A French detective in London reconstructs the life of a man lying in hospital with severe injuries with the help of journals and a psychiatrist. He realises that the man had powerful telekinetic abilities....
Cleopatra
Character: Cicero
Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans....
Futtocks End
Character: The Butler
Entirely silent, with a musical score, sound effects and incoherent mutterings, the story revolves around a weekend gathering at the decaying country home of the eccentric and lewd General Futtock (Ronnie Barker) and the series of saucy mishaps between the staff (Michael Hordern plays the lecherous butler) and his guests....
Up Pompeii
Character: Ludicrus Sextus
A funny thing happens to Lurcio (Frankie Howerd) on the way to the rent-a-vestal-virgin market stall. A mysterious scroll falls into his hands, listing the names of all the conspirators plotting to murder Emperor Nero. And when the upstart slave is elected to infiltrate the ringleader's den, the comical ups-and-downs lead to total uproar....
The Taming of the Shrew
Character: Baptista
Italy, 16th century. Petruchio, a choleric, lying and poor rural landowner from Verona, arrives in Padua in search of fortune and a wife, while Baptista, a wealthy merchant, announces that he will not allow Bianca, his youngest daughter, to marry until the temperamental and unruly Katherina, his eldest daughter, does....
Beauty and the Beast
Character: Monsieur Du Blois (voice)
As a merchant sets off for market, he asks his three lovely daughters what they would like as a present upon his return. His youngest daughter, who he adoringly calls Beauty, replied. "All I'd like is a rose you've picked specially for me." Remembering his promise to Beauty he plucks a rose, enraging the owner of the rosebush, a fearsome boarlike beast who inhabits the nearby castle. The Beast agrees to spare his life, but on one condition, that he brings him the daughter for which he plucked th...
The MacKintosh Man
Character: Mr. Brown
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor; only, someone finds him out and exposes him to the gang......
The Bed Sitting Room
Character: Bules Martin
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room....
Scrooge
Character: Jacob Marley
Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman; until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man....
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Character: Mock Turtle
An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters....
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men
Character: Scathelock
Young Robin Hood, in love with Maid Marian, enters an archery contest with his father at the King's palace. On the way home his father is murdered by henchmen of Prince John. Robin takes up the life of an outlaw, gathering together his band of merry men with him in Sherwood Forest, to avenge his father's death and to help the people of the land that Prince John are over taxing....
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Character: Ashe
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one....
Theatre of Blood
Character: George Maxwell
A Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition....
Joseph Andrews
Character: Parson Adams
Lady Booby alias 'Belle', the lively wife of the fat landed squire Sir Thomas Booby, has a lusty eye on the attractive, intelligent villager Joseph Andrews, a Latin pupil and protégé of parson Adams, and makes him their footman. Joseph's heart belongs to a country girl, foundling Fanny Goodwill, but his masters take him on a fashionable trip to Bath, where the spoiled society comes mainly to see and be seen, but drowns in the famous Roman baths. When the all but grieving lady finds Joseph's Chri...
Khartoum
Character: Lord Granville
English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army....
The Possession of Joel Delaney
Character: Justin
Manhattan socialite begins to fear for her troubled younger brother when he starts behaving bizarrely and he seems to have been friends with a backstreet murderer....
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow
Character: Squire Thomas Banks
English vicar Dr. Syn becomes a scarecrow on horseback by night to thwart King George III's taxmen....
Tom Brown's Schooldays
Character: Wilkes
When Tom Brown arrives at Rugby boarding school, he’s mercilessly tormented by the school’s evil bully Flashman. With the help of his friend East, plucky Brown devises a plan to get back at Flashman; in the meantime, he’s asked to look out for a timid new student, whose life is accidentally put in peril during a school race....
The V.I.P.s
Character: Airport Director
Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials....
The Man Who Never Was
Character: Gen. Coburn
The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence....
The Slipper and the Rose
Character: King
Prince Edward wants to marry for love, but the King and court of the kingdom of Euphrania are anxious for the prince to wed no matter what. When the prince meets Cinderella at a ball, he's sure she's the one, and when she loses her slipper upon exiting the dance, the prince is determined to find and marry her....
A Christmas Carol
Character: Marley's Ghost (voice)
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption....
A Christmas Carol
Character: Ebenezer Scrooge
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption....
The Wind in the Willows
Character: Badger
One spring, Mole decides that he can ignore the spring cleaning for a little longer, and begins a series of adventures with his new friend Rat. They go for a picnic on the riverbank, on a caravan expedition with Toad, until Toad switches allegiance to his new car and his reckless driving makes Mole and Rat search out Badger for help in curbing Toad's profligate habits. But Toad gets away from them and gets a 20-year sentence from the magistrate for theft, reckless driving, and Gross Impertinence...
Demons of the Mind
Character: Priest
A physician discovers that two children are being kept virtually imprisoned in their house by their father. He investigates, and discovers a web of sex, incest and satanic possession....
The Yellow Rolls-Royce
Character: Harnsworth
One Rolls-Royce belongs to three vastly different owners, starting with Lord Charles, who buys the car for his wife as an anniversary present. The next owner is Paolo Maltese, a mafioso who purchases the car during a trip to Italy and leaves it with his girlfriend while he returns to Chicago. Finally, the car is owned by American widow Gerda, who joins the Yugoslavian resistance against the invading Nazis....
Ivanhoe
Character: Cedric
Ivanhoe, a worthy and noble knight, the champion of justice returns to England after the holy wars, and finds England under the reign of Prince John and his henchmen and finds himself being involved in the power-struggle for the throne of England....
The Secret Garden
Character: Ben Weatherstaff
When a spoiled English girl living in 19th century India loses both parents in a cholera epidemic, she is sent back to England to live in a country mansion. The lord is a strange old man-- frail and deformed, immensely kind but so melancholy. She wishes to discover what has caused him so much sorrow and to bring joy back to the household. It all must have something to do with the screams and wails which echo through the house at night and no one wants to talk about....
Truckers
Character: The Abbot (voice)
Truckers, the first of Terry Pratchett's novels to be adapted for TV brings to life the story of the Nomes. 15000 years ago the Nomes crashed to Earth in a scout ship from the starship Swan. Generations of them have come and gone with the passing years and the changing countryside. Suddenly faced with extinction, the ten surviving Nomes, guided by their reluctant leader Masklin, must face many exciting adventures during their search for a new home and hiding place in the big, bad world of the hu...
Oliver Twist
Character: Mr. Brownlow
The classic Dickens tale of an orphan boy who escapes the horrors of the orphanage only to be taken in by a band of thieves and pickpockets....
Sink the Bismarck!
Character: Admiral Sir John Tovey, Commander-in-Chief - 'King George'
The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying...
Danny the Champion of the World
Character: Lord Claybury
Somewhere in England, in the Autumn of 1955, a widowed father and his son live an idyllic life together. Only their gas station happens to sit on a piece of land that a local developer wants to buy. And when he won't take no for an answer, and sets government inspectors and social works onto Danny and his father, Danny and his father decide to get even with Hazell and his pheasant- shooting friends in a manner in keeping with their own family tradition....
School for Secrets
Character: Lt. Cmdr. Lowther
Wartime tale of a group of British scientists efforts to develop the first radar system. They did it just in time for it to be used in the Battle of Britain against the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Without it the little island could well have been overrun....
Man in the Moon
Character: Dr. Davidson
William is an unsuccessful guinea pig for a medical group interested in researching the common cold. He is soon fired and offered a job by the nearby National Atomic Research Center where they figure anyone who could fail at being a guinea pig is just what they need. They con William into thinking he will continue his guinea pig career by testing out some equipment for them before they send a group of astronauts to the moon....
The Dark Avenger
Character: King Edward
Edward, Prince of Wales, son and heir to his father King Edward III of England, leads an English army to the French province of Aquitaine to protect the inhabitant from the ravages of the French. After defeating the French in battle, the defeated French plot to kill the prince. Failing in this, they kidnap his lady, the lovely Lady Joan Holland. Of course Prince Edward has to ride to the rescue, adopting numerous guises to save his paramour, which ultimately end in him leading his men into one f...
Walt Disney Treasures - Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
Character: Squire Thomas Banks
"Scarecrow! Scarecrow! The soldiers of the King feared his name!" And so begins the hard-to-forget theme song to The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Walt Disney's thrilling 3-part adventure was produced for his Wonderful World of Color weekly TV show and aired February 1964. Filled with action, drama and suspense, it follows the adventures of Dr. Christopher Syn - brave priest by day, righter of wrongs by night. And, for the first time, presented in Widescreen format on DVD....
Lucky Lady
Character: Captain Rockwell
When an American booze smuggler gets murdered in Prohibition-era Mexico, his widow, a nightclub singer, joins forces with her lover and a desperate loner to become rum-runners to the U.S....
I Was Monty's Double
Character: Governor of Gibralter
The incredible but true story of how an impersonator was recruited to impersonate General Montgomery to mislead the Germans about his intentions before the North Africa campaign....
Highly Dangerous
Character: Lab Director Owens
A US newsman and a British entomologist spy on germ-warfare research in a mythical country....
Paddington Goes to School
Character:
The local truant officer informs Mrs. Brown (Paddington's keeper) that since he is of age, Paddington must go to school....
Grand National Night
Character: Inspector Ayling
The story of a husband's implication in his wife's death, his stupid disposal of her body and the police enquiry which almost embroils him in a murder charge....
Personal Affair
Character: Headmaster Griffith
A schoolgirl disappears for three days after a frank talk with the wife of a Latin teacher she loves....
The Spanish Gardener
Character: Harrington Brande
Harrington Brande, a British diplomat who recently broke up with his wife, is stationed in a small coastal town in Spain with his son, Nicholas. Harrington is unreasonably possessive of Nicholas and becomes jealous when he begins to form a close friendship with Jose, their gentle gardener....
Freddie as F.R.O.7.
Character: King (voice)
The story about a man-sized frog named Prince Frederic who is turned into a frog by his wicked aunt Messina and hired by British Intelligence to solve the mysterious disappearances of some of Britain's greatest monuments. Several hundred years later, Freddie is now living in modern day Paris -- a six-foot-tall amphibian with the moniker Secret Agent F.R.O.7. Messina, too, is still around causing mischief, joining forces with an arch-villain named El Supremo in a scheme to shrink Big Ben. Freddie...
Girl Stroke Boy
Character: George Mason
Middle-class parents are confounded when their son brings home his new partner: an elegant, confusingly androgynous West Indian....
Scoop
Character: Uncle Theodor
Scoop is a 1987 TV film directed by Gavin Millar, adapted by William Boyd from the 1938 satirical novel Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It was produced by Sue Birtwistle with executive producers Nick Elliott and Patrick Garland. Original music was made by Stanley Myers. The story is about a reporter sent to Ishmaelia (a fictional African state) by accident....
Dark Obsession
Character: Lord Crewne
Hugo Buckton seems to have it all: He is apparently rich and has a beautiful wife and a doting son. In actuality, though, Hugo is having money problems and is paranoid that his wife is cheating on him. After a boozy night at a party, Hugo hits and kills a woman with his car -- and at his friends' urging, keeps driving. When Hugo starts receiving letters from someone who knows about the accident, he begins to suspect that he has been set up....
The Jokers
Character: Sir Matthew
Brothers Michael and David Tremayne decide to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, not for criminal purposes, but to make themselves famous....
The Talking Parcel
Character: Oswald, the Sea Serpent
The Talking Parcel is based on a 1974 book by Gerald Durrell in which a young girl is transported to the fantasy land of Mythologia to save it from cockatrices. She is aided by a talking parrot and encounter many other magical creatures, including a mooncalf....
The Heart of the Matter
Character: Commissioner
Based on Graham Greene’s novel, a married colonial police chief struggles with his conscience when he has an affair with a younger woman....
Some Will, Some Won't
Character: Denniston Russell
Four people go to great lengths to obtain the fortune left in a will by a very wealthy practical joker....
I'll Never Forget What's'isname
Character: Headmaster
Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to escape the past....
The Trouble with Spies
Character: Jason Locke
George Trent, a British spy, has gone incommunicado in Ibiza. Appleton Porter (Donald Sutherland) is sent to find out what happened to Trent. Porter settles into a small hotel with several busybody guests. He probes them for information about Trent, their former neighbor. Meanwhile, the spy survives several attempts on his life as he attempts to solve the mystery....
The Astonished Heart
Character: Ernest
Several years after graduation, best friends Barbara (Celia Johnson) and Leonora (Margaret Leighton) reconnect as if not a day has gone by. But Leonora could do without Barbara's husband, Christian (Noel Coward), whom she finds arrogant and off-putting ... at first. One evening alone together, romance is set ablaze, leaving Christian with a lot of explaining to do to Barbara....
Prudence and the Pill
Character: Dr. Morley (uncredited)
Prudence Hardcastle is on the pill. So is her sister-in-law, but someone has been swapping aspirin for their pills. Is it the teenage niece, the maid, the chauffeur, a lover, Prudence's husband Gerald, or all of the above?...
The Pied Piper
Character: Melius, Alchemist
Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the...
Moment of Danger
Character: Inspector Farrell
Having been coerced unto helping a criminal pull off a jewellery theft, a locksmith is double crossed by the crook and heads off to Spain with an eye to getting even....
I Accuse!
Character: Prosecutor at Second Dreyfus Trial
Alfred Dreyfus, a German-Jewish captain serving in the French Army, is falsely accused of treason and made a scapegoat for military espionage in an act of institutional anti-Semitism. Sent to prison, he becomes a cause célèbre for the novelist Émile Zola, who dubs it the "Dreyfus Affair." Eventually, Dreyfus is pardoned when the military cover-up is made public, and he returns to France. But his name is forever tarnished by the accusations of treason....
The Old Curiosity Shop
Character: Edward Trent
A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee....
The Little Match Girl
Character: Himself - Introduction
The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a dying child's hopes and dreams, and was first published in 1845. This adaptation was made for Harlech TV and broadcast on 28th December 1986 and starred Twiggy and Roger Daltrey, and features the song 'Mistletoe and Wine' which became a Christmas number one for Cliff Richard in 1988, the biggest selling record of that year....
The Small Voice
Character: Dr. Mennell
A man and his wife take to their house some men they rescue from a road crash and then find they have picked up some dangerous criminals....
The Hour of 13
Character: Sir Herbert Frensham
1890, London, and a serial killer known as The Terror is murdering policemen. When gentleman thief Nicholas Revel unwittingly becomes the chief suspect, he must use his guile and wits to prove he’s not the killer; whilst also not getting caught for a jewel robbery he has just committed....
The Spaniard's Curse
Character: Judge Manton
A convicted murderer uses an ancient curse to take his revenge on those responsible for sending him to prison....
The Secret World of Polly Flint
Character: Narrator
A young girl escapes her loneliness by retreating to The Magical World of Another Time, which can only be reached by using your imagination....
Windom's Way
Character: Patterson
A doctor's sophisticated wife joins him at his remote Asian practice to try and patch up their marriage. Increasingly violent friction between local rubber plantation workers and the authorities force both parties to make decisions....
Girls at Sea
Character: Admiral Reginald Victor Hewitt
When HMS Scotia pays a visit to the French Riviera, the officers throw a lavish party to celebrate the engagement of Captain Robert Randall to Jill Eaton, a charming American girl; among the guests are Mary Carlton, Jill's American friend, and Antoinette, a vivacious redhead. However, when the last shore-boat is deemed unseaworthy, the girls are obliged to spend the night on ship. A series of hilarious complications ensue, as the officers attempt to keep the girls away from the beady eyes of Adm...
You Know What Sailors Are
Character:
The best of British humor is on display in this satirical cold war romp! Donald Sinden plays Lieutenant Green, a radar expert in the Royal Navy. One night, whilst under the influence of alcohol, he welds an old pram to the deck of a foreign destroyer for a joke. The next morning, British Intelligence is desperate to know what the enemy’s new weapon is. To cover his tracks, Green calls it the ‘998’. When he is posted to the destroyer to explain about radar techniques, Green soon realizes that his...
The Three Musketeers
Character: Treville (voice)
The young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a King's musketeer. He meets and quarrels with three men, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel. D'Artagnan finds out they are musketeers and is invited to join them in their efforts to oppose Cardinal Richelieu, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the King. D'Artagnan must also juggle affairs with the charming Constance Bonancieux and the passionate Lady De Winter, a secret agent for...
Whistle and I'll Come to You
Character: Professor Parkins
A university professor, confident that everything which occurs in life has a rational explanation, finds his beliefs severely challenged when, during a vacation to a remote coastal village in Norfolk, he blows through an ancient whistle discovered on a beach, awakening horrors beyond human understanding....
Cast a Giant Shadow
Character: British Ambassador
An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his Jewish heritage. Each of Israel's Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins....
The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood
Character: Psychoanalyst
The evil brother of Richard the Lionheart is holding the king for ransom, and only Robin Hood and his band of merry men can save him...for a small fee, of course....
King Lear
Character: King Lear
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about hi...
Alexander the Great
Character: Demosthenes
An engrossing spectacle set in the 4th-century BC, in which Alexander of Greece leads his troops forth, conquering all of the known world, in the belief that the Greek way of thinking will bring enlightenment to people. The son of the barbaric and ruthless King Philip of Macedonia, Alexander achieved glory in his short but remarkable life....
A Girl Must Live
Character:
A run-away school-girl falls among chorus girls planning to marry into the nobility....
England Made Me
Character: F. Minty
A young, English, ne'er-do-well who goes to stay with his sister and her wealthy fiancé/benefactor in 1930's Germany, just before the rise of the Nazi party....
Mine Own Executioner
Character: Co-Counsel at Inquest
Fearing her husband could become a killer, a woman seeks a psychiatrist's help....
Nightbeat
Character: Police Training Officer
After the war is over, two army pals take opposite paths in civvy street. One becomes a petty criminal, the other becomes a policeman....
The Card
Character: Bank Manager
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman....
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Character: Senex
A wily slave must unite a virgin courtesan and his young smitten master to earn his freedom....
Gandhi
Character: Sir George Hodge
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed....
Gauguin the Savage
Character: Durand-Huel
Based on the turbulent life of the temperamental French painter, Paul Gauguin, and his compulsive search for creative freedom which caused him to abandon his wife and five children in Paris for a life of contentment in Tahiti....
The Dock Brief
Character:
This hilarious one-act play by John Mortimer (creator of Rumpole of the Bailey) is the story of a highly incompetent lawyer preparing to defend a man who, by his own admission, is guilty of murdering his wife. Starring Sir Michael Hordern (Gandhi, How I Won the War), two-time Tony winner George Rose (My Fair Lady), and Leueen MacGrath (who with George S. Kaufman co-wrote Silk Stockings)....
Girl in the News
Character: Assistant Prosecuting Counsel (Uncredited)
An elderly lady manages to sneak some pills away from her nurse and dies of an overdose. The nurse is tried for murder and acquitted. Some time later the nurse, under a new name and identity, cares for a patient who also dies of an overdose. When her real identity comes out, suspicions arouses....
Band Waggon
Character: (uncredited)
A gang of spies held up in a haunted castle gives this team of celebrated British wireless comedians plenty of scope for laughs....
Pacific Destiny
Character: Resident Commissioner
Life is strange and worrying for a cadet who arrives in the Pacific in the colonial service. And the testy resident commissioner, who had been expecting an experienced man, soon shows his disapproval....
The Dog It Was That Died
Character: George
Rupert Purvis jumps off a bridge onto a dog, causing problems for Blair, his superior at MI5. Blair must convince Hogbin, the agent who's been tailing Purvis, of which side Purvis is really on--once he finds out what it is....
No Time for Tears
Character: Surgeon
The interwoven dramas of staff and patients in Mayfield Children's Hospital, where the doctors and nurses are in the business of restoring children's lives. One small child risks losing his sight, while twin boys fool the doctors over which one has appendicitis. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, new nurse Margaret Collier suffers pangs of unrequited love for houseman Dr. Nigel Barnes....
Macbeth
Character: Banquo
Hallmark Hall of Fame's second version of Shakespeare's classic play, with the same two stars and the same director as its first version, but a different supporting cast....
Clash of Loyalties
Character: Narrator
During the British colonial period in Iraq, Sheikh Dhari and his tribe openly reject colonization and employ peaceful resistance against the British occupation. In response, the English forces resort to violence, targeting Sheikh Dhari's locations in their confrontation with Laghman. When he is captured, they accuse him of blocking the road, revealing the schemes orchestrated by Britain in Iraq....
Royal Flash
Character: Headmaster
Cowardly rogue Harry Flashman's (Malcolm McDowell) schemes to gain entry to the royal circles of 19th-century Europe go nowhere until he meets a pair of devious nobles with their own agenda. At their urging, Flashman agrees to re-create himself as a bogus Prussian nobleman to woo a beautiful duchess. But the half-baked plan quickly comes unraveled, and he's soon on the run from several new enemies who are all calling for the rapscallion's head....
The Missionary
Character: Slatterthewaite
In 1905, after 10 years of missionary work in Africa, the Rev. Charles Fortesque is recalled to England, where his bishop gives him his new assignment - to minister to London's prostitutes....
King Lear
Character: King Lear
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about hi...
Storm Over the Nile
Character: General Faversham
In 1885, while his regiment is sent to the Sudan to battle the rebellious Dervish tribes, British Lieutenant Harry Faversham resigns his officer's commission in order to remain with his fiancée Mary Burroughs in England. His friends and fellow officers John Durrance, Peter Burroughs and Tom Willoughby brand him a coward and present him with the white feathers of cowardice. His fiancée, Mary, adds a fourth feather and breaks off their engagement. However, former Lieutenant Faversham decides to re...
The Wildcats of St. Trinian's
Character: Sir Charles Hackforth
The girls of St. Trinian's decide they are being asked to do too much work so they go on strike....
Comrades
Character: Mr. Pitt
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages....
Juggernaut
Character: Mr. Baker
A terrorist demands a huge ransom in exchange for information on how to disarm the seven bombs he has planted aboard a trans-Atlantic cruise ship....
Watership Down
Character: Frith (voice)
When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven....
Paddington Bear Goes to the Movies
Character: Narrator (voice)
Paddington, having just seen Gene Kelly on the cinema screen, takes to the streets in a rain storm with his umbrella. Join him as he starts singin' and dancin' in the rain....
Paddington's Birthday Bonanza
Character: Narrator
Mr. Brown's birthday is drawing near and Paddington is worried because he can't afford to buy him a present. His efforts to raise some money lead him into a series of misadventures, first as a waiter at a society dinner, then as the dancing partner of the hostess, Mrs. Smith-Cholmley, in a televised dance competition at the local charity ball....
Street Corner
Character: Insp. Heron
A pseudo-documentary focusing on the daily work and routine of women police officers built around three different storylines....
How I Won the War
Character: Grapple
An inept British WWII commander leads his troops to a series of misadventures in North Africa and Europe....
The Magic Box
Character: Official Receiver
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved....
Passport to Pimlico
Character: Bashford
When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area....
Flesh and Blood
Character: Webster
Based upon the play A Sleeping Clergyman by James Bridie, it tells the story of three generations of the Scottish Cameron family, with its various conflicts and romances....
Lady Jane
Character: Dr. Feckenham
The death of King Henry VIII throws his kingdom into chaos because of succession disputes. His weak son, Edward, is on his deathbed. Anxious to keep England true to the Reformation, a scheming minister John Dudley marries off his son, Guildford to Lady Jane Grey, whom he places on the throne after Edward dies. At first hostile to each other, Guildford and Jane fall in love, but they cannot withstand the course of power which will lead to their ultimate downfall....
Trio
Character: Vicar
W. Somerset Maugham introduces three more of his stories about human foibles....
Good-Time Girl
Character: Seddon
Good Time Girl stars Jean Kent as incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen Rawlings. Sent to a home for "problem" girls, Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result....
Barry Lyndon
Character: Narrator (voice)
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon....
The Night My Number Came Up
Character: Lindsay
British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fantasy, but while he is flying to Tokyo the next day, circumstances start changing to align with the pilot's vivid vision, and it looks like the dream disaster may become a reality....
Romeo & Juliet
Character: Capulet
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife....
A Very Open Prison
Character: Lord Langland
The Home Secretary has his eye on the Prime Minister's job. But an experiment in the way the prisons are run leads to embarrassment - and escaped murderers! The fore runner of Crossing The Floor...
Forbidden Cargo
Character: Director of Customs
Kenyon is a narcotics agent who, with the aid of a titled bird-watcher attempts to trap a brother and sister drug smuggling team....
Labyrinth
Character: The Wiseman (voice)
When teen Sarah is forced to babysit her half-brother Toby, she summons Jareth the Goblin King to take him away. When he is actually kidnapped, Sarah is given just thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue him....
The Beachcomber
Character: The Headman
Mr. Gray is the new Resident in Charge of the Welcome Islands in the Indian Ocean. The Islands are full of life, but the only other Europeans are the "sanctimonious, psalm-singing" brother-sister missionary team of Martha and Owen Jordans, and the Honourable Ted - a hard-drinking, womanizing social outcast whose English family pays him to stay away. Martha and Ted become an unlikely team when cholera threatens the islands and they must do their best to stop its spread....
Group Madness
Character: Self / Dr. Gilpin
A behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of 1983's Yellowbeard...
The Constant Husband
Character: The Judge
Charles Hathaway wakes up in West Wales with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. With the help of a Cardiff specialist he traces his life back to his gorgeous wife and their large London house, so all seems well with the world. But more detective work starts to uncover an alarming chain of further stunning wives and a way of going on that the new Charles finds pretty unacceptable....
El Cid
Character: Don Diego
Epic film of the legendary Spanish hero, Rodrigo Diaz ("El Cid" to his followers), who, without compromising his strict sense of honour, still succeeds in taking the initiative and driving the Moors from Spain....
Cymbeline
Character: Jupiter
Cymbeline, the King of Britain, is angry that his daughter Imogen has chosen a poor (but worthy) man for her husband. So he banishes Posthumus, who goes to fight for Rome. Imogen (dressed as a boy) goes in search of her husband, who meanwhile has boasted to his pal Iachimo that Imogen would never betray him. And Iachimo's determined to prove him wrong....
Train of Events
Character: First Plain Clothes Man
A train disaster is told in four short stories to give character studies of the people involved, how it will affect them and how they deal with it....
The Tempest
Character: Prospero
Prospero, the true Duke of Milan is now living on an enchanted island with his daughter Miranda, the savage Caliban and Ariel, a spirit of the air. Raising a sorm to bring his brother - the usurper of his dukedom - along with his royal entourage. to the island. Prospero contrives his revenge....
Memento Mori
Character: Godfrey Colston
Several elderly friends and acquaintances in 1950s London are disturbed to receive mysterious telephone calls predicting their impending deaths......
Young Sherlock Holmes
Character: Older Watson (voice)
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet as boys in an English Boarding school. Holmes is known for his deductive ability even as a youth, amazing his classmates with his abilities. When they discover a plot to murder a series of British business men by an Egyptian cult, they move to stop it....
Back to Back
Character:
These dueling one-act comedies highlight the work of playwright John Mortimer. In "The Dock Brief," an ill-prepared attorney is put to the test when his client confesses to killing his wife. In "What Shall We Tell Caroline?" a father with good intentions tries to protect his wife and daughter from the bad things in life....
All's Well That Ends Well
Character: Lafeu
Helena loves Bertram, but he's of noble birth, while she's just a doctor's daughter. But Bertram is at the court of the King of France, who is ill, and Helena has a remedy that might cure him and win her the right to marry Bertram. But does Bertram want to marry her?...
Portrait from Life
Character: Johnson
A British army officer becomes fascinated by the portrait of a young woman. He travels to Germany to find her, only to discover that she is suffering from amnesia....
The Baby and the Battleship
Character: Capt. Hugh
After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard. But babies are surprisingly demanding and gradually the whole crew is drawn into helping keep it fed and washed - and undiscovered. Even so, the officers above deck start to puzzle over the increasingly strange happenings on board....
The Wind in the Willows: A Tale of Two Toads
Character: Badger (voice)
Designed with young audiences in mind, this award-winning animated film (created with labor-intensive stop-motion techniques) brings Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book to life. When the villainous Weasel and his crew of thugs kidnap an unsuspecting Toad and send an impostor to take over Toad Hall, Badger, Rat and Mole aren't fooled. But can they figure out a way to save their friend before it's too late?...
Suspicion
Character: Lord McLaidlaw
A powerfully tense remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, this British production of SUSPICION boasts a dynamic cast, making it a worthy descendent of the original....
Now Voyager
Character: The Old Man
A spoiled pop star crashes his car in an irrigation ditch and comes to in a public indoor pool supervised by a mysterious man who attempts to show him the error of his ways....
Svengali
Character: Billy's Uncle
A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer....
The Years Between
Character: Member of Parliament (uncredited)
Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and sophisticated story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Second World War and based on the play by Daphne du Maurier. After hearing news that her officer husband has been killed in battle, Diana Wentworth forges a new life for herself, becoming an MP and learning to love again. Then, out of the blue comes the shattering news that her husband is not dead after all....
You're All Right, How Am I?
Character: Patient
' If you walked down Piccadilly naked and refused to put your clothes on when the police requested you to do so, even though you might not superficially be doing harm, you might be certified in the end.' A two-hander about a psychiatrist and his patient, starring Denholm Elliott and Michael Hordern....