James Bolam
Birthday: Born in 1935-06-16 in Sunderland, Tyne-and-Wear, England, UK
Deathday: Alive
TV Credits
Andy Capp
Character:
Andy Capp is a British sitcom based on the cartoon Andy Capp. It starred James Bolam and ran for one series in 1988. It was written by Keith Waterhouse. Unusually, for a sitcom, there was no studio audience during the filming of Andy Capp. It was made for the ITV network by Thames Television....
Midsomer Murders
Character: Ron Pringle
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. ...
Budgie
Character: Wossname
Budgie is a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972. The series was created by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall . The show was produced by Verity Lambert, Rex Firkin was the Executive producer....
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
Character: Terry Collier
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is a British sitcom which was broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 9 April 1974 on BBC1. It was the colour sequel to the mid-1960s hit The Likely Lads. It was created and written, as was its predecessor, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. There were 26 television episodes over two series; and a subsequent 45-minute Christmas special was aired on 24 December 1974. The cast were reunited in 1975 for a BBC radio adaptation of series 1, transmitted on Radio 4 ...
Second Thoughts
Character: Bill
Second thoughts is a British sitcom that ran from 3 May 1991 to 14 October 1994. It was broadcast on ITV and made by LWT. It was followed by a sequel, Faith in the future. Second thoughts followed the lives of two middle-aged divorcees, Bill MacGregor and Faith Greyshott, from very different backgrounds trying to develop a relationship, despite the pressures pulling it apart. Second thoughts was based upon the real-life relationship of the writers, husband and wife Jan Etherington and Gavin Pe...
Pay and Display
Character:
Pay And Display is a short-lived British sitcom starring James Bolam that lasted only one series. It was written by Dominic English....
The Likely Lads
Character: Terry Collier
The Likely Lads was a black and white British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and produced by Dick Clement. Twenty-one episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between 16 December 1964 and 23 July 1966. However, only eight of these shows have survived....
When the Boat Comes In
Character: Jack Ford
A former Army sergeant returns home to an economically depressed Gallowshields in Tyneside at the end of World War One. But this sergeant always lands on his feet......
The Beiderbecke Tapes
Character: Trevor Chaplin
The Beiderbecke Tapes is a two-part British television drama serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1987. It is the second serial in The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne. When a tape recording of a conversation about nuclear waste inadvertently falls into Trevor's hands, Trevor and Jill find themselves being pursued by national security agents....
The Beiderbecke Connection
Character: Trevor Chaplin
The Beiderbecke Connection is a four-part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne. Now with a baby in tow, Jill and Trevor are asked by Big Al to look after a refugee called "Ivan"....
The Beiderbecke Affair
Character: Trevor Chaplin
The Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the United Kingdom by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits to British Television since the 1960s included the preceding 4 part mini series Get Lost! for ITV in 1981. The Beiderbecke Affair has a similar style to Get Lost!, where Neville Keaton and Judy Threadgold played in an ensemble cast. Although The Beiderbecke Affair was intended as a sequel to Get Lost!, Alun Armstrong proved to be unavailable ...
Born and Bred
Character: Dr. Arthur Gilder
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 Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Character: Roberts
Adaptations of mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's contemporary rivals in the genre....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
New Tricks
Character: Jack Halford
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes....
Play for Today
Character: Husband
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 Missing Postman
Character: Clive Peacock
Postman Clive Peacock decides to rebel when his employers force him to take early retirement. Setting off on his bike, he determines to deliver his last batch of post by hand all over the country. The police are soon on his trail, while the media acclaim him as a hero. For Clive it is a journey of discovery, but he is unaware that back at home his wife is undergoing her own transformation....
Only When I Laugh
Character:
Only When I Laugh is a British television sitcom. It is set in the ward of an NHS hospital. The title is the answer to the question, "Does it hurt?"...
Grandpa in My Pocket
Character:
A Grandpa with a magic Shrinking Cap that only his grandson Jason knows about. When he puts the cap on Grandpa shrinks and creates comic mayhem, but somehow Grandpa and Jason always manage to save the day. It’s teamwork!...
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...
Close and True
Character: Graham True
A good-intentioned but inexperienced man runs a Newcastle legal practice....
Public Eye
Character: Alan Grove
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
He Knew He Was Right
Character: Mr. Crump
He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel He Knew He Was Right. It was directed by Tom Vaughan....
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip
Character: Self - Participant
Antiques experts accompany celebrities on a road trip around the UK searching for treasures and competing to make the most money at auction...
Armchair Thriller
Character: Mark Omney
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television. The format was of a twice weekly 25 minute episodes, usually scre...
The Cleaner
Character: Dad
After CSI have done their stuff, the cleaner mops up the grisly remains. For Wicky, a bloodbath and the pub is all in a day's work....
Marriage
Character: Gerry
Marriage sees married couple Ian and Emma negotiate the ups and downs of their 30-year marriage. We see them dealing with the insecurities, the ambiguities, the hopes and the fears that are part of all marriages, as the drama explores the risks and the gifts of a long-term intimate relationship....
The Protectors
Character: Max Toller
The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to electronic marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in contemporary times. It was also the only Gerry Anderson produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction element...
A Choice of Coward
Character: Roland Maule
Series of four Noël Coward plays from ITV's 1964 "Play of the Week" slot....
Dalziel & Pascoe
Character: Father Leonard Tibbings
British crime drama based on the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series of books by Reginald Hill, set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton. The unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-china-shop-copper Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick Detective Sargent, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining a down to earth wit and humour....
Omnibus
Character: Pinkie
Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the Am...
Inheritance
Character: David Oldroyd
Inheritance was a 1967 Granada produced ITV drama based on a 1932 novel by Phyllis Bentley. The ten-part period drama revolved around the fortunes of the Oldroyds, a Yorkshire mill owning family from 1812 to 1965. The early part of the series featured the Luddite riots involving the burning of mills and the subsequent execution of those responsible. The series turned the expression "There's trouble at t'mill" into a catchphrase. The series featured Michael Goodliffe, John Thaw and James Bolam ...
Budgie
Character: Wossname Walsh
Budgie is a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972. The series was created by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall . The show was produced by Verity Lambert, Rex Firkin was the Executive producer....
Movie Credits
The End of the Affair
Character: Mr. Savage
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed....
Dirty Tricks
Character: Moss
Martin Clunes plays Edward, an English tutor at an Oxford language school. Seemingly charming and thoughtful, Edward is really a calculating liar and manipulator. A series of events triggered at a dinner party leads Edward down a very precarious and hilarious path....
The Plague Dogs
Character: The Tod (voice)
Two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, stuggle to survive in the countryside after escaping from an animal research laboratory. They are pursued by search parties and then the military after rumors spread that they could be carrying the bubonic plague....
A Kind of Loving
Character: Jeff
As Vic Brown vacillates between infatuation and disinterest for his co-worker Ingrid Rothwell, she finds out that she is pregnant and Vic has to reconcile how he thought his life would go with what life actually has in store for him....
Straight On Till Morning
Character: Joey
Brenda, a timid, withdrawn woman, meets Peter, a man she believes is finally the love of her life. However, little does Brenda know that Peter is a vicious serial killer....
Stormin' Norman
Character: Norman
A monologue drama from Chris Chibnall starring James Bolam as a tube driver on his last day before retirement...
Clockwork Mice
Character: Wackey
When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student....
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Character: Mike
A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers....
Sticky Wickets
Character: Glyn
It's a big night at the New Dragon Inn when a coach of distinguished Germans arrives. But disaster looms - it's the local cricket team's annual fancy dress bash and the theme is the Second World War....
The Island on Bird Street
Character: Doctor Studjinsky
Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes....
To Kill a King
Character: Denzil Holles
A recounting of the relationship between General Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, as they try to cope with the consequences of deposing King Charles I....
The Likely Lads
Character: Terry
With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair ...
H.M.S. Defiant
Character: Midshipman (uncredited)
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases....
Crucible of Terror
Character: John Davies
An obsessed sculptor kills a young women to make a perfect bronze sculpture of her. Years later at his secluded home a number of people become trapped in a web of revenge, murder and horror....
Unconditional
Character: Hutch
A psychological romantic drama about teenage twins Owen and Kristen who fall under the sway of a charismatic young loan shark who offers love to one of them but on one condition....
In Celebration
Character: Colin Shaw
In a Yorkshire mining town, three educated brothers return to their blue-collar home to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents, but dark secrets come to the fore....
It Was an Accident
Character: Vernon Fitch
An ex-con gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time....
Harold Shipman: Doctor Death
Character: Harold Shipman
James Bolam portrays serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman in this made-for-TV drama. The film follows the story of Shipman, a general practitioner who throughout his career is believed to have killed as many as 250 of his patients. When the high death rate of his practice was investigated, it was discovered that he had given lethal doses of diamorphine to a vast number of his patients. He was put on trial where he was convicted of 15 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment....
The Kitchen
Character: Michael
In the business end of a kitchen, a polyglot staff strives to cope with a superhuman task. A microcosm of the world, the kitchen looms around and encloses its workers; they include Peter, the German cook, who is in love with waitress Monica, and constantly asks her to leave her husband. The pressure of the day becomes unendurable, and when Peter realises that Monica does not mean to divorce her husband his grief and pain cause him to run berserk!...
Tentboy
Character: Baz
Griff's parents are concerned about his grandfather's influence when he sets up a tent in the yard....
The Maze
Character: Arthur Frode
A couple move to a country estate that turns out to be haunted....
The Missing Postman
Character: Clive Peacock
When Dorset postman Clive Peacock is forced into early retirement, the years ahead look bleak. But on his last day in the job, in a moment of unexpected rebellion he makes a decision that will change his life. As he makes his final collection from the postbox in the small seaside town where he lives, he decides to deliver the letters himself, by hand, no matter the destination. Mounting his trusty bicycle, he sets off on what proves to be an odyssey of self-discovery. Pursued by the police and l...
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
Character: Various Characters
The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests....
Clash of Loyalties
Character: A.T. Wilson
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....
The Last Days of Lehman Brothers
Character: Ken Lewis
The heads of Wall Street's biggest investment banks were summoned to an evening meeting by the US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, to discuss the plight of another - Lehman Brothers. After six months' turmoil in the world's financial markets, Lehman Brothers was on life support and the government was about to pull the plug. Lehman CEO, Dick Fuld, recently sidelined in a boardroom coup, spends the weekend desperately trying to resuscitate his beloved company through a merger with Bank of America...
The Stalker's Apprentice
Character: Helmut Kranze
When an absorbing new manuscript finds its way across his desk, Marcus Walwyn (Gideon Turner), an impressionable young publisher, befriends the book's author (Peter Davison) and suddenly has trouble leaving his work at the office. Intrigued by the volume's step-by-step instructions on how to stalk and murder an unsuspecting victim, Marcus grows obsessed with becoming an expert. This made-for-television drama is based on the book by M.S. Power....
Stella Does Tricks
Character: Mr. Peters
A young Glaswegian prostitute in London tries to start a new life....
British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves
Character: Terry Collier (archive footage) (uncredited)
Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in....
Otley
Character: Albert
A petty crook finds himself mistaken for a murderer and a secret agent....
Murder Most Foul
Character: Bill Hanson
A murderer is brought to court and only Miss Marple is unconvinced of his innocence. Once again she begins her own investigation....
As You Like It
Character: Touchstone
Orlando is forced to work like a servant for his brother Oliver, so he goes to win his fortune in a wrestling contest, where he meets a lady of the court, Rosalind. Rosalind (daughter of the deposed duke) is companion to Celia, niece of the deposed Duke, and when the current duke banishes Rosalind from the kingdom, she, Celia, the court jester (and incidentally Orlando) all end up in the forest or Arden, where the deposed Duke holds court. Romantic mixups, cross-dressing, love poems nailed to tr...
O Lucky Man!
Character: Attenborough/Examination Doctor
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism....
Macbeth
Character: Porter
Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop there, and things supernatural combine to bring the Macbeths down....
The Alex Ferguson Story
Character: Narrator
A look at the history of this legendary manager...
Making the Play
Character: Husband
They no longer live together because, after 11 years, the marriage is over. They're both agreed on that. So why is she always turning up to see him at the most embarrassing times? And why doesn't he feel inclined to send her away?...
Half a Sixpence
Character: Mr Jones
"If I had the money, I'd buy me a banjo!" says struggling sales clerk Arthur Kipps. Soon he'll inherit enough to buy a whole bloomin' orchestra. But can his newfound wealth buy happiness?...
Communicators From Hell
Character:
John Cleese training video....