Wilfrid Brambell

Acting

Wilfrid Brambell

Born 1912-03-22 · Dublin, Ireland

Henry Wilfrid Brambell (22 March 1912 – 18 January 1985) was an Irish television and film actor and comedian, best remembered for his role in the television series Steptoe and Son. He also performed alongside The Beatles in their debut film A Hard Day's Night, playing the fictional grandfather of Paul McCartney.

Acting credits

Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight poster
5.2

Gawain was a squire in King Arthur's court when the Green Knight burst in and offered to play a game with a brave knight. Gawain journeys across the land, learning about life, saving damsels, and solving the Green Knight's riddle.

Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

1984

A Hard Day's Night poster
7.3

Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.

A Hard Day's Night

1964

Alice in Wonderland poster
6.0

Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.

Alice in Wonderland

1966

Witchfinder General poster
6.5

England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.

Witchfinder General

1968

Odd Man Out poster
7.3

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

Odd Man Out

1947

In Search of the Castaways poster
6.5

Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

In Search of the Castaways

1962

The Adventures of Picasso poster
6.9

A farcical biopic about Pablo Picasso, from his early years, to his middle years, to the years right before his death, and some of the years before and in-between that.

The Adventures of Picasso

1978

The Three Lives of Thomasina poster
6.8

Thomasina the cat brings a family together through her mysterious death and reappearance.

The Three Lives of Thomasina

1963

Cry Wolf poster
NR

A town mayor's son, an imaginative young boy, isn't believed when he discovers a plot to kidnap a visiting Prime Minister.

Cry Wolf

1968

Captured poster
4.2

Directed by cult British director John Krish, the film was sponsored by the Army Kinematograph Corporation. This tightly plotted drama shows British POWs enduring brainwashing and torture during the Korean War, thereby revealing what a soldier could expect if he was ever captured by enemy forces.

Captured

1959

San Ferry Ann poster
6.4

A motley crew of British characters ride The San Ferry Ann to the shores of France where they embark on a weekend of calamity. The campervan family led by Dad and Mum (David Lodge and Joan Sims) create chaos from the moment they set their tires on the shore resulting in frequent run-ins with the Gendarme, while Lewd Grandad (Wilfred Brambell) finds his own misadventures with a newly acquainted friend, a mad German ex-soldier (Ron Moody). Also aboard for the ride is a saucy hitchhiker (Barbara Windsor) who causes a few heads to turn including that of a fellow traveller (Ronnie Stevens) who pursues her affection with comic results. By the end of this weekend the French may well be wishing to say 'au revoir' to these trouble-making tourists. San Ferry Ann is a humorous take on the tradition of the British get-away. A classic sound effect comedy that sits with the likes of similarly praised titles such as 'The Plank', 'Futtock's End' and 'Rhubarb Rhubarb'.

San Ferry Ann

1965

Carry On Again Doctor poster
6.1

Dr. Nookey is disgraced and sent to a remote island hospital. He is given a secret slimming potion by a member of staff, Gladstone Screwer, and he flies back to England to fame and fortune. But others want to cash in on his good fortunes, and some just want him brought down a peg or two.

Carry On Again Doctor

1969

Flame in the Streets poster
6.3

Domestic difficulties develop in a working-class family when their daughter falls in love with a Jamaican man.

Flame in the Streets

1961

Holiday on the Buses poster
7.4

Due to a female passenger falling out of her top whilst running for the bus Stan is distracted and crashes the bus resulting in the depot managers car being written off. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey are fired. Stan and Jack soon get new jobs as a bus crew at a Pontins holiday resort but discover that Blakey has also gotten a job there as the chief security guard.

Holiday on the Buses

1973

The Terence Davies Trilogy poster
6.5

In stark black and white, Terence Davies excavates the life of his fictional alter ego, Robert Tucker, in a narrative that slips between childhood, middle age and death, shaping the raw materials of his own life into a rich tapestry of experiences and impressions.

The Terence Davies Trilogy

1983

Steptoe & Son Ride Again poster
6.8

Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his lot, Harold invests his father's life savings in a greyhound who is almost blind and can't see the hare. When the dog loses a race and Harold has to pay off the debt, he comes up with another bright idea. Collect his father's life insurance. To do this his father must pretend to be dead.

Steptoe & Son Ride Again

1973

The Boys poster
7.5

A night watchman at a garage is found murdered, and four teddy boys are put on trial for the crime. Witnesses and suspects give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime, and the truth emerges.

The Boys

1962

Steptoe & Son poster
6.3

Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live together at the junk yard. Harold, who likes the bright lights in the West End of London, meets a stripper, marries her and takes her home. Albert is furious and tries every trick he knows to drive the new bride from his household.

Steptoe & Son

1972

Nineteen Eighty-Four poster
7.3

A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

1954

Catch Me a Spy poster
5.0

While on vacation, a woman's husband is taken by the Russian government. After one attempt fails, she begins looking for a suitable spy to capture and trade in exchange for her husband, but she develops an attraction to the one she thinks is a good candidate.

Catch Me a Spy

1971

Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence poster
6.0

Through the childhood and adolescence of Signor Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people lived in 18th-century Venice: their customs, habits, medicine, religion, and--most of all--the omnipresence of hypocrisy.

Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence

1969

The Sinister Man poster
10.0

When a corpse is found in the Thames, the only clue is that the dead man was killed by a karate or judo expert.

The Sinister Man

1961

The Small World of Sammy Lee poster
6.0

Soho strip club compère Sammy Lee struggles to stay one step ahead of the notorious bookie, to whom he owes £300.

The Small World of Sammy Lee

1963

What a Whopper poster
6.2

A writer attempts to raise some cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness Monster. No publisher will take it because they all think there isn't really a monster. The writer and some of his friends make a fake monster and take photographs and then travel to Scotland to see if they can convince the locals.

What a Whopper

1961