Cal MacAninch

Acting

Cal MacAninch

Born

1963-11-24 (62)

Place of birth

Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

67 titles

Cal MacAninch is a Scottish actor, who is known for portraying the character of DI John Keenan in police drama HolbyBlue on BBC1 (from 2007 to 2008). Other notable appearances were his roles as Mr Thackeray in the ITV period drama, Mr Selfridge, and Henry Lang in Downton Abbey, but he has played many leading roles in British television and film over the last 30 years. MacAninch played Rowan Collins in Series 4 of the ITV drama series Wild at Heart. He returned to the show for its fifth series as a main cast member. He also played Tauren, a sorcerer in the BBC television series Merlin in the episode "To Kill the King". He starred in the 2001 BBC miniseries The Best of Both Worlds with Alice …

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 6 titles

The Reckoning poster
6.4

In the aftermath of the Great Plague and amidst the subsequent witch-hunts against women, a young widow grapples with the tragic death of her husband in a society completely consumed by fear and death. Because she rejects the advances of her landlord, she is falsely accused of being a witch and thrown in jail for a crime she didn’t commit. She must endure physical persecution at the hands of England’s most ruthless witch-hunter and face her own inner demons as the devil himself starts to work his way into her mind.

The Reckoning

2021

Nobody Has to Know poster
6.7

After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.

Nobody Has to Know

2022

The Education of Jane Cumming poster
NR

Edinburgh, 1810. Two female teachers find themselves at the centre of a scandal when one of their pupils accuses them of having a love affair.

The Education of Jane Cumming

2026

Macbeth poster
8.8

Fearless and unforgettably creepy. This high-concept production, filmed live at London’s Donmar Warehouse, stars the formidable talents of David Tennant and Cush Jumbo in Shakespeare’s most infamous tragedy.

Macbeth

2025

The Visit poster
NR

IRA man Tommy McDaid is pulled back to Manchester 25 years after he helped plant a huge bomb that devastated the City Centre and changed the course of his life forever.

The Visit

2023

The Punishment poster
NR

A grief-stricken father hunts down the boy responsible for the events that led to his son's murder but finds himself unable to escape the consequences of his own violent actions.

The Punishment

2021

2010s · 7 titles

The Awakening poster
6.4

In post–War England, a writer and sometime-ghost hunter investigates a reported haunting at a boys boarding school.

The Awakening

2011

Hamilton 2: But Not If It Concerns Your Daughter poster
5.8

Swedish intelligence officer Carl Hamilton's 7-year-old goddaughter Nathalie is kidnapped. When the kidnapping's underlying motive becomes known, the Swedish authorities assume a passive role, forcing Hamilton to action. With the help of international contacts, Hamilton manages to get them on track. Hamilton, along with some military colleagues, plans a daring rescue mission.

Hamilton 2: But Not If It Concerns Your Daughter

2012

Calibre poster
6.5

Two lifelong friends head up to an isolated Scottish Highlands village for a weekend hunting trip that descends into a never-ending nightmare as they attempt to cover up a horrific hunting accident.

Calibre

2018

Intrigo: Samaria poster
5.5

Nineteen-year-old Vera Kall cycles home through the night. She arrives at a farm, leaves her bike and sneaks quietly in through the door. She enters the kitchen and doesn't even have time to notice that she's not alone.

Intrigo: Samaria

2019

Intrigo: Dear Agnes poster
5.6

What is a human life worth? How is it possible that a woman like Agnes could agree to kill another human being? Is it the money? Or are there other forces at play?

Intrigo: Dear Agnes

2019

Susan Hill's Ghost Story poster
4.9

An antique book dealer finds himself haunted by the ghost of a young boy, he decides to investigate the strange occurrences within his life.

Susan Hill's Ghost Story

2019

No artwork available
NR

1980s Glasgow: As his family disintegrates around him, the only thing on eight-year-old Jonjo’s mind is getting his prized He Man figure for Christmas.

Lucky Star

2019

2000s · 9 titles

Doomsday poster
5.9

The lethal Reaper virus spreads throughout Britain—infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Authorities brutally and successfully quarantine the country but, three decades later, the virus resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

Doomsday

2008

Dear Frankie poster
7.0

Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day...

Dear Frankie

2004

The Point Men poster
4.4

Some time after their botched operation to capture a known Palestinian terrorist, a team of Israeli agents starts to get killed off one by one. Their leader must get to the bottom of things before the killer(s) plan is complete.

The Point Men

2001

Slapper poster
3.5

A young boy watches a fight in a crowded bar: a masked man versus the people’s champ. But rather than boxing, this is an adult, brutal version of ‘Slaps’ – slaps that can break a man’s hand. Three years ago, James’ alcoholic father Michael left him and his mother, but promised he’d be back to make them proud – now, James believes the man in the mask is his father, returning as a hero, but things are not what they seem...

Slapper

2008

Rag Tale poster
3.3

A romance that plays out in the splashy, sensational world of British tabloids.

Rag Tale

2005

Best poster
6.1

Pulling no punches in its depiction of soccer legend George Best's slow descent from the heights of his Manchester United career, the man once dubbed the fifth Beatle for his glamorous lifestyle and good looks.

Best

2000

Breathtaking poster
3.6

A beautiful psychiatrist befriends an abused patient, ultimately leading to lust and murder.

Breathtaking

2000

Little Bird poster
4.5

A film that searches the dilemma of a middle age couple Ellen and Michael Hall, who have lost their only child tragically in a car accident. They are desperately seeking to adopt. They foster a young girl and after several months the child welfare service decide that in the interests of the young girl, that she should be removed from the care of the Halls.

Little Bird

2000

Jetsam poster
5.0

A young woman finds herself onto a desolate beach and tries to find out the how and why of her immediate life. Along with a lost memory, to further complicate her situation a man who she discovers washed up on the same beach attacks her. Fighting to stay alive she goes on the run from the stranger and desperately tries to piece her memory back together. Criss-crossing through the savage coastline and a claustrophobic London setting she finds her answers in an unrelenting world where spies, betrayal and obsession are the daily currency and identity is as shifting as the tides.

Jetsam

2007

1990s · 11 titles

Splitting Heirs poster
5.2

A member of the English upper class dies, leaving his estate and his business to an American, whom he thinks is his son who was lost as a baby and then found again. An Englishman who thinks he is an Indian comes to believe that he is actually the heir. He comes to hate the American who is his boss, his friend, and the man who has stolen the woman after whom he lusts.

Splitting Heirs

1993

The Lost Son poster
6.0

Xavier Lombard is a world-weary private eye in London, in exile from his native Paris; his best friend is Nathalie, a high-class call girl. He gets a call from an old friend from the Paris police department, now a businessman whose brother-in-law is missing. The missing man's parents hire Xavier over their daughter's objections, and quickly he finds himself in the realm of children's sexual slavery.

The Lost Son

1999

Rik Mayall Presents: The Big One poster
8.0

Rik Mayall plays an estate agent who takes on the identity of a dead gangster.

Rik Mayall Presents: The Big One

1995

Speak Like a Child poster
4.2

Speak Like a Child, the feature film debut of documentary director John Akomfrah, explores the intense friendship that evolves between three troubled teenagers growing up in an isolated children's home on the Northumbrian coast. The desolate beauty of the coastline is captured in stunning panoramas, while strong performances by the young cast help to create a lyrical and poignant drama.

Speak Like a Child

1998

The Woodlanders poster
5.1

The story is set in late 19th century rural corner of South England. The daughter of timber merchant Melbury, Grace, returns to the town after finishing school. Her father now believes she can find a better husband than her childhood sweetheart, woodsman Giles. She marries handsome young doctor Fitzpiers, but soon finds out he's not the man of her dreams and she still loves Giles.

The Woodlanders

1998

Nervous Energy poster
5.3

Tom is a young man with AIDS living in London with his lover Ira. The disease has exaggerated Toms nervous energy and in his manic state he suddenly decides to go to Glasgow to visit the family he hasn't seen in ten years. His brother Ian is thoroughly disgusted by his lifestyle and only his mother shows any compassion for him. The visit soon develops into a nightmare as dementia sets in and Tom's health rapidly declines. Finally, events come to a head and Ira has no choice but to force Tom back to London, where he expects him to die at any time. After treatment, Tom gets a brief reprieve, having discovered that his real family is his adopted one in London.

Nervous Energy

1995

A Mind to Murder poster
6.3

Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh has been on leave following the death on duty of a member of his team, DS Sarah Hillier. His superiors order him back to work to investigate the murder of the Director of the Steen Clinic, which specializes in psychiatric cases.

A Mind to Murder

1995

Warriors poster
6.9

If the conflict in Bosnia has become something of a forgotten war, it's not for the want of trying from the immensely powerful BBC film Warriors, the story of five young soldiers and their harrowing experiences in the region.

Warriors

1999

Alive and Kicking poster
8.0

Gritty and powerful Screen One film that takes an unflinching look at drug addiction. Lenny Henry plays a dealer convinced he is untouchable, Robbie Coltrane the ex-gangster turned drug counsellor who is determined to break him. Writer Al Hunter (The Firm) was inspired by the true story of a football team founded to help drug addicts kick their habit.

Alive and Kicking

1991

Sentimental Education poster
7.0

The story revolves around the lives of a group of international fashion models, focusing on the main character, Fabrice. The film examines the hollowness of his glamorous lifestyle, leading to self discovery and ultimately a personal catharsis (and his own death). The film is based on (really, inspired by) the French Book, L'Education Sentimentale, by Gustave Flaubert.

Sentimental Education

1998

The Chestnut Soldier poster
7.0

Gwyn can feel danger coming in the wind. Somehow he knows the warnings have to do with the broken toy horse that holds the evil spirit of a prince who lived long ago. When Gwyn discovers that the prince's dark soul has escaped from the horse and is seeking revenge Gwyn, Emlyn, and Nia have to figure out how to save the mysterious soldier who claims to be Nia's distant cousin. With the help of the Snow Spider, can they recapture the prince's soul without hurting the Chestnut soldier?

The Chestnut Soldier

1991

Series credits

Midsomer Murders poster
7.5

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.

Midsomer Murders

1997

Father Brown poster
7.7

Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

Father Brown

2013

Silent Witness poster
7.6

A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.

Silent Witness

1996

Downton Abbey poster
8.1

A chronicle of the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.

Downton Abbey

2010

Vera poster
7.4

A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.

Vera

2011

Time poster
7.6

Guilt, violence and impossible choices – what does it take to survive? Tense, gritty and heartbreaking – Jimmy McGovern's award-winning prison drama, with an all-star cast.

Time

2021

Waking the Dead poster
7.2

A detective team apply new techniques to old crimes as they solve cold cases.

Waking the Dead

2001

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Merlin poster
7.8

The unlikely friendship between Merlin, a young man gifted with extraordinary magical powers, and Prince Arthur, heir to the crown of Camelot.

Merlin

2008

Strike Back poster
7.4

The series follows John Porter, a former British Special Forces soldier, who is drafted back into service by Section 20, a fictional branch of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Strike Back

2010

Mr Selfridge poster
6.9

Mr. Selfridge recounts the real life story of the flamboyant and visionary American founder of Selfridge's, London's lavish department store. Set in 1909 London, when women were reveling in a new sense of freedom and modernity, it follows Harry Gordon Selfridge ('Mile a Minute Harry'), a man with a mission to make shopping as thrilling as sex. Pioneering and reckless, with an almost manic energy, Harry created a theater of retail where any topic or trend that was new, exciting, entertaining - or just eccentric - was showcased.

Mr Selfridge

2013

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries poster
6.6

The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

1987

The Hack poster
6.6

Set between 2002 and 2012, the drama deftly interweaves two real life stories, the uncovering of phone hacking at the News of the World, and running parallel, the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.

The Hack

2025

Trigger Point poster
6.9

For London's bomb disposal experts, no day is ever the same as they risk their lives protecting the city from harm.

Trigger Point

2022

Murphy's Law poster
7.6

Detective Sergeant Tommy Murphy is a maverick cop with a dark past. After failing a psychiatric assessment, he's given one last chance by his boss and given a dangerous undercover assignment. A loner with little to lose and dealing with everything on his own terms, this time around, however, Murphy has an ally in Detective Inspector Annie Guthrie.

Murphy's Law

2001

The Essex Serpent poster
6.5

London widow Cora Seaborne moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. She forms a surprising bond of science and skepticism with the local vicar—but when tragedy strikes, locals accuse her of attracting the creature.

The Essex Serpent

2022

The Paradise Club poster
6.2

Focuses on brothers Frank and Danny Kane. Their mother is the matriarch of a South London criminal gang, assisted by Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club following the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from crime.

The Paradise Club

1989

Wild at Heart poster
7.4

The Trevanion family decide to make a fresh start and emigrate to South Africa to set up an animal reserve.

Wild at Heart

2006

Wild at Heart poster
7.4

The Trevanion family decide to make a fresh start and emigrate to South Africa to set up an animal reserve.

Wild at Heart

2006

The Victim poster
7.2

A grieving mother is accused of identifying online the man she believes killed her son. But is he really a notorious child murderer or a tragic victim of mistaken identity?

The Victim

2019

Garrow's Law poster
7.7

The true tale of pioneering 18th century barrister William Garrow, who acted as counsel for the accused, introducing the concept of 'innocent until proved guilty' at London's Old Bailey.

Garrow's Law

2009

Des poster
7.2

The story of one of the most infamous cases in UK criminal history, that of serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Told through the prism of three men, the series explores the personal and professional consequences of coming into contact with a man like Nilsen.

Des

2020

Rockface poster
NR

In the fictional Scottish Highlands town of Glenntannoch, Dr Gordon Urquhart leads a mountain rescue team, whose major missions and incidents are based on real life ones conducted by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue service.

Rockface

2002

Holby Blue poster
7.1

The police force at Holby South is tasked with the toughest job yet. Not only are they fighting the usual crime with drug offenders and gang members, but today they are faced with the threat of terrorism on their own soil. A Spin off from Holby City and Casualty.

Holby Blue

2007

Banished poster
7.2

Banished is a British period drama television serial created by Jimmy McGovern. The seven-part serial first aired on BBC Two from 5 March to 16 April 2015. It received mixed reviews, with most of the criticism for its perceived inaccuracies to the depicted events. Though set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.

Banished

2015

Rik Mayall Presents poster
7.3

Showcasing the talent and versatility of its star, Rik Mayall Presents comprises six episodes of dark humour spread over two series, where he plays such diverse roles as a paranoid TV show host, an uncontrollable liar who pretends to be a gangster and a man on a date who is trapped in a cycle of escalating comic violence!

Rik Mayall Presents

1993

Sorted poster
8.3

Sorted is a six-part BBC television comedy-drama series about the personal and professional lives of several postmen. It initially broadcast in 2006 on BBC One and BBC HD. Created by Danny Brocklehurst, the series, set in Manchester but filmed in Stockport, stars Neil Dudgeon, Will Mellor, Hugo Speer, Cal MacAninch, and Dean Lennox Kelly.

Sorted

2006

Mayflies poster
5.1

A friendship forged between James and Tully in a small Scottish town in 1986. One weekend, they make a vow to each other to go at life differently. But then, 30 years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has the worst kind of news.

Mayflies

2022

Dangerous Lady poster
4.0

In 1950/60s London, Maura Ryan, the only daughter among seven brothers, becomes increasingly involved in her family’s gangland activities as they seek to control the East End.

Dangerous Lady

1995

The Ghost Squad poster
5.8

The Ghost Squad was a 2005 British crime drama series produced by Company Pictures, for Channel 4. The show was created by Tom Grieves. Inspired by the real life "Ghost Squad" that existed between 1994 and 1998, secretly investigating police corruption, the premise of the series is that the squad continued to operate in secret after officially being shut down. It starred Elaine Cassidy as a police constable recruited into the squad and Jonas Armstrong as her handler. The show was cancelled after a single seven episode series.

The Ghost Squad

2005

Warriors poster
9.0

After seeing devastating results of ethnic war in former Yugoslavia, soldiers from UNPROFOR (United Nations Protection Force) peace units find it impossible to return to their civil lives in the United Kingdom.

Warriors

1999

The Riff Raff Element poster
5.6

The Riff Raff Element is a 1990's British comedy-drama series written by Debbie Horsfield and directed by Jeremy Ancock, who also directed Dressing for Breakfast and episodes of The Bill and Bergerac. It was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 1994.

The Riff Raff Element

1994

Judge Rinder's Crown Court poster
NR

Crown Court, the iconic courtroom drama of the seventies and eighties is back on our screens after a thirty-year hiatus with a brand new case, presided over by Judge Rinder. Originally running for over 800 episodes, this classic series featured the good and the great of British acting talent from Colin Firth to Ben Kingsley, Bob Hoskins and Alison Steadman to name just a few. Now the court is ready to be sworn-in again, with a shocking new two-part murder trial inspired by a real-life arsenic poisoning.

Judge Rinder's Crown Court

2017

No artwork available
4.5

A flight attendant with a husband and son, starts a double life after falling for a man who lives in Italy.

Best of Both Worlds

2001