Acting

John Bryans

Born 1942-08-05

John Bryans (died 2 March 1989) was a British actor, who appeared frequently on television. He is possibly best known for his recurring role as Bercol during the first two series of Blake's 7. He also appeared in the third series as the torturer Shrinker. He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial The Creature from the Pit. Other television credits include: Justice, Bel Ami, Danger Man, The Baron, Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, The Champions, Softly, Softly, The First Lady, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Guardians, The Troubleshooters, Colditz, Rock Follies, The Gentle Touch, Wilde Alliance and Only Fools and Horses. His film roles included the estate agent in the horror anthology The House That Dripped Blood (1970), and Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972).

Acting credits

Praying Mantis poster
6.0

A middle-aged professor's young bride and his assistant plan to commit a double murder disguised as a "Crime Passionel", but discover too late that one of their intended victims has become a fellow conspirator.

Praying Mantis

1982

The House That Dripped Blood poster
6.4

A Scotland Yard investigator looks into four mysterious cases involving an unoccupied house.

The House That Dripped Blood

1971

Henry VIII and His Six Wives poster
5.8

Adapted from the BBC2 serial The Six Wives of Henry VIII. 1547, King Henry VIII's life has taken a turn for the worse and he is forced to look back over his life and the many loves which had brought him his three children, only one of which was the desired male heir to secure the Tudor dynasty.

Henry VIII and His Six Wives

1972

No artwork available
NR

Set in the 19th-century in France Georges Duroy cynically exploits women and his position working as a journalist to try and gain power.

Bel Ami

1971

Blake's 7: Duel poster
NR

Supreme Commander Servalan assigns the task to the deadly Travis-his orders simply to seek, locate and destroy Blake's 7! Travis and his Mutoid crew clash with Blake in a crucial struggle over the Federation's secret cypher machine and again in desperate hand-to-hand combat on a mysterious dead planet. Finally, they confront each other on a barren ice world as Blake attempts to rescue the resistance leader, Avalon. This time, however, Travis is expecting him, and a terrible trap awaits. . .

Blake's 7: Duel

1986

A Passage to India poster
8.0

The BBC's 1965 adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, screened as part of their Play of the Month strand, adapted by Santha Ramu Rau and John Maynard, and directed by Waris Hussein.

A Passage to India

1965

No artwork available
NR

TV play by Jim Hawkins based on real events in Russia and the USA just after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Thank You, Comrades

1978

No artwork available
7.0

The Prime Minister heads a cabinet divided on the question of either using force against an African state, or referring the matter to the United Nations.

Number Ten

1968

Doctor Who: The Creature from the Pit poster
6.0

The Doctor and Romana follow a distress signal which leads to the jungle planet Chloris, whose ruthless ruler Lady Adrasta harbors a deadly creature in a pit.

Doctor Who: The Creature from the Pit

1979

Henry V poster
6.2

Insulted by the Dauphin, the newly-crowned King Henry V gathers his troops for war. But Henry must convince his men that he has left his wild days behind, and prove himself as a leader.

Henry V

1979

Quiet as a Nun poster
8.0

A reporter is asked to look into the mysterious death of a nun who died in a locked room at a convent. She had recently inherited a fortune. The reporter next leans off an apparition that haunts the hallways at night and seems to portend death. Flashlight in hand, she goes off in search of the "Black Nun."

Quiet as a Nun

1978

Downfall poster
6.5

Harold Crossley is a barrister and respected intellectual, but proves no match to his scheming young wife

Downfall

1964

Broken Glass poster
NR

A private detective caring for his wife who is suffering from dementia investigates the disappearance of a young girl. Soon, however, he begins digging up the girl's dark family secrets.

Broken Glass

1982

No artwork available
NR

A Chief Inspector of Police is behaving rather erratically during a murder investigation.

Dead Silence

1966

The Verdict poster
7.0

A racketeer, deported back from America, faces murder charge and hatches jury rigging plot with accomplice. Cross and double-cross follow.

The Verdict

1964

The Barretts of Wimpole Street poster
8.0

Jane Lapotaire and Joss Ackland star in this adaptation of Rudolph Besier's play. Elizabeth Barrett is kept a virtual prisoner by her father. Then the poet Robert Browning bursts into her life.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

1982

Pidgeon – Hawk or Dove? poster
NR

Wallace Pidgeon, a schoolteacher, has a School Sports Day that goes drastically wrong and finds himself torn between the contradictory demands of his headmaster, his pupils, his young bride and her father.

Pidgeon – Hawk or Dove?

1974

No artwork available
NR

In a fictitious English parliament, various tactics are employed in the pursuit of power, even to the extent of bismerching member's of a politician's family.

The Prime Minister's Daughter

1970

No artwork available
8.0

Night club girl Victory Ducann is found murdered, the main suspect is an astronaut, but police are prevented from approaching him as he is due to fly off to the Moon.

The Girl Who Loved Robots

1965

Nipper poster
9.0

Teenager Jimmy's life begins to unravel after the death of his father. With his mother promiscuous and his new stepfather and stepbrother difficult to get along with, he begins to fall into a cycle of petty crime and self harm.

Nipper

1977