Peter Benson

Acting

Peter Benson

Born — Died

1943-06-13 — 2018-09-06

Place of birth

Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

50 titles

Peter Benson was an English actor, best known for playing the role of Bernie Scripps in the television series Heartbeat between 1995 and 2010.

Known for

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

A Touch of Frost poster
7.6

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

A Touch of Frost

1992

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Peak Practice poster
6.5

Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.

Peak Practice

1993

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Film credits

1990s · 2 titles

1980s · 12 titles

Hawk the Slayer poster
4.8

Hawk the Slayer, after seeing both his father and bride die at the hands of his malevolent brother, Voltan, sets out for revenge and the chance to live up to his title. Tooling himself up with the "mind-sword" and recruiting a motley band of warriors — a giant, a dwarf, a one-armed man with a machine-crossbow, and an elf with the fastest bow in the land — Hawk leads the battle against Voltan to free the land from the forces of evil and avenge his loved ones.

Hawk the Slayer

1980

The Winter's Tale poster
9.5

The jealous King Leontes falsely accuse his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend, and she dies. Leontes exiles his newborn daughter Perdita, who is raised by shepherds for sixteen years and falls in love with the son of Leontes' friend. When Perdita returns home, a statue of Hermione "comes to life", and everyone is reconciled.

The Winter's Tale

1981

Henry VI Part 1 poster
7.7

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 1

1983

The Tragedy of Richard III poster
8.0

Richard Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of King Edward IV, will stop at nothing to get the crown. He first convinces the ailing King that the Duke of Clarence, his elder brother, is a threat to the lives of Edward's two young sons. Edward has him imprisoned in the Tower of London; killers in Richard's pay then drown Clarence in a barrel of wine. When news of Clarence's death reaches the King, the subsequent grief and remorse bring about his death. Richard is made Lord Protector, with power to rule England while his nephew (now King Edward V) is still a minor. Before the young king's coronation he has his two nephews conveyed to the Tower, ostensibly for their safekeeping. Richard's accomplice, the Duke of Buckingham, then declares the two boys illegitimate and offers Richard the crown, which after a show of reticence he accepts. After Richard's coronation, he and Buckingham have a falling-out over whether or not to assassinate the two children.

The Tragedy of Richard III

1983

Henry VI Part 3 poster
8.0

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 3

1983

Henry VI Part 2 poster
7.5

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 2

1983

Hamlet poster
6.2

Hamlet comes home from university to find his uncle married to his mother, and his father's ghost haunting the battlements and scaring the watch. Then his father's ghost directs him to seek revenge.

Hamlet

1980

Kisses on the Bottom poster
NR

A saucy comedy for the Bank Holiday about.... saucy seaside postcards. What do the characters on the seaside postcards get up to in private?

Kisses on the Bottom

1985

Doctor Who: Terminus poster
6.4

The TARDIS attaches itself to a space liner after Turlough, still under the Black Guardian's influence, damages its controls. The Doctor and Nyssa meet two space pirates, Kari and Olvir, who have come on board the liner in search of plunder, while Tegan and Turlough get lost in the infrastructure. The liner docks with what appears to be a hulk floating in space. This is Terminus, which claims to offer a cure for Lazar's disease. It is crewed by armoured slave workers, the Vanir. The cure is administered by a huge, dog-like creature known as the Garm. Nyssa, who has contracted the disease from sufferers transported aboard the liner, discovers that the cure - involving exposure to radiation - does actually work.

Doctor Who: Terminus

1983

The Battle of Waterloo poster
NR

For the infantrymen, old hands and raw recruits, 36 hours of forced march and a night in pouring rain are followed by a day in a muddy cornfield, facing cannon, cavalry, and infantry. If they're still standing as the day ends, they've won.

The Battle of Waterloo

1983

The Burston Rebellion poster
8.0

Drama reconstructing the events of a strike by the schoolchildren of a Norfolk school in 1914, who refused to accept the dismissal of their teachers, Tom and Annie Higdon, who were both socialists.

The Burston Rebellion

1985

Pocketful of Dreams poster
NR

At the moment money is scarce and times are hard for everyone -even villains like Charlie and Denny are feeling the pinch. But their luck could change when a chance encounter with a film crew provides them with an eccentric method of getting their hands on a lot of loot.

Pocketful of Dreams

1982

1970s · 8 titles

The First Great Train Robbery poster
6.7

In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.

The First Great Train Robbery

1978

Tess poster
7.1

A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumour that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.

Tess

1979

The Shout poster
6.0

A traveller by the name of Crossley forces himself upon a musician and his wife in a lonely part of Devon, and uses the aboriginal magic he has learned to displace his host.

The Shout

1978

Cry of the Banshee poster
5.4

In seventeenth century England Lord Whitman wages unending war on what he sees as the ever-present scourge of witchcraft, and many local villagers have suffered at his hands. But one victim uses her occult powers to curse his family, enlisting unknowing help from one of the household.

Cry of the Banshee

1970

Night People poster
NR

A classical string quartet stop at a motorway cafe in early hours. Among the people they meet are a football supporter, a commercial traveller and an elderly couple on their way to Gretna Green to get married.

Night People

1978

Waiting at the Field Gate poster
NR

Lightning Gallat is the village slaughterer and a man of distinction. Where does he draw the line?

Waiting at the Field Gate

1975

The Dancing Princesses poster
7.0

A made-for-TV retelling of the story "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," directed by Ben Rea, featuring Jim Dale as the Soldier, Freddie Jones as the destitute King, and Gloria Grahame as the Witch. Significant changes were made to the story, including reducing the number of princesses to six, and the soldier ultimately declining to marry any of the princesses due to their deceitful nature.

The Dancing Princesses

1978

The Sailor's Return poster
6.2

Based on the 1925 novel The Sailor's Return by David Garnett. A sailor returns to his hometown to open a pub bringing with him his new black wife. Very quickly they find themselves ostracised by the community.

The Sailor's Return

1978

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

A Touch of Frost poster
7.6

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

A Touch of Frost

1992

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Peak Practice poster
6.5

Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.

Peak Practice

1993

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Blackadder poster
8.0

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

Blackadder

1983

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

Rumpole of the Bailey poster
7.1

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

Rumpole of the Bailey

1975

Jeeves and Wooster poster
8.1

Jeeves and Wooster is a British comedy-drama series adapted by Clive Exton from P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 1990 to 1993, starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, a young gentleman with a "distinctive blend of airy nonchalance and refined gormlessness", and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, his improbably well-informed and talented valet. Wooster is a bachelor, a minor aristocrat and member of the idle rich. He and his friends, who are mainly members of The Drones Club, are extricated from all manner of societal misadventures by the indispensable valet, Jeeves. The stories are set in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1930s.

Jeeves and Wooster

1990

Lovejoy poster
7.4

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.

Lovejoy

1986

BBC2 Play of the Week poster
7.0

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

BBC2 Play of the Week

1977

The Chief poster
7.0

The Chief is a British crime drama transmitted on ITV from 20 April 1990 to 16 June 1995. Produced by Anglia Television, it centred on the politics at the top of a typical English police force in its continual battle to solve the problems the times, in this case the fictional Eastland of East Anglia.

The Chief

1990

Tenko poster
8.3

Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II.

Tenko

1981

Churchill's People poster
5.0

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

Churchill's People

1974

No artwork available
9.3

Albion Market is a short-lived British soap opera, intended as a companion to Coronation Street on ITV.

Albion Market

1985

No artwork available
NR

A series of plays from Birmingham by new writers.

Second City Firsts

1973

No artwork available
NR

This anthology of 55-minute plays aired on Thursday nights on BBC2.

Summer Season

1985

Perfect Scoundrels poster
6.0

Perfect Scoundrels first broadcast in 1990 on British television. A comedy-drama following two con-men doing their best to separate various people from their money

Perfect Scoundrels

1990

The Enigma Files poster
6.0

The Enigma Files is a British television detective drama that ran for a single series of fifteen episodes in 1980. Detective Chief Inspector Nick Lewis is tasked with investigating unsolved crimes.

The Enigma Files

1980

No artwork available
6.0

Two large, interrelated south London families struggle to believe that blood is thicker than water.

Born and Bred

1978

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery poster
7.2

Three elegant murder mysteries adapted from the crime novels of Dorothy L. Sayers. Set in the 1930s, the relationship of amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey and mystery writer Harriet Vane unfolds in a realm of romance and intrigue.

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery

1987

The Borgias poster
8.7

A a serial in ten parts on the lives of one of the most intriguing families in history.

The Borgias

1981

Trinity Tales poster
NR

On their way to London for the Rugby League final, a group of northerners start telling each other stories, in the manner of Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.

Trinity Tales

1975

No artwork available
6.7

When big-hearted Joe Thompson discovers the pain infertility is causing his brother Paul, he suggests to Paul's wife that he act as secret sperm donor.

Nice Town

1992

No artwork available
NR

In March 1826 at Polstead in Suffolk, a boy named Bill met a girl named Maria. The result was tragedy.

Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn

1980

The Royal poster
7.8

Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.

The Royal

2003