Michael Pennington

Acting

Michael Pennington

Born — Died

1943-06-07 — 2026-05-10

Place of birth

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

76 titles

Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (June 7, 1943 - May 10, 2026) was a British actor and director who, together with director Michael Bogdanov, founded the English Shakespeare Company. Although primarily a stage actor, he is best known to wider audiences for his role as Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod, commanding officer of the Death Star in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and as Michael Foot in The Iron Lady, opposite Meryl Streep.

Known for

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

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

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

BBC Play of the Month

1965

The Wednesday Play poster
5.2

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

The Wednesday Play

1964

ITV Playhouse poster
7.0

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

ITV Playhouse

1967

Waking the Dead poster
7.2

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

Waking the Dead

2001

Film credits

2010s · 4 titles

2000s · 6 titles

Fragile poster
6.5

Haunted by memories of a patient's death, a nurse takes a job at an antiquated hospital for children. Soon she learns that the kids fear a ghost that prowls the floors and will not allow anyone to leave. Amy tries to protect them and convince the other staffers of the evil that lurks there.

Fragile

2005

Pyramid poster
7.3

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Pyramid is the only one to survive. Many believe that even with our 21st-century technology, we could not build anything like it today. Based on the most up-to-date research and the latest archaeological discoveries, here is how the Pyramid came to be.

Pyramid

2002

Colosseum - Rome's Arena of Death poster
7.2

Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death aka Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story is a 2003 BBC Television docudrama which tells the true story of Verus a gladiator who fought at the Colosseum in Rome.

Colosseum - Rome's Arena of Death

2003

The Dinosaur Hunters poster
6.5

One man who kept asking questions was Gideon Mantell, the amateur paleontologist who, in the early 19th century, fought to get the British scientific establishment to accept Britain had been inhabited by dinosaurs. As this dramatised documentary shows, Mantell had an uphill battle in a time when the biblical account of creation was considered literal truth and authorities such as the Reverend William Buckland were determined that science remain "the handmaid of religion".

The Dinosaur Hunters

2002

No artwork available
NR

The RAF sprang to life during the First World War. It took off into a dangerous adulthood during the Battle of Britain and the bombing of Germany, and achieved maturity as a delivery platform for the hydrogen bomb. Now, at the lively old age of 90, the RAF fights the Taliban in the War on Terror.

Airborne: The RAF at 90

2008

Florence Nightingale poster
6.0

Reflective drama of pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

2008

1990s · 10 titles

The Last Bolshevik poster
7.6

A documentary on Soviet filmmaker Aleksandr Medvedkin, examining his tumultuous career, the rediscovery of his masterpiece Happiness, and Russia's struggles over the course of the 20th Century.

The Last Bolshevik

1994

Cracker: White Ghost poster
7.0

A British businessman operating in Hong Kong has feelings of inferiority and turns to murder when he faces bankruptcy.

Cracker: White Ghost

1996

Henry VI: House of York poster
NR

Second part of an adapted version of Henry VI as performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Henry VI: House of York

1991

Henry V poster
8.0

Shakespeare's Henry V, performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Henry V

1991

Degas and Pissario Fall Out poster
8.0

A forgotten gem made for the British arts anthology series Without Walls, this half-hour drama imagines the two 19th century impressionist painters on a modern-day talk show–-exploring their friendship and historic conflict over the Dreyfus Affair. Resembling Patrick Watson’s Witness to History in its dramatization of the past, filmmaker Paul Morrison goes one step further by creating a behind-the-scenes world around the show; and in doing so, he offers up a clever satire, as timely as ever, on the medium’s exploitation of two men who are united through art, but divided over politics. For this short piece, Morrison assembled a wonderful cast, featuring Henry Goodman (this year’s Love Gets a Room), Michael Pennington, Louise Jameson (Doctor Who) and Alison Steadman (Life is Sweet).

Degas and Pissario Fall Out

1994

Richard III poster
NR

Shakespeare's Richard III, performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Richard III

1991

Henry VI: House of Lancaster poster
NR

First part of an adapted version of Henry VI as performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Henry VI: House of Lancaster

1991

Henry IV: Part 2 poster
NR

Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Henry IV: Part 2

1991

Henry IV: Part 1 poster
NR

Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 recorded live at the Grand Theatre in Swansea, performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Henry IV: Part 1

1991

Richard II poster
NR

Shakespeare's Richard II recorded live at the Grand Theatre in Swansea, performed by the English Shakespeare Company as part of the complete Historical Octology.

Richard II

1991

1980s · 10 titles

Return of the Jedi poster
7.9

Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.

Return of the Jedi

1983

The Return of Sherlock Holmes poster
6.0

Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life by Watson's female descendant after being cryogenically frozen for eighty years.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

1987

The Mayor of Montemilone poster
5.0

Dino Labriola runs the small town of Montemilone in the deep south. He was elected the first Communist mayor. Now he faces the problems of a town dying on its feet. There are no jobs, the young emigrate, the old have given up hope and government aid often goes astray. While Dino is determined to fight for his town, his wife Angela sometimes feels that the struggle is not worth it. A massive dam is being built just outside Montemilone. It's a new threat to the town and to Dino's position as mayor.

The Mayor of Montemilone

1984

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King poster
4.5

Plagues are ravaging Thebes, and the blind fortune-teller Tieresias tells Oedipus, the King, that the gods are unhappy. The murder of the former king has gone unavenged, and Oedipus sets out to find the killer.

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

1986

Forbidden Passion: The Oscar Wilde Movie poster
NR

As in earlier Oscar Wilde biopics, this version preoccupies itself with the homosexuality scandal involving Lord Alfred Douglas and his lordship's political powerful father, the Marquis of Queensbury. Arrested for corrupting Lord Douglas' morals, Wilde spends a debilitating five years in Reading Gaol, emerging a shattered shell of his former self

Forbidden Passion: The Oscar Wilde Movie

1985

Cymbeline poster
6.2

Cymbeline, the King of Britain, is angry that his daughter Imogen has chosen a poor (but worthy) man for her husband. So he banishes Posthumus, who goes to fight for Rome. Imogen (dressed as a boy) goes in search of her husband, who meanwhile has boasted to his pal Iachimo that Imogen would never betray him. And Iachimo's determined to prove him wrong.

Cymbeline

1983

No artwork available
NR

By chance a businessman changing trains at a busy railway junction overhears the station announcement for a local train to a beauty spot which he last visited when a child. On a whim he decides to take the local and revisit that spot where he, his sister and mother picnicked on an glorious summers day at the moment when the lives of both children were about to change for ever. The past, present and future combine in his memory of that day.

Waving to a Train

1984

The Marlowe Inquest poster
1.0

In an unscripted inquest, three practicing barristers interrogate actors portraying relevant figures of the 16th century in order to determine what really happened to the playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe.

The Marlowe Inquest

1986

A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter poster
NR

In prison the night before his execution, republican preacher Hugh Peter prepares to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason

A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter

1981

Outside Edge poster
8.0

The local social cricket team are up to bat and sometimes it seems they are one batsman short of of an eleven. There are good secrets and not so good secrets that come to light during the course of the day. Roger is the ultimate captain rallying his troops whilst ignoring his greatest strength, Miriam, who makes the 'fantastic' teas with or without the 'non-compulsory' help. The days builds to a climax where it seems that everything must change forever. But will it?

Outside Edge

1982

1970s · 6 titles

Danton's Death poster
9.0

Danton's Death is arguably the most dramatic and penetrating study of revolution ever written. Georg Büchner concentrates on that moment in 1794 when the Reign of Terror, already well established, spills over into a total blood-bath. The play, adapted by director Alan Clarke and Stuart Griffiths, both highly imaginative and closely documentary, shows how the great hero of the early phase of the Revolution, Danton, sickened by the excesses of the guillotine, which he helped to create, wants to call a halt. But Robespierre and Saint-Just, leaders of the Jacobins, with a ferocious puritanical zeal, spur on 'the wild horses of the Revolution'.

Danton's Death

1978

No artwork available
NR

A rock star is kidnapped at the end of a concert.The record company ask the question is he worth more dead than alive?

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

1977

Mr and Mrs Bureaucrat poster
NR

Behind the façade of form-filling at the Department of Something-or-Other, careers fall and rise at the drop of an apostrophe. Will HIB's double negative be accepted, ensuring his pension prospects?

Mr and Mrs Bureaucrat

1978

The Witches of Pendle poster
5.5

A BBC dramatization of the Pendle witch trials of Lancashire, England that occurred in 1616.

The Witches of Pendle

1976

Mad Jack poster
9.0

Play dealing with the life of British Army lieutenant Siegfried Sassoon, and his protests against the inhumanity of the First World War

Mad Jack

1970

No artwork available
9.0

Anna can't seem to help ending up with the wrong partner in a line of disastrous affairs. Her hope now lies with a young man from the pop music scene.

The Dolly Scene

1970

Series credits

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

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

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

BBC Play of the Month

1965

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

BBC Play of the Month

1965

The Wednesday Play poster
5.2

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

The Wednesday Play

1964

ITV Playhouse poster
7.0

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

ITV Playhouse

1967

Waking the Dead poster
7.2

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

Waking the Dead

2001

Endeavour poster
8.1

The early days of a young Endeavour Morse, whose experiences as a detective constable with the Oxford City Police will ultimately shape his future.

Endeavour

2013

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

Playhouse poster
7.0

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

Playhouse

1974

Lewis poster
7.6

Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.

Lewis

2007

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

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.

No Hiding Place

1959

Dalziel and Pascoe poster
6.4

In the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton, the unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-China-shop-copper DS Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick DS, later DI, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining down-to-Earth wit and humour.

Dalziel and Pascoe

1996

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

Raised by Wolves poster
7.5

After Earth is ravaged by a great religious war, an atheistic android architect sends two of his creations, Mother and Father, to start a peaceful, godless colony on the planet Kepler-22b. Their treacherous task is jeopardized by the arrival of the Mithraic, a deeply devout religious order of surviving humans.

Raised by Wolves

2020

Public Eye poster
8.2

Public Eye is a British television drama broadcast from 1965 to 1975 on ITV1. Produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four, the programme follows the investigations and cases handled by the unglamourous enquiry agent Frank Marker.

Public Eye

1965

ScreenPlay poster
6.0

Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.

ScreenPlay

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

Between the Lines poster
5.5

Detective Superintendent Tony Clark is an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark overcomes strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean.

Between the Lines

1992

No artwork available
NR

Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.

Drama 61-67

1961

Callan poster
7.0

Callan is the title of a British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972. The series starred Edward Woodward as David Callan, a reluctant professional killer for a shadowy branch of the British Government's intelligence services known as 'the Section'.

Callan

1967

State of Play poster
7.5

The murder of Sonia Baker, a young political researcher, leads journalist Cal McCaffrey to uncover complex links between government and big business.

State of Play

2003

The Escape Artist poster
7.1

A chilling and bloody legal thriller that explores the line between law and justice. Will Burton, a talented junior barrister of peerless intellect and winning charm, specialises in spiriting people out of tight legal corners. He is in high demand as he has never lost a case. But when his talents acquit the notorious prime suspect in an horrific murder trial, that brilliance comes back to bite him with unexpected and chilling results, not to mention a shocking twist.

The Escape Artist

2013

No artwork available
NR

An anthology series based on the varied stories by W. Somerset Maugham divided into three categories: "Rule Britannia" about colonial life, "Women of the World" which focus on female characters, and "Victims of Fate".

W. Somerset Maugham

1969

Dr Terrible's House of Horrible poster
7.0

Dr Terrible's House of Horrible is a satirical British comedy-horror anthology series created by Graham Duff, who co-wrote the series with Steve Coogan. Spoofing the British horror films of Amicus, Hammer, and Tigon, the title parodies Amicus' 1965 anthology film Dr Terror's House of Horrors. Coogan presents each episode as the titular Dr Terrible, and plays the lead in each story.

Dr Terrible's House of Horrible

2001

Playing Shakespeare poster
9.7

John Barton holds a master class in how to play Shakespeare, using members of the RSC doing scenes, sonnets, and commentary as prime examples.

Playing Shakespeare

1984

Armchair Theatre poster
6.0

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.

Armchair Theatre

1956

Armchair Theatre poster
6.0

Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.

Armchair Theatre

1956

Freud poster
5.0

Freud, also known as Freud: The Life of a Dream, is a 1984 six-part BBC television serial dramatised by Carey Harrison, and starring David Suchet as Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Each episode begins with Freud and his family in London, where they had fled from Vienna in 1938 following the Nazi Anschluss, leading up to Freud's death a little over a year later. The rest of the episodes are told mainly in flashbacks to key moments in Freud's life and career.

Freud

1984

No artwork available
NR

An anthology series of TV plays with a monetary theme.

The Root of All Evil?

1968

The Lost World of Communism poster
6.0

The Lost World of Communism is a three-part British documentary series which examines the legacy of Communism twenty years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall. Produced by Peter Molloy and Lucy Hetherington, the series takes a retrospective look at life behind the Iron Curtain between 1945 and 1989, focusing on three countries in the Eastern Bloc - East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Through film and television footage and the personal recollections of those who lived in these countries, the series offers a glimpse of what daily life was like during the years of Communist rule. The Lost World of Communism debuted on BBC Two on Saturday 14 March 2009 at 9:00pm. There is also a book which accompanies the series.

The Lost World of Communism

2009

Summer's Lease poster
7.2

Fortysomething wife and mother Molly Pargeter leads a stable but dull life in 1980s West London. She feels overweight and there is no passion in her relationship with her husband Hugh, who is secretly seeing another woman. For most of her life, Molly has found escape in detective novels and art books, especially on 15th-century Italian fresco painter Piero Della Francesca. Suddenly, in the small ads, she spots the details of a Tuscany villa to let, and after a viewing, she takes it for holiday.

Summer's Lease

1989

No artwork available
NR

Anthology series of plays dealing with the themes of fear and entrapment

No Exit

1972

No artwork available
NR

Series of dramas about people who have passionately defended their beliefs or acts, regardless of the consequences.

In My Defence

1991

Empire Warriors poster
7.0

Four-part documentary series about four 'wars on terror' during the final phase of the British Empire. As the Union Jack finally descended on former colonies all over the world after the Second World War, Communist, Nationalist and religious guerrilla forces saw their chance. The British Empire was leaving a dangerous power vacuum in its place. The war to succeed the British had begun.

Empire Warriors

2004

Italians poster
NR

Aired in October 1984 on BBC One, this was a ten-part British documentary series. Produced by the BBC, each episode explored different facets of daily life, culture, and history in Italy, such as the episode "The Mayor of Montemilone".

Italians

1984