Acting
Bert Parnaby
Born 1924-03-04 · Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK
James Bertram "Bert" Parnaby (4 March 1924 – 30 July 1992) was a British actor who was notable for a string of TV and Film roles from the 1960s through the 1980s. His TV roles included performances in Blackadder, By the Sword Divided, Juliet Bravo, Inspector Morse and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1988, he appeared as Father Christmas in the BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His film credits included Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Dressmaker (1988) and The Reunion (1989). Whilst living in Didsbury, Bert was a schoolmaster at Manchester Grammar School during the 1950s and early 1960s. Teaching English, he was greatly involved in the production of teachers’ plays. He subsequently became an HMI (one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools). On leaving the education profession, Parnaby worked as a producer and performer for the BBC. His monologues on breakfast radio often started ‘I hate …’, for example the edition about the Post Office, which was based on the Didsbury branch, albeit unnamed. Parnaby died in July 1992 at the age of 68, shortly after the death of his wife Jane. A bench in their memory was later erected in Drummer Street, Cambridge.
Acting credits
6.7When the young, attractive Joe Orton meets the older, more introverted Kenneth Halliwell at drama school, he befriends the kindred spirit and they start an affair. As Orton becomes more comfortable with his sexuality and starts to find success with his writing, Halliwell becomes increasingly alienated and jealous, ultimately tapping into a dangerous rage.
Prick Up Your Ears
1987
NRPostman Bean is anxious to end his round early to catch a morning showing of 'The Sound of Muzak' at his local cinema. However, he is unaware that the cinema manager Terry Toadstool is using this as a smoke screen to view a pornographic film and that Bean's wife, traffic warden Monica, is the star.
Dirty Movie
1984
6.7Attorney Henry Strauss grew up in Germany, but left the country with his Jewish family during the rise of the Third Reich. Still wondering about what happened to his boyhood friend Konradin Von Lohenburg, Strauss travels back to Germany for the first time since he was a young man, bringing up some painful memories.
Reunion
1989
8.7A documentary crew films heavy metal band Bad News as they have trouble starting their van, pick up a schoolgirl groupie, and meet up with rock journalist Sally at a motorway service station where they argue about the cost of sausage and chips.
Bad News
1983
'Imagine. The whole sky filled with silent sportsmen.' Henry is a teacher, and a very good one, but his dream of man-powered flight, and his habit of destroying the odd greenhouse on his test runs, threatens his career. Also there's his daughter Ruth, who would dearly love to retrieve her bicycle wheels from his flying machine.
Flights
1985
4.6In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.
The Dressmaker
1988
NRFledge needs a job. He'll take anything. And when Dawlish gives him strange errands to run, for cash in hand, strictly 'on the palm', it's a welcome change from the dole. Until he finds himself digging dirt on an old friend....
On the Palm
1987
NRJulie Walters stars as a single mother seemingly haunted by a sinister telephone system that seems to have become an evil intelligence in its own right.
Unfair Exchanges
1985
6.5Four kids travel to the magical land of Narnia where they must battle an evil queen with the direction of the lion, Aslan.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
1988
7.0In 1940, during World War II, an officer is sent to investigate rumours of German spies in a sleepy village where various people are the victims of war hysteria.
Rainy Day Women
1984
NRBlack comedy play about two pensioners struggling to manage on an old-age pension and living in a high-rise block of flats.
Gas and Candles
1991
NRA double offering of heavy metal madness from The Comic Strip and Bad News.
Completely Bad News
2019
7.511-year-old Nick moves into a large old house with his sisters Jennie and Clare, left in the care of Helga the Swedish au pair while their parents are away in America. Nick is unhappy at his new school, where he is befriended by a boy named Sam and intimidated by scripture teacher Mr. Crabb, who is interested in the occult and demonology. Nick hears voices in the house and receives messages on his computer screen; he also suffers inexplicable blisters on his feet and grazes on his elbows and knees. When he dreams of burning and wakes up in a bed full of ashes, Nick tells a psychiatrist that he feels he is possessed by a demon.
Daemon
1985