
Acting
David Kelly
Born — Died
1929-07-11 — 2012-02-12
Place of birth
Dublin, Ireland
Known for
Acting
Credits
86 titles
David Kelly (July 11, 1929 – February 12, 2012) was an Irish actor who had regular roles in several film and television works from the 1950s onwards. One of the most recognisable voices and faces of Irish stage and screen, Kelly was known for his roles as Rashers Tierney in Strumpet City, Cousin Enda in Me Mammy, the builder Mr O'Reilly in Fawlty Towers, Albert Riddle in Robin's Nest, and Grandpa Joe in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Another notable role was as Michael O'Sullivan in Waking Ned Devine.
Known for
6.6Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970
5.2A 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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
5.2An 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
7.0A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2005
8.2Public 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
Film credits
2000s · 16 titles
7.0A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2005
7.3In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. His journey takes him into a world beyond his wildest dreams and reveals his true identity.
Stardust
2007
5.8David Norton is used to being in control. As a best-selling author, he decides the fate of his characters, their lives and their deaths. But what happens when his fictional world becomes all too real?
The Kovak Box
2006
5.8Amidst a sea of litigation, two New York City divorce lawyers find love.
Laws of Attraction
2004
5.6With all-new gadgets, high-flying action, exciting chases and a wisecracking new handler, Derek (Anthony Anderson), Cody has to retrieve the device before the world's leaders fall under the evil control of a diabolical villain.
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
2004
6.3Disgraced ex-England football captain, Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan, is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. When these prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards during a prison football match, Danny takes the lead.
Mean Machine
2001
6.2Michael Lynch is a notorious criminal with two wives and a flair for showmanship. He's also a huge embarrassment to the local police, who are determined to bring him down once and for all.
Ordinary Decent Criminal
2000
5.5When milkman Jimmy Connelly accidentally puts Britain's contender for the World title out of action, he is propelled from amateur boxer to the world stage and announced as the replacement contender for the championship fight.
The Calcium Kid
2004
6.3Prison inmate Colin Briggs is introduced to gardening, and when his thriving prison garden attracts the attention of flamboyant gardening expert Georgina Woodhouse, she offers to sponsor the inmates in an upcoming flower show. At the Hampton Court Flower Show, Colin meets Georgina's daughter and romance is in bloom.
Greenfingers
2001
8.430 years after Fawlty Towers (1975) ended, Stephen Fry narrates a documentary about the making of this classic sitcom.
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009
5.5A black comedy about two old-time conmen who pretend to be able to communicate with the dead.
Mystics
2003
A short film about a shoemaker who pledged his fiancé he would make her the most beautiful pair of shoes for their wedding. Now, some fifty years later he is finally fulfilling his promise. But his business has fallen away and his rent is in arrears.
The Last
2002
NRThe making of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Different Faces, Different Flavors
2005
NRGaybo Laughs Back is an hour-long special, hosted by Gay Byrne who introduces some of the comedy highlights from his thirty-seven years at the helm of the long-running television series.
Gaybo Laughs Back
2008
7.0An old blind beggar and an old cripple in a wheelchair meet on a desolate street corner. The latter proposes that the two form an alliance, but the men are not destined to get along together.
Rough for Theatre I
2000
6.3Spike Milligan's book about the divided Irish village of Puckoon comes to the big screen.
Puckoon
2002
1990s · 6 titles
7.0When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.
Waking Ned
1998
6.2Alfie Byrne is a middle-aged bus conductor in Dublin in 1963. He would appear to live a life of quiet desperation: he's gay, but firmly closeted, and his sister is always trying to find him "the right girl". His passion is Oscar Wilde, his hobby is putting on amateur theatre productions in the local church hall. We follow him as he struggles with temptation, friendship, disapproval, and the conservative yet oddly lyrical world of Ireland in the early 1960s.
A Man of No Importance
1994
6.4Accused of a crime they didn't commit, two city kids and a magical horse are about to become the coolest outlaws ever to ride Into The West.
Into the West
1992
6.1Marcy, a worker in the reelection campaign of bumbling Senator John McGlory, is sent to Ireland on a quest to find the Irish ancestry of Sen. McGlory, to help him win the Irish vote. But when Marcy arrives in the small village of Ballinagra, she finds herself in the middle of a matchmaking festival, and the local matchmaker is determined to pair her off with one of the local bachelors.
The Matchmaker
1997
6.1The close relationship between two fun-loving brothers comes under threat when a beautiful, sensitive girl arrives on the scene. As the younger brother comes of age, the inevitable jealousy, confusion, rivalry and lust place their brotherly love in jeopardy.
Moondance
1995
6.4An Irish lad who fled from his oppressive, widowed father falls for a girl from an affluent family.
The Run of the Country
1995
1980s · 8 titles
6.3The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog.
Pirates
1986
5.7Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre Dame's cathedral, meets a beautiful gypsy dancer, Esmeralda, and falls in love with her. So does Quasimodo's guardian, the archdeacon of the cathedral, and a poor street poet. But Esmeralda's in love with a handsome soldier. When a mob mistakes her for a witch, it's up to Quasimodo to rescue her and claim sanctuary for her in the cathedral.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1982
5.0Philip Kimberly, the former head of the British Secret Service who defected to Russia, is given plastic surgery and sent back to Britain by the KGB to retrieve some vital documents. With the documents in hand, he instead plays off MI6 and the KGB against each other.
The Jigsaw Man
1983
4.8Jack Stryker took two bullets in the leg in Vietnam and was carried back by one of his men. When he returns, he tries to live a quiet life in his cabin and go back out with his girlfriend, Sally.
Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except
1985
5.7British comedy satirising Stalin's inner circle as an absolute monarchs court. In the face of rampant abuse of power and poisonous distrust some still manage to keep faith with the Bolshevist creed until the very end. In front of the firing squad a stalwart bolshevist of the first hour exclaims: "Even in the best democracy errors are being made!"
Red Monarch
1983
6.0Aegeon of Syracuse has come to Ephesus to seek his son, who went in search of his missing twin and mother months ago. Too bad that Ephesus has just declared war on Syracuse, and will instantly put to death any Syracusean found within their borders unless a ransome's paid. Meanwhile, the son, Antipholus, and his servant, Dromio (also an identical twin), keep running into strangers who seem to know them...
The Comedy of Errors
1983
10.0The growing relationship of two people who travel through Ireland in a series of stolen cars.
Joyriders
1988
7.0The story of Anne Devlin, who was caught up in the revolt of the Irish under Robert Emmett in 1803, told exclusively from the woman's point of view.
Anne Devlin
1984
1970s · 13 titles
4.6Khalil is an Arab diplomat who wants to not only make peace with Israel, but admit the Jewish state as a member of OPEC. This instantly makes him a target for a series of ingeniously conceived assassination attempts, most of which he foils with the aid of his friend Hamid and his girlfriend Nicole. But can he trust even them?
The Next Man
1976
5.1In Dublin, a working class family has been unsuccessful in convincing their son to get a real job: the son prefers his job of scooping up horse's dung and selling it for flower gardens. An American exchange student almost runs him over and gets to know him. The dung man has ignored warnings from his family and suddenly the horses have been banned from Dublin. His new love is leaving for America and he must find a way to cope with the new reality.
Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx
1970
5.9A German U-Boat commander plans a daring escape from a PoW camp in Scotland.
The McKenzie Break
1970
5.8With his mauve taxi, the old philosopher Dr. Seamus Scully runs around the small green roads of the south of Ireland, becoming confident of his patients, while trying to help them find their way.
The Purple Taxi
1977
5.7Bosco Hogan plays Joyce's alter-ego, Stephen Daedelus, growing up in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century, and at odds with the strictures of his Catholic home and family. The film charts his search for knowledge and understanding, during a decline in his family's circumstances, that leads him to revelations on the nature of art, beauty, and politics. However, his personal renaissance makes him feel unwelcome in his own country, and forces him to make a choice between exile as artist or staying and facing personal defeat.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
1977
The love affair of Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell with a married woman, Katherine O'Shea.
The Statue and the Rose
1975
5.7Two London tailors horse around, wind up robbed, go to Rome and disrupt the Vatican.
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
1973
7.0Based on a short story by George MacDonald, a princess experiences constant weightlessness.
The Light Princess
1978
7.0Friel contrasts Gar's cloistered emotional life with his gregarious social persona by portraying him as two distinct characters, a public self (Donal McCann) and a private self (Des Cave).
Philadelphia, Here I Come
1975
9.0The story of the trial of Willie Gallagher, convicted of bombing the Strabane British Legion Hall in Northern Ireland, 1976. The transmission of this film was postponed by the BBC several times, and when it did finally air, it was shown with cuts; the writer, Caryl Churchill, and director, Roland Joffé, had their names removed from the credits in protest.
The Legion Hall Bombing
1978
NRAfter 18 years as a friar, Peter is no longer sure of his vocation. It is a happy life, maybe too much so, and now he has met Clare. Will his doubts run away with him? Runaway friars are officially "fugitives" who must be persuaded back to their order. Author Sean Walsh fled the Franciscan order to become first a journalist, then a playwright and is now a radio drama producer in Ireland.
Fugitive
1974
A problem for Frank and Margaret turns out to be a false alarm, or even a blessing in disguise.
Young Man in Trouble
1970
Three middle-aged Irish bachelors - Shemm, Cloggy and Ambrose - put drinks before sex. Even Mrs Ryder can't shatter their celibacy.
The Virgins
1974
1960s · 5 titles
6.9Charlie's got a 'job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of his friends has attempted a high-risk job in Torino, Italy, right under the nose of the mafia. Charlie's friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars, and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal a fortune in gold and escape in the chaos.
The Italian Job
1969
6.7A naive young country girl moves to Dublin and finds herself drawn to a sophisticated author twice her age.
Girl with Green Eyes
1964
5.9Dublin; June 16, 1904. Stephen Dedalus, who fancies himself as a poet, embarks on a day of wandering about the city during which he finds friendship and a father figure in Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jew. Meanwhile, Bloom's day, illuminated by a funeral and an evening of drinking and revelry that stirs paternal feelings toward Stephen, ends with a rapprochement with Molly, his earthy wife.
Ulysses
1967
NRA version of Benjamin Britten's opera based on the Melville story. Will the virtuous young sailor Billy Budd be hanged for murder?
Billy Budd
1966
5.7Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals. His superior, Regan, however, realizes that even prisoners are human beings, and Regan is sick of the eye-for-an-eye attitude that leads the state to execute condemned men, or "quare fellows." Crimmins begins to see that not all is black and white in his new world, and when he becomes involved with Kathleen, the wife of one of the condemned men, his attitude begins to change. When new evidence arises to suggest that Kathleen's husband may not deserve his fate, Crimmins is torn between his duty and his humanity.
The Quare Fellow
1962
1950s · 2 titles
Series credits
6.6Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970
6.6Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970
5.2A 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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
5.2An 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
5.2An 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
8.2Public 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
8.3Owner Basil Fawlty, his wife Sybil, a chambermaid Polly, and Spanish waiter Manuel attempt to run their hotel amidst farcical situations and an array of demanding guests.
Fawlty Towers
1975
6.5The adventures of Piggley, a spunky eight-year-old pig, and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull on Raloo Farm in Ireland.
Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks
2003
6.3The Adventurer is an ITC Entertainment TV adventure series created by Dennis Spooner that ran for one season from 1972 to 1973. It premiered in the UK on 29 September 1972. The show starred Gene Barry as Gene Bradley, a government agent of independent means who poses as a glamorous American movie star.
The Adventurer
1972
7.4They're just your average family. Stressed mum Bill, daft dad Ben, and two troublesome teens. Plus just a few crazy ideas, escapades and mishaps. The classic 90s sitcom.
2Point4 Children
1991
8.1This final follow-up to 'Till Death Us Do Part' follows an aged Alf Garnett, now dealing with his wife Else's declining health and mobility, as well as the challenges of navigating the social security system and other everyday situations.
In Sickness and in Health
1985
6.6Scarlett is a 1994 American television miniseries loosely based on Alexandra Ripley's eponymous 1991 book of the same name, a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind' (1936). Filmed across the United States and abroad, the series stars Joanne Whalley and Timothy Dalton. The miniseries was broadcast in four parts on CBS from November 13-17, 1994. Following the death of her sister-in-law Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara sets out to reclaim her doomed romance with Rhett Butler, as it takes her home to Tara to Charleston to Savannah to Ireland, where she learns of her family's roots.
Scarlett
1994
6.8Classic BBC comedy starring Robert Lindsay as revolutionary leader Wolfie Smith of the Tooting Popular Front. Hoping to emulate his icons, Wolfie forms the Tooting Popular Front with a small group of his friends. However, he soon finds himself struggling to get his ambitious plans off the ground due to his laid back attitude and lack of organisation.
Citizen Smith
1977
6.7Robin's Nest is a British sitcom, a spin-off from Man About the House, focusing on Richard O'Sullivan as Robin Tripp. It aired for six series from 11 January 1977 to 31 March 1981, and co-starred Tessa Wyatt as Robin's girlfriend – and later wife – Vicky, and Tony Britton as her father.
Robin's Nest
1977
8.8Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
An anthology of 1920s set plays and musicals, transmissioned from 10 September to 10 December 1968 on BBC One.
The Jazz Age
1968
NRThe Informer is a British crime drama series broadcast on ITV from August 1966 to December 1967. Created by John Whitney and Geoffrey Bellman, it stars Ian Hendry as former barrister Alex Lambert, disgraced and disbarred, who has to rebuild his life. He utilises his former contacts on both sides of the law to become a paid informer. Living well from the rewards paid by insurance companies, Lambert still has to hide his activities from both his wife and others behind a new persona in the guise as a business consultant. Two seasons were produced, totalling 21 episodes. Only two episodes are known to exist, the remainder presumably wiped.
The Informer
1966
Eddie likes to see himself as a mastermind of the criminal world but one thing holds him back - his family.
Mr Big
1977
5.8Slinger's Day is a British sitcom created by Brian Cooke and produced by Thames Television for ITV. A continuation of Tripper's Day, which had come to a natural end due to a combination of star Leonard Rossiter's death and an overwhelmingly negative response, Bruce Forsyth plays a different character to Norman Tripper but fulfilling the same role, that of the manager of a Supafare supermarket with a team of incompetent eccentrics. Several cast members from Tripper's Day reprised their roles in the first series but departed in the second, allowing for new characters. Broadcast for two six-episode runs from 1986–87, Slinger's Day represented Forsyth's sole situation comedy acting role, and he remained more associated with stand-up and game shows.
Slinger's Day
1986
6.9Whoops Apocalypse is a six-part 1982 British sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 film of the same name from ITC Entertainment, with almost completely different characters and plot, although one or two of the original actors returned in different roles. As the Apocalypse nears, US President Johnny Cyclops tries to run a reelection campaign whilst also dealing with the Russians, a deposed Shah needing to be hidden, and a new weapon called a 'quark' bomb.
Whoops Apocalypse
1982
6.9Whoops Apocalypse is a six-part 1982 British sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 film of the same name from ITC Entertainment, with almost completely different characters and plot, although one or two of the original actors returned in different roles. As the Apocalypse nears, US President Johnny Cyclops tries to run a reelection campaign whilst also dealing with the Russians, a deposed Shah needing to be hidden, and a new weapon called a 'quark' bomb.
Whoops Apocalypse
1982
6.8General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.
General Electric Theater
1953
7.5Oh, Father! is a British sitcom produced by Graeme Muir for BBC One. A follow-up to the 1968–70 series Oh, Brother!, Derek Nimmo reprises his role as Brother Dominic, who finds himself promoted to Father, but that's as far as his luck goes. He's just as clumsy and accident-prone as ever.
Oh, Father!
1973
6.0Armchair 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
6.0Armchair 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
6.0Armchair 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
6.0Armchair 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
The Ronnie Barker Playhouse is a British anthology of six half-hour comedies showcasing the talents of Ronnie Barker. All were broadcast by Associated-Rediffusion from 3 April to 8 May 1968. Of the six, two are lost.
The Ronnie Barker Playhouse
1968
NRThe Glums began as part of the 1950s radio show 'Take It from Here'. The characters were revived in 1978 as part of the 'Bruce Forsyth's Big Night' variety show, and a complete independant series was transmitted in the following year.
The Glums
1978
7.0A BBC Sunday afternoon drama serial aimed at family audiences, telling the Arthurian tale from the point of view of Merlin, from his youth to old age.
Merlin of the Crystal Cave
1991
Ken Archer has worked for the same company for 33 years. Then, one day, he's told that he is about to be made redundant. To make a bad day even worse, Ken's wife Joan tells him that she is leaving him for a man 20 years younger. Things continue to go from bad to worse as Kern is subsequently mugged, taken hostage, arrested and committed to an asylum.
Time of My Life
1980
7.0Strumpet City was a 1980 television miniseries produced by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, based on James Plunkett's 1969 novel Strumpet City. It was RTÉ's most ambitious and expensive production to date. The script was written by Hugh Leonard, and Peter O'Toole played James Larkin, the union leader.
Strumpet City
1980
8.0A French actress returns to her Irish roots during the last summer before World War II. While there, she must come to grips with her family and the love of two men. Television adaptation of Kate O'Brien's 1943 novel of the same name.
The Last of Summer
1978
7.5Cowboys is a British sitcom that aired on the ITV network during the early 1980s. The show was created by Peter Learmouth whom would go on to create Granada television sitcom Surgical Spirit and starred Lancastrian Character-actor Roy Kinnear as Joe Jones "whose small building firm hardly seems to do anything right at all" with co-stars David Kelly as 'Wobbly' Ron, "Oscar-Winning Writer" Colin Welland as Geyser and James Wardroper with Debbie Linden and Janine Duvitski. The show is based on the British colloquial use of "cowboy" to describe a workman of doubtful professionalism e.g. a "cowboy builder".
Cowboys
1980
Humorous situations on location with little or no dialogue.
For Amusement Only
1968


