Acting

Joan Heal

Born — Died

1922-10-17 — 1998-04-12

Place of birth

Somerset, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

17 titles

IMDb profile

Known for

7.4

Hancock's Half Hour is a BBC television comedy series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock with Sid James. The final series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development.

Hancock's Half Hour

1956

6.5

Campion is a television show made by the BBC, adapting the Albert Campion mystery novels written by Margery Allingham. Two series were made, in 1989 and 1990, starring Peter Davison as Campion, Brian Glover as his manservant Magersfontein Lugg and Andrew Burt as his policeman friend Stanislaus Oates. A total of eight novels were adapted, four in each series, each of which was originally broadcast as two separate hour-long episodes. Peter Davison sang the title music for the first series himself; in the second series, it was replaced with an instrumental version.

Campion

1989

No artwork available

Features some of the talent who were in vogue before the new broom of Beyond the Fringe swept through comedy.

Before the Fringe

1967

4.4

Hold the Dream is a two-part 1987 television serial based on Barbara Taylor Bradford's 1985 novel of the same name, a sequel to the 1984 miniseries A Woman of Substance. Deborah Kerr reprises her role of Emma Harte, with Jenny Seagrove, who played the young Emma, taking the lead role as Paula Fairley. Paula Fairley, now head of the Harte chain of department stores, has taken on the burden of preserving Emma's legacy. However, she suffers dissent within her extended family, in particular from her devious cousin Jonathan Ainsley. In the United Kingdom, the series aired in four one-hour episodes, although it was initially created as two two-hour parts.

Hold the Dream

1987

6.7

In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.

Let Him Have It

1991

6.3

An amoral, psychotic playboy incites three men who are down on their luck to commit a mail van robbery, which goes badly wrong.

The Good Die Young

1954

Film credits

1990s · 3 titles

6.7

Let Him Have It

1991

5.9

Henry Jekyll is a troubled man. His wife died of pneumonia. He wants his sister-in-law, but her father forbids any contact. And his experiments into the dual nature of man have yielded a personality-splitting drug that he has tested on himself, changing him into an uninhibited brute who seeks violent and undignified pleasures. Jekyll quickly becomes addicted to the sordid freedom induced by the drug. He can commit the most enjoyably revolting deeds, then return to his laboratory and use an antidote to change back to his original form, so that his lofty persona remains untarnished.

Jekyll & Hyde

1990

A youth abandoned by his family joins a group of homeless people.

Sweet Nothing

1990

1960s · 4 titles

6.9

In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer.

Make Mine Mink

1960

6.4

After 10 years of failure a bumbling vet finally graduates and takes on his own practice.

In the Doghouse

1962

7.0

A farcical comedy about a con-man and a girl reporter who find romance while the former is planning a coup at a Swedish dowager's expense.

Follow That Man

1961

6.5

Mike Billing's newspaper series about quasi-illegal gambling parties in Mayfair have so far been works more of imagination than genuine journalism. But when he and his columnist girlfriend, Jenny Drew, finally manage to infiltrate one of them, it leads quickly to trouble. The party's organiser is found murdered the next morning, and a number of suspects begin to emerge. But which of them killed Lucky Lewis?

Dead Lucky

1960

1950s · 6 titles

6.3

An amoral, psychotic playboy incites three men who are down on their luck to commit a mail van robbery, which goes badly wrong.

The Good Die Young

1954

6.3

On the first night of his London assignment, newsagency reporter John Desmonmd becomes heavily involved with enigmatic Anna Ray. The affair ends when she is shot struggling for a gun she has pulled on him. This is only the start of his troubles, as Anna worked for a criminal organisation who know Desmond has now got her valuable contacts list.

Tiger by the Tail

1955

6.1

A man hypnotizes a young woman into being an opera singer.

Svengali

1954

6.1

Rich bachelor B.G. Bruno, the head of a successful greeting-card company in Scotland, is essentially a kind man but respectable to the point of stodginess and extreme stuffiness. An American troupe visiting Edinburgh wants to produce a musical in town but has trouble getting financiers. Bruno meets several leading ladies; through a misunderstanding, he doesn't correct their impression that he's a newspaper reporter.