Robin Ellis

Acting

Robin Ellis

Born

1942-01-08 (84)

Place of birth

Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

55 titles

Anthony Robin Ellis (born 8 January 1942) is a British actor and cookery book writer best known for his role as Captain Ross Poldark in the 29 episodes of the 1975 BBC classic series Poldark, adapted from a series of books by the British author Winston Graham. He also appeared in Fawlty Towers, Cluedo, The Good Soldier (an adaptation of the Ford Madox Ford novel), Elizabeth R (playing Essex), The Moonstone, Bel Ami, Sense and Sensibility (which also featured Clive Francis), The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, She Loves Me (in which he sings) and Blue Remembered Hills (written by Dennis Potter). In 2015–17 and 2019 he appeared in the Poldark series remake as Reverend Halse.

Known for

Film credits

1990s · 6 titles

The Negotiator poster
9.0

A serious heart condition puts an end to Charlie King's job as a "street copper", but he refuses the offer of a desk job and a promotion. When a secret team of negotiators approaches him with the offer of a job, he's intrigued, but who is he dealing with?

The Negotiator

1994

The Trial of Lord Lucan poster
6.0

An imagined trial of a man who, in 1974 London, is thought to have killed a woman he mistook for his wife in order to regain custody of his children. He disappeared the day after the killing and was never found.

The Trial of Lord Lucan

1994

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story poster
7.0

Examination of the events that led to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story

1990

The Death of Yugoslavia poster
9.5

History of the political events and the wars which broke the former state of Yugoslavia into several nations and caused an international political and humanitarian crisis. Using interviews with all the major participants and archive footage of the events, the series impressively performed the double feat of making understandable something which had appeared intractable and of producing 'immediate' history.

The Death of Yugoslavia

1995

Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies poster
NR

The UK series Equinox brings us this investigation of a mystery that is baffling Egyptologists. The case calls into question whole areas of accepted scientific fact from botany, through chemistry to archaeology. In 1992, routine tests on a mummy in a Munich museum revealed high body levels of cocaine and nicotine. But such substances were not available in ancient Egypt, coming as they do from the Americas – not, apparently, to be “discovered” for thousands of years after the passing of the Egyptian dynasties. Are the mummies fakes; were the substances from plants that have since disappeared or were there, in fact, trade routes between Egypt and South America that predate accepted chronology?

Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies

1996

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies

1996

1970s · 7 titles

Blue Remembered Hills poster
7.3

On an idyllic summer afternoon in the summer of 1943, a group of children play in the West Country hills, fields and forests. With no adults around, they indulge in spontaneous games and horseplay - sometimes echoing the distant war, at other times revealing their own insecurities and petty vindictiveness.

Blue Remembered Hills

1979

The Europeans poster
5.6

An adaptation of Henry James' novel about the Countess Eugenia Münster and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, Eugenia hopes to make an advantageous marriage with a wealthy cousin. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.

The Europeans

1979

The Comedy of Errors poster
8.6

The Royal Shakespeare Company act (and sing and dance!) Shakespeare's play about two sets of identical twins, separated at birth and brought together by circumstance.

The Comedy of Errors

1978

No artwork available
NR

Set in the 19th-century in France Georges Duroy cynically exploits women and his position working as a journalist to try and gain power.

Bel Ami

1971

She Loves Me poster
8.8

BBC production of the 1963 Broadway musical which was based on Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 film "The Shop Around The Corner."

She Loves Me

1979

Wednesday's Child poster
NR

A doctor takes an attractive nurse into his home to help his wife through her convalescence.

Wednesday's Child

1970

No artwork available
4.0

A touring company of actors arriving at a theatre, rehearsing and preparing a performance of a revue based on the book 'Knots' by R.D. Laing, devised by Edward Petherbridge

Knots

1975

Series credits

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play 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

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

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

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

Sherlock Holmes poster
8.2

Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, uses his abilities to take on cases by private clients and those that the Scotland Yard are unable to solve.

Sherlock Holmes

1984

Poldark poster
7.8

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

Poldark

2015

Wallander poster
6.9

Detective Kurt Wallander solves gruesome complex crimes in the city of Ystad, Sweden.

Wallander

2005

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes poster
7.5

An anthology series produced by Thames Television, comprised of short mystery, suspense or crime adaptations featuring, as the title suggests, detectives who were literary contemporaries of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

1971

Fawlty Towers poster
8.3

Owner 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

Timewatch poster
6.9

Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding.

Timewatch

1982

New Scotland Yard poster
6.3

New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for ITV from 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day.

New Scotland Yard

1972

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

The Main Chance poster
8.2

The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV between 1969,1970,1972 and 1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds.

The Main Chance

1969

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

Poldark poster
6.9

Poldark is a television drama based on Winston Graham's novels of the same title. It was first transmitted on BBC Two across two seasons between 1975 and 1977. The adaptation covered all seven novels (of the eventual twelve) published up to the time. In late 18th-century Cornwall, Ross Poldark loses his fiancée, well-bred beauty Elizabeth, to his cousin Francis. He ends up marrying his servant, Demelza Carne, but his passion for Elizabeth simmers on for years. Meanwhile, he strives to make his derelict copper mines a success. Life is hard, smuggling is rife, and Ross finds himself taking the side of the underclass against the ruthless behaviour of his enemies, the greedy Warleggan clan.

Poldark

1975

The Frighteners poster
8.5

A horror anthology series, with each episode featuring a different eerie tale.

The Frighteners

1972

Elizabeth R poster
7.5

This historical mini-series documents the reign of Elizabeth I with each episode focusing on one dramatic period in the lengthy reign of the Virgin Queen, including her ascension to the throne, her various marital intrigues, her problems with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada.

Elizabeth R

1971

Cluedo poster
6.7

Cluedo was a UK television game show based on the board game of the same name. Each week, a reenactment of the murder at the stately home Arlington Grange of a visiting guest was played and, through a combination of interrogating the suspects and deduction, celebrity guests had to discover who committed the murder, which of six weapons and in which room it was committed, whilst viewers were invited to play along at home.

Cluedo

1990

The Moonstone poster
8.0

A priceless jewel, originally plundered from a Hindu shrine, is presented to Rachel Verinder on her 18th birthday. The jewel goes missing and suspicion falls over the household, threatening to destroy someone close to Rachel's heart.

The Moonstone

1972

No artwork available
9.0

An anthology of six standalone plays presented relationships either beginning or ending in love – but the outcome was not always marriage (or happiness). A second series of five episodes aired in 1986.

Love and Marriage

1984

Shadows of Fear poster
6.7

Anthology series in which characters find themselves in weird and scary situations. Not evoked by the supernatural but by other people.

Shadows of Fear

1970

No artwork available
NR

Series of plays examining various aspects of contemporary woman at different ages. The theme song, sung by Charles Aznavour, was a big hit in the summer of 1974.

Seven Faces of Woman

1974

The Guardians poster
6.0

In a near-future 1980s, England is under autocratic rule by a government that uses a paramilitary force known as The Guardians to maintain control, while a fragmented resistance group tries to provoke the state into revealing its true brutality.

The Guardians

1971

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

No artwork available
NR

Anthology series of plays about significant incidents in the lives of famous people.

Biography

1970

The Death of Yugoslavia poster
7.4

The Death of Yugoslavia is a BAFTA-award winning BBC documentary series first broadcast in 1995. It covers the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. It is notable in its combination of never-before-seen archive footage interspersed with interviews of most of the main players in the conflict, including Slobodan Milošević, the then President of Serbia. Norma Percy won the 1996 BAFTA TV Award for 'Best Factual Series' for the documentary. However, it has been argued that it presents a potentially slightly biased point-of-view; for instance during the trial of Milošević before the ICTY in The Hague, Judge Bonomy called the nature of much of the commentary "tendentious" (partisan).

The Death of Yugoslavia

1995

No artwork available
10.0

Georges Duroy cynically exploits women - and his position as a journalist - to gain power in 19th-century France.

Bel Ami

1971

A Dark Adapted Eye poster
8.0

This psychological mystery/thriller, adapted from Ruth Rendell's novel of the same name, depicts a family on the edge. Two sisters, the elder obsessive Vera, and the younger, manipulative Eden, cut a path of jealousy, murder and revenge that leads to the destruction of their entire family.

A Dark Adapted Eye

1994

Sense and Sensibility poster
6.3

A story of two sisters attempting to find happiness in the tightly structured society of 18th century England. Elinor, disciplined, restrained and very conscious of the manners of the day, represents sense. Outspoken, impetuous, emotional Marianne represents sensibility.

Sense and Sensibility

1971

The Inside Man poster
NR

The Inside Man, produced by Derek Granger and David Cunliffe, offers more of a reimagining than a direct replacement of its predecessor's concept. The series features Frederick Jaeger as Dr. James Austen, a psychiatrist and criminologist who alternates between working for Basil Henson's character, Dawnay, from "the Department," and taking on cases from private clients. Petra Davies plays Sarah Worth, Austen's dependable 'girl Friday.' In the third episode, *Crosscheck*, Robin Ellis joins the cast as Michael Barnett, a spy whom the Department insists Austen should approve. However, every detail about Barnett is an obvious fabrication, adding layers of intrigue to the storyline.

The Inside Man

1969

End of Empire poster
NR

Chronicling the last days of British rule around the globe, through the remarkably candid reminiscences of both colonizers and the colonized.

End of Empire

1985

No artwork available
10.0

Capstick's Law is a British television drama series that originally aired in 1989. Produced by Granada Television for the ITV network, it centered around a firm of solicitors in the 1950s.

Capstick's Law

1989

The Fall of Milosevic poster
7.0

The BBC documentary made as a sequel to the series "The Death Of Yugoslavia" focusing on the Kosovo crisis and the collapse of the Milosevic regime.

The Fall of Milosevic

2001

No artwork available
NR

Love story adapted from the novel by Margaret Drabble.

The Waterfall

1980