
Acting
Phyllida Law
Born — Died
1932-05-08 — 2026-07-27
Place of birth
Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
90 titles
Phyllida Law OBE (8 May 1932 — 27th July 2026) was a Scottish actress of screen and stage, and the mother of actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson.
Known for
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
8.2From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989
8.0Talented chefs battle it out against the clock, creating delicious dishes in 20 minutes
Ready, Steady, Cook
1994
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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
Film credits
2010s · 6 titles
6.3A landscape gardener is hired by famous architect Le Nôtre to construct the grand gardens at the palace of Versailles. As the two work on the palace, they find themselves drawn to each other and are thrown into rivalries within the court of King Louis XIV.
A Little Chaos
2015
6.3Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren't encouraged to be independent. Posing as a man, so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel, Albert meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.
Albert Nobbs
2011
5.2Brooklyn, New York. After the sudden death of their aunt Isabelle, Vivien and Chloe inherit her historic bakery. Vivien wants to keep up the tradition; Chloe feels that the business needs to be modernized. But when notified that they are about to be evicted, the two do not hesitate to work together to preserve the family legacy.
Bakery in Brooklyn
2016
4.5A businessman gets caught up in an assassination plot when he travels to Cuba.
Three Days in Havana
2014
7.0Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer.
Ways to Live Forever
2010
7.5A day in the life of 70-year-old Arthur, who falls in love with Ruth, a new resident at his retirement home.
Love at First Sight
2010
2000s · 22 titles
6.7Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and his siblings, Nanny McPhee uses mystical powers to instill discipline. And when the children's great-aunt and benefactor, Lady Adelaide Stitch, threatens to separate the kids, the family pulls together under the guidance of Nanny McPhee.
Nanny McPhee
2005
6.7Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved children's book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", struggles for love, happiness and success.
Miss Potter
2006
7.0Raised as a slave, Danny is used to fighting for his survival. In fact, his "master," Bart, thinks of him as a pet and goes as far as leashing him with a collar so they can make money in fight clubs, where Danny is the main contender. When Bart's crew is in a car accident, Danny escapes and meets a blind, kindhearted piano tuner who takes him in and uses music to free the fighter's long-buried heart.
Unleashed
2005
6.4Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.
The Time Machine
2002
6.5Unexpectedly widowed, prim and proper housewife Grace Trevethyn finds herself in dire financial straits when she inherits massive debts her late husband had been accruing for years. Faced with losing her house, she decides to use her talent for horticulture and hatches a plan to grow potent marijuana which can be sold at an astronomical price, thus solving her financial crisis.
Saving Grace
2000
4.5At the height of the Spanish Inquisition, high-ranking noblemen begin dropping like flies, with alarming frequency and unexplained violence. But can local 16th-century sheriff Ruy de Mendoza discern who's responsible when no one wants to cooperate? After all, before Mendoza can even identify the bodies, the crime scenes are mysteriously cleared - and the villagers pretend the murders never happened.
Day of Wrath
2006
5.4A has-been rock star that discovers he has a teenage daughter from a long forgotten love affair.
I'll Be There
2003
5.4Insurance investigator Abraham Holt travels to a tiny town in rural Minnesota to look into a particularly unusual insurance claim stemming from a horrific car accident. As Holt examines the scene of the wreck, it all seems a bit too perfect. And when he interviews Isold Mcbride and her shifty husband, Fred -- the impoverished beneficiaries of the massive, recently initiated life-insurance policy -- he begins to suspect that something is amiss.
A Little Trip to Heaven
2005
6.5Serving as Ludwig van Beethoven's copyist gives a conservatory student access to the composer's musical genius, but also exposes her to his cruelty.
Copying Beethoven
2006
6.1Jane Austen is about to turn 40, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the aging spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with.
Miss Austen Regrets
2008
4.1Tooth is a young, feisty Tooth Fairy, who lives in a world called Fairytopia that has lost its ability to use magic. Fed up with the way most fairies have forgotten about magic, she decides to give away all of its money. When Tooth begins to understand how much trouble she is in, she realizes the only person who can help is the legendary Mrs. C, who disappeared, along with magic over 100 years ago. Teaming up with two human children and a number of fairies, who are living incognito amongst humans she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime. Pursued by the evil Plug, a terrifying fairy hunter and his posse, the race is on to save the world before Christmas, Easter and all the holidays are ruined forever.
Tooth
2004
6.7Comedy drama based on the true story of two British Army dentists who in 1942, eager to see action, go AWOL and invade occupied France on their own.
Two Men Went To War
2002
5.5A New York City oil company troubleshooter is brought to a remote B.C. lake to look for some lost machinery. Cancelling a trip to Disney World with his son, he decides to bring the boy along. They both end up experiencing more excitement than Mickey could ever conjure in Orlando, when they meet up with bad guys and a legendary creature
Mee-Shee: The Water Giant
2005
5.8First love - or first infatuation - overwhelms Indy in Vienna, where he is smitten with the daughter of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Needing emotional guidance, Indy consults Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to discover what love is all about. In Florence, when Indy's mother is equally smitten with Giacomo Puccini, composer of Romantic operas La Boheme and Tosca, Indy must guide his parent safely back to her spouse.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: The Perils of Cupid
2000
6.2A docu-drama portrait of the early-20th-century French author Marcel Proust, based on Alain de Botton's updated analysis of his work as a modern-day self-help guide. Ralph Fiennes plays Proust, with Phyllida Law and Donald Sinden as his contemporaries, while commentators including de Botton, Louis de Bernières and Doris Lessing explain their enthusiasm for his work.
How Proust Can Change Your Life
2000
6.0A mystery hidden for generations. Now the truth will finally be revealed.
Brush with Fate
2003
6.1A student takes a bizarre trip through the Italian Alps after being inspired by a professor's lecture on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony.
Lecture 21
2008
5.3In 1998 former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet visits Britain for medical treatment. On being tipped off, Amnesty International seize the chance to bring to justice a man they insist is guilty of multiple human rights violations. The newly-elected Labour government is initially amenable, and soon Pinochet is under house arrest (albeit in a detached house in leafy suburbia) and awaiting extradition to Spain. However, Amnesty are up against the complexities of British law, the vacillations of Home Secretary Jack Straw, Pinochet's former ally Margaret Thatcher - and the Senator's own vast reserves of cunning.
Pinochet in Suburbia
2006
5.4Two complete strangers, ANNA and STEPHEN, are brought together by chance by an elderly man who waits for his wife on a station platform. Their fateful meeting acts as a catalyst for them to examine and challenge what's going on in their different relationships, and make hard but positive decisions for themselves. If they can change their lives maybe they can meet again.
The Waiting Room
2007
8.0While doing her rounds in the Scottish countryside, Doctor Caroline Lamar comes upon a hitchhiker, and offers him a lift. Young Danish backpacker Mike Hammershoi explains that he is looking for work in the area, and so she points him in the direction of Black's farm, an isolated steading. Francis Black, the owner, who is blind, and lives there with his ailing mother Bella, and enigmatic young wife Rachel, tells Mike he can work in the yard. But put off by the foreboding atmosphere, Mike declines. A chance encounter with Rachel, however, persuades him to stay and settle in. Since the accident that blinded him two years earlier, Francis has become incresingly bitter, and sensing hs young wife's attraction to the stranger, orders him to leave. But rather than force them apart, Mike's imminent departure only serves to bind teh two in a passionate relationship that will ultimately have dark consequences for them all.
Blinded
2004
6.5British Tv Movie Thriller
The Swap
2002
7.0In the half-light of a an old stately home, Samuel Davila and his grandfather Paul, once a revered writer, create schemes to repel the latest in a long line of psychologists come to cure the grandson of his severe agoraphobia: some delicious biscuits with added spice, a refreshing glass of water with added laxative
Mia Sarah
2006
1990s · 12 titles
7.0In this Shakespearean farce, Hero and her groom-to-be, Claudio, team up with Claudio's commanding officer, Don Pedro, the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick and Beatrice -- a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John plots to ruin the wedding.
Much Ado About Nothing
1993
6.6Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.
Emma
1996
6.5It's winter in a small Scottish village near the sea, and multiple lives intersect in a day. Frances has just lost her husband to an early death, so her mother, Elspeth, travels to Frances' house to reconnect with her daughter and grandson, Alex. Meanwhile, old women Chloe and Lily go to a funeral, youngsters Sam and Tom cut class, and Alex gets a crush on tomboy Nita.
The Winter Guest
1997
7.3The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.
Before the Rain
1994
6.1In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Anna Karenina
1997
5.7The shooting of a U.S. senator's wife raises the stakes for kidnappers seeking a hefty ransom for a computer magnate.
Judas Kiss
1998
5.6A young boy and his sister are drawn into one man's obsessive pursuit of his former lover.
I Want You
1998
6.6After inheriting a large country estate from his late father, Peter invites his friends from college: married couple Roger and Mary, the lonely Maggie, fashionable Sarah, and writer Andrew, who brings his American TV star wife, Carol. Sarah's new boyfriend, Brian, also attends. It has been 10 years since college, and they find their lives are very different.
Peter's Friends
1992
6.2Marie is an insecure housewife whose husband, Joe, is having an affair. The two of them take a holiday to rural Scotland, but by sheer bad luck, end up at the hotel Joe uses for his "getaways." There, Marie is told the story of a young boy who drowned in a nearby lake long ago, and finds herself becoming more and more obsessed with his ghost.
The Blue Boy
1994
3.7After their son dies, a Jewish family moves from London to Israel in an attempt to piece their lives back together. The mother finds a way out of her depression through a relationship with a younger man—which doesn't seem to bother her husband. Meanwhile, their daughter begins dating a Palestinian handyman.
The Lost Lover
1999
4.4When her TV star husband Alex decides to divorce her so that he can start a career in politics, newly single mother Maddy goes shoplifting and ends up in jail. Losing custody of her infant child, Maddy hatches a scheme to break out of prison with the assistance of her friend Gillian, who's avoiding the law herself for credit card fraud. Now Maddy has to find the couple who have adopted her son and avoid falling in love with selfish Alex all over again.
Mad Cows
1999
4.0Forty-five-year-old Adrian has been living with his mother Lucy and running their Wiltshire dairy farm all his adult life. When Lucy unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, a rogue's gallery of family members show up at the farm to argue over the execution of Ruth's will. The one object that everyone seems to want, and several people try to steal, is Ruth's valuable Modigliani painting. In the midst of all this confusion over Ruth's death, a mysterious visitor named Ilaria inserts herself onto the scene and has a surprising effect on those gathered.
Milk
1999
1980s · 3 titles
7.3The reign of England's King John is threatened by Philip of France who demands that John's nephew Arthur be placed on the throne. Pragmatic and decisive, King John moves to plactate the French, but there are others who seek disputre his authority.
The Life and Death of King John
1984
8.0A woman is attempting to cope with her son's tragic death when her mother arrives on an ill-timed visit with her own remedies.
Tree of Hands
1989
NRJohn Cleese corporate training video series
Colleagues From Hell
1989
1970s · 5 titles
6.2Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
1973
A thousand years of the gossip, scandals, successes, disasters, eccentricities and cupidity that lie behind the facades of a great city.
The Bristol Entertainment
1971
9.0A quick drink in the buffet before going home. Freddie's nerves are taking a hammering lately; the economy is in dire trouble and who can blame a businessman for the occasional drink? His wife and mistress for a start.
Buffet
1976
A young coal miner's daughter enters the servility of a deeply religious and lonely old aristocratic woman in regional England during the late 1920s, forming a temporary bond of mutual social dependency.
Abide with Me
1976
7.0'The Man' and 'The Woman' regularly meet for an extramarital affair whilst her husband works late. Professing love for both men creates paranoia in The Man who invents a fourth person - a mistress, Evelyn.
Evelyn
1971
Series credits
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
7.5The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997
8.2From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989
8.2From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989
8.0Talented chefs battle it out against the clock, creating delicious dishes in 20 minutes
Ready, Steady, Cook
1994
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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
6.8A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
1979
7.2A detective team apply new techniques to old crimes as they solve cold cases.
Waking the Dead
2001
7.1Series of single made-for-television dramas.
Screen Two
1985
The Alan Titchmarsh Show is a British daytime chat show presented by Alan Titchmarsh. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2007 and currently airs on weekday afternoons. The show's main focus is the "Best of British" theme with many of the shows' segments focusing on fashion, health, nature, cookery and animals.
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
2007
7.9As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
Foyle's War
2002
7.8Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.
Upstairs, Downstairs
1971
6.6Taggart is a Scottish detective television program. The series revolves around a group of detectives initially in the Maryhill CID of Strathclyde Police, though various storylines have happened in other parts of the Greater Glasgow area, and as of the most recent series the team have operated out of the fictional John Street police station across the street from the City Chambers.
Taggart
1983
7.0Anthology series of dramatic works.
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969
7.1Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Rumpole of the Bailey
1975
7.1Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Rumpole of the Bailey
1975
7.0Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
Timeshift
2002
7.1Sarah Jane Smith is a truly remarkable woman who inhabits a world of mystery, danger and wonder; a world where aliens are commonplace and the Earth is under constant threat. A world that Maria Jackson, a seemingly ordinary girl, can only dream of – until she moves in next door. Nothing will ever be ordinary again.
The Sarah Jane Adventures
2007
7.3Archie MacDonald, a young restaurateur is called back to his childhood home of Glenbogle where he is told he is the new Laird of Glenbogle.
Monarch of the Glen
2000
7.0An 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
6.0Dixon of Dock Green was a BBC television series following the activities of police officers at a fictional Metropolitan Police station in the East End of London from 1955 to 1976. Some episodes were later remade as a BBC radio series in 2005 and 2006.
Dixon of Dock Green
1955
6.6Two sisters who set up a London fashion house for society of the early 1920s.
The House of Eliott
1991
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
7.7Hamish Macbeth is a comedy-drama series made by BBC Scotland and first aired in 1995. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton. The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the west coast of Scotland. The titular character was played by Robert Carlyle. It ran for three series from 1995 to 1997, with the first two series having six episodes and the third having eight.
Hamish Macbeth
1995
7.1Looks can be deceiving. Peter Kingdom seems to have everything — a man of some standing in the seaside town of Market Shipborough, he dresses well and has all the trappings of success. Why, then, does he wander along the beach and stare out to sea for hours at a time? Despite Peter's thriving legal practice, he must deal with his dysfunctional family (which includes his unstable sister) and his grief over his missing half-brother and law partner, Simon.
Kingdom
2007
8.2The 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
7.9A British comedy television series with turns of phrase and elaborate wordplay, written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
A Bit of Fry & Laurie
1989
7.0In a land of myth and magic, a forbidden love affair ignites an ancient war between the leprechauns and the trooping fairies. Jack Woods is appointed to restore harmony...but will peace prevail before the unthinkable happens?
The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns
1999
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
7.0Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again was a 1989 TV mini-series based on the Judith Krantz novel, Till We Meet Again. It starred Mia Sara, Bruce Boxleitner, Hugh Grant and Courteney Cox.
Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again
1989
An anthology of 1920s set plays and musicals, transmissioned from 10 September to 10 December 1968 on BBC One.
The Jazz Age
1968
7.7When the Boat Comes In is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 8 January 1976 and 21 April 1981. Taking place between 1919 to 1937, Jack Ford is a veteran of The Great War who returns to his poverty-stricken (fictional) town of Gallowshield in the North East of England. It dramatises the interwar political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, and explores the impact of national and international politics upon Ford and those around him.
When the Boat Comes In
1976
7.2University lecturer Robert Bridge becomes involved in a series of supernatural events surrounding medium Alison Mundy.
Afterlife
2005
Dramatisations of three different women, three different cases—Constance Kent (episodes 1–8), Mary Blandy (9–14), and Adelaide Bartlett (15–22)—all 18th- and 19th-century murderesses.
A Question of Guilt
1980
This is a series of thrillers designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Menace
1970
7.3The Barchester Chronicles is a 1982 BBC television serial produced by Jonathan Powell and dramatised by Alan Plater, based on Anthony Trollope's first two Chronicles of Barsetshire, The Warden (1855) and Barchester Towers (1857). Against the sumptuous background of Peterborough Cathedral and its environs, one is carried into Trollope's world of the intriguing machinations of the clerical establishment of Barchester. Backed by the authenticity of the period detail, the portrayal of all the characters accurately conveys the whole range of human emotions within the stories.
The Barchester Chronicles
1982
That's love! is a British television sitcom about the domestic problems of a young married couple, lawyer Donald and designer Patsy.
That's Love
1988


