Bernard Atha

Acting

Bernard Atha

Born — Died

1928-08-27 — 2022-10-22

Place of birth

Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

22 titles

Bernard Atha CBE was an actor known for his many appearances in Ken Loach films and various notable Play for Today productions. He also served as a Labour councillor for the Kirkstall ward in Leeds for 57 years (1957-2014) and was once the Lord Mayor of the city. He trained in ballet and law before taking up his career in acting and politics. He died aged 94 on 22nd October 2022.

Known for

Sherlock Holmes poster
8.2

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

Sherlock Holmes

1984

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes poster
10.0

In Victorian London, consulting detective Sherlock Holmes wields not only powers of observation and deduction but also vast knowledge on anything relevant to solve mysteries, including crimes. Cases that would stump most detectives are merely short work for Holmes, who is ably assisted by his friend and colleague Dr John H. Watson.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

1984

Bill Brand poster
7.2

Following the death of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bill Brand is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency.

Bill Brand

1976

Kes poster
7.4

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Kes

1970

The Beiderbecke Affair poster
7.9

Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records but this leads to meeting a 'dazzlingly beautiful platinum blond'.

The Beiderbecke Affair

1985

Film credits

1980s · 3 titles

1970s · 10 titles

Kes poster
7.4

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Kes

1970

Family Life poster
7.2

A young woman, Janice, is living with her restrictive and conservative parents, who lead a dull working-class life and consider their daughter to be “misbehaving” whenever she’s trying to find her own way in life.

Family Life

1971

All Day on the Sands poster
7.0

Mr and Mrs Cooper are staying at a boarding-house in the seaside resort of Morecambe with their small children, Colin and Jennifer. Mr Cooper has just been made redundant, but the family are trying to keep this a secret from the other guests. Also staying at the hotel are Keith and Jo, a young couple on their honeymoon, and an older couple, Mr and Mrs Thornton. Waking early one morning, Colin amuses himself by dangling one of his sister's sandals out of the window on a piece of string. The sandal accidentally lands on a flat roof just outside the window of the honeymooning couple, and his father's now straitened financial circumstances mean Colin has to get it back, by fair means or foul.

All Day on the Sands

1979

There Is a Happy Land poster
NR

Keith Waterhouse's near autobiographical tale about characters from his childhood.

There Is a Happy Land

1974

The Rank and File poster
6.8

Wilkinsons glass-works dominates a Staffordshire town. After a small walkout over pay discrepancies, the workers of the factory vote to go on strike, but they are denied support by their trade union.

The Rank and File

1971

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet poster
8.0

Based on James Herriot's books about life as a 1930s veterinarian in Yorkshire, John Alderson plays the kindly doctor who ministers to animals in this enjoyable family film. Sequel to the 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small.

It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet

1976

The Spongers poster
10.0

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

The Spongers

1978

Kisses at Fifty poster
5.0

A father leaves his grown-up family to move in with his lover in the south, alienating himself from his four children.

Kisses at Fifty

1973

Leeds United! poster
10.0

The true story of a strike in 1970 by female textile-factory workers in Leeds who wanted to be paid the same as their male colleagues, but whose efforts were undermined by the trade union that they belonged to.

Leeds United!

1974

Steps Back poster
NR

When Gerry Broadbent, in search of his roots, takes his fiancée Nita home to Brighouse, they find that the picture is not quite as he painted.

Steps Back

1973

Series credits

Sherlock Holmes poster
8.2

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

Sherlock Holmes

1984

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

All Creatures Great and Small poster
7.8

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.

All Creatures Great and Small

1978

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes poster
10.0

In Victorian London, consulting detective Sherlock Holmes wields not only powers of observation and deduction but also vast knowledge on anything relevant to solve mysteries, including crimes. Cases that would stump most detectives are merely short work for Holmes, who is ably assisted by his friend and colleague Dr John H. Watson.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

1984

Bill Brand poster
7.2

Following the death of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bill Brand is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency.

Bill Brand

1976

The Beiderbecke Affair poster
7.9

Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records but this leads to meeting a 'dazzlingly beautiful platinum blond'.

The Beiderbecke Affair

1985

Pickersgill People poster
NR

Comedy series about the everyday events in a small town in Northern England.

Pickersgill People

1978

Days of Hope poster
7.0

A series of four feature-length episodes following the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926.

Days of Hope

1975