Roger Hammond

Acting

Roger Hammond

Born — Died

1936-03-21 — 2012-11-08

Place of birth

Stockport, Cheshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

100 titles

John Roger Hammond was an English character actor who appeared in many films and television series. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he initially read English and later appeared extensively in their drama programme, alongside actors such as Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in LOndon. In 1963, he joined the Arts Theatre Company.

Known for

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

Casualty poster
6.2

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Casualty

1986

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

The Avengers poster
7.8

A quirky spy show of the adventures of eccentrically suave British Agent John Steed and his predominantly female partners. Jonathan Steed - an urbane, proper gentleman spy - teams with various assistants throughout the series' run, including Dr. David Keel, Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King, to repeatedly save the world from diabolical schemes plotted by equally diabolical evil-doers (among them robots and man-eating monsters).

The Avengers

1961

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

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

Film credits

2000s · 12 titles

Keeping Mum poster
6.7

A pastor preoccupied with writing the perfect sermon fails to realize that his wife is having an affair and his children are up to no good.

Keeping Mum

2005

Around the World in 80 Days poster
6.0

A bet pits a British inventor, a Chinese thief and a French artist on a worldwide adventure that they can circle the globe in 80 days.

Around the World in 80 Days

2004

Bedazzled poster
6.1

Elliot Richards, a socially awkward IT worker, is given seven wishes to get the girl of his dreams when he meets a very seductive Satan. The catch: his soul. Some of his wishes include being a 7 foot basketball star, a wealthy, powerful man, and a sensitive caring guy. But, as could be expected, the Devil puts her own little twist on each of his fantasies.

Bedazzled

2000

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj poster
5.1

Taj Mahal Badalandabad leaves Coolidge College behind for the halls of Camford University in England, where he looks to continue his education, and teach an uptight student how to make the most out of her academic career.

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj

2006

A Good Woman poster
6.3

Fleeing 1930s New York and leaving behind a chequered past, the giltzy divorcee Mrs Stella Erlynne travels to Italy's sun-dappled Amalfi coast. Mrs Erlynne's appearance causes a stir amongst the visiting aristocracy. Based on the Oscar Wilde play "Lady Windemere's Fan."

A Good Woman

2004

The Other Boleyn Girl poster
7.1

Based on the controversial novel by Philippa Gregory, "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a fictionalised account of the life of Lady Mary Boleyn who becomes mistress to England's king, Henry VIII, before being ousted by her younger sister, Anne. Mary leaves the Court to marry a commoner, but returns when Anne embarks on a reckless policy to save herself from ruin.

The Other Boleyn Girl

2003

Possession poster
6.0

Maud Bailey, a brilliant English academic, is researching the life and work of poet Christabel La Motte. Roland Michell is an American scholar in London to study Randolph Henry Ash, now best-known for a collection of poems dedicated to his wife. When Maud and Roland discover a cache of love letters that appear to be from Ash to La Motte, they follow a trail of clues across England, echoing the journey of the couple over a century earlier.

Possession

2002

Up at the Villa poster
5.3

Superficial people are revealed and drastically changed by circumstance or luck in this a tale of death, seduction, blackmail and theft among British and Americans in Florence in the turbulent days just before World War II.

Up at the Villa

2000

Nature Unleashed:  Avalanche poster
3.8

It begins on a glacier nestled on a frozen peak high in the wild Ural Mountains of Russia, kissed by clouds, the top of the world. A lonely, forbidding place, it's home to THOM CUSSLER and brother, JOCK, a pair of transplanted westerners seeking their fortune in Russia's new capitalist economy. They run a hard-luck snowmobile tour business that takes adventurous winter tourists up the mountains to experience the ultimate extreme winter thrill. During one such excursion, a massive ledge of snow at the top of the ridge suddenly collapses and an avalanche crashes down! Only the quick thinking and expert driving of Thom and Jock saves them. The tiny village of Dubroz, nestled far below, is not so lucky. Avalanche sirens wail, but the panicked villagers barely have time to act as the avalanche crashes down! A wall of snow smashes into one end of the village, blasting-in windows, collapsing and burying buildings... Written by GFT Entertainment

Nature Unleashed: Avalanche

2004

Victoria & Albert poster
7.6

The passionate love story that was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's lengthy marriage. Beginning in 1837, the year of King William IV's death and 18-year-old Victoria's ascension to the throne, the series charts the tumultuous period in 19th Century England where Victoria comes to terms with the enormous duties that lay ahead of her, while also falling deeply in love with her beloved Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The marriage and birth of their nine children are featured, as is Albert's frustration by the inactivity he experienced in the early years of his role as Prince Consort.

Victoria & Albert

2001

A Harlot's Progress poster
4.7

Drama looking at artist William Hogarth and his relationship with the prostitute that inspired his most famous piece.

A Harlot's Progress

2006

No artwork available
9.0

The mystery surrounding the disappearance 12 year-old King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York, has been the cause of speculation and fascination for over five centuries. In 1491, eight years after the Princes in the Tower were presumed murdered, a young man told an astonished world that he was Richard, back to claim the throne of England.

Princes in the Tower

2005

1990s · 19 titles

Richard III poster
6.8

Having helped his brother King Edward IV take the throne of England, the jealous hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots to seize power for himself. Masterfully deceiving and plotting against nearly everyone in the royal court, including his eventual wife, Lady Anne, and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, Richard orchestrates a bloody rise to power before finding all his gains jeopardized by those he betrayed.

Richard III

1995

A Christmas Carol poster
7.0

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

A Christmas Carol

1999

Orlando poster
7.0

England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.

Orlando

1992

Jesus poster
6.8

Jesus, a carpenter living a simple life, discovers his destiny as the biblical Messiah.

Jesus

1999

Persuasion poster
7.2

In early 19th-century England, dire financial straits reacquaint the aristocratic Anne Elliot with her wealthy ex-fiance Frederick Wentworth. The two must choose between either putting the past behind them or listening to their hearts.

Persuasion

1995

The Madness of King George poster
6.8

Aging King George III of England is exhibiting signs of madness, a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confusion and near-violent outbursts of temper, his hapless doctors attempt the ineffectual cures of the day. Meanwhile, Queen Charlotte and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger attempt to prevent the king's political enemies, led by the Prince of Wales, from usurping the throne.

The Madness of King George

1994

Solomon poster
6.8

David, now an old man, is still king of Israel. Among his sons, the ambitious Adonijah and the clever Solomon, fierce rivals, since both are prospective heirs to the throne and only one can be.

Solomon

1997

David poster
6.6

A distinguished military leader whose reign was touched by great scandal, shocking betrayals and rousing victories. A simple shepherd boy chosen to be king, under the watchful eyes of prophet Samuel.

David

1997

Doomsday Gun poster
5.8

Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns (very large long range guns capable of shooting at ranges more than 100 miles). When an operational plan by the CIA to export sanctioned arms to apartheid-South Africa through him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released, and moved to Belgium to start a subsidiary, of which a major project was to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles.

Doomsday Gun

1994

As You Like It poster
6.0

Hiding out in an industrial wasteland from the murderous wrath of a regional ruler, a woman, disguised as a boy, gives wooing lessons to the edgy lad who proclaims he loves her.

As You Like It

1992

Edward II poster
6.3

England, 14th century. King Edward II falls in love with Piers Gaveston, a young man of humble origins, whom he honors with favors and titles of nobility. The cold and jealous Queen Isabella conspires with the evil Mortimer to get rid of Gaveston, overthrow her husband and take power…

Edward II

1991

Good King Wenceslas poster
4.4

Based upon the true story that inpired the Christmas carol about a young king's care for his people.

Good King Wenceslas

1994

Uncle Vanya poster
7.0

Vanya is a bitter, sarcastic man, obsessed with his wasted years and what might have been. He has spent his life toiling for the benefit of the scholar, Serabryakov, who has turned out to be a charlatan. To make matters worse, Vanya has fallen in love with Serabryakov's beautiful, young, new wife, who does not return his ardor.

Uncle Vanya

1991

Sixth Happiness poster
4.8

Waris Hussein’s acclaimed drama is based on the autobiography of Firdaus Kanga, who stars in the lead role of Brit, a young man born with brittle bone disease, which causes him to have never grown beyond four feet tall. The film follows his sexual awakening whilst his family simultaneously disintegrates all around him. An extremely moving drama confronting stereotypes around disability, sexuality and race, featuring a powerhouse performance from Kanga.

Sixth Happiness

1997

The Clandestine Marriage poster
7.0

A period film, set around an English country house whose owners want to arrange a marriage of convenience between their elder daughter and an aristocratic heir of a hard-up noble family.

The Clandestine Marriage

1999

The Tichborne Claimant poster
8.7

In the late 19th century, Lord Tichborne, the ninth richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answer's Bogle's inquiries claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter succesfully pass himself off to friends, family and the courts. As the claimant returns to England to continue his charade, enough people confirm his identity to make both the claimant and Bogle believe that he just might be the rightful heir after all.

The Tichborne Claimant

1999

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia poster
6.3

In 1919, the great English military man T. E. Lawrence tries to help Emir Feisal, ruler of Arabia, retain his political power during the Conference of Peace in Paris.

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia

1992

No artwork available
8.0

A costume drama / satire about financial skull-duggery, and confidence tricksters in both the upper and lower classes in Victorian London. A working class man impersonates a lord who is supposedly very rich and a financial wizard. As such he is invited to all the best peoples' parties.

The Fool

1990

Old Flames poster
NR

Daniel is an obeying and high-flying barrister with the good life on his side. Nathaniel Quass is a rich and bizarre recluse, generous, obsessed and sad. This reluctant pair are caught up in an alliance againstu an ingenious conspiracy which threatens both of their lives.

Old Flames

1990

1980s · 8 titles

Morons from Outer Space poster
4.9

The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refueling station. On board are a group of four aliens, Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian. During a particularly tedious period of their stay at the station, the other three begin playing with the ship’s controls while Bernard is outside playing spaceball. They accidentally disconnect his part of the ship, leaving him stranded while they crash into a large blue planet close by...

Morons from Outer Space

1985

Little Dorrit poster
6.4

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

Little Dorrit

1987

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead poster
7.0

A warp ellipse draws the TARDIS off course. The Fifth Doctor's companions are separated from him not in space, but in time, and he has to deal with a treacherous schoolboy named Turlough. But why does the Doctor's old friend, the Brigadier, not remember him at all?

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead

1983

An Englishman Abroad poster
6.1

Actress Coral Browne travels to Moscow, and meets a mysterious Englishman. Turns out he's the notorious spy, Guy Burgess. Based on a true story, with Ms. Browne playing herself.

An Englishman Abroad

1983

The Insurance Man poster
5.9

Franz, a young man, works in a dye factory in Prague. One day he notices a rash-like eczema, growing on his hands. All attempts to treat it with ointment fail, and the rash gradually spreads over his body. After complaining to the management he is laid off work; his relationship with his fiancee is affected. In an attempt to get compensation from his former employers he looks to insurance firm Assicurazion Generali, where he encounters an enigmatic clerk called Kafka.

The Insurance Man

1986

Fellow Traveller poster
4.2

In the Golden Age of Hollywood, two men had it all; one was a top screenwriter, the other a film idol. But when the witch hunts of McCarthyism swept into Tinseltown, it drove one out of the country and the other to suicide.

Fellow Traveller

1989

Aubrey poster
NR

A biographical portrait of pen-and-ink artist, Aubrey Beardsley.

Aubrey

1982

Foreign Body poster
4.6

Banerjee stars as Ram Das, a jobless Indian man who, tired of life in Calcutta, steals money from his father in order to afford a passage to Britain and while there, falls in love with a white woman.

Foreign Body

1986

1970s · 13 titles

Because of the Cats poster
5.3

A gang of six wealthy, well-dressed and well-spoken hoodlums break into a married couple's house and rape the wife while forcing the husband to watch. Thus begins a dogged investigation by a determined detective who quickly finds that their cult-like solidarity can be a serious obstacle to breaking them.

Because of the Cats

1973

Royal Flash poster
5.9

Cowardly rogue Harry Flashman's (Malcolm McDowell) schemes to gain entry to the royal circles of 19th-century Europe go nowhere until he meets a pair of devious nobles with their own agenda. At their urging, Flashman agrees to re-create himself as a bogus Prussian nobleman to woo a beautiful duchess. But the half-baked plan quickly comes unraveled, and he's soon on the run from several new enemies who are all calling for the rapscallion's head.

Royal Flash

1975

Who's Who poster
6.3

Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife April, who raises cats; youthful and pretentious friends Nigel, Giles, and Anthony, who gather for a wine-soaked dinner party with the chatty and risque Samantha and the mousy Caroline; the plummy Lord and Lady Crouchurst, in a spot of bother needing the help of Francis, a senior partner, to assist with the family's cash flow. Alan comes home from work to find Mr. Shakespeare doing a photo shoot of one of April's cats and a wealthy stranger, Miss Hunt, waiting to purchase one. His instincts for sycophantic palaver kick in.

Who's Who

1979

Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill poster
8.0

Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series.

Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill

1974

The Pied Piper poster
5.9

Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the town of rats for the fee. The Mayor agrees, then renigs. In the morning, the plague, the Jew's trial, and the Piper's revenge come at once.

The Pied Piper

1972

Renoir, My Father poster
NR

A play about the life and work of the artist Auguste Renoir, based on the book by his film director son, Jean Renoir.

Renoir, My Father

1978

Queen Kong poster
3.5

A female film crew journeys to Africa where a giant ape, Queen Kong, falls in love with the crew's male star.

Queen Kong

1976

Sutherland's Law poster
9.0

Alec Duthie arrives in Glendoran as depute to Sutherland and uncovers the truth about a death at sea.

Sutherland's Law

1972

Edna: The Inebriate Woman poster
NR

A British play about homelessness by Jeremy Sandford, writer of "Cathy Come Home", first broadcast as a BBC Play For Today. It details the deterioration of Edna, a homeless alcoholic and was made at a time when vagrancy was still a criminal offence.

Edna: The Inebriate Woman

1971

No artwork available
NR

Ben Spray is a fantasist who tries to impress people with outrageous tales of his life. His girlfriend's flatmate, Louise asks him come to a Bonfire Party, exposing himself as the fool but she is lonely and desperate which scares him.

Ben Spray

1972

The Hunchback of Notre Dame poster
6.2

TV-movie version of the Victor Hugo novel.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1976

O Fat White Woman poster
9.0

The wife of a public school head becomes gradually aware that her husband has been physically abusing his pupils. Written by the master of late-middle-age morality plays, William Trevor.

O Fat White Woman

1971

Private Road poster
6.1

Receptionist Anne’s new relationship with nascent writer Peter is opening her eyes to a new lifestyle, one far removed from her comfortable middle-class background.

Private Road

1971

1960s · 6 titles

Series credits

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

Doctor Who poster
7.9

The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

Doctor Who

1963

Casualty poster
6.2

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Casualty

1986

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

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

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

The Avengers poster
7.8

A quirky spy show of the adventures of eccentrically suave British Agent John Steed and his predominantly female partners. Jonathan Steed - an urbane, proper gentleman spy - teams with various assistants throughout the series' run, including Dr. David Keel, Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King, to repeatedly save the world from diabolical schemes plotted by equally diabolical evil-doers (among them robots and man-eating monsters).

The Avengers

1961

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

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

Rome poster
8.2

A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.

Rome

2005

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

No Hiding Place poster
4.8

No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.

No Hiding Place

1959

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Kavanagh Q.C. poster
7.3

John Thaw dons the silks as barrister James Kavanagh Q.C., one of the most highly respected criminal advocates in London, commanding admiration from colleagues and opponents alike. However, all this has come at a price as his dedication to work has taken its toll on his private life… Going beyond traditional courtroom dramas, “Kavanagh Q.C.” uncovers the pressures of legal battles and the problems of defining the truth, providing a compelling representation of the euphoric ups and costly downs of success and failure in the legal world.

Kavanagh Q.C.

1995

The Sweeney poster
8.1

Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.

The Sweeney

1975

Performance poster
6.3

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

Performance

1991

Drop the Dead Donkey poster
7.0

A sitcom set in the offices of "GlobeLink News" after its acquisition by media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant. Led by editor George Dent, the staff of GlobeLink battle to maintain the company as a serious news organization against Sir Roysten's right-hand man, Gus Hedges, who wants to make the show more sensationalist and suppress stories that might harm Roysten's business empire.

Drop the Dead Donkey

1990

Lovejoy poster
7.4

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.

Lovejoy

1986

BBC2 Play of the Week poster
7.0

An 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

Lady Chatterley poster
6.3

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

Lady Chatterley

1993

The Onedin Line poster
7.0

The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this central theme are the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner, shop owner Robert, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore. The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steam ships. It shows the role that ships played in affairs like international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.

The Onedin Line

1971

The Expert poster
9.0

The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.

The Expert

1968

Crossbow poster
6.3

Crossbow follows the adventures of William Tell and takes place in the 14th-century in Switzerland. William Tell and his son are imprisoned by the tyrannical Gessler. As Governor of Austria, Gessler plans to stop the Swiss uprising. Having split the apple on his son's head with his crossbow, much to Gessler's chagrin, there is no stopping William Tell's legendary strength and skill.

Crossbow

1987

Dramarama poster
7.2

Dramarama is the name of a British children's anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. It tended to feature drama of a science fiction or supernatural bent. The series was created by Anna Home, then head of children's and youth programming at TVS, however production responsibilities were divided amongst most of the regional ITV franchise holders. Thus, each episode was in practice a one-off production with its own cast and crew, up to and including the executive producer. Dramarama was largely a place for new talent to prove themselves and was a launching pad for the likes of Anthony Horowitz, Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor, Janice Hally, Tony Kearney, David Tennant and Ann Marie Di Mambro. It was one of Dennis Spooner's last credits. One of Dramarama's episodes, "Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest", gained so much popularity that it was turned in to its own series the following year. It starred Lee Ross and was based around a large foster home. The episode "Blackbird Singing In The Dead of Night" was developed by Granada into the TV series Children's Ward. It was also repeated for the first time since its original broadcast on 5 January 2013, during CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend. The Series 7 episode "Back To Front" – notable for featuring a mirror image of the Yorkshire Television logo card at the end – was repeated on 6 January 2013, again as part of CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend.

Dramarama

1983

The Duchess of Duke Street poster
8.0

In Victorian London, Louisa Leyton works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietress of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St James's.

The Duchess of Duke Street

1976

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

One Foot in the Grave poster
7.7

One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series. The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.

One Foot in the Grave

1990

Fall of Eagles poster
7.0

"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs).

Fall of Eagles

1974

The Man in Room 17 poster
6.2

The Man in Room 17 is a British television series which ran for two seasons in the mid-1960s, produced by the Northern ITV franchise, Granada Television. Key to the series' success was the involvement of writer/producer Robin Chapman. The show was set in Room 17 of the Department of Social Research, where former wartime agent-turned-criminologist Edwin Oldenshaw solved difficult police cases through theory and discussions with his assistants. The novelty of the series was that Oldenshaw and his colleagues never needed to leave their office in order to resolve cases, preferring to spend their time playing the Japanese board game of Go. They simply provided their prognosis and left the police to do the cleaning up. Different directors were often appointed to film the Room 17 and outside-world scenes independently, to maintain a sense of distance between the two worlds.

The Man in Room 17

1965

Campion poster
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

Arabian Nights poster
6.8

Targeted for assassination by his first wife and his evil brother, a young sultan must marry by the next full moon or he will lose his kingdom. His uncertainty over his newfound bride causes her to stall the sultan with a series of fantastic stories to ease the tension and stall her impending execution.

Arabian Nights

2000

Catweazle poster
7.5

A medieval wizard (though not a very good one) Catweazle is transported to the modern age... A British television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for London Weekend Television under the LWI banner, and screened in the UK on ITV in 1970. A second season in 1971 was directed by David Reid and David Lane. Both series had thirteen episodes each, with Geoffrey Bayldon playing the leading role. The series was broadcast in Ireland, Britain, Gibraltar, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Czechoslovakia, Nicaragua and Quebec. The first episode is available to view in full at the BFI Screenonline site.

Catweazle

1970

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

Big Deal poster
7.2

The ups and downs of small time London gambler Robby Box, and the effect that his poker addiction has on his long suffering girlfriend Jan Oliver and family.

Big Deal

1984

Village Hall poster
8.0

Village Hall is an anthology drama series produced by Granada between 1974–75. It is entirely set in a village hall, with each episode highlighting a different use to which the space is put by locals.

Village Hall

1974

Hadleigh poster
7.8

Hadleigh was a British television series made by Yorkshire Television which originally ran from 1969 to 1976. Developed by Robert Barr, it was a sequel to the writer's earlier Gazette for the same company. The theme music was composed by Alan Moorhouse and, from series 3, Tony Hatch. James Hadleigh played by Gerald Harper, was "the perfect squire, paternalistically careful of his tenantry's welfare, beloved in the village, respected in the council." A "knight in a shining white Aston Martin V8, he sets about correcting local injustices." His wife, from a lower-class background, was played by Hilary Dwyer. The series attracted around 17 million viewers at its peak.

Hadleigh

1969

Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill poster
7.2

Lee Remick stars as Jennie Jerome, born in the United States in 1845, who eventually became Lady Randolph Churchill, and gave birth to Sir Winston Churchill in this seven-part, seven-hour biographical mini-series.

Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill

1974

Home to Roost poster
6.5

Home to Roost is a British television sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television in the 1980s. Written by Eric Chappell, it starred John Thaw as Henry Willows and Reece Dinsdale as his 18-year-old son Matthew. The premise is that Henry Willows is forty-something, who has been divorced from his wife for seven years and is perfectly happy living alone in London. That is, until his youngest child, Matthew arrives to live with him, after being thrown out by his mother. The plots generally revolved around Henry's annoyance at having his solitude disturbed, and the age gap clash. Henry employed two cleaners throughout the show's life; first Enid Thompson, and, in the third season, Fiona Fennell.

Home to Roost

1985

Miss Marple: Nemesis poster
7.4

Mr Jason Rafiel seeks Miss Marple's help to solve a crime but he does gives her any details. In fact, he can't be sure that a crime was committed at all.

Miss Marple: Nemesis

1987

Oxbridge Blues poster
7.0

An anthology series of seven linked plays about the lives of people connected with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Oxbridge Blues

1984