
Acting
John Stratton
Born — Died
1925-11-07 — 1991-10-25
Place of birth
Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
63 titles
Known for
7.9The 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
7.8A 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
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
5.2An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
The Wednesday Play
1964
7.3Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Z-Cars
1962
7.6The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
The Professionals
1977
Film credits
1990s · 2 titles
9.0A new government takes power with a drastically reduced majority. But the ambitious young Home Secretary has a plan to bring the legal establishment to heel and bypass Parliament altogether. Anthony Andrews says of writer and barrister John Cooper (who wrote the ITV series The Advocates): "John is writing about a world he knows intimately. It is a most original and exciting screenplay and extremely prescient in view of the current controversies surrounding the judiciary." Producer Simon Passmore Director Jim Goddard
The Law Lord
1992
8.0A tramp called Raymond finds his life changes radically when he gets his hands on a sought-after film script.
Rik Mayall Presents: Dirty Old Town
1995
1980s · 2 titles
6.8Based on a play, the story details the dramatic negotiations between UK, France, Poland, Nazi-Germany and USSR from the day Czechoslovakia fell, until Britain's declaration of war on Germany caused by Hitler's invasion of Poland.
Countdown to War
1989
7.3Suddenly gripped by a memory of being executed in his second incarnation, the Sixth Doctor travels to Seville to save his past self and ensure his own existence in his present.
Doctor Who: The Two Doctors
1985
1970s · 7 titles
6.1Dr Simon Helder, sentenced to an insane asylum for crimes against humanity, recognises its director as the brilliant Baron Frankenstein, the man whose work he had been trying to emulate before his imprisonment. Frankenstein utilises Helder's medical knowledge for a project he has been working on for some time. He is assembling a man from vital organs extracted from various inmates in the asylum. And the Baron will resort to murder to acquire the perfect specimens for his most ambitious project ever.
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
1974
Peg Woffington and David Garrick have an affair while appearing in stage in Drury Lane.
Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Woffington
1975
Jennifer visiting her Dad living on a Mediterranean Island, finds his way of life is now being threatened by local politics.
Anywhere but England
1972
5.5A BBC dramatization of the Pendle witch trials of Lancashire, England that occurred in 1616.
The Witches of Pendle
1976
NRA boy reflects on time he spent staying with his aunt and uncle.
Auntie Kathleen's Old Clothes
1977
4.3A man discovers a candy can also be used as an aphrodisiac--and a contraceptive.
The Love Pill
1972
6.0Two business executives are trapped for the night on a deserted office floor by a disgruntled employee who has hacked the elevator system.
Calculated Nightmare
1970
1960s · 2 titles
5.5Jailed for his role in a gang heist and ditched by its female leader (Jayne Mansfield), a widower (Anthony Quayle) decides to keep the loot.
The Challenge
1960
7.7What appears to be a cut-and-dried case of murder of an aging one time showgirl on Hampstead Heath by her lover is complicated by several factors, including a far more respectable paramour, and her insistence that a great inheritance was due her that nobody can verify.
Strangler's Web
1965
1950s · 7 titles
6.9At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer.
The Cruel Sea
1953
6.9Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key.
The Long Arm
1956
7.5After a massive luxury liner sinks into the ocean, the ship's officer must command a rickety lifeboat, built for only nine, that is stuffed with over twenty desperate and injured passengers. As a hurricane approaches and the many wounded passengers struggle for life, difficult decisions must be made about who will remain on the boat and who must be cast to the sea in order to give others the chance to survive.
Seven Waves Away
1957
6.8When Professor Willingdon becomes wary of the nuclear weapons he is helping build, he steals a warhead and threatens to detonate it in London in seven days unless the government begins nuclear disarmament. As Willingdon goes into hiding, Detective Folland of Scotland Yard sets out to find him. Willingdon's daughter Ann also joins the cause, hoping she can talk sense into her father before he causes a catastrophe.
Seven Days to Noon
1950
7.8When the Government decide to build a Festival of Britain exhibition site, everything goes to plan, all except the fact that the main road and the pedestrian subway into the site, are blocked by a little corner shop, which is owned and run by a Mr. Lord and his family. When the Lords refuse to be bought off, and decline the compensation offered by the authorities. the police and the bailiffs try to evict them, only to come under fire from the family, who have barricaded themselves inside the shop.
The Happy Family
1952
7.5The efforts of test pilot John Mitchell to make a better life for his wife Mary and their two children seem doomed to failure and he blames himself. At the Conway Aero-Manufacturing Company of Wolverhampton, Mitchell is to take the company's new rocket-propulsion transport plane up for tests, fully loaded and carrying two important passengers - Ministry official Crabtree and buyer's representative Ashmore. Mitchell learns from his boss, Reg Conway, that if Ashmore does not recommend the plane, the company will be out of business and Mitchell out of a job, since the plane is not even insured as the firm's entire capital is tied up in the plane. Aloft, an engine catches fire and the passengers and other crew bail out, but Mitchell refuses to obey orders to jettison the plane in the Irish Sea.
The Man in the Sky
1957
5.7At the outbreak of WWII the British realise they can't prevent the invasion of the Channel Islands. However, someone realises that a prize cow is on the islands and the Nazis mustn't get hold of her. This is the intrepid story of the cow-napping from under the noses of the Nazis.
Appointment with Venus
1951
1940s · 2 titles
6.7As the Germans drop explosive booby-traps on 1943 Britain, the embittered expert who'll have to disarm them fights a private battle with alcohol.
The Small Back Room
1949
7.0A sergeant returns from war to his contemptible fiancée, intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger instead.
The Cure for Love
1949
Series credits
7.9The 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
7.8A 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
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
5.2An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
The Wednesday Play
1964
7.3Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Z-Cars
1962
7.6The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
The Professionals
1977
7.2Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Theatre 625
1964
7.0Anthology series of dramatic works.
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969
7.7A secret, high-technology international agency called SHADO defends Earth from alien invaders.
UFO
1970
7.4The 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
7.5An 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
9.0The 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
7.0Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.
Centre Play
1973
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
5.0Churchill'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
7.2Paul Temple is a British-German television series . It features Francis Matthews as Paul Temple, the fictional detective created by Francis Durbridge, who solves crimes with the assistance of his wife Steve. Paul Temple used overseas locations in France, Malta, Germany and elsewhere.
Paul Temple
1969
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
6.2The 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
9.0A BBC anthology series featuring adaptations of detective stories over 45 episodes in three seasons that ran from 1964 to 1969. As with many BBC programmes made before the early 1970s, many of its episodes no longer exist. Of the eighteen episodes from the first season only twelve are currently known to exist; likewise six of the sixteen editions from the second run are considered lost, and just one of the final ten survives in the archives.
Detective
1964
Anthology of self-contained dramas that aired from 1977 to 1978.
The Sunday Drama
1977
6.4This sprawling BBC saga follows an aristocratic family through three generations of power, wealth, intrigue, and scandal in Victorian England. Based on Anthony Trollope’s “political” novels .
The Pallisers
1974
NRSir Arthur Conan Doyle's non-Sherlock Holmes stories embodying the author's interest in boxing, the supernatural, and medical matters.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1967
7.1Based on the short stories by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown is a Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective.
Father Brown
1974
6.0Clayhanger is a British television drama based on Arnold Bennett's novel series of the same name, published between 1910 and 1918, dramatised by Douglas Livingstone for ITV. Produced by Associated Television, the 26-episode programme is a coming-of-age story set in 19th century England. Edwin Clayhanger aspires to be an architect but is expected to join his father's printing business. His personal growth, eventual acceptance of the family business, and his romantic entanglement with Hilda Lessways are explored. Clayhanger was ITV's longest-ever drama at the time. While some found the pacing slow, it was nonetheless praised for its faithful adaptation, excellent acting, and atmospheric sets.
Clayhanger
1976
8.4Raffles was a 1977 television adaptation of the A. J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television and written by Philip Mackie. The episodes were largely faithful adaptations of the stories in the books, though occasionally two stories would be merged to create one. In Victorian-era London, gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, a renowned cricketer, and his friend, the eager but naive Bunny Manders, test their skills in relieving the wealthy of their valuables whilst avoiding detection, especially from the persistent Inspector Mackenzie.
Raffles
1977
NRThis spin-off from The Odd Man (1962) starred William Mervyn as the acerbic Inspector Rose, who, alongside the soft-hearted pensive Det. Sgt. Swift (Keith Barron), are joined by Anthony (John Carson) and Alice Brand (June Toblin), a barrister and his journalist wife, though not for long. By the second season, the Brands and Swift departed, leaving the calm, cold Rose in prime position, supported by newcomers DS Hunter (Anthony Ainley), his girlfriend Claire (Veronica Strong), and her boozy reporter friend Fred Blaine (John Stratton).
It's Dark Outside
1964
10.0The First Lady is a British television drama produced for BBC One, starring Thora Hird as crusading local councillor Sarah Danby, set around the fictional Lancashire borough of Furness. Capitalising on the popularity of its lead actress, The First Lady was a down-to-earth series exploring the inner workings of local government.
The First Lady
1968
8.0The first of a trilogy of police procedurals produced in the 1960s by Granada TV, linked by the presence of pompous but increasingly genial police Chief Inspector Charles Rose, The Odd Man initially dealt with the investigations of theatrical-agent-cum-detective Steve Gardiner, and his encounters with the police in the form of Chief Inspector Gordon and DS Swift. By season three, Rose takes Gardiner's place.
The Odd Man
1960
Series of plays about the romantic entanglements hidden behind the public images of famous historical figures.
Private Affairs
1975
NRDramas about women who made the headlines of Victorian newspapers.
Wicked Women
1970
7.1A team of scientists search for the origin and purpose of a mysterious capsule found on a building site.
Quatermass and the Pit
1958
6.0Armchair 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
9.0Discontent with his home, his work and his football team, Jess Oakroyd tears up his insurance card and disappears into the night. Intent on going to Nuneaton, he instead finds himself on the ragged edges of showbusiness. We share with him the trials and tribulations of the Good Companions as they tour seaside towns, industrial cities and rural backwaters in their search for success and stardom.
The Good Companions
1980
6.5Backs to the Land is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1977 to 1978. Starring Philippa Howell, Terese Stevens and Pippa Page, Backs to the Land is set during World War II. It was written by David Climie. It was made for the ITV network by Anglia Television.
Backs to the Land
1977
NROn their way to London for the Rugby League final, a group of northerners start telling each other stories, in the manner of Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.
Trinity Tales
1975
10.0Foppish Sir Percy Blakeney, who secretly leads a double life as the daring rescuer of French aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution, fights to save his brother-in-law while his wife is manipulated by the villainous Chauvelin into helping capture him, unaware of her husband's true identity.
The Elusive Pimpernel
1969
7.0Tales of Unease was a British supernatural drama series based on a series of horror story anthologies, edited by John Burke. The series ran for seven episodes in 1970. The anthologies were published between 1960 and 1969.
Tales of Unease
1970
Forward thinking anthology of dramas about the emerging problems of a city.
City '68
1967
The city of Haarlem, Netherlands, has set a prize of ƒ100,000 to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. Only the city's oldest citizens remember the Tulip Mania thirty years prior, and the citizens throw themselves into the competition. The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded but is suddenly thrown into the Loevestein prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who will be his comfort and help, and eventually become his rescuer.
The Black Tulip
1970
6.7The Mill on the Floss is a British television drama adaptation of George Eliot's 1860 novel of the same name about the lives of rural 19th century siblings Maggie and Tom Tulliver.
The Mill on the Floss
1978

