William Russell

Acting

William Russell

Born — Died

1924-11-19 — 2024-06-03

Place of birth

Sunderland, County Durham, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

100 titles

William Russell Enoch (19 November 1924–3 June 2024) was an English actor. He achieved prominence in 1956 when he took the title role in the ITV television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–1957). In 1963, he became part of the original lead cast of BBC1's Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton opposite William Hartnell from the show's first episode until 1965. Russell's film roles include parts in The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Great Escape (1963) and Superman (1978). On television, he notably appeared as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street in 1992. In recent years, Russell has maintained his association with Doctor Who; he returned to the show in 2022, maki…

Known for

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

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

Agatha Christie's Poirot poster
8.2

From 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

Great Performances poster
6.1

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Great Performances

1971

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

Film credits

2020s · 3 titles

2010s · 5 titles

2000s · 11 titles

The Ties That Bind Us poster
NR

A look at the subtle (and not so subtle!) links to the show's past and future contained within the story of The Five Doctors.

The Ties That Bind Us

2008

Dennis Spooner: Wanna Write a Television Series? poster
NR

A look at writer Dennis Spooner’s work on Doctor Who.

Dennis Spooner: Wanna Write a Television Series?

2009

Creation of the Daleks poster
8.0

The cast and crew's memories of the creation of the Daleks and the making of The Daleks.

Creation of the Daleks

2006

Doctor Who: Origins poster
8.5

A 55-minute documentary, detailing the creation of Doctor Who, including a rare interview with creator Sydney Newman, and new interviews with producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein and Richard Martin, actors William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, title sequence designer Bernard Lodge, and TARDIS sound effect creator Brian Hodgson

Doctor Who: Origins

2006

Future Memories: Making 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' poster
9.0

A look at the making of the Doctor Who story 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' (1964)

Future Memories: Making 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'

2003

Over the Edge: The Story of 'The Edge of Destruction' poster
7.0

Documents the making of the Doctor Who Serial, 'The Edge of Destruction'. It was released on the DVD of the serial and hence in The Beginning box set.

Over the Edge: The Story of 'The Edge of Destruction'

2006

Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS poster
8.0

A feature on Doctor Who: The Beginning box set which tells the stories of the Doctor's time machine - the TARDIS.

Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS

2006

What Has 'The Romans' Ever Done For Us? poster
NR

Actors, crew and historians look at both the reality and fantasy behind the story of The Romans. With actors William Russell, Kay Patrick, Barry Jackson, Anthony Andrews and Christopher Biggins, director Christopher Barry, designer Raymond Cusick, historian Dr Mark Bradley, writer James Moran, Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury and 1960s viewer Ian McLachlan. Narrated by John Bowe.

What Has 'The Romans' Ever Done For Us?

2009

Mounting the Rescue poster
NR

A look at the making of 'The Rescue' featuring members of the original cast and crew. Featured on the DVD "Doctor Who: The Rescue", available in the DVD Box Set "Doctor Who: The Rescue & The Romans"

Mounting the Rescue

2009

The Sets of Marinus poster
NR

Designer Raymond Cusick recalls his work on The Keys of Marinus, and discusses the challenges that this story held, with its weekly changes of location and inventive set-pieces.

The Sets of Marinus

2009

Masters of Sound poster
8.0

Documentary on the sound effects of Doctor Who in the 1960s.

Masters of Sound

2006

1980s · 5 titles

Death Watch poster
6.4

In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera.

Death Watch

1980

Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks poster
7.9

Captured in a time corridor, the Doctor and his companions are forced to land on 20th century Earth, diverted by the Doctor's oldest enemy - the Daleks. It is here the true purpose of the time corridor becomes apparent: after ninety years of imprisonment, Davros, the ruthless creator of the Daleks, is to be liberated to assist in the resurrection of his army. Not even the Daleks foresee the poisonous threat of their creator. Indeed, who would suspect Davros of wanting to destroy his own Daleks - and why? Only the Doctor knows the truth. Will he descend to Davros' level of evil to stop him?

Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks

1984

The Four Minute Mile poster
7.5

For two brilliant young athletes - Roger Bannister of England and John Landy of Australia - the 1952 Helsinki Olympics present an exciting challenge. But events help set them on the path to something even more memorable than an Olympic gold medal - the race to break the four-minute mile....

The Four Minute Mile

1988

Dead Man's Kit poster
NR

After shore-leave in Lisbon for the crew of HMS Diana, Master-at-Arms 'Toby' Toberman makes an official complaint to the ship's Captain about the behaviour of an officer he saw in a casino. Following the ship's 'Sod's Opera' party, Toby is reported missing from the deck - presumed lost overboard. Was it an accident or suicide - or was he given the proverbial push?

Dead Man's Kit

1980

No artwork available
7.0

Little Girls Don't" is the tale of two girls, Sheryl and Abbey who have been inseparable friends since childhood despite coming from very different backgrounds. Then Billy arrives on the scene. He is a bad boy who likes to steal cars, but with the encouragement of girlfriend Abbey this soon turns into something much more serious, with tragic consequences for everyone involved.

Little Girls Don't

1981

1970s · 5 titles

1960s · 19 titles

The Great Escape poster
7.9

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

The Great Escape

1963

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus poster
6.2

The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrieve four of the five operating keys to a machine called the Conscience of Marinus, of which he is the keeper. These have been hidden in different locations around the planet to prevent them falling into the hands of the evil Yartek and his Voord warriors, who plan to seize the machine and use its originally benevolent mind-influencing power for their own sinister purposes.

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus

1964

Doctor Who: The Daleks poster
7.3

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival.

Doctor Who: The Daleks

1964

Doctor Who: The Aztecs poster
7.5

The TARDIS materialises inside an Aztec tomb. Outside it, the Doctor and his companions soon discover that Mexico in the 15th century is a bloodthirsty and dangerous place... And with Barbara mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient high priest called Yetaxa, the history teacher thinks that she can put an end to the barbaric human sacrifices once and for all. But can she rewrite history without disastrous consequences?

Doctor Who: The Aztecs

1964

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror poster
6.7

The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involved with an escape chain rescuing prisoners from the guillotine and get caught up in the machinations of an English undercover spy, James Stirling.

Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror

1964

Doctor Who: Marco Polo poster
7.4

The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power.

Doctor Who: Marco Polo

1964

Doctor Who: The Sensorites poster
5.8

The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew, who are suffering from telepathic interference from the Sensorites, but Susan communicates with the Sensorites and finds the aliens fear an attack by the humans and are just defending themselves. Travelling to the Sense Sphere (the Sensorites' planet) the Doctor seeks to cure an illness to which the Sensorites and Ian have succumbed, but finds it has been caused by deliberate poisoning. The political manoeuvring of the Sensorite City Administrator poses another threat to the TARDIS crew as he seeks to discredit and implicate them.

Doctor Who: The Sensorites

1964

Doctor Who: The Chase poster
6.9

The Doctor and his companions are pursued through time and space by the Daleks on the desert planet Aridius and beyond.

Doctor Who: The Chase

1965

Doctor Who: The Romans poster
8.0

The TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history...

Doctor Who: The Romans

1965

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants poster
7.4

When the TARDIS malfunctions, it and its travellers land on Earth at the size of insects. They uncover a murderous plot involving a new insecticide, but how can they stop the crime in their miniaturised condition?

Doctor Who: Planet of Giants

1964

Doctor Who: The Rescue poster
6.9

On the planet Dido, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara meet two survivors from a crashed spaceship who are terrorised by the monster Koquillion.

Doctor Who: The Rescue

1965

Doctor Who: The Web Planet poster
5.9

On the planet Vortis, the Doctor and his companions aid the butterfly-like Menoptra in their battle against the parasitic Animus and its mind-controlled minions, the ant-like Zarbi.

Doctor Who: The Web Planet

1965

Doctor Who: The Space Museum poster
6.8

On the planet Xeros, the TARDIS crew discover their own future selves frozen in time as exhibits in a galactic museum and must avert this potential future.

Doctor Who: The Space Museum

1965

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction poster
6.0

In this completely TARDIS-based story, the crew find themselves and their ship acting very strangely indeed. Blame runs high for the Ship's unusual behavior, until the Doctor realizes the TARDIS itself may be trying to warn them...

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction

1964

Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth poster
7.3

The TARDIS arrives in a desolate future London, where the Doctor discovers his old enemies the Daleks have taken control of Earth.

Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

1964

Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child poster
7.3

Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, two humble teachers during 1963, discover a genius student's grandfather, simply known as "the Doctor", and his police box time machine. Deciding that the pair knows too much about his otherworldly origins, they are whisked away on a journey through time and space.

Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child

1963

Doctor Who: The Crusade poster
6.6

In 12th century Palestine, the Doctor and his friends are drawn into the holy war between the forces of King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen ruler Saladin.

Doctor Who: The Crusade

1965

Adventure Story poster
6.0

The story of Alexander the Great.

Adventure Story

1961

The Share Out poster
4.0

A gang of high class corporate thieves use blackmail to induce their victims to sell property at knock-down prices.

The Share Out

1962

1950s · 10 titles

Above Us the Waves poster
6.1

In World War II, the greatest threat to the British navy is the German battleship Tirpitz. While anchored in a Norwegian fjord, it is impossible to attack by conventional means, so a plan is hatched for a special commando unit to attack it, using midget submarines to plant underwater explosives.

Above Us the Waves

1955

The Man Who Never Was poster
7.0

The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.

The Man Who Never Was

1956

They Who Dare poster
5.9

In Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble.

They Who Dare

1954

One Good Turn poster
6.2

Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to decide what to do

One Good Turn

1955

Gift Horse poster
6.6

Compton Bennett's war drama The Gift Horse follows the fortunes of ageing destroyer The Ballantrae and her crew from the time they come together in 1940 until the climactic raid on occupied St Nazaire in 1942. Trevor Howard plays Lt Cmdr Hugh Alginon Fraser, the newly appointed captain, back in service after having left the navy following a court martial.

Gift Horse

1952

The Saint's Return poster
5.8

A private detective goes after the people who murdered his girlfriend.

The Saint's Return

1953

Malta Story poster
6.3

Malta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl.

Malta Story

1953

The Big Chance poster
4.2

A clerk sees his big chance to escape a humdrum existence, but his resolve is tested as many unexpected obstacles arise.

The Big Chance

1957

The Adventures of Hal 5 poster
7.5

A very old Austin 7 car is found by two children and bought by their uncle, the Vicar, but the garage proprietor conceals its faulty transmission, which leads to some surprising developments.

The Adventures of Hal 5

1957

The Gay Dog poster
7.0

Jim Gay loves his racing greyhound but, out of town, he finds a dog with a better chance to win. His friends bet on his dog while he bets against.

The Gay Dog

1954

Series credits

Coronation Street poster
5.3

The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.

Coronation Street

1960

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

Agatha Christie's Poirot poster
8.2

From 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

Great Performances poster
6.1

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.

Great Performances

1971

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

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

ITV Playhouse poster
7.0

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

ITV Playhouse

1967

ITV Playhouse poster
7.0

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.

ITV Playhouse

1967

The Professionals poster
7.6

The 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

Sunday Night Theatre poster
3.5

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Sunday Night Theatre

1950

Sunday Night Theatre poster
3.5

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Sunday Night Theatre

1950

Sunday Night Theatre poster
3.5

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Sunday Night Theatre

1950

Blackadder poster
8.0

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

Blackadder

1983

Dr. Finlay's Casebook poster
6.7

Dr Finlay's Casebook is a BBC television series that was broadcast from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s.

Dr. Finlay's Casebook

1962

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

No artwork available
NR

BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

Sunday-Night Play

1960

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

Robin of Sherwood poster
7.6

Herne the Hunter picks Robin of Loxley as his successor in his mission to support the oppressed. Robin builds his army and leads a guerrilla attack to suppress the exploited's Norman tormentors.

Robin of Sherwood

1984

Van der Valk poster
6.2

Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.

Van der Valk

1972

Shoestring poster
7.7

Shoestring is a BBC detective drana set in Bristol and starring Trevor Eve as private detective Eddie Shoestring, who operatee his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 hour-long episodes. Eve opted not to return after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre, so the production team changed the setting to Jersey and created Bergerac, also following a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.

Shoestring

1979

Justice poster
7.3

Justice is a British drama television series which originally aired on ITV in 39 hour-long episodes between 8 August 1971 and 16 October 1974. Margaret Lockwood stars as Harriet Peterson a female barrister in the North of England. It was made by Yorkshire Television and was based loosely on Justice Is a Woman, an episode of ITV Playhouse broadcast in 1969 in which Lockwood had previously also played a barrister. The theme music was Crown Imperial by William Walton.

Justice

1971

Strangers poster
7.2

Strangers is a 1978–82 ITV police procedural created and principally written by Murray Smith, based on characters created by Kenneth Royce in his novel series and subsequent 1977–78 television adaptation The XYY Man. Don Henderson and Dennis Blanch reprise their roles, respectively, of Detective Sergeant (DS) George Bulman and Detective Constable (DC) Derek Willis. A group of police officers are brought together from across the country to the north of England. There, the fact that they're not well-known gives them the advantage to infiltrate where a more familiar local detective could not. Despite being based around a comparatively small team of detectives, a regular feature in its early years is that few episodes feature the entire team, with most using just two or three regulars in any major role.

Strangers

1978

The Main Chance poster
8.2

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

The Main Chance

1969

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot poster
7.0

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network. The series starred William Russell as the eponymous Sir Lancelot, a Knight of the Round Table in the time of King Arthur at Camelot.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

1956

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot poster
7.0

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network. The series starred William Russell as the eponymous Sir Lancelot, a Knight of the Round Table in the time of King Arthur at Camelot.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

1956

Suspense poster
6.7

Anthology series telling suspenseful tales.

Suspense

1962

Detective poster
9.0

A 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

Armchair Thriller poster
4.7

Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television.

Armchair Thriller

1978

Father Brown poster
7.1

Based on the short stories by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown is a Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective.

Father Brown

1974

Jane Eyre poster
NR

An adaptation of the novel by Charlotte Brontë.

Jane Eyre

1963

No artwork available
7.0

After surviving a series of attempts on his life, successful businessman Lew Burnett decides to remain 'dead' after the most recent one so he can go undercover and find out which of his close friends and business associates want him dead.

The Hanged Man

1975

Testament of Youth poster
7.8

A dramatization of Vera Brittain's 1933 autobiography Testament of Youth—a memorial to a generation devastated by WWI—chronicles her experiences as a nurse in London and Malta and at the front lines in France. It opens with 18-year-old Vera, the genteel daughter of a paper-mill owner, nurturing "hopes of escaping from provincial young ladyhood." Her plan is to attend Oxford.

Testament of Youth

1979

Lilli Palmer Theatre poster
8.0

A half-hour anthology series.

Lilli Palmer Theatre

1955

Spearhead poster
7.5

Spearhead is a British television drama produced by Southern Television for the ITV network. With a total of three series and 19 episodes from 1978 to 1981, the series follows the daily lives of a group of soldiers in 'B' Company, 1st Battalion Royal Wessex Rangers, a fictional British Army infantry regiment, during The Troubles.

Spearhead

1978