
Acting
Stratford Johns
Born — Died
1925-09-22 — 2002-01-29
Place of birth
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Known for
Acting
Credits
85 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
5.6Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Wogan
1982
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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
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
Film credits
1990s · 7 titles
5.2A member of the English upper class dies, leaving his estate and his business to an American, whom he thinks is his son who was lost as a baby and then found again. An Englishman who thinks he is an Indian comes to believe that he is actually the heir. He comes to hate the American who is his boss, his friend, and the man who has stolen the woman after whom he lusts.
Splitting Heirs
1993
NRA lone hitch hiker, marooned near a housing estate, has a dramatic effect on the lives of those around him.
'Itch
1991
8.51992 BBC adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel of 1907 concerning the mostly inactive spy Alfred Verloc, who is ordered by his superior Mr Vladimir to carry out a terrorist act. Verloc reluctantly plans the operation, seeking help from The Professor. Verloc is also an informant for the police and the Assistant Commissioner and Chief Inspector Heat add additional pressure on Verloc and his attempts to carry out his plan. Verloc’s subsequent actions gravely affect his wife who is devoted to her mentally unbalanced brother Stevie.
The Secret Agent
1992
4.4A strangler known as the Kenbourne Killer has been murdering streetwalkers for 25 years. The police set out to track him down.
A Demon in My View
1991
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
9.0Teenage Manchester City supporter Alison wins a competition to go on a date with the team's Calvin Clark. Her jealous friend Gary disrupts their night out, leading to violence and the misguided kidnapping of the star striker on the eve of his transfer to Hamburg.
Shooting Stars
1990
A man is shown videos of his life in the afterlife
The End
1992
1980s · 18 titles
5.9When an archaeologist uncovers a strange skull in a foreign land, the residents of a nearby town begin to disappear, leading to further inexplicable occurrences.
The Lair of the White Worm
1988
4.9The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl, a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A.".
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil
1985
4.8A group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin.
Wild Geese II
1985
4.9Fu Manchu's 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills Fu's age-regressing elixir vitae. Fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, starting with the Star of Leningrad diamond, nabbed from a Soviet exhibition in Washington. The FBI sends agents Capone and Williams to England to confer with Nayland Smith, an expert on Fu.
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu
1980
6.2London, England, November 5th, 1892, Guy Fawkes Night. The famous playwright Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas discreetly go to a luxury brothel where the owner, Alfred Taylor, has prepared a surprise for the renowned author: a private and very special performance of his play Salome, banned by the authorities, in which Taylor himself and the peculiar inhabitants of the exclusive establishment will participate.
Salome's Last Dance
1988
6.1Ruth Ellis lives with her ten-year old son Andy next to a night club. One night she meets David Blakely, and they start a love affair. However, for David with his upper-class background, it is impossible to uphold the relationship. He breaks up with her, something which makes Ellis, obsessed by him, very upset.
Dance with a Stranger
1985
NRA dramatized documentary looking at how the British Board of Film Censors imposed an extraordinary stranglehold over the content of British cinema in the 1930s and exposing their deliberations, opinions and prejudices.
The Secret Diaries of the Film Censors
1986
6.0The Little Match Girl is a short story by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a dying child's hopes and dreams, and was first published in 1845. This adaptation was made for Harlech TV and broadcast on 28th December 1986 and starred Twiggy and Roger Daltrey, and features the song 'Mistletoe and Wine' which became a Christmas number one for Cliff Richard in 1988, the biggest selling record of that year.
The Little Match Girl
1986
6.3In the throes of a midlife crisis, a man buys a new Jaguar, and it immediately becomes his new love. What he doesn't know is that his wife is as attracted to the Jaguar salesman as he is to the car.
Car Trouble
1986
5.3The Doctor and his companions arrive on a spaceship headed for Earth, populated by natives of Earth from various different eras and commanded by the leaders of the Urbankan race. What are the Urbankans' intentions when they reach Earth?
Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
1982
NRCouncillor Podkolyossin has called on the services of Madame Fyokla, the matchmaker - decision he is already beginning to regret. Against his better judgment he finds himself competing for the hand of Miss Agafya.
Marriage
1981
8.0Big screen spin-off of the Seventies sitcom. Mildred Roper is determined to make husband George celebrate their wedding anniversary in style, at a posh hotel in London. However, upon arrival George is mistaken by a gangland criminal for a rival hitman, and soon the Ropers find themselves up to their necks in trouble on the wrong side of the law!
George & Mildred
1980
4.6Banerjee 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
"They say that in the wood you get what nearly everybody here is longing for – a second chance." J. M. Barrie's fantasy play, depicting alternative realities for its characters and their eventual return to real life.
Dear Brutus
1981
5.5A historical adaptation of John Gay's 18th Century ballad opera, exuberantly performed for BBC television.
The Beggar's Opera
1983
NRBBC adaptation of The Arabian Nights
Tales from the Thousand and One Nights
1981
NRPlay based on Brian Patten's book. Local children and retired detective Moon band together to protect a leprechaun from the investigations of the local police.
Mr Moon's Last Case
1983
9.0When Marjorie's husband of 20 years dies of a brain tumour, she's hit financially as well as emotionally. The money she makes packing tights in a factory isn't enough to cover her rent, and her TV is repossessed. Soon after the funeral she meets Arnold, a wealthy pub landlord, who squires her to the local Conservative Club ball in an effort to cheer her up. Life with Arnold promises not only companionship but undreamt-of luxury, but Marjorie's friends and family do not necessarily approve.
A Small Mourning
1989
1970s · 4 titles
6.6Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, Cromwell is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.
Cromwell
1970
6.3John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, he only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
1977
10.0A two-part episode of the 1978 TV series "The Return of the Saint," edited together and released as a feature.
The Saint and the Brave Goose
1979
1966. Alf Ramsey is manager of the England football team and England is staging the World Cup.
Ramsey
1977
1960s · 7 titles
5.5Phineas T. Barnum and friends finance the first flight to the moon but find the task a little above them. They attempt to blast their rocket into orbit from a massive gun barrel built into the side of a Welsh mountain, but money troubles, spies and saboteurs ensure that the plan is doomed before it starts...
Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon
1967
7.2Seven-year-olds Michael and Rachel are best friends who do everything together and who have vowed to remain friends "forever and ever and can't be parted for never and never". Unfortunately, the society that Michael and Rachel live in is one of religious intolerance. The fact that Michael is Irish Catholic and Rachel is Jewish is a point of conflict for just about everyone in the community.
Hand in Hand
1961
6.2The all-girl school foil an attempt by train robbers to recover £2.5 million hidden in their school.
The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
1966
6.2A slapstick comedy about two workmen delivering planks to a building site. This is done with music and a sort of "wordless dialogue" which consists of a few mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion.
The Plank
1967
NRSerjeant Musgrave and his small band of men arrive in an impoverished northern coal town, ostensibly on a recruiting drive.....but their intentions are very different, and will have repercussion's on the town for years to come.
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
1961
7.5Charles Hilary is in love with Kathy Forrester, a beautiful television personality, but is married to Louise, an alcoholic with as many lovers as whisky bottles. His pleas for a divorce are met with threats and abuse. "You'll have to murder me first", Louise tells him and three hours later she is found dead, shot with her husband's pistol. When Charles is arrested, Kathy desperately sets to work to prove his innocence.
Two Letter Alibi
1962
5.5A renowned safecracker and his crew try to rob a bank by entering the vault through the sewer system.
The Professionals
1960
1950s · 9 titles
7.3Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
The Ladykillers
1955
7.7The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.
A Night to Remember
1958
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
7.3After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.
The Ship That Died of Shame
1955
6.8Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
The One That Got Away
1957
7.2A Liverpool juvenile liaison officer struggles with a young and dangerous pyromaniac.
Violent Playground
1958
6.7In wartime, a young officer is killed during a raid to kill a German general at the house that used to belong to his grandmother. Before he dies he talks about a treasure that was hidden there. Several years later, the members of that group are still together as a street band living in a cellar. The last of the gang, who was chosen for his skills as a ruthless killer, escapes from prison in a rampage of killing and, obsessed with the treasure, takes the gang to France to recover it.
Tiger in the Smoke
1956
5.5This movie debut for saucy British TV comic Benny Hill has Benny leaving his job as a sweeper after winning some money. He becomes a private detective and investigates a plot to assassinate British scientists.
Who Done It?
1956
6.0Duncan Lamont plays Jane Hylton's jealous husband. In a confrontation, Lamont accidentally shoots Hylton's lover. Convinced that he's a murderer, he heads for the hills as a police hunt begins... Classic British thriller from the creator of Dixon Of Dock Green.
Burnt Evidence
1954
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
5.6Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Wogan
1982
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
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.2Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979
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
7.3Z-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
7.3Z-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
7.0A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.
Playhouse
1974
7.3A group of convicts and outcasts fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from a highly advanced alien spaceship.
Blake's 7
1978
6.0Screenplay was a drama anthology television series, broadcast on BBC between 1986 and 1993. Numerous episodes were produced including one named "Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Islands" starring Robbie Coltrane as English writer Samuel Johnson who in the autumn of 1773, visits the Hebrides off the north-west coast of Scotland. That episode was directed by John Byrne and co-starred John Sessions and Celia Imrie.
ScreenPlay
1986
7.1BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television.
Maigret
1960
7.1BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television.
Maigret
1960
7.5Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern, supposedly in the Bristol area of England.
Softly, Softly
1966
7.5Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern, supposedly in the Bristol area of England.
Softly, Softly
1966
6.9Comedienne Dawn French tackles dark, tongue-in-cheek thrillers as her various characters embark on a different mystery every episode. In one way or another, she is involved with murder — either committing the crime or even getting bumped off herself!
Murder Most Horrid
1991
7.0Follow the swashbuckling exploits of Simon Templar, a modern-day Robin Hood of sorts.
Return of the Saint
1978
7.2The adventures of Interpol policemen Duval and Mornay as they fought against international drug-running, homicide, robbery and forgery.
Interpol Calling
1959
7.8Acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. Set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the Roman emperors - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius.
I, Claudius
1976
5.6The Count of Monte Cristo was a 1956 ITC Entertainment/TPA television series adapted very loosely from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, adapted by Sidney Marshall. It premiered in the UK in early 1956 and ran for 39 thirty-minute episodes. The first twelve episodes were filmed in the United States, at the Hal Roach studios, with the rest being filmed at ITC's traditional home of Elstree. A 5-disc DVD set containing all thirty-nine episodes was released by Network Studio on 12 April 2010. ITC produced a film based on the same source-material, The Count of Monte-Cristo, in 1975.
The Count of Monte Cristo
1956
6.0Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force.
Softly Softly: Task Force
1969
6.0Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force.
Softly Softly: Task Force
1969
5.7Surprise, Surprise is a British television programme originally hosted by Cilla Black and produced by London Weekend Television for ITV. It ran for 14 series from 6 May 1984 to 5 September 1997, after which four annual specials were produced between 1998 to 2001. In 2012, the show returned after a 11-year hiatus. The revived version is produced by ITV Studios and presented by Holly Willoughby. The show is currently in its second series.
Surprise, Surprise
1984
5.5Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It starred Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King, Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst. The trio were agents for a fictional special department of Interpol. The head of Department S was Sir Curtis Seretse.
Department S
1969
The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, qualify as a pop-culture curio if only for star Arthur---later Art---Fleming, who hosted the original `Jeopardy!'
International Detective
1959
Jubilee 1977 is a thirteen-part 1977 BBC One television limited series produced by Pieter Rogers, an anthology centred around the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession on Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was celebrated with large-scale parties and parades in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth throughout 1977, culminating in June with the official 'Jubilee Days', held to coincide with the Queen's Official Birthday.
Jubilee 1977
1977
NRMarti Caine presents a star studded variety show in which she performs comedy material, sings and dances alongside special guests.
The Marti Caine Show
1979
The series adapted for television some true tales from press correspondents from around the world.
Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!
1957
6.2Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of World War II in 1995 when he quoted a number of Churchill's wartime speeches in character.
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
1981
6.7Richard Mayhew leads an ordinary life in London when one day a girl named Door falls, injured, across his path. The next thing he knows, his life is gone and he's pulled into the fantastical world of London Below. Pursued by the murderous Messrs. Croup and Vandemar, Door and Richard with the help of Hunter and the Marquis de Carabas, attempt to find the Angel Islington, who knows the secret behind the murder of Door's family, and possibly a way for Richard to go home.
Neverwhere
1996
Barlow at Large is a British television programme created by Troy Kennedy Martin and Elwyn Jones. It broadcast from September 1971 to February 1975, with a total of 29 episodes across four series. Stratford Johns reprises his role of DCI Charles Barlow from Z-Cars, Softly, Softly, and Softly, Softly: Taskforce. Barlow at Large originated as a three-part self-contained spin-off from Softly, Softly in 1971 with Barlow co-opted by the home office to investigate police corruption in Wales. Johns departed in 1972, but returned for a further series of Barlow at Large in the following year, Barlow having gone on full-time secondment to the Home Office. In 1974, the series was rebranded Barlow and two further series of eight episodes each followed, introducing DI Tucker. After the finale's transmission in February 1975, Barlow was next seen in the programme Second Verdict in which he, alongside a former colleague, investigates unsolved cases and unsafe historical convictions.
Barlow
1971
6.0Perfect Scoundrels first broadcast in 1990 on British television. A comedy-drama following two con-men doing their best to separate various people from their money
Perfect Scoundrels
1990
8.0A half-hour anthology series.
Lilli Palmer Theatre
1955
Celebrity quiz where Noel Edmonds asks questions about news and affairs (often wacky!) from a particular year.
Noel's Telly Years
1996
Eleven-part mini-series featuring an ensemble cast of up-and-coming acting talent, in plays by young authors, each actor or actress taking the lead role in turn.
The Younger Generation
1961
6.3Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Great Expectations
1981
Second Verdict is a six-part 1976 BBC television series, a dramatised documentaries of classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history re-appraised by fictional police officers. Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor reprised for a final time their double-act as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, hugely popular with TV audiences from the long-running series Z-Cars; Softly, Softly; and Barlow at Large.
Second Verdict
1976
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
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
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
