Tom Stoppard

Writing

Tom Stoppard

Born — Died

1937-07-03 — 2025-11-29

Place of birth

Zlín, Czechoslovakia

Known for

Writing

Credits

46 titles

Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL Hon FBA (born Tomáš Sträussler, 3 July 1937 — 29 November 2025) was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covered the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard had been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. Stoppard died at his home in Dorset, England on 29 November 2025 at the age of 88. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Stoppard, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contri…

Known for

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

Shakespeare in Love poster
6.8

Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written. When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love — and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship intensifies, the comedy soon transforms into tragedy.

Shakespeare in Love

1998

Tulip Fever poster
6.5

An artist falls for a married young woman while he's commissioned to paint her portrait. The two invest in the risky tulip market in hopes to build a future together.

Tulip Fever

2017

Empire of the Sun poster
7.5

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Empire of the Sun

1987

Film credits

2010s · 3 titles

2000s · 2 titles

Series credits

The South Bank Show poster
5.6

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

The South Bank Show

1978

Tony Awards poster
NR

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.

Tony Awards

1956

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

One Pair of Eyes poster
7.0

A monthly series of highly personal documentary films in which individuals are given a platform to discuss issues close to their heart.

One Pair of Eyes

1967

Friday Night, Saturday Morning poster
7.5

Friday Night, Saturday Morning was a television chat show with a revolving guest host. It ran on BBC2 from 28 September 1979 to 2 April 1982, broadcast live from the Greenwood Theatre, a part of Guy's Hospital. It was most notable for being the only television show to be hosted by a former British Prime Minister and for an argument about the blasphemy claims surrounding the movie Monty Python's Life of Brian. The programme was the idea of Iain Johnstone and Will Wyatt, who insisted on a changing presenter every fortnight. Another innovation was that the presenters chose the guests they were to interview.

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

1979

Behind the camera

Shakespeare in Love poster
6.8

Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written. When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love — and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship intensifies, the comedy soon transforms into tragedy.

Shakespeare in Love

1998

Tulip Fever poster
6.5

An artist falls for a married young woman while he's commissioned to paint her portrait. The two invest in the risky tulip market in hopes to build a future together.

Tulip Fever

2017

Empire of the Sun poster
7.5

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Empire of the Sun

1987

Anna Karenina poster
6.7

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Anna Karenina

2012

Brazil poster
7.7

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Brazil

1985

The Russia House poster
6.1

Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.

The Russia House

1990

Enigma poster
6.3

The story of the WWII project to crack the code behind the Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages sent to their submarines.

Enigma

2001

Billy Bathgate poster
5.8

In the year 1935, a teen named Billy Bathgate finds first love while becoming the protégé of fledgling gangster Dutch Schultz.

Billy Bathgate

1991

The Human Factor poster
5.8

When a leak of information in the African section of British Intelligence is discovered, a security man is brought in to investigate.

The Human Factor

1979

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead poster
6.9

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters from the play 'Hamlet', find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. The duo encounter a band of players before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

1991

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead poster
6.9

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters from the play 'Hamlet', find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. The duo encounter a band of players before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

1991

The Romantic Englishwoman poster
5.4

A marriage crisis between a writer and his wife leads her to flee to Germany and eventually return with another man, through whom the writer is going to overcome his writer's block.

The Romantic Englishwoman

1975

Poodle Springs poster
5.5

Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.

Poodle Springs

1998

Three Men in a Boat poster
6.2

One hot June day, three friends decide there is nothing they would like to do more than to get away from London. A boating holiday with lots of fresh air and exercise would be just the very thing, or so their doctors tell them. So, after debating the merits of hotel or camp beds and what to pack, they set off on their voyage - a trip up the Thames from Henley to Oxford - but very quickly find themselves ill-equipped for the trials of riverbank life.

Three Men in a Boat

1975

The Invention of Love poster
NR

An esoteric play portraying the life of poet A. E. Housman focusing specifically on his personal life and love for a college classmate.

The Invention of Love

2001

Despair poster
6.5

Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his temper more and more every day when dealing with his workers and other businessmen; until he meets Felix, a vagrant, who seems to be physically identical to him; a disconcerting fact that leads Hermann Hermann to plot a particular way out of a fake world he actually hates.

Despair

1978

The Dog It Was That Died poster
5.0

Rupert Purvis jumps off a bridge onto a dog, causing problems for Blair, his superior at MI5. Blair must convince Hogbin, the agent who's been tailing Purvis, of which side Purvis is really on--once he finds out what it is.

The Dog It Was That Died

1989

The Merchant of Venice poster
NR

A BBC schools programme broadcast about Tom Stoppard’s abridged version of the play which was performed by the National Youth Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. The televised recording of the performance is preceded by comments on the work in progress from stage director Paul Roseby and writer Tom Stoppard. Jeremy Irons, who played Antonio in the film version of The Merchant of Venice (2004), comments on the merits of producing a play with young actors.

The Merchant of Venice

2005

National Theatre Live: Leopoldstadt poster
8.8

At the beginning of the 20th century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna, Austria. But Hermann Merz, a factory owner and baptised Jew now married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. We follow his family’s story across half a century, passing through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. A company of 40 actors represent each generation of the family in this epic, but intimate play.

National Theatre Live: Leopoldstadt

2022

Squaring the Circle poster
5.0

An account of how Lech Walesa and the "Solidarity" trade union confronted the might of Communist dictatorship in Poland.

Squaring the Circle

1984

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour poster
NR

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is a stage play by Tom Stoppard with music by André Previn. It was first performed in 1977. The play criticizes the Soviet practice of treating political dissidence as a form of mental illness. Its title derives from the popular mnemonic used by music students to remember the notes on the lines of the treble clef. The filming was undertaken at a live performance at Wembley Conference Centre in April 1978, conducted by Previn.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

1979

Professional Foul poster
7.5

Three philosophy professors travel to Prague for a conference. One of them, Anderson, is forced to rethink his ideas on ethics when a former student is arrested by the Czech authorities for writing about individualist approaches to morality.

Professional Foul

1977

Arcadia poster
NR

On a country estate in Derbyshire, Arcadia moves fluidly between events in 1809 and the modern inhabitants who are eager to discover what really happened in the past. We begin in 1809 where we will meet Thomasina, a teenager and mathematical prodigy, who works with her tutor Septimus. Yet we learn there are many secrets within the family on the estate. Affairs of the heart, unrequited love, and debates about chaos theory and the ideal gardening landscape flow throughout these scenes in the past. When the story moves to 1992, a garden historian and a literature professor visit to unearth the past. Was Lord Byron actually a guest? Was there a duel? Why is there a hermitage on the estate? What do the the current inhabitants of Sibley Park know about the past? Scenes move fluidly between two centuries, with an increasing reminder to cherish our time together. Arcadia is a play about passion, longing, astrophysics, and both the strength and fragility of the human heart

Arcadia

2018

On the Razzle poster
8.0

When their boss goes off to Vienna to dine with his fiancé, his clerks decide this may be their last chance for an adventure (razzle) and head for the Big City. Zangler must cancel his plans, as his niece has run off with her boyfriend. Naturally, soon everyone is running into everyone else!

On the Razzle

1983

No artwork available
10.0

A lexicographer's room gets trashed and notes scattered just as he was in the process of compiling a dictionary.

The Boundary

1975

No artwork available
8.0

A fictionalized autobiographical play written by Czechoslovakian playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel in 1984 upon his release from a four-and-one-half-year prison term for political subversion. The play focuses on two days in the life of a dissident writer who is awaiting the knock at the door that may send him to prison.

Largo Desolato

1990

No artwork available
NR

Set in a private nursing home, The smooth running of the home and the peace of mind of its staff is disrupted by the arrival of a patient, John Brown. He is warm, charming and can easily pay for his room... the only problem is that he is perfectly healthy. All he wants is to get away from the outside world.

A Separate Peace

2020

No artwork available
8.0

An allied agent is sent out into an obscure country to find a Russian Agent who has been thrown out of Russia for defection. He finds a broken man who drowns his days in drink, and feels sympathy for him.

Neutral Ground

1968

No artwork available
9.0

An early version of Jumpers - nothing happens at random - Doollee

Another Moon Called Earth

1967

No artwork available
7.0

The play centres on the figure of Henry Carr, an elderly man who reminisces about Zürich in 1917 during the First World War, and his interactions with James Joyce when he was writing Ulysses, Tristan Tzara during the rise of Dada, and Lenin leading up to the Russian Revolution, all of whom were living in Zürich at that time.

Travesties

1976

No artwork available
NR

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

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