
Acting
Denis Lawson
Born
1947-09-27 (79)
Place of birth
Perthshire, Scotland, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
87 titles
Denis Stamper Lawson (born 27 September 1947) is a Scottish actor and director. He is perhaps best known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero.
Known for
7.4A brilliant but idiosyncratic British detective and his resourceful local team solve baffling murder mysteries on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.
Death in Paradise
2011
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
4.3A topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.
The One Show
2006
8.2Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.
Star Wars
1977
7.7Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.
Father Brown
2013
6.6Play 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
2010s · 10 titles
6.2The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
2019
6.9In Glasgow, Scotland, while a mysterious pandemic begins to spread around the world, Susan, a brilliant epidemiologist, falls in love with Michael, a skillful cook.
Perfect Sense
2011
5.9Already deep into a second Cold War, Britain’s Ministry of Defense seeks a game-changing weapon. Programmer Vincent McCarthy unwittingly provides an answer in The Machine, a super-strong human cyborg. When a programming bug causes the prototype to decimate his lab, McCarthy takes his obsessive efforts underground, far away from inquisitive eyes.
The Machine
2013
6.9Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences.
Broken
2012
5.6The true life story of the rise to power of Glasgow gangster Paul Ferris.
The Wee Man
2013
NRGerald owns a beautiful house with lots of beautiful things in it. Beautiful things that are also extremely valuable. The kind of things that might just become the target of an audacious criminal enterprise.
A Quiet Night In
2014
NRRobert Burns was well aware of the revolution taking place across the Atlantic as he grew up. The poet was inspired. And America was to be inspired by him. From Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, some of the most significant figures in American politics and culture have cited Burns as an influence.
Burns in the USA
2017
8.0The story of the remarkable family who tamed the wild Scottish coastline, told 200 years after the building of their first iconic lighthouse, the Bell Rock. For nearly 150 years, Robert Stevenson, his sons and grandsons designed many of the lighthouses around Scotland's coast. His sons Alan, David and Thomas also became lighthouse engineers. His grandsons (David's sons) David Alan Stevenson and Charles Stevenson designed lighthouses too.
The Lighthouse Stevensons
2011
One-off comedy special. On the mean streets of Vange in Essex, naive police community support officer Len is the victim of a cruel hoax perpetrated by 'proper copper' PC Preston. Meanwhile, there have been a series of bizarre thefts at the station and PCSO Kelly thinks she knows who is responsible. Fellow 'plastic policeman' Perry doesn't know who to help - Len, Kelly or retiring colleague Chester.
Above Their Station
2010
9.0Joan Kepler is an intergalactic postal worker. She's top of her game, a senior deliverer in an industry that's been threatened by newer, faster technologies. Keeping Joan company on her endless missions is her ship, PAT 1. He's laconic, lazy and desperate to retire but remains deeply loyal. Together they've explored the outer edges of the galaxy, all the while preserving their 100% delivery record. But on this job, something's different. Three innocuous packages and a trip into uncharted space: it's nothing she hasn't handled before.
Somnium
2019
2000s · 10 titles
6.4A poignant biography of one of the most successful and wildly-read writers of the 20th century. Her stories enthralled children everywhere but her personal struggles often proved too much.
Enid
2009
NRBBC Scotland documentary catching up with and celebrating the life of legendary Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter as he returns to Glasgow for his 75th Birthday.
This is Stanley Baxter
2001
5.5A historical drama that tells the story of the development of penicillin in the 1930's/40's, by a group of scientists in Oxford at The Dunn School of Pathology
Breaking the Mould
2009
7.0A Headmistress steals from her own school. As a young girl Colleen McCabe asks a priest in confessional "What is sin?" Thirty years later she is found out for practising it. An ex-nun,she leaves the convent because she becomes disillusioned with spiritual matters and goes into teaching, being appointed headmistress of the John Rigby School in London. Along with a small coterie of chosen staff members to act as her spies,she misappropriates half a million pounds from school funds which she spends on luxury goods and a trip on the Orient Express. Meanwhile the school suffers,having to use ancient text books and pupils as cleaners. She is tried,although admitted to hospital for depression on the trial day, and sentenced to five years in jail, later reduced to four. The film alternates dramatized scenes of Colleen's misbehaviour with interviews with those who knew her.
The Thieving Headmistress
2006
7.0A rollicking adaptation of Kingsley Amis's first novel, Lucky Jim stars Stephen Tompkinson as Jim Dixon, a luckless lecturer at a provincial British university, trying to make a splash with his pompous boss, Professor Neddy Welch (Robert Hardy). Jim is also trying to make it with the woman of his dreams, Christine Callaghan (Keeley Hawes, Othello and Wives and Daughters), while simultaneously being pursued by the woman of his nightmares, fellow lecturer Margaret Peel (Helen McCrory, Anna Karenina). One (of many) complications is that Christine is the girlfriend of Professor Welch's egotistical artist son, Bertrand. Another is that Margaret keeps attempting suicide to get Jim's attention. But despite his misadventures, Jim keeps his eyes on the prize: a leg up on the ladder to a professorship in medieval history.
Lucky Jim
2003
NRThe Black Death, a pandemic disease that ravaged in the 1300s, caused a never-before-seen human catastrophe of frightening magnitude. Over the course of three terrible years, more than a third of Europe's population was wiped out.
The Black Death
2004
8.0The cast and crew discussing the transition from Tom Baker to Peter Davison, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the regeneration.
A New Body at Last
2007
Leonard is the victim of obsessive compulsive behaviour; meticulous and insular, his world is at home. When his long-lost son, Callum, turns up on the doorstep, seeming to be the epitome of Leonard's worst paranoias, their differences appear irreconcilable.
Leonard
2001
10.0Comedy following the lives of five people as they prepare to vie for the 2009 Cup O'Kindness, the trophy awarded to the champion in Robert Burns poetry recital. The film captures the ups and downs of each participant's progress as the pressure intensifies, the poems are recited and the champion is crowned. Held in Alloway, the birthplace of Burns himself, this prestigious competition is the centrepiece of the annual celebrations devoted to the Bard's immortal memory. And this year it may prove memorable for all the wrong reasons.
No Holds Bard
2009
TV Movie documentary exploring the secret life of Hughie Green.
The Real Hughie Green
2001
1990s · 5 titles
4.9An American's family jewels are stolen during her trip to London and she reluctantly teams up with a private investigator-in-training to try and recover them.
Bejewelled
1991
7.5Acting Lieutenant Hornblower attempts to study for his promotion examination, but becomes distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.
Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant
1998
9.0Roxanne (known as Roxy) is a star performer in her local soccer team. Her natural talent is noticed by local team owner Victor Grace who signs her up. However it's not so easy being the only female professional soccer star in the country.
Born Kicking
1992
7.6The doomed marriage of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick.
A Royal Scandal
1997
7.5After a big car accident, caused by his brother Valerio, Antonio is mentally-ill, fallen to a childlike regression. They live together in Trieste. Valerio is totally absorbed by his job and by looking after Antonio that call him Papà (Daddy). One day Valerio decide to have a trip on a house-boat with Marianna, his fiancée, and they bring Antonio with them. Antonio unexpectedly drives the boat far away till it gets stuck on a sandbank. Valerio leaves his brother and Marianna alone on the boat and goes searching for help. A storm obliges the two to spend a night together on an island. During that night Marianna discovers, step by step, the poetic and childish world of Antonio, starting to appreciate the different resources of mentally handicapped persons.
Fried Crumbed Brains
1996
1980s · 9 titles
8.4The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.
The Empire Strikes Back
1980
7.9Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.
Return of the Jedi
1983
6.8An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
Local Hero
1983
7.0Comedy featuring interweaving stories of seven households caught up in a property chain on moving day, each one dependent on the other.
The Chain
1984
5.0Dominick Hide, a time traveller from the year 2130, is studying the London transport system of 1980. Time travellers are supposed to be observers, and are strictly forbidden to land their flying saucers. One time traveller who broke this rule accidentally killed a dog, changing history and causing many future people to disappear. Inspired by his Great Aunt Mavis, Dominick decides to find his great great grandfather. He begins to land in 1980, where his strange clothes and speech make him seem an eccentric oddball. His quest brings him into contact with beautiful boutique owner Jane, and they fall in love. As Dominick's visits become more frequent and more prolonged, he increasingly risks his indiscretion being discovered by his boss, Caleb Line, and every moment he spends in the past increases the danger that he will catastrophically change the future
The Flipside of Dominick Hide
1980
Set in an open prison, where a former trade union activist subjects his more passive cell mate to an incessant barrage of union mumbo-jumbo.
Bitter Cherry
1983
9.0A man wakes one day to find a zip on the front of his body. Dare he see what's inside?
The Zip
1988
NRMiles Henderson has a few problems. His job, his marriage and his car are all falling apart at the same time. The last thing he needs is to be followed by a beautiful woman and a pair of private detectives - in that order.
Love After Lunch
1987
James Carlisle is a successful architect who sees his children every weekend following his divorce from Lyn. When Lyn falls in love with the unstable Bernard, James is forced to take drastic action.
One Way Out
1989
1970s · 9 titles
8.2Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.
Star Wars
1977
6.4Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.
The Man in the Iron Mask
1977
6.6On the eve of his 78th birthday, ailing, alcoholic writer Clive Langham spends a painful and sleepless night mentally composing and recomposing scenes for a novel in which characters based on his own family are shaped by his fantasies and memories, alongside his caustic commentary on their behaviour.
Providence
1977
5.8An executive in charge of a nuclear power plant in the Mid-East must stop his son-- who turns out to be the Anti Christ -- from blowing it up.
Holocaust 2000
1977
8.5An Edwardian take on the Shakespeare play starring Laurence Olivier.
The Merchant of Venice
1973
A man is kidnapped and brainwashed by political extremists. He is then sent on a mission.
The Girl Who Walked Quickly
1978
NRThe outrageous – and not entirely reliable – memoirs of Irish writer Frank Harris, sometime cowboy in the Old West, friend to the famous in the literary world, essayist and critic, and seducer of beautiful women.
Fearless Frank
1978
NRJohnny has joined the army because he likes canoeing, but ends up in a war-torn city and is compromised into helping the enemy. However, desertion will not be a solution, and he finds himself more distressed than ever.
The Paradise Run
1976
8.0At an end-of-term school play, Ozzie and his band join in with a hard rock contribution. However, this leads to the unexpected fame of the schoolboy rock group, and they find that there is a darker down-side to fame and being successful music stars.
Jumping Bean Bag
1976
Series credits
7.4A brilliant but idiosyncratic British detective and his resourceful local team solve baffling murder mysteries on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.
Death in Paradise
2011
5.8Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
Holby City
1999
4.3A topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.
The One Show
2006
7.7Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.
Father Brown
2013
6.6Play 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
6.6Play 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
7.1This anthology of animated shorts from around the world celebrates the mythos of Star Wars through unique cultural lenses.
Star Wars: Visions
2021
7.8The adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over.
Agatha Christie's Marple
2004
7.4Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.
Natural World
1983
7.3New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
New Tricks
2004
7.0Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.
Bergerac
1981
7.7A motley group of London con artists pull of a series of daring and intricate stings.
Hustle
2004
8.0Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?
Tales from the Crypt
1989
8.1An anthology of darkly comic twisted tales, each one taking place behind a door marked 'number 9'.
Inside No. 9
2014
6.4In the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton, the unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-China-shop-copper DS Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick DS, later DI, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining down-to-Earth wit and humour.
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996
7.4The story of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne at a time of great economic turbulence and resurgent republicanism – and died 64 years later the head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, having revitalised the throne’s public image and become “grandmother of Europe”.
Victoria
2016
6.5First there was Father Brown. Now, say hello to Sister Boniface. This clever, moped-riding nun is the police's secret weapon for solving murders in this divine Father Brown spin-off.
Sister Boniface Mysteries
2022
7.0Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
Law & Order: UK
2009
7.0Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.
Timeshift
2002
8.3Pie in the Sky is a British offbeat police comedy drama programme starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and first broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997 as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series departs slightly from other police dramas in that the protagonist, Henry Crabbe, while still being an on-duty policeman, is also the head chef of the title restaurant set in the fictional town of Middleton and county of Westershire.
Pie in the Sky
1994
7.8Set during the 18th century Napoleonic Wars, Horatio Hornblower, a young and shy midshipman, rises through the ranks to become an admiral.
Hornblower
1998
6.9Robin of Loxley returns to England after 5 years of fighting in the crusades alongside King Richard. After losing his estates and being branded an outlaw, he takes on the title of Robin Hood and assembles a ragtag band of outlaw companions. Together they steal from the rich and give to the poor - all the while avoiding and outwitting their enemies Sir Guy of Gisborne and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.
Robin Hood
2006
7.0An 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
6.6A rolling cast of famous faces, some of Britain's best loved personalities, turn their hand to being the country's most opinionated viewers, sharing their opinions on what they have been watching during the week.
Celebrity Gogglebox
2019
6.0Romesh Ranganathan takes charge of the back-stabbing big money game show. Can the contestants create a chain of answers and avoid the boot?
The Weakest Link
2021
5.8Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon.
Boon
1986
7.2Anthology drama series.
Screen One
1989
7.2Anthology drama series.
Screen One
1989
7.8Follow the lives and loves of a group of thirtysomethings in a heart-warming comic drama as they try to find true love - or at least keep their relationships on track. In this wry and funny look at a generation which is as confused as it is liberated by the choices it faces, will the chill in their feet put out the passion that burns in their hearts?
Cold Feet
1998
8.0The generous John Jarndyce, struggling with his own past, and his two young wards Richard and Ada, are all caught up, like Lady Dedlock, in the infamous case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, which will make one of them rich beyond imagination if it can ever be brought to a conclusion. As Tulkinghorn digs deeper into Lady Dedlock's past, he unearths a secret that will change their lives forever, and which is almost as astounding as the final outcome of the Jarndyce case.
Bleak House
2005
7.9Survivors is a British post-apocalyptic fiction television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977. It concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an accidentally released plague – referred to as "The Death" – that kills nearly the entire human population of the planet.
Survivors
1975
7.6Thriller by Peter Moffat about the challenges and politics of the criminal justice system seen through the eyes of the accused.
Criminal Justice
2008
7.5Tom Jackman is learning to cope with his alter ego, the dark and mysterious Hyde, who threatens his life and family. They also have to live in the same body while on the run from a mysterious organization that is hunting them.
Jekyll
2007
4.7Armchair 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
6.5The Ambassador is a British television drama series produced by the BBC written by Hugh Costello. The series starred Pauline Collins in the title role as Harriet Smith, the new British ambassador to Ireland and dealt with the personal and professional pressures in Harriet's life, as well as wider political themes. Other notable cast members were Denis Lawson and Peter Egan. Two series were made between 1998 and 1999.
The Ambassador
1998
7.9Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV is a British sketch comedy series created by and starring comedian Victoria Wood with Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show broadcast on BBC Two between 1985 and 1987, and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom; these included one-offs like Two Soups and regular features such as Acorn Antiques, as well as musical performances by Wood including her most well-known number, The Ballad of Barry and Freda.
Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV
1985
7.4Bittersweet comedy about a 61-year-old former model trying to cope with life in London.
Sensitive Skin
2005
5.3The Passion is a television drama serial that tells the story of the last week in the life of Jesus.
The Passion
2008
Series of plays examining various aspects of contemporary woman at different ages. The theme song, sung by Charles Aznavour, was a big hit in the summer of 1974.
Seven Faces of Woman
1974
Sunday night dramas on subjects as diverse as a dodgy doctor and a tale of cat lovers and the social circle they inhabit.
Sunday Premiere
1986
Behind the camera
4.9A successful young man's world view is turned upside-down when he inherits his great-great-grandfather's diaries, and starts pursuing the mystical geometric theories held within. Based on a short story by Ian McEwan.
Solid Geometry
2002
4.9A successful young man's world view is turned upside-down when he inherits his great-great-grandfather's diaries, and starts pursuing the mystical geometric theories held within. Based on a short story by Ian McEwan.
Solid Geometry
2002
In the 1800s, a bass player's attempts to woo a young woman lead to both parties being trapped in an awkward situation.
The Bass Player
1999
In the 1800s, a bass player's attempts to woo a young woman lead to both parties being trapped in an awkward situation.
The Bass Player
1999
