
Acting
Wally Patch
Born — Died
1888-09-26 — 1970-10-27
Place of birth
Willesden, Middlesex, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
64 titles
Known for
5.2An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
The Wednesday Play
1964
7.6This English follows the East End working-class Garnett family, headed by patriarch Alf, a reactionary working-class man who wields racist and anti-Socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else manages to keep things in control... for the most part. Their progressive daughter Rita lives with them, as does her Irish husband Mike, who, with an array of liberal worldviews, often quarrels with his father-in-law. It inspired the American show "All In The Family" and several other international variations on the same theme.
Till Death Us Do Part
1966
7.7A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
A Matter of Life and Death
1946
A completely lost BBC1 drama series centred on the King family, who love, live, fight and work around a harbour in the Thames estuary.
King of the River
1966
7.0When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.
Pygmalion
1938
7.2Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.
Night Train to Munich
1940
Film credits
1960s · 12 titles
5.3When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients.
The Millionairess
1960
6.4Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
Poor Cow
1967
7.1A middle-aged stock actor goes to London to try the big time. After much frustration, he lands a job doing TV commercials, gaining wealth and recognition. He eventually gives it all up to return to stage work and keep his pride.
The Comedy Man
1964
5.5Jailed for his role in a gang heist and ditched by its female leader (Jayne Mansfield), a widower (Anthony Quayle) decides to keep the loot.
The Challenge
1960
6.3Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
The Night We Got the Bird
1960
7.0Scotland Yard investigate when a woman, apparently the estranged wife of a London painter, is murdered with a shotgun in rural Surrey at the same time as the artist's striking model with her long black hair disappears.
Serena
1962
5.3Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
Sparrows Can't Sing
1963
7.0Cathy and Reg are a couple with three young children, who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional, Cathy Come Home remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction, engaging viewers with social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children.
Cathy Come Home
1966
7.0The lives and loves of three young working class women, set in the pubs, terraced houses and factories of Battersea, South London.
Up the Junction
1965
5.0An English professor decides that there are too many useless people in the world and invents a gas that will kill them off. But first they'll at least have a good laugh.
A Jolly Bad Fellow
1964
8.0When a boy discovers that both his parents are in prison, he sets out to find them.
The Coming Out Party
1965
7.0Penniless Lord Whitebait's plan to save his sinking fortunes is to open stately Whitebait Manor to the public. But the public ignores his gesture, and his fortunes fade even further, with a stream of debts threatening to run into a deluge when his daughter's fiancé demands a plush and costly wedding. Where is the cash to come from? Whitebait and his servant Spankforth's answer is a scam involving the theft of a valuable painting from the Manor. How could such a cunningly original ruse fail?
Nothing Barred
1961
1950s · 4 titles
6.6Naive Stanley Windrush looks for a career in a family business. Much to his dismay, he finds work at a munitions factory where he has to start from the bottom, while both the management and the labor union use him as a tool in their fight for power.
I'm All Right Jack
1959
7.4Accident-prone Fingers runs a pretty unsuccessful gang. They try and rob wealthy but tricky Billy Gordon - who distrusts banks and fears the Inland Revenue - but he sees Fingers and the boys off. So they decide to kidnap his daughter, only to end up with his wife Lucy. Gordon makes out he couldn't be more pleased, spuring Lucy to take charge of the hopeless bunch of villains.
Too Many Crooks
1959
6.8Nigel Dennis publishes a scandal magazine. But for each story he writes, he first approaches the person whose scandalous behavior is described (or rather implied, to avoid any libel suit) and says he will suppress the story in return for money. Several of his victims first decide individually to kill him instead of paying, but fail in amusing ways. Then they find that to protect their various secrets they must now join forces for a rather different purpose...
The Naked Truth
1957
6.0The story evolves around a radio panel game show "Twenty Questions." The panel is challenged with an anonymous question. The answer leads to a series of murders in which the killer uses the programme to name his victims in advance. Two reporters spot a link between them and enlist the aid of the panel in trapping the guilty party.
The Twenty Questions Murder Mystery
1950
1940s · 25 titles
7.7A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
A Matter of Life and Death
1946
7.2Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.
Night Train to Munich
1940
6.7The story of the HMS Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship’s first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.
In Which We Serve
1942
7.1A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.
The Guinea Pig
1948
7.0Tottie True is a gay-90s British music-hall performer who has her sights set on moving from rags to riches, who loses her heart to the pure-and-true blue balloonist, Sid Skinner, but continues her upward search on improving her social status. She finally settles for Lord Landon Digby who has lots of assets and a very-stiff upper lip. She gets a lot of the latter and very little of the former, and decides Sid might have been a better choice.
Trottie True
1949
6.7Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight.
Cottage to Let
1941
6.4A detective gets involved with a wealthy socialite who can't seem to stop hiccuping.
Helter Skelter
1949
7.4Third and final film in the 'Inspector Hornleigh’ series of comedy-thrillers. Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker), disappointed at not being handed an important spy case, is assigned by Scotland Yard to an army barracks to investigate the mundane thefts of supplies from the stores. This accidentally leads Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim) to a nest of fifth columnists when his dim-witted assistant carelessly talks to a girl in the cafeteria – and that night, news of Hornleigh and Bingham’s arrival is embarrassingly transmitted back to Germany.
Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It
1941
6.6A fisherman begins studying to be an osteopath. Although he isn't finished with medical school, he begins treating his landlady's daughter who is believed to have a chronic illness. He seems to cure her, and the case draws a lot of attention, some of it negative because he was unlicensed when he treated her. He still does not have a degree when he marries the daughter and begins practising osteopathy.
Green Fingers
1947
6.7Robert Maine is torn between returning to the glamour of Hollywood and working with a small theatre company in England.
Return to Yesterday
1940
5.2Home guardsman Albert is in love with Dolly, the daughter of commanding officer Diehard. In order to impress her, Albert tries to raise funds to buy a tank for the village.
Bob's Your Uncle
1942
6.5Morale-boosting story released in the middle of World War II. A journalist uncovers a peace organisation at the centre of disreputable dealings.
Unpublished Story
1942
6.3Rodney Playfair is persuaded, by a promise to meet his gambling debts, to impersonate a manservant named Chapman at his fiancée's house...
The Butler's Dilemma
1943
5.6The Thames river police try to track down smugglers.
River Patrol
1948
6.2Small-time jewel thief Leo Martin is deserted by his partners-in-crime, club owner Gus Loman and driver Hatchett, when the robbery they are committing goes wrong. After serving his prison sentence, Leo emerges with an intricate plan for revenge. Leo implicates Loman, as well as his amoral boss, Gregory Lang, for murder -- but Inspector Rogers suspects Leo.
Appointment with Crime
1946
6.4The son of a notorious hangman is gradually becoming insane and he finds himself unable to resist the urge to strangle women to death.
Wanted for Murder
1946
5.6Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch as Oxford 'scholars'. The film is one of many to be made based on the farce Charley's Aunt. Taking inspiration from a well-known Victorian play, a modern-day prankster poses as a wealthy woman in a ploy to prevent him and his friends from being expelled from college.
Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt
1940
7.0Four war-time performers known for their concert parties, have a reunion. They decide they are still good together and form a successful nightclub act.
Date with a Dream
1948
6.3A man is blackmailed into taking his brother's place in a gang for a jewellery heist.
They Came by Night
1940
6.4Sent to a home for "problem" girls, incipient juvenile delinquent Gwen receives a crash course in petty crime. Back on the outside, she falls in with the usual bad crowd, and suffers spectacularly as a result.
Good-Time Girl
1948
6.8On the death of his father, an eighteen-year old leaves school to take over the family firm in the City of London. Realising the other directors want to keep him in the dark he starts asking questions, and is soon undercover as a down-and-out in a hostel which will disappear if a company building project goes ahead.
The Common Touch
1941
3.9Jane is given a bracelet by an elderly admirer. He is in league with Cleaver, a suave crook, and the two plan to use Jane and the bracelet to smuggle diamonds into England.
The Adventures of Jane
1949
Garage owner Tommy and ventriloquist friend Eric join the army and go to France, where they are captured by the Nazis. However, Eric's voice-throwing skills come in handy in engineering their escape and obtaining top secret information.
Pack Up Your Troubles
1940
6.2Gert and Daisy accompany a crowd of Cockney children who are being evacuated to a stately home in the country.
Gert and Daisy's Weekend
1942
6.5The captain of a British cargo ship shanghais a group of sabateurs, unaware that the daughter of the ship’s owner is among them.
Sabotage at Sea
1942
1930s · 17 titles
7.0When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.
Pygmalion
1938
6.4Renowned for his excess, King Henry VIII goes through a series of wives during his rule. With Anne Boleyn, his second betrothed, executed on charges of treason, Henry weds maid Jane Seymour, but that wedded bliss also ends in tragedy. Not one to be single for long, the tyrannical king chooses German-born Anne of Cleves, but their union lasts only months before an annulment is granted, and so Henry's reign of spousal terror continues.
The Private Life of Henry VIII
1933
6.7The inhabitants of a peaceful village begin receiving mysterious hate mail penned by someone with malicious thoughts.
Poison Pen
1939
5.4An old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village.
The Skin Game
1931
7.0Algernon Sprigg, a horse-racing fanatic, is convinced that everyone is a gambler at heart. To prove his theory, he bets a friend that he can convert Amos Purdie, the puritanical head of an anti-betting association, into a punter within a week.
The Sport of Kings
1931
6.2A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
The Old Curiosity Shop
1934
6.2A 1930s British summer Bank Holiday starts at midday on Saturday with a rush for the trains to the seaside. Doreen and Milly are off to a beauty contest, Geoffrey and Catherine are having an illicit weekend in the Grand Hotel and May and the kids are set for a more straightforward holiday of sea, sand, and pub. Meanwhile, the manager and performers on the pier are praying for rain.
Bank Holiday
1938
6.0An ordinary man, while vigorously asserting the impossibility of miracles, suddenly discovers that he can perform them.
The Man Who Could Work Miracles
1936
6.0A young Scotland Yard police academy recruit tries to break up a gang of thieves.
Crime Unlimited
1935
6.5George Bright is a props man in an ice ballet company, and a keen amateur photographer who accidentally snaps crooks at work. Comic complications ensue....
I See Ice
1938
8.3A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because it gave Will Hay his first film role.
Those Were the Days
1934
A British drama film directed by Widgey R. Newman
Heroes of the Mine
1932
9.0A drama film directed by Castleton Knight .
Kissing Cup's Race
1930
6.6Michael is a young Englishman abroad who deliberately visits a tough Chinese district of Tiger Bay to test his strength. He falls in love and battles a protection racket.
Tiger Bay
1934
John Smith, a middle-aged married man, is made redundant by his employer; at a loss and despairing, his friend Harry Jones suggests applying to the Embankment Fellowship Centre, a charity that provides hostelling, retraining and help finding work for men in his position.
Smith
1939
8.0A British secret service agent falls in love with the daughter of a leading London criminal, and soon after becoming involved with her father finds himself in prison facing a charge of manslaughter..
Prison Breaker
1936
5.6Actor Edmund Davey becomes a star overnight when his wife and co-star teams up with the secretary of a noted stage critic to produce a glowing review of his 'Othello'.
Men Are Not Gods
1936
1920s · 2 titles
Series credits
5.2An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
The Wednesday Play
1964
7.6This English follows the East End working-class Garnett family, headed by patriarch Alf, a reactionary working-class man who wields racist and anti-Socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else manages to keep things in control... for the most part. Their progressive daughter Rita lives with them, as does her Irish husband Mike, who, with an array of liberal worldviews, often quarrels with his father-in-law. It inspired the American show "All In The Family" and several other international variations on the same theme.
Till Death Us Do Part
1966
A completely lost BBC1 drama series centred on the King family, who love, live, fight and work around a harbour in the Thames estuary.
King of the River
1966
A kindly shop owner has overwhelming gambling debts. These allow his greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, the shop owner and his granddaughter flee.
The Old Curiosity Shop
1962


