
Acting
Rita Davies
Born — Died
1933-02-24 — 2016-01-19
Place of birth
Hertfordshire, England, UK
Known for
Acting
Credits
68 titles
Rita Davies (24 February 1933 – 19 January 2016) was a British character actress whose career spanned nearly six decades. She is best known for her cameo as the Historian's Wife in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and her sustained role as Sarah Frobisher-Smythe in House of Anubis (2011). Her other film credits include Children of Men (2006), The Da Vinci Code (2006), and Beauty and the Beast (2017, posthumous). On television she appeared in Brideshead Revisited (2008), Casualty, Doctors, Call the Midwife, Unforgotten, and Sherlock. She died of cancer at age 82 in Esher, Surrey. No major awards are on record.
Known for
7.6Drama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
Call the Midwife
2012
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
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
8.5A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.
Sherlock
2010
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
Film credits
2010s · 9 titles
7.0A live-action adaptation of Disney's version of the classic tale of a cursed prince and a beautiful young woman who helps him break the spell.
Beauty and the Beast
2017
7.8Virgil Oldman is a world renowned antiques expert and auctioneer. An eccentric genius, he leads a solitary life, going to extreme lengths to keep his distance from the messiness of human relationships. When appointed by the beautiful but emotionally damaged Claire to oversee the valuation and sale of her family’s priceless art collection, Virgil allows himself to form an attachment to her – and soon he is engulfed by a passion which will rock his bland existence to the core.
The Best Offer
2013
6.6When famous DJ Alan Partridge’s radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
2013
6.6When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.
The Trip
2011
6.6Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
Private Peaceful
2012
5.4An up-tight lawyer, Lenny Rubins, has to put his dream retirement on hold when his ailing mother emotionally blackmails him into reuniting his estranged children for a Jewish holiday. They may be peas from the same pod, but in Lenny's eyes, his grown-up children are certainly not even from the same planet: a ruthless control-freak and hard-nosed capitalist, an outspoken, argumentative eco-warrior committed to the cause, an outer-worldly Buddhist Monk; and to cap it all, a bible bashing born-again Rabbi. While they might quarrel, fight, and perhaps even be starting a war in Africa, they are still family. It is going to take a whole lot of soul-searching and sacrifice for everyone to come together in this comic drama. Written by monterey media inc.
Reuniting the Rubins
2011
NRAt a two-day business conference, God decides to romantically pair Terry, a moral crusader, with his "win-at-all-cost" antithesis, Mary. However, fate, assisted by unique and corrupt characters, attempt to beset God's arrangements.
Acts of Godfrey
2012
4.3Christopher Cowin is in his mid 30s, a family man who owns a small advertising agency. A court case he had recently lost has shown him the rich and powerful always win! That is why Christopher creates the website THE LIST. On this site, users can label corrupt individuals in public life and award them points as to how much of a menace they are. The result is a list of politicians, CEOs and bankers. The website quickly becomes a worldwide success but suddenly, whoever is number one on THE LIST appears murdered and public opinion starts to turn against Christopher.
The List
2013
6.9After the death of his father, a teenage boy forms a healing friendship with a park ranger in the Yorkshire Dales.
Lad: A Yorkshire Story
2012
2000s · 9 titles
6.7A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.
The Da Vinci Code
2006
7.6In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Children of Men
2006
6.3Befriended by aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, Oxford student Charles Ryder finds that the power and privilege experienced by the family is seductive. On a visit to the ancestral home, Brideshead, he falls in love with his friend's sister, Julia. However, as his ties to the Flytes deepen, Ryder finds himself at odds with their strong Roman Catholicism.
Brideshead Revisited
2008
6.1A shy teenage boy trying to escape the influence of his domineering mother, has his world changed when he begins to work for a retired actress.
Driving Lessons
2006
5.5The life of a successful radiologist spirals out of control when she sees the spitting image of herself driving down a London street. While attempting to uncover who the imposter could be, she stumbles into a terrifying mystery that her family and closest friends are somehow involved in, leaving her with no one to trust.
The Broken
2008
5.5A serial killer uses a horror video rental to lure his next victim. What begins as a teen slasher transforms into a disturbing journey through the mind of Max Parry, a mild mannered wedding photographer with a taste for human flesh.
The Last Horror Movie
2004
4.0Paralysed from the waist down after a car crash, Julie Hill struggles to get used to her disability and to save her marriage. It looks as if her husband will leave her. Then doctors try a revolutionary treatment which feeds electrical impulses to her leg muscles - allowing her to ride a bicycle once again and so go out for bike rides with her family. Her marriage survives and she and her husband end up closer together than before.
Footprints in the Snow
2005
4.0Jenny, a young American woman, moves to Paris and gets involved with Jack, who is seemingly the man of her dreams. However, he has a lot to hide and Jenny quickly gets entangled his dangerous lifestyle.
Tempo
2003
The stories of five characters whose good intentions lead to disastrous consequences.
Of Best Intentions
2008
1990s · 4 titles
4.9Once upon a time in the village of Kromer lived two beautiful young wolves. Cocksure Gabriel takes newcomer Seth under his paw and helps reconcile him to the vilification associated with being a wolf. They fall head-over-heels in puppy love, playing together around picturesque waterfalls, secluded woodlands, and moonlit lakes. One day a wicked old crone and her goofy sidekick kill their mistress, frame the wolves, and incite a torch-bearing mob of religious zealots to seek vengeance on the hapless pair. But who will live happily ever after?
The Wolves of Kromer
1998
8.0Three young Dubliners go to London in search of fun, fortune and, in the case of 17-year-old Mary Kelly, an abortion. Homeless and jobless, their adventures quickly turn sour.
O Mary This London
1994
9.0A folklorist researching an 'urban legend' becomes caught up in his task. The film tells its fictional story in documentary style, featuring interviews with real folklore scholars.
W.S.H.: The Myth of the Urban Myth
1994
NRA dramatization of a murder resulting in the conviction of businesswoman Kathleen Calhaem, involving unrequited love, jealousy, and blackmail.
Deadly Obsession
1992
1980s · 2 titles
NRA tale of cat lovers, the social circle they inhabit, and the power struggles between them. Sukey is a beautiful Albanian Brown kitten, the sort that anyone would fall in love with. Sylvia Mortimer does – and so enters into the blue-rinsed world of pedigree cat-breeding, where competition is cut-throat and corruption knows no bounds.
Claws
1987
10.0If you were a famous English novelist doing a whistle stop tour of the United States to promote your books, wouldn't you welcome with open arms the chance of a quiet weekend away from it all in a remote corner of Long Island? Of course you would. Well, let what happened to Evan Lorrimer be an awful warning....
What Mad Pursuit
1985
1970s · 3 titles
7.8King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1975
6.1The waters surrounding an island become contaminated by chemical dumping, and people who eat fish caught in those waters become deformed and violent.
Doomwatch
1972
NRPlay about Eileen who steals a baby, and the reactions of those around her, including the priest, police, and authorities and the consequences of what she does.
Baby Love
1974
Series credits
7.6Drama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
Call the Midwife
2012
7.6A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996
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
8.5A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.
Sherlock
2010
7.4A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
2011
5.2A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.
BBC Play of the Month
1965
7.1Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992
7.1Series of single made-for-television dramas.
Screen Two
1985
7.6Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.
Lewis
2007
7.7A snobbish housewife is determined to climb the social ladder, in spite of her family's working class connections and the constant chagrin of her long suffering husband.
Keeping Up Appearances
1990
8.2Strange things are happening at an English boarding school called House of Anubis. Popular student Joy goes missing, the school's cranky caretaker has a creepy stuffed crow and the school's attic may be haunted. When recent American transplant Nina gets thrust into the school during this time, she decides to investigate along with her new friend, Fabian, and housemates.
House of Anubis
2011
7.6London police detectives Cassie Stuart and Sunny Khan investigate historic cold cases involving missing persons, murder and long-hidden secrets.
Unforgotten
2015
7.3John Thaw dons the silks as barrister James Kavanagh Q.C., one of the most highly respected criminal advocates in London, commanding admiration from colleagues and opponents alike. However, all this has come at a price as his dedication to work has taken its toll on his private life… Going beyond traditional courtroom dramas, “Kavanagh Q.C.” uncovers the pressures of legal battles and the problems of defining the truth, providing a compelling representation of the euphoric ups and costly downs of success and failure in the legal world.
Kavanagh Q.C.
1995
8.3A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969
8.3A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969
8.3A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969
8.3A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969
BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.
Sunday-Night Play
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
7.7Suburban teenage friends Will, Simon, Jay and Neil, students at Rudge Park Comprehensive, attempt to navigate the social scene, attract members of the gentler sex, and saunter amongst the cool crowd. However, despite their best efforts, the four hapless lads usually end up on the side of the nerds.
The Inbetweeners
2008
6.7Cuckoo is every parent's worst nightmare - a slacker full of outlandish, New Age ideas. Ken is the over-protective father of a girl who's impulsively married an American hippie on her gap year.
Cuckoo
2012
7.7Crime drama series featuring Life On Mars' DCI Gene Hunt. After being shot in 2008, DI Alex Drake lands in 1981, where she finds herself in familiar company.
Ashes to Ashes
2008
Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.
Drama 61-67
1961
7.1Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.
Out of the Unknown
1965
7.8Nelson 'the urbane fox' and his anthropomorphic animal friends navigate the urban jungle from their home in London's East End in a puppet sitcom for adults.
Mongrels
2010
7.5Murder in Suburbia was a British detective drama that ran for two series in 2004 and 2005. Detective Inspector Kate Ashurst, a graduate of a posh girls' academy, has a sharp, analytical mind; her working-class partner, Detective Sergeant Emma Scribbins, relies on her instincts. Together this sassy, sexy investigative team uncovers the dark urges behind suburban Middleford's placid façade.
Murder in Suburbia
2004
5.7Mr. Palfrey is a mild-mannered, but highly skilled counter-espionage agent employed by a small, unnamed department within British intelligence. He and his team tackle complex cases, often involving government cover-ups and internal affairs.
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
1984
6.7Explores the day-to-day work of police officers, from high-stakes situations like drug busts and kidnappings to mundane incidents like shoplifting and public disturbances, while also delving into their personal lives and internal conflicts.
Cuffs
2015
7.1Armed with a self-effacing manner and a lively sense of humour, Dominic 'Nicky' Cole quickly discovers that being a good cop doesn't always win you friends. Stuck away from the land of the living as a night detective, he learns that new friends are in short supply. The other detectives look upon him with suspicion and his boss DI Carter doesn't do much to make his new recruit welcome. Although his methods can, at times, be unorthodox, Nicky always tries to do the right thing, even if it does make him unpopular with his new colleagues.
55 Degrees North
2004
6.5Ladies in Charge is a 1986 British television drama, an expansion from a 1985 pilot in the Storyboard anthology programme. Produced by Thames Television for ITV, the six-episode programme stars Carol Royle, Julia Hills, and Julia Swift. After serving as World War I ambulance drivers, three women start a private agency in London to solve problems for clients, blending mystery and drama with a lighthearted tone. They take on various cases, from finding lost items to uncovering secrets, often challenging societal expectations for women of the era.
Ladies in Charge
1986
7.0Follows the private lives of seven British PMs who lived at Number 10 Downing Street between the 1780s and the 1920s: William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd-George, Herbert Henry Asquith and James Ramsay MacDonald.
Number 10
1983
6.6Ellie's beloved husband is killed in a car accident. A woman was in the car with him and killed too. Who was she? Was he having an affair? Was it an accident?
Without You
2011
6.9A British television series based on the book of the same name written by Sue Townsend.
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾
1985
6.0Ghost Squad, known as G.S.5 for its third series, was a crime drama series about an elite division of Scotland Yard that ran between 1961 and 1964. Each episode the Ghost Squad would investigate cases that fell outside the scope of normal police work. Despite the show and characters being fictional, an actual division did exist within the Metropolitan Police Service at the time. Inspiration for the series was taken from a book of the same name, written by John Gosling — a retired police officer and former member of the team. Although the real-life squad only operated in London, the fictionalised team travelled internationally; however — as was typical of the time — most foreign locations were actually a combination of stock footage and sets at Independent Artists Studio at Beaconsfield and Elstree Studios. Music was by Philip Green. The show was produced by ITC Entertainment, along with Rank Organisation TV and ATV. It was the first ITC show filmed to fit the one hour time-slot — setting the trend for the majority of ITC's future output. Another common ITC trait was to feature an American, in this case Michael Quinn, in a leading role so as to increase the chances of international sales. At 6' 3", Quinn often towered over his co-workers. This was especially noticeable in the first series title sequence showing him walking through a crowd walking in the opposite direction. He frequently smoked in the show as did many others. The second series had a different title sequence and Neil Hallett sometimes replaced Quinn. Hallett looked more like a spy while Quinn looked a bit like a playboy. Quinn was replaced by Australian actor, Ray Barrett in the third series. Ray Austin played Billy Clay in and was also Stunt Director on all series bringing the action to life. Austin went on to become a renowned TV director in Hollywood and the UK.
Ghost Squad
1961
6.7Following a raft of shootings in an English market town, the crimes are retold in a nonlinear narrative structure through the eyes of a journalist and the tragedies' victims.
Southcliffe
2013
7.0Teenage Health Freak is a British teen comedy-drama about the life and travails of a socially awkward teenager as he goes through life. It is best known for featuring the actress Liza Walker and the actor Alex Langdon. It was based on the book Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, by Dr. Ann McPherson and Dr. Aidan Macfarlane.
Teenage Health Freak
1991
7.4Art is an independent film-maker with big ideas... sadly nobody will listen to these ideas, with the exception of his best friend Jones. The series follows Art as his overactive imagination turns every day into a cinematic classic, with homages to 'Top Gun' and 'The Shining' to name but a few.
My Life in Film
2004
7.0Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle.
Nicholas Nickleby
1968
7.0Starlings is a British comedy-drama written by Steve Edge and Matt King who also play the roles of Fergie and Uncle Loz. It is one of the few new television comedy series that has been commissioned and aired on Sky1.
Starlings
2012

