Paul Jesson

Acting

Paul Jesson

Born

1946-07-06 (80)

Place of birth

Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

60 titles

Known for

Midsomer Murders poster
7.5

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.

Midsomer Murders

1997

The Crown poster
8.2

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

The Crown

2016

Vera poster
7.4

A 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

Spooks poster
7.7

Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid.

Spooks

2002

A Touch of Frost poster
7.6

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

A Touch of Frost

1992

Endeavour poster
8.1

The early days of a young Endeavour Morse, whose experiences as a detective constable with the Oxford City Police will ultimately shape his future.

Endeavour

2013

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

2010s · 9 titles

The Children Act poster
6.6

In the midst of a marital crisis, a High Court judge must decide if she should order a life-saving blood transfusion for a teen with cancer despite his family's refusal to accept medical treatment for religious reasons.

The Children Act

2018

Marrowbone poster
7.3

A young man and his three younger siblings are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.

Marrowbone

2017

Mr. Turner poster
6.5

Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.

Mr. Turner

2014

Coriolanus poster
5.8

Caius Martius, aka Coriolanus, is an arrogant and fearsome general who has built a career on protecting Rome from its enemies. Pushed by his ambitious mother to seek the position of consul, Coriolanus is at odds with the masses and unpopular with certain colleagues. When a riot results in his expulsion from Rome, Coriolanus seeks out his sworn enemy, Tullus Aufidius. Together, the pair vow to destroy the great city.

Coriolanus

2011

Closer to the Moon poster
6.5

A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of bank robbers to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.

Closer to the Moon

2014

RSC Live: Coriolanus poster
NR

A full-throttle war play that revels in the sweat of the battlefield, Coriolanus transports us back to the emergence of the republic of Rome.Caius Martius Coriolanus is a fearless soldier but a reluctant leader. His ambitious mother attempts to carve him a path to political power, but he struggles to change his nature and do what is required to achieve greatness. In this new city state struggling to find its feet, where the gap between rich and poor is widening every day, Coriolanus must decide who he really is and where his allegiances lie.Rome Season Director, Angus Jackson, completes the Royal Shakespeare Company’s collection of Shakespeare’s Roman plays with a visceral production which sees Sope Dirisu (One Night in Miami, Donmar Warehouse, 2016) take on the title role.

RSC Live: Coriolanus

2017

National Theatre Live: King Lear poster
7.0

An ageing monarch. A kingdom divided. A child’s love rejected. As Lear’s world descends into chaos, all that he once believed is brought into question. One of the greatest works in Western literature, King Lear explores the very nature of human existence: love and duty, power and loss, good and evil.

National Theatre Live: King Lear

2011

The Sound of Music Live! poster
7.7

The popular musical is brought to life on soundstages at London's Three Mills Studio, in a live TV dramatisation of the timeless story of Maria and the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II.

The Sound of Music Live!

2015

National Theatre Live: Travelling Light poster
NR

In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father's cinematograph.

National Theatre Live: Travelling Light

2012

2000s · 4 titles

All or Nothing poster
7.1

Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children, Rachel, a cleaner, and Rory, who is unemployed and aggressive.

All or Nothing

2002

Vera Drake poster
7.2

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Vera Drake

2004

Danielle Cable: Eyewitness poster
8.5

Dramatisation of the real-life road-rage killing in 1996 of Stephen Cameron by Kenneth Noye, who was also implicated in the Brinks Mat bullion robbery and the murder of a policeman. The only witness to the killing of Stephen Cameron was his fiancée, Danielle Cable, who was forced to change her identity after giving the evidence which convicted Noye.

Danielle Cable: Eyewitness

2003

Margaret poster
5.7

A detailed and compelling portrait of one of the most formidable characters in British politics as she faces her final days in power. The year is 1990 and Margaret Thatcher's support within the government is wavering - her hold on the premiership hangs in the balance. Then, long-serving politician Sir Geoffrey Howe resigns over Thatcher's attitude to Europe. His resignation speech sparks a chain of events that leads to the overthrow of Britain's first woman prime minister. This modern dramatic tragedy illustrates the strengths and fatal flaws of this iconic woman more clearly than ever before and reveals how the very aspects of her character that helped her secure power are the ones that ensured her downfall. Drama starring Lindsay Duncan.

Margaret

2009

1990s · 3 titles

The Trial of Lord Lucan poster
6.0

An imagined trial of a man who, in 1974 London, is thought to have killed a woman he mistook for his wife in order to regain custody of his children. He disappeared the day after the killing and was never found.

The Trial of Lord Lucan

1994

No artwork available
NR

A kilo of cocaine. Hardly what two small-time crooks were expecting to find when they broke into TV director Harold Roy's shabby mansion. But nor was Harold's frustrated wife expecting to fall in love with one of the intruders. Now she's going to make a deal with him - for both her husband and the drugs. But the precious powder belongs to someone else. And he wants it back. So if he feels he's been double-crossed, there's no telling what might happen. Detective Inspector Resnick has a hunch that there's more to this story than meets the eye. And as his investigations lead him down the mean streets of the TV industry and an inner-city drugs ring, it's obvious that more than one person is dancing on thin ice.

Resnick: Rough Treatment

1993

No artwork available
NR

Shirley Peters is dead. Murdered. Her body is found twelve hours later in her own home. Just one of the many sordid domestic crimes hitting the city. Tony Macliesh, her rejected boyfriend, is the obvious prime suspect and he’s just been picked off the Aberdeen train and put straight into custody. But then another woman is sexually abused and throttled to death. And suddenly there appears to be one too many connections between these seemingly unrelated crimes. Detective Inspector Resnick is sure that the two murders are the work of one sadistic killer – two lonely hearts broken by one maniac. And it’s up to Resnick to put the record straight – and put the bastard where he belongs

Resnick: Lonely Hearts

1992

1980s · 15 titles

The Winter's Tale poster
9.5

The jealous King Leontes falsely accuse his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend, and she dies. Leontes exiles his newborn daughter Perdita, who is raised by shepherds for sixteen years and falls in love with the son of Leontes' friend. When Perdita returns home, a statue of Hermione "comes to life", and everyone is reconciled.

The Winter's Tale

1981

Home Sweet Home poster
6.3

Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner.

Home Sweet Home

1982

Henry VI Part 3 poster
8.0

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 3

1983

Henry VI Part 2 poster
7.5

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 2

1983

Henry VI Part 1 poster
7.7

The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.

Henry VI Part 1

1983

The Tragedy of Richard III poster
8.0

Richard Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of King Edward IV, will stop at nothing to get the crown. He first convinces the ailing King that the Duke of Clarence, his elder brother, is a threat to the lives of Edward's two young sons. Edward has him imprisoned in the Tower of London; killers in Richard's pay then drown Clarence in a barrel of wine. When news of Clarence's death reaches the King, the subsequent grief and remorse bring about his death. Richard is made Lord Protector, with power to rule England while his nephew (now King Edward V) is still a minor. Before the young king's coronation he has his two nephews conveyed to the Tower, ostensibly for their safekeeping. Richard's accomplice, the Duke of Buckingham, then declares the two boys illegitimate and offers Richard the crown, which after a show of reticence he accepts. After Richard's coronation, he and Buckingham have a falling-out over whether or not to assassinate the two children.

The Tragedy of Richard III

1983

Mike Leigh: Making Plays poster
8.0

Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays.

Mike Leigh: Making Plays

1982

Cymbeline poster
6.2

Cymbeline, the King of Britain, is angry that his daughter Imogen has chosen a poor (but worthy) man for her husband. So he banishes Posthumus, who goes to fight for Rome. Imogen (dressed as a boy) goes in search of her husband, who meanwhile has boasted to his pal Iachimo that Imogen would never betray him. And Iachimo's determined to prove him wrong.

Cymbeline

1983

The Tragedy of Coriolanus poster
8.0

A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.

The Tragedy of Coriolanus

1984

Quartermaine's Terms poster
7.0

TV adaptation of the play set in a Cambridge School of English for Foreigners in 1962. St John Quartermaine is a rather ineffective but kindly teacher at the school who, becuase of his gentle character, has hardly any enemies - in fact, the rest of the staff confide in him or generally pplay on his good nature. Then Derek Meadle arrives on the scene. He is a new part-time teacher who really wants to be full-time, but people like Quartermaine are in the way.

Quartermaine's Terms

1987

The Muscle Market poster
7.0

Danny Duggan runs a failing building contractors, and resorts to sub-gangster thuggery to keep the business afloat. However, with the bottom falling out of the building game, Duggan finds that playing at gangster is only fun when you're on the winning side.

The Muscle Market

1981

Love's Labour's Lost poster
8.0

A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

Love's Labour's Lost

1985

Acceptable Levels poster
7.0

A BBC film crew is interviewing a ‘typical Catholic family’ in the Divis Flats area of Belfast, when news comes in that a child, known to the family, has been hit by a stray plastic bullet fired by a British soldier – a version of events contested by the army. Back in London, editing the footage, the producer and researcher on the project wrestle with how to present the incident, and with their responsibility to the people in the film.

Acceptable Levels

1983

Joggers poster
NR

When five girls start jogging in Liverpool's Sefton Park they soon encounter predictable male opposition. The result is a comedy that ends with a relay race of Wagnerian proportions. A BBC co-production with the Liverpool Everyman

Joggers

1981

Pity in History poster
8.0

A sculptor is working to finish off a memorial to the Royalist years - just as Cromwell's men are approaching the surrounding cathedral walls.

Pity in History

1985

Series credits

Midsomer Murders poster
7.5

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.

Midsomer Murders

1997

Midsomer Murders poster
7.5

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.

Midsomer Murders

1997

The Crown poster
8.2

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

The Crown

2016

Vera poster
7.4

A 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

Spooks poster
7.7

Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid.

Spooks

2002

A Touch of Frost poster
7.6

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

A Touch of Frost

1992

Endeavour poster
8.1

The early days of a young Endeavour Morse, whose experiences as a detective constable with the Oxford City Police will ultimately shape his future.

Endeavour

2013

Foyle's War poster
7.9

As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.

Foyle's War

2002

Pie in the Sky poster
8.3

Pie 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

The BBC Television Shakespeare poster
6.0

The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. After encountering numerous problems trying to produce the series, Messina eventually pitched the idea to the BBC’s departmental heads and the series was greenlighted. The series as a whole received generally negative reviews from critics.

The BBC Television Shakespeare

1978

The Bible: A History poster
6.0

It is a book that originated thousands of years ago in the Middle East. The subject of intensive scholarship and interpretation, the Bible and its rich narratives have shaped politics, culture, and the human experience through the ages. Seven people from different walks of life offer their perspectives on what history's best selling book says about spiritual life and relationships with others.

The Bible: A History

2010

Chewing Gum poster
7.1

The life of Tracey, a religious, Beyoncé-obsessed 22-year-old living in an estate in Tower Hamlets, and the mishaps of her neighbourhood, friends and family. Oh, and obvs her boyfriend!

Chewing Gum

2015

A Very Peculiar Practice poster
8.2

A young and idealistic Doctor Stephen Daker arrives at Lowlands University to work at the Health Centre, but has to cope with an eccentric set of colleagues.

A Very Peculiar Practice

1986

Widows poster
7.4

Armed robbers Harry, Terry, and Joe die when the security van that they're robbing catches fire in the Kingsway Tunnel in London. Their widows–Dolly, Shirley, and Linda–find their husbands' schematics and decide to stage it themselves.

Widows

1983

Widows poster
7.4

Armed robbers Harry, Terry, and Joe die when the security van that they're robbing catches fire in the Kingsway Tunnel in London. Their widows–Dolly, Shirley, and Linda–find their husbands' schematics and decide to stage it themselves.

Widows

1983

Widows poster
7.4

Armed robbers Harry, Terry, and Joe die when the security van that they're robbing catches fire in the Kingsway Tunnel in London. Their widows–Dolly, Shirley, and Linda–find their husbands' schematics and decide to stage it themselves.

Widows

1983

Clayhanger poster
6.0

Clayhanger is a British television drama based on Arnold Bennett's novel series of the same name, published between 1910 and 1918, dramatised by Douglas Livingstone for ITV. Produced by Associated Television, the 26-episode programme is a coming-of-age story set in 19th century England. Edwin Clayhanger aspires to be an architect but is expected to join his father's printing business. His personal growth, eventual acceptance of the family business, and his romantic entanglement with Hilda Lessways are explored. Clayhanger was ITV's longest-ever drama at the time. While some found the pacing slow, it was nonetheless praised for its faithful adaptation, excellent acting, and atmospheric sets.

Clayhanger

1976

The Devil's Whore poster
6.8

The Devil's Whore is a four-part television drama serial produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, broadcast from 19 November to 10 December 2008. As the English Civil War rages, when both politics and religion divide the nation, spirited aristocrat Angelica Fanshawe is drawn to the anti-monarchist cause. She tells the story as England dares to execute its king and search for an alternative means of government.

The Devil's Whore

2008

Carry On Laughing poster
5.7

An anthology of half-hour stories, mostly historical romps and satires of pop culture, some feature recurring characters; based on the blockbuster Carry On films, the series was an attempt to address the films' declining cinema attendance by transferring the franchise to television. Many original cast members were featured in the series.

Carry On Laughing

1975

The Glass poster
10.0

Jim Proctor, a middle-aged tycoon, decides to hand over his glass-making company to his young nephew Paul Duggan.

The Glass

2001

Working Shakespeare poster
NR

How do we enter the heightened, extravagant language of Shakespeare and yet feel truthful in our contemporary world? How do performers excite the audience with Shakespeare's rich imagery and dynamic rhythm, yet make it real for the twenty-first century? We assume that a sophisticated intellectual background is required to grapple with Shakespeare. But there is a much deeper, almost primal response as available to inner-city students as to their counterparts in the private school to the sound and rhythm in Shakespeare's language which arouses our emotions: feelings of anger and sorrow, of passion and laughter. This landmark five-part video series gives voice to Shakespeare's most beloved and widely known speeches and sonnets, performed by a powerhouse ensemble of American and British actors, as they delve into the structure, meaning and power of Shakespeare's language.

Working Shakespeare

2003

The Trials of Jimmy Rose poster
4.8

Jimmy has just been released from prison after 12 years and is struggling to come to terms with his new life. His family and friends are finding it difficult to accept him back in to their lives and he must find a way to make things right.

The Trials of Jimmy Rose

2015

Intimate Contact poster
4.3

A self-satisfied, upper-middle-class husband discovers that his marital infidelities have caused him to contract AIDS.

Intimate Contact

1987