Virginia McKenna

Acting

Virginia McKenna

Born

1931-06-07 (95)

Place of birth

London, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

78 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dame Virginia Anne McKenna, DBE (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author, activist, and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films A Town Like Alice (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), Born Free (1966), and Ring of Bright Water (1969), as well as her work with The Born Free Foundation.

Known for

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A 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

GMTV poster
5.8

GMTV is the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end. The final edition of GMTV was broadcast on 3 September 2010.

GMTV

1993

Agatha Christie's Marple poster
7.8

The 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

Natural World poster
7.4

Natural 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

Film credits

2010s · 6 titles

Ethel & Ernest poster
7.5

This hand drawn animated film, based on the award winning graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, is an intimate and affectionate depiction of the life and times of his parents, two ordinary Londoners living through extraordinary events.

Ethel & Ernest

2016

Golden Years poster
6.3

Fate, the pensions crisis and a steadfast refusal to accept the injustice of old age have contrived to force law abiding, retired couple, Arthur and Martha Goode into a life of crime.

Golden Years

2016

Leona Calderon poster
NR

Leona Calderon is a retiring altruistic music lover earning her living cleaning establishments and private homes. Having a fun loving nature she is fancied by her landlord who dreams of dancing with her to her favorite tune. Another admirer is a homeless man who gets endears by her jolly disposition and not by her loose pennies for a can of lager. She befriends an isolated elderly English lady, a migrant worker with no visa and a charitable middle age woman. As a breadwinner she looks forward to her much awaited retirement which is now doomed following a diagnoses of cancer. The island where she comes from where she plans to spend her life with her family becomes just a dream. She now faces a dilemma between losing her hard earned savings to medical expenses or losing the time with her family if she spends her retirement in a country where her treatment is free. Leona's wit and fun nature will make you smile, laugh and cry. What happens to this happy lady in this funny world?

Leona Calderon

2013

Hello: A Portrait Of Leslie Phillips poster
8.3

A Portrait Of Leslie Phillips takes a look at the life of Leslie Phillips; the legendary actor, writer and veritable British institution. Leslie's frank and open conversations combine with personal interviews from some of the greats who have worked with him.

Hello: A Portrait Of Leslie Phillips

2013

Love/Loss poster
NR

A chance meeting reunites Mary and Joe, childhood sweethearts from the 1940s. But after 60 years apart, is there still love between them? How have their separate experiences shaped their lives over this long period apart, and is there still time for them to share the happiness that has so long been denied? As Mary and Joe confront the mistakes of their past and share memories of a previously unspoken love, their reunion appears to take them on a path to happiness. But the gentle narrative hides a twist that will challenge any preconceptions of love and loss.

Love/Loss

2010

Widow's Walk poster
4.2

Eve's husband has been killed in Afghanistan. She takes her young son to a Suffolk beach house on the edge of the North Sea to grieve. But someone else is in the house grieving her loss from another war.

Widow's Walk

2019

1990s · 6 titles

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 9 titles

Waterloo poster
7.1

After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.

Waterloo

1970

Holocaust 2000 poster
5.8

An 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

Peter Pan poster
6.0

Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

Peter Pan

1976

Beauty and the Beast poster
6.0

A beautiful girl agrees to marry a hideous, deformed beast and live in his castle in order to save her father's life.

Beauty and the Beast

1976

The Disappearance poster
5.6

The wife of a contract killer disappears. When he is hired by an international organisation to carry out a hit, he suspects they are connected with her disappearance.

The Disappearance

1977

The Gathering Storm poster
8.0

Winston Churchill's life in the years leading up to World War II.

The Gathering Storm

1974

Swallows and Amazons poster
7.4

On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry.

Swallows and Amazons

1974

The Lion at World's End poster
7.8

The astonishing true story of a zoo-born lion who finds himself in the pet department of Harrods, then the cellar of an antique shop in London and, ultimately the wilds of Africa.

The Lion at World's End

1971

Julius Caesar poster
8.7

The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for Brutus and the republic.

Julius Caesar

1979

1960s · 7 titles

Born Free poster
6.8

At a national park in Kenya, English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy, care for three orphaned lion cubs. After the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. When Elsa is blamed for causing an elephant stampede in the nearby village, head warden John Kendall demands the young lion either be trained to survive in the wilds of the Serengeti or be sent to a zoo.

Born Free

1966

Ring of Bright Water poster
5.8

Stuck in a dead-end job, Graham Merrill adopts an otter, Mij, as a pet and then moves to an isolated village in western Scotland. Together they set out to explore the curious and magnificent natural wonders that surround their seaside home. Soon, Graham finds himself falling in love with the beautiful town doctor, Mary. Before long, the three become inseparable friends.

Ring of Bright Water

1969

A Passage to India poster
8.0

The BBC's 1965 adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, screened as part of their Play of the Month strand, adapted by Santha Ramu Rau and John Maynard, and directed by Waris Hussein.

A Passage to India

1965

Two Living, One Dead poster
6.7

Three Post Office employees are at work when the facility is held up. The robber kills the supervisor and knocks out another employee. The third one offers no resistance and survives unscathed. Afterwards he begins to wonder if his refusal to resist was a prudent move to preserve his family, or an act of cowardice, as many in the town believe. The resulting conflict begins to tear apart his family.

Two Living, One Dead

1961

The Admirable Crichton poster
6.5

A group of people are shipwrecked when their yacht runs aground on a South Pacific island. The usual hierarchy in an upper-class British family breaks down quickly when it becomes apparent that only the servant, Crichton, is capable of surviving on his own and he becomes the community's leader.

The Admirable Crichton

1968

An Elephant Called Slowly poster
7.0

Bill and Ginny are invited by a naturalist friend to take care of his home in Africa while he is away, and they find themselves adopted by three orphan elephants.

An Elephant Called Slowly

1969

No artwork available
NR

The true life sequel to the movie classic Born Free. The actors from the movie Born Free, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, with the help of their friend legendary conservationist George Adamson, reveal what became of the lions used in the filming of the popular movie classic Born Free.

The Lions Are Free

1969

1950s · 12 titles

The Cruel Sea poster
6.9

At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer.

The Cruel Sea

1953

A Town Like Alice poster
6.4

In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British.

A Town Like Alice

1956

The Wreck of the Mary Deare poster
6.3

A disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

1959

Carve Her Name with Pride poster
6.0

London, England, during World War II. After living a tragic life experience, young Violette Szabo joins the Special Operations Executive and crosses the German enemy lines as a secret agent to aid a French Resistance group.

Carve Her Name with Pride

1958

The Ship That Died of Shame poster
7.3

After World War II the crew of a motor gunboat join together to buy their old vessel and go into business for themselves. This may sound like a laudable scheme, but the business they choose to go into is smuggling.

The Ship That Died of Shame

1955

Simba poster
6.6

A European family in East Africa finds itself caught up in an uprising by local black Africans against their white colonial masters. Based on the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1950s.

Simba

1955

The Smallest Show on Earth poster
6.7

Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.

The Smallest Show on Earth

1957

The Barretts of Wimpole Street poster
6.5

Director Sidney Franklin's 1957 remake of his own 1934 film, about the romance of poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

1957

Father's Doing Fine poster
7.2

Lady Buckering, an English widow, has four daughters; Doreen, married to Dougall and about to give birth at home, and Gerda, Bicky and Catherine. The story revolves around the impending birth and the love affairs of the other three daughters; Bicky, with eccentric student Roly; Gerda, married to artist Wilfred; and Catherine, in love with the landlord's son, Clifford Magill. In addition, the impoverished Lady Buckering is being courted by Dr. Drew. Written by Les Adams

Father's Doing Fine

1952

The Oracle poster
6.0

An Irish "oracle" foretells the next day's track results to a newspaperman, resulting in a national uproar.

The Oracle

1953

Romeo and Juliet poster
8.0

Premiering on BBC as a part of their Sunday-Night Theatre program, this 1955 adaptation of Shakespeare's classic play closely follows the original text. The Montagues and Capulets, two families of Renaissance Italy, have hated each other for years, but the son of one family and the daughter of the other fall desperately in love and secretly marry.

Romeo and Juliet

1955

Storm Over Jamaica poster
7.0

A British schoolteacher moves to Jamaica to teach after a tumultuous divorce and meets an exciting new woman.

Storm Over Jamaica

1958

Series credits

The Mike Douglas Show poster
5.8

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The Mike Douglas Show

1961

The Merv Griffin Show poster
6.8

No synopsis available yet.

The Merv Griffin Show

1962

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A 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

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A 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

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A 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

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A 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

GMTV poster
5.8

GMTV is the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end. The final edition of GMTV was broadcast on 3 September 2010.

GMTV

1993

Agatha Christie's Marple poster
7.8

The 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

Natural World poster
7.4

Natural 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

Richard & Judy poster
3.4

Richard & Judy was a British chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4, from 2001 to 2008, but later moved to digital channel, Watch, in October 2008. The programme featured a number of celebrities and a book club. Its final episode aired in July 2009 due to low ratings.

Richard & Judy

2001

Kavanagh Q.C. poster
7.3

John 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

Sunday Night Theatre poster
3.5

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Sunday Night Theatre

1950

Sunday Night Theatre poster
3.5

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Sunday Night Theatre

1950

Lovejoy poster
7.4

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.

Lovejoy

1986

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries poster
6.6

The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

1987

Mystery and Imagination poster
5.8

Mystery and Imagination is a British television anthology of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 on ITV and produced by ABC and Thames Television.

Mystery and Imagination

1966

Half Hour Story poster
7.5

18 short plays written especially for TV, an opportunity for up-and-coming directors such as floor manager Alan Clarke, who ended up doing 10 of the episodes. Some top ranking performers were attracted to the series.

Half Hour Story

1967

The Edwardians poster
6.2

The Edwardians is an eight-part miniseries broadcast in 1972–73. An anthology, each 90-minute episode explores influential figure(s) of the Edwardian era: Charles Rolls and Henry Royce; Horatio Bottomley; E. Nesbit; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Robert Baden-Powell; Marie Lloyd; Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick; and David Lloyd George.

The Edwardians

1972

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

No artwork available
NR

Anthology of stories set in a timeshare flat.

Sharing Time

1984

The Cook Report poster
7.0

The Cook Report was a British current affairs television programme shown on ITV, produced for the network by Central Television from 1987 to 1998.

The Cook Report

1987

Shades of Greene poster
8.5

Shades of Greene is a British television series based on short stories written by the author Graham Greene. The series began in 1975, with each hour-long episode featuring a dramatisation of one of Greene's stories, many of which dealt with issues such as guilt and the Catholic faith, as well as looking at life in general. Actors to have appeared in the series include John Gielgud, Leo McKern, Virginia McKenna, Paul Scofield, and Roy Kinnear. The series began on 9 September 1975 and ran for two seasons.

Shades of Greene

1975

No artwork available
NR

Celebrity quiz where Noel Edmonds asks questions about news and affairs (often wacky!) from a particular year.

Noel's Telly Years

1996

The Camomile Lawn poster
5.8

The Camomile Lawn is a 1992 British miniseries based on Mary Wesley's novel of the same name, following five cousins and their family in Cornwall as they navigate the start of World War II. The story is framed by a funeral in 1984, which prompts the characters to recall their experiences during the war, including love, loss, and secrets.

The Camomile Lawn

1992

After They Were Famous poster
6.5

No synopsis available yet.

After They Were Famous

2002

The First Olympics: Athens 1896 poster
5.9

This two part mini-series shows the trials and tribulations all the participants endured to be a part of the very first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. It focuses on the individuals from the many countries around the world that joined together to lay the foundation of the modern Summer Olympic Games.

The First Olympics: Athens 1896

1984

September poster
5.0

Scottish aristocrats' secrets and relationships are threatened by the return of a woman who left under suspicious circumstances 20 years earlier.

September

1996

No artwork available
NR

4-part miniseries dramatising the true-life adventures of Charles "Mad Jack" Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, whose daring wartime exploits included rescuing dozens of refugee European nuclear scientists, a large supply of heavy water and millions of pounds in diamonds just before the Germans captured Paris, and then became a self-taught bomb disposal expert who successfully defused dozens of large German bombs during the London Blitz.

The Dragon's Opponent

1973