Ray Brooks

Acting

Ray Brooks

Born 1939-04-20 · Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Ray Brooks was a British actor famous for his role as the narrator in the classic children's cartoon series Mr Benn, for the films The Knack...And How To Get It, Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD and Cathy Come Home, and for the TV series Big Deal and Growing Pains. In later years he played Joe Macer, the husband and murderer of Albert Square stalwart Pauline Fowler, in the BBC's long running soap opera EastEnders and has wrote several books, including his autobiography. He died at the age of 86 on 9th August 2025 following a short illness. He had been living with dementia in his final years.

Acting credits

Carry On Abroad poster
6.3

A group of holidaymakers head for the Spanish resort of Elsbels for a 4-day visit. When they get there, they find the Hotel still hasn't been finished being built, and the weather is awful. And there is something strange about the staff—they all look very similar. To top it all off, the weather seems to be having an adverse affect on the Hotel's foundations.

Carry On Abroad

1972

House of Whipcord poster
6.0

Somewhere in the middle of the English countryside a former judge and a group of former prison warders, including his lover, run their own prison for young women who have not been held properly to account for their crimes. Here they mete out their own form of justice and ensure that the girls never return to their old ways.

House of Whipcord

1974

H.M.S. Defiant poster
6.5

Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.

H.M.S. Defiant

1962

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland poster
6.3

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1972

Some People poster
7.5

Four teen-aged Teds are persuaded to form a rock group and undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to keep them out of trouble.

Some People

1962

Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. poster
6.1

Doctor Who and his companions are hurled into the future and make a horrifying discovery: the Daleks have conquered Earth! The metal fiends have devastated entire continents and turned the survivors into Robomen.

Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

1966

Captured poster
4.2

Directed by cult British director John Krish, the film was sponsored by the Army Kinematograph Corporation. This tightly plotted drama shows British POWs enduring brainwashing and torture during the Korean War, thereby revealing what a soldier could expect if he was ever captured by enemy forces.

Captured

1959

That's Carry On! poster
5.8

Celebrating twenty years of classic Carry On films, two of the films’ best-loved stars, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor return to Pinewood film studios to unwrap some rib-tickling moments from the series. From the original, military mayhem of Carry On Sergeant, through to the really ancient archaeological gags of Carry On Behind, our saucy hosts get their titters out for this laugh-a-second gallop through the most successful series of British comedy films ever made.

That's Carry On!

1977

A Thinking Man as Hero poster
NR

A television producer encounters personal problems while making a documentary about the philosopher Wittgenstein.

A Thinking Man as Hero

1973

Assassin poster
5.8

When the British government orders the assassination of an Air Ministry official suspected of leaking top secret intel, their top assassin assigned to the job discovers there may be more to the hit than meets the eye.

Assassin

1973

The Knack... and How to Get It poster
6.0

A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.

The Knack... and How to Get It

1965

Tiffany Jones poster
4.4

Light-hearted and occasionally unclothed adaptation of a British comic strip in the over-the-top, on-beyond-Bond spy fantasy vein. Based on the Daily Mail comic strip.

Tiffany Jones

1973

Office Romances poster
NR

Angela is insecure and gawky, overawed by her new job at an advertising agency. Her boss, Pam, is poised and sophisticated - the epitome of a successful career woman. Together both women share an emotional vulnerability. For while Angela falls prey to the office Romeo, Pam continues an unsatisfying affair with a married colleague. Office Romances is an engaging look at the many secrets of love and relationships that lead to tormented love. It's an honest, sensitive view of romance and human nature!

Office Romances

1983

Baffled! poster
5.6

Tom Kovack is a hard-nosed race car driver until a sudden supernatural vision causes a near-fatal crash while he's hurtling down the backstretch at 140 miles per hour. Michele Brent is the woman who convinces Kovack that his visions are significant. She leads him to the manor house that appeared in his vision, which in turn leads him into a world of revenge and murder from beyond the grave. Kovack must tap into his newfound power to conquer the evil forces at work.

Baffled!

1973

The Flesh and Blood Show poster
5.7

Actors rehearsing a show at a mysterious seaside theater are being killed off by an unknown maniac.

The Flesh and Blood Show

1972

Cathy Come Home poster
7.0

Cathy 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

The Last Grenade poster
5.7

Two ruthless mercenaries break their friendship when one of them changes sides.

The Last Grenade

1970

Play It Cool poster
6.1

A struggling singer and his band befriend an heiress who, against the wishes of her father, is searching for the lover who she has been forbidden to see and with whom she is hoping to elope.

Play It Cool

1962

No artwork available
7.0

Alex Conway is an actor who plays the part of 'Eddie Weary', a sympathetic, down-at-heel, shabby, Northern, working-class private detective, in a TV show. Except Conway is actually a complete idiot in real-life: stuck up, pretentious and selfish, the constant focus of tabloid interest for his bad, usually drunken behaviour. But then he discovers he gets truckloads of mail from fans who think he really is Eddie Weary, asking for his help, so he decides to help them - with the aid of his assistant, Birdie.

The World of Eddie Weary

1990

On Location: The Carry Ons poster
NR

June Whitfield takes a look at some of the locations used during the making of the legendary 'Carry On' films.

On Location: The Carry Ons

2001

The Cherry Orchard poster
7.0

Madame Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocratic lady who returns from a trip to Paris to face the loss of her magnificent Cherry Orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the re-possessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.

The Cherry Orchard

1971

The Middle-of-the-Road Roadshow for All the Family poster
NR

A film tycoon hires the wrong writer. Instead of getting the writer of Lawrence of Arabia, he gets someone whose only credits are two episodes of Coronation Street.

The Middle-of-the-Road Roadshow for All the Family

1973

A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts poster
8.0

Three a.m. A crash of breaking glass ... the slow creak of a door opening ... is it a burglar? Raymond Collis finds out the hard way.

A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts

1978

Office Party poster
NR

Men behave in a beastly, chauvinistic manner at an office party, turning what should be a fun break from work into an exercise in bad taste.

Office Party

1971