John Henshaw

Acting

John Henshaw

Born

1950-08-01 (76)

Place of birth

Manchester, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

77 titles

John Henshaw is a British actor famed for his roles as Ken the landlord in Early Doors, Wilf Bradshaw in Born and Bred and PC Roy Bramwell in The Cops. Henshaw was born one of 12 children. He grew up in Ancoats, Manchester's "Little Italy" community. He was a refuse collector for ten years before deciding to become an actor at the age of 40. His first big break in acting was as a minder to Robert Lindsay's character Michael Murray in the acclaimed Channel 4 series, G.B.H. Other TV credits include The Royle Family, The Visit, Life on Mars, whilst film credits include the Steve Coogan comedy The Parole Officer, the Bert Trautmann biopic The Keeper, and the Ken Loach films Looking For Eric …

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 5 titles

Silky Hotel poster
7.0

From the billowing gauze of The Meatloaf Suite to the twinkling lights on The Kem & Amber terrace, every detail of Silky Hotel has been designed with obsessive care by romance gurus Jim and Barbara. This is the only hotel where you'll find the original tent peg from Brokeback Mountain and the air is infused with the delicate aroma of oysters. Prepare to smell the love. But Silky Hotel is in trouble. Guests don't turn up like they used to, and unbeknownst to Jim, the debt collectors are closing in. In a last-ditch effort to save Silky's, Barbara takes a punt on an advert from the local paper: 'TV SHOW WANTS THE WORLD'S MOST ROMANTIC HOTEL.' When flashy producer Coral arrives, Jim and Barbara must wrangle their motley crew of staff to ensure they make it onto TV. If they fail, it'll be check-out time at Silky Hotel - for good.

Silky Hotel

2021

I'm Not in Love poster
NR

Rob, in his late thirties, needs to decide if he wants to have a baby with his girlfriend Marta, but worries that he’s fallen out of love with her. He asks his seemingly unhappily married friends for advice, who all tell him that he won’t be able to do better so he might as well marry her. But when Rob eventually does propose to Marta, things don't go exactly to plan.

I'm Not in Love

2021

Wolf Manor poster
5.5

Shooting a vampire flick in an old, abandoned manor house should have worked like a dream, but the film crew is out of their depth, over schedule and desperate to get the shoot finished and go home. However, as the moon turns full, the nightmare begins. Blood flows and the body count rises as cast and crew meet the manor’s resident werewolf…

Wolf Manor

2022

Fishbrain poster
NR

Desperate to escape her decaying coastal town but unable to abandon the grandfather who depends on her, Ori sees a way out when tainted fish wash ashore, but only if she can bring herself to put them on his plate.

Fishbrain

2026

Early Doors - Live poster
6.0

Early Doors was a TV hit when the sitcom was originally aired on the BBC in 2003 and gained cult status over its twelve-episode run. The cast took the show on a sell-out tour in 2018 and 2019 and have now released a recording of the live show to raise vital funds for The Christie Charitable Fund.

Early Doors - Live

2021

2010s · 17 titles

A Street Cat Named Bob poster
7.9

James Bowen, a homeless busker and recovering drug addict, has his life transformed when he meets a stray ginger cat.

A Street Cat Named Bob

2016

Stan & Ollie poster
6.9

With their golden era long behind them, comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy embark on a variety hall tour of Britain and Ireland. Despite the pressures of a hectic schedule, and with the support of their wives Lucille and Ida – a formidable double act in their own right – the pair's love of performing, as well as for each other, endures as they secure their place in the hearts of their adoring public

Stan & Ollie

2018

The Keeper poster
7.4

The story of a man whose love for football, for England and for the love of his life, Margaret, saw him rise from Nazi 'villain' to British hero. Bert Trautmann, the German goalkeeper won over even his harshest opponents by winning the FA Cup Final for Manchester City in 1956 - playing on with a broken neck to secure victory.

The Keeper

2018

The Angels' Share poster
6.9

Robbie is a Glasgow boy locked in a family feud who just wants a way out. On community service, he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo. Little did Robbie imagine that turning to drink might change their lives, leading them to the distilleries of the Scottish Highlands and the biggest gamble of his life.

The Angels' Share

2012

The Man Who Invented Christmas poster
6.8

In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.

The Man Who Invented Christmas

2017

6 Days poster
6.0

London, England, April 1980. Six terrorists assault the Embassy of Iran and take hostages. For six days, tense negotiations are held while the authorities decide whether a military squad should intervene.

6 Days

2017

Swallows and Amazons poster
6.3

Four children dream of escaping the tedium of a summer holiday with their mother. When finally given permission to camp on their own on an island in the middle of a vast lake, they are overjoyed. But when they get there they discover they may not be alone… The battle for ownership of a lonely island teaches them the skills of survival, the value of friendship and the importance of holding your nerve.

Swallows and Amazons

2016

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

Going Postal 2in1 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Going Postal 2in1

2011

Pin Cushion poster
6.4

Super close mother Lyn and daughter Iona (Dafty One and Dafty Two) are excited for their new life in a new town. Determined to make a success of things after a tricky start, Iona becomes 'best friends' with Keely, Stacey and Chelsea. Used to being Iona's bestie herself, Lyn feels left out. So Lyn also makes friends with Belinda, her neighbour.

Pin Cushion

2018

In Our Name poster
5.3

Suzy's a British soldier, born and bred, but fitting back into civilian life after fighting in Iraq isn't easy. Haunted by the responsibility she feels for the death of an Iraqi child, she becomes obsessed with the safety of her own daughter, feeling the need to protect her against a threat that doesn't seem to exist. As Suzy's paranoia builds, her behaviour becomes more and more erratic, until finally, she puts her own child in serious danger.

In Our Name

2010

The Last British Execution poster
NR

When an execution is sanctioned in the UK for the first time in almost 50 years, it soon becomes a media circus. The television rights are sold, and it becomes the worlds biggest reality TV show, re-branded as X-Day.

The Last British Execution

2013

The Royle Family: Behind the Sofa poster
8.4

Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash discuss the creation of The Royle Family, with a look behind the scenes at the production of the show and interviews with the cast.

The Royle Family: Behind the Sofa

2010

Sunny poster
3.0

After accidentally killing a mutual friend, a hitman is taken into the forest to make amends

Sunny

2019

No artwork available
10.0

A film that tells the story of the birth of the co-operative movement in Rochdale in 1844.

The Rochdale Pioneers

2012

The Ringer poster
NR

A son is reunited with his long lost father for the first time. You might imagine it's time to discover everything about where he's come from and where he's going. But he's about to get a surprise...

The Ringer

2013

The Night Runner poster
NR

Talia runs at night, pushing her fragile heart to the limit. Casey saves lives, a heart surgeon frustrated with red tape. This tragic love story pushes all the boundaries with its controversial look at energy drinks and the affect they have on the heart.

The Night Runner

2014

2000s · 16 titles

Starter for 10 poster
6.4

In 1985, against the backdrop of Thatcherism, Brian Jackson enrolls in the University of Bristol, a scholarship boy from seaside Essex with a love of knowledge for its own sake and a childhood spent watching University Challenge, a college quiz show. At Bristol he tries out for the Challenge team and falls under the spell of Alice, a lovely blond with an extensive sexual past.

Starter for 10

2006

The Parole Officer poster
5.8

A hapless parole officer is framed for murder by a crooked police chief. To prove his innocence he must entice his former clients away from the law abiding lives they are now living to recover the evidence that will save him.

The Parole Officer

2001

Looking for Eric poster
6.5

Middle-aged postman and football fan Eric Bishop struggles with his increasingly chaotic existence, but receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical Éric Cantona.

Looking for Eric

2009

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974 poster
6.6

Yorkshire, 1974. Fear, mistrust and institutionalised police corruption are running riot. Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to search for the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions. When young Clare Kemplay goes missing, Eddie and his colleague, Barry, persuade their editor to let them investigate links with two similar abductions that draw them into a deadly world of secrecy, intimidation, shocking revelations and police brutality.

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1974

2009

There's Only One Jimmy Grimble poster
6.8

Jimmy Grimble is a shy Manchester school boy. At school he is constantly being bullied by the other kids, and at home he has to face his mother's new boyfriend. However, through football, and some special boots, he manages to gain the confidence to succeed and leads his school football team towards the final of the local schools cup.

There's Only One Jimmy Grimble

2000

Cheeky poster
6.6

Consumed with sadness after the death of his wife and subsequent rejection from his son, a widower, at the urging of his friends, opts to appear on a vulgar, wildly popular game show (for which his wife signed him up) and watches his life start to change for the better.

Cheeky

2003

Happy Now poster
6.0

All grown up and gunning for political power in a small North Wales community, Glen Marcus and his best mate harbour a dark secret which seems to be coming back to haunt them. But can the daughter of Tina Trent, a local woman just returned from Alaska, be the same girl the two lads buried fourteen years earlier? Only local policeman Max Bracchi can solve the case with the help of a wrongly accused tramp, Tin Man.

Happy Now

2001

Grow Your Own poster
6.5

A refugee family are given an allotment plot and are met with suspicion by the people who have worked the gardens for years

Grow Your Own

2007

Coronation Street: Romanian Holiday poster
5.8

What could be better? A footballer's wedding, a week in the sun, a luxury villa in historic Transylvania. It’s the trip of a lifetime for Coronation Street's favourite café owners Roy and Hayley Cropper, until the brash Glen and Verity appear... Opposites don't attract in this chaotic comic caper as the unlikely foursome embark on an adventure neither couple will ever forget. And when Weatherfield hell-raiser Becky McDonald jets in from her honeymoon, the stage is set for mountain mayhem deep in the heart of Dracula Country.

Coronation Street: Romanian Holiday

2009

Open Wide poster
NR

A drama teacher starts work in a notorious prison with a classroom of hardened criminals and comes into conflict with the prison dentist after becoming romantically involved with the wrong woman

Open Wide

2005

A Bit of Tom Jones? poster
3.8

In a late night bar, Henry is approached by a mysterious woman who offers to sell him the severed "manhood" of Wales' greatest vocal entertainer. Believing he can make a fortune selling the infamous appendage on to obsessive fans, Henry stumps up the cash. To help find the right buyer, Henry teams up with his slightly dodgy best friend Teddy and together the two head off on an insane journey that leads them deep into the secret world of celebrity body part trading.

A Bit of Tom Jones?

2009

Someone Else poster
5.0

When thirty-something David isn't working as a photographer at a high-street photo studio he is stressing over his love-life. Torn between his rather-too-agreeable girlfriend Lisa and the exciting but tricky Nina, he has serious decision to make. When he gets it all wrong and loses them both he has to start all over again.

Someone Else

2006

No artwork available
NR

Funny film concerning John Prescott's affair with Tracey Temple

Confessions of a Diary Secretary

2007

No artwork available
NR

A young girl heads out for a night of fun but just before she leaves, her mom tells her to "put your coat on".

Put Your Coat On

2002

No artwork available
6.8

Heaton and Spike are the unlikeliest pair: two loners who have found each other. When Spike commits a terrible crime, Heaton decides to stand by him - an act of astonishing, almost foolhardy loyalty. There begins a chase across a vast Northern landscape of moors, rivers and dark woods, the increasingly exhausted fugitives being hunted not by the police but by a posse of farmers intent on revenge. No ordinary chase film, This Is Not a Love Song is a love story trapped inside the body of a thriller.

This Is Not a Love Song

2002

No artwork available
9.0

In a small fishing village an established fishmonger, Davis, starts to have his supply bought from under him by new boy Alan Leech. This sets off a minor battle between the two for control of the fish supply. The battle results in an incident that sees one of the men re-evaluate his values in life.

The Fishmonger

2002

1990s · 3 titles

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

Casualty poster
6.2

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Casualty

1986

Father Brown poster
7.7

Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

Father Brown

2013

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

Heartbeat poster
7.1

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.

Heartbeat

1992

The Bill poster
6.8

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.

The Bill

1984

Remembers… poster
7.5

What are the secrets of our favourite TV shows? Famous names from both sides of the camera reflect on making some of the most popular and influential programs of all time.

Remembers…

2022

Cracker poster
6.6

The wise-cracking Edward 'Fitz' Fitzgerald is a brilliant but flawed criminal psychologist with a remarkable insight into the criminal mind.

Cracker

1993

Documentary Now! poster
7.2

Loving parodies of some of the world's best-known documentaries. Each episode is shot in a different style of documentary filmmaking, and honors some of the most important stories that didn't actually happen.

Documentary Now!

2015

Life on Mars poster
7.7

A detective chief inspector from 2006 is investigating a serial killer when he is knocked over by a speeding car. Waking up, he finds himself mysteriously transported back in time to 1973. Initially struggling to come to terms with his situation, he has to come to terms with the old-fashioned technology and attitude of the day, while figuring out how he came to be trapped in the past.

Life on Mars

2006

Ridley poster
6.2

Retired Detective Inspector Alex Ridley is lured back into service as a consultant detective when his former protégée, Carol Farman, needs help cracking a complex murder case.

Ridley

2022

Born and Bred poster
9.0

In the 1950s at the fictional Lancashire village of Ormston, a father and son, both doctors, navigate the challenges of running a cottage hospital under the newly established National Health Service.

Born and Bred

2002

Cutting It poster
7.0

Allie Henshall and Gavin Ferraday are partners in love and business. They own Henshall Ferraday hair salon, where Allie's sisters Darcey and Sydney work alongside them. As Allie and Gavin consider taking over a vacant property across the road, they are rocked by the news that a rival hairdresser has bought it. To make matters worse, Allie discovers that the new salon, Blade Runner, is run by her ex, Finn, and his wife, Mia Bevan. Finn fathered the child Allie claimed to have aborted. He left her when he found out she was pregnant, but he's back in town to try and woo Allie.

Cutting It

2002

The Full Monty poster
7.2

The Full Monty gang is back after 25 years, swapping their stage costumes for dognapping, racing pigeons, and one very unconventional hostage situation. Gaz might be older, but he's no wiser. And his best friend, Dave, refuses to get sucked into any more of his antics. But when tragedy strikes, the whole Monty gang must pull together for a common purpose: to honor an old friend.

The Full Monty

2023

Talamasca: The Secret Order poster
6.8

Guy Anatole joins the clandestine world of the Talamasca, an international spy agency for the immortal universe, as he searches for answers to his family's own part in the supernatural world.

Talamasca: The Secret Order

2025

The Royle Family poster
7.6

The Royle Family is a British sitcom created by Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, and produced by Granada Television for BBC Two (series 1) and BBC One (series 2 and 3). It centres on the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, comprising lazy patriarch Jim, his hard-working wife Barbara, their entitled daughter Denise, their put-upon son Antony, and Denise's lad fiancé–later husband–David.

The Royle Family

1998

The Long Shadow poster
7.5

Dramatizing one of the most infamously notorious and shocking serial killer cases in the world, the hunt for Peter Sutcliffe, commonly dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, between October 1975 and January 1981, South Yorkshire police undertook the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. The search for Sutcliffe lasted five years, involved over a thousand officers and changed the way the British police worked forever.

The Long Shadow

2023

The Afternoon Play poster
6.5

The Afternoon Play is a British television anthology series of standalone contemporary dramas aired during the afternoons of 2003–07 on BBC One, featuring well-known actors in one-off stories. A daytime drama strand showcasing a variety of genres, from comedy to mystery, it was part of a long tradition of afternoon plays on BBC Radio 4, which would go on to influence the television version.

The Afternoon Play

2003

The Grand poster
5.1

The Grand is an ITV television drama series created and written by Russell T Davies and starring Rebecca Callard, Tim Healy, Susan Hampshire, Paul Warriner, and Mark McGann. Following WWI, the Bannerman family re-opens the Grand Hotel after a lengthy closure and a costly re-furbishing. The hotel has been in the family for a long time, and John Bannerman and his wife Sarah desperately want to make a go. Their son Stephen has returned from the wars without any physical harm but still suffers from the mental anguish of seeing so many of his comrades-in-arms falling on the battlefield. When they learn that their accountant has squandered what little money they had left, they must turn to John's brother Marcus, a successful businessman who has eschewed any interest in the hotel over the years but now seems ready to plunge into the business with both feet.

The Grand

1997

The Grand poster
5.1

The Grand is an ITV television drama series created and written by Russell T Davies and starring Rebecca Callard, Tim Healy, Susan Hampshire, Paul Warriner, and Mark McGann. Following WWI, the Bannerman family re-opens the Grand Hotel after a lengthy closure and a costly re-furbishing. The hotel has been in the family for a long time, and John Bannerman and his wife Sarah desperately want to make a go. Their son Stephen has returned from the wars without any physical harm but still suffers from the mental anguish of seeing so many of his comrades-in-arms falling on the battlefield. When they learn that their accountant has squandered what little money they had left, they must turn to John's brother Marcus, a successful businessman who has eschewed any interest in the hotel over the years but now seems ready to plunge into the business with both feet.

The Grand

1997

New Street Law poster
6.6

Follows two rival barristers' chambers in Manchester, England, contrasting defence Jack Roper's struggling firm with his former mentor, prosecutor Laurence Scammel's more established chambers, and exploring their personal and professional rivalry through complex legal cases.

New Street Law

2006

The Cops poster
5.0

Set in and around Stanton, a faceless and grim Northern enclave, The Cops depicts the daily grind for a group of policemen and women out on the beat as they interact, and sometimes clash, with the local community.

The Cops

1998

Going Postal poster
7.3

Moist von Lipwig is a con-man with a particular talent-- he is utterly unremarkable. When his execution is stayed in Terry Pratchett's remarkable Discworld, he must work off his debt to society as the land's head Postman. Things are not always as they seem, and soon Lipwig is delivering mail for his very life!

Going Postal

2010

Boat Story poster
7.3

Two hard-up strangers stumble across a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat. After agreeing to sell it and split the cash, they become entangled with police, masked hitmen, and a sharp-suited gangster known as 'The Tailor'.

Boat Story

2023

Red Riding poster
7.2

Red Riding is a British crime drama limited series written by Tony Grisoni, based on the book series of the same name by David Peace. Comprised of the novels 1974 (1999), 1977 (2000), 1980 (2001), and 1983 (2002), with the first, third, and fourth of these became three feature-length television episodes, Red Riding 1974, Red Riding 1980 and Red Riding 1983. Three epic tales of murder, corruption and obsession. Utilising recurring characters and events, the Red Riding Trilogy recounts three series of gruesome crimes over a turbulent decade in Northern England.

Red Riding

2009

Cradle to Grave poster
7.7

Cradle to Grave is a British autobiographical miniseries created by Danny Baker, about his formative years in the 1970s. Produced by ITV Studios for BBC Two, it stars Laurie Kynaston as Danny, with Peter Kay and Lucy Speed as his parents Spud and Bet. In 1974, 15-year-old Danny is our guide through the ups and downs of the Baker family. With eldest daughter Sharon's impending wedding and the docks facing closure, times are challenging. So too are Danny's attempts to get closer to the opposite sex.

Cradle to Grave

2015

By Any Means poster
6.6

By Any Means follows a clandestine unit living on the edge and playing the criminal elite at their own game, existing in the grey area between the letter of the law and true justice.

By Any Means

2013

G.B.H. poster
6.3

GBH was a seven-part British television drama written by Alan Bleasdale shown in the summer of 1991 on Channel 4. The protagonists were Michael Murray, the Militant tendency-supporting Labour leader of a city council in the North of England and Jim Nelson, the headmaster of a school for disturbed children. The series was controversial partly because Murray appeared to be based on Derek Hatton, former Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council — in an interview in the G.B.H. DVD Bleasdale recounts an accidental meeting with Hatton before the series, who indicates that he has caught wind of Bleasdale's intentions but does not mind as long as the actor playing him is "handsome". In normal parlance, the initials "GBH" refer to the criminal charge of grievous bodily harm - however, the actual intent of the letters is that it is supposed to stand for Great British Holiday.

G.B.H.

1991

South Riding poster
6.9

The lives and loves of a 1930s Yorkshire town explored in a passionate tale of politics in small places. South Riding charts the story of Sarah Burton's homecoming to Yorkshire in 1934 after twenty years teaching in London and the Empire. After a fiery interview with a conservative interview panel, outspoken Sarah takes up her first headmistress-ship at Kiplington High School for Girls, determined to demonstrate to her new pupils that the future is theirs for the taking.

South Riding

2011

Early Doors poster
7.8

A sitcom set in a small pub in Manchester, “The Grapes”, where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals. Regular drinkers Joe and Duffy pass the time with landlord Ken and his police officer cronies.

Early Doors

2003

Johnny and the Bomb poster
6.4

Johnny Maxwell stumbles upon a time machine when he helps an old woman, but little does he know that his journeys back to 1941 cause a chain of events which alter history. Johnny and his friends must go back in time to reverse the changes and save his own existence.

Johnny and the Bomb

2006

The Second Coming poster
7.0

Video store clerk Steve Baxter realises that he is in fact the Son of God. He has just a few days to find the human race's Third Testament and thus avert the Apocalypse.

The Second Coming

2003

Cilla poster
7.1

Three-part biopic of the Liverpudlian songbird who would later find fame and fortune. It tells of her rocky road to fame and captures the essence of 1960s Liverpool.

Cilla

2014

The Visit poster
7.5

The Visit is a British television programme starring Iain McKee, John Henshaw and Steve Edge. This comedy is set entirely in the visiting room of the prison HMP Radford Hill, where cunning and mischievous inmates do dodgy drug deals and snatch conjugal rights whilst their loved ones visit. All this activity happens under the watchful gaze of a bunch of bored and lazy Prison Officers doing the bare minimum to get the job done. The BBC revealed The Visit is part of a series trilogy with I'm With Stupid and Thieves Like Us; although sadly none of these sitcoms received a second series.

The Visit

2007

Candy Cabs poster
7.0

Candy Cabs is a comedy drama series shown on BBC One in April 2011. The plot revolves around a group of friends who set up a female-only taxi company in a seaside town in Northern England. It is written by Johanne McAndrew and Elliott Hope and produced by Splash Media.

Candy Cabs

2011

See No Evil: The Moors Murders poster
6.3

See No Evil: The Moors Murders is a British two-part television serial directed by Christopher Menaul. It was produced by Granada Television and broadcast on ITV during May 2006. It tells the story of the Moors Murders, which were committed during the 1960s by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, from the view of Hindley's sister Maureen Smith and her husband David.

See No Evil: The Moors Murders

2006