Karl Howman

Acting

Karl Howman

Born

1952-12-13 (73)

Place of birth

Woolwich, London, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

62 titles

Karl Howman is a British actor best known for the films The Long Good Friday, Babylon, That'll Be The Day and Stardust, and for playing the charming painter and decorator Jacko in the classic 1980s sitcom Brush Strokes. Most recently, he has been a regular on EastEnders.

Known for

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

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

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play 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

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

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

The Professionals poster
7.6

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

The Professionals

1977

Film credits

1980s · 8 titles

The Long Good Friday poster
7.2

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

The Long Good Friday

1980

S.O.S. Titanic poster
6.0

The Titanic disaster as seen through the eyes of one couple in each of the three classes on board.

S.O.S. Titanic

1980

Party Party poster
4.3

It's New Year's Eve. Larry's parents are at the vicarage dance leaving Larry in charge of the house. Big mistake, because Larry's a party animal and tonight he's going to go wild - with a little help from his friends!

Party Party

1983

No artwork available
1.0

The thirteen-part series recounted the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in Clapham in South London and had gangland connections.

Fox

1980

Up Line poster
NR

Three alternative comedians get involved in a pyramid-selling organization, Pathway, in order to finance their act. They gain great success by deploying their skills as entertainers, only to eventually discover the sinister purpose behind the Pathway organization.

Up Line

1987

Babylon poster
7.0

Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.

Babylon

1980

The Flipside of Dominick Hide poster
5.0

Dominick Hide, a time traveller from the year 2130, is studying the London transport system of 1980. Time travellers are supposed to be observers, and are strictly forbidden to land their flying saucers. One time traveller who broke this rule accidentally killed a dog, changing history and causing many future people to disappear. Inspired by his Great Aunt Mavis, Dominick decides to find his great great grandfather. He begins to land in 1980, where his strange clothes and speech make him seem an eccentric oddball. His quest brings him into contact with beautiful boutique owner Jane, and they fall in love. As Dominick's visits become more frequent and more prolonged, he increasingly risks his indiscretion being discovered by his boss, Caleb Line, and every moment he spends in the past increases the danger that he will catastrophically change the future

The Flipside of Dominick Hide

1980

Forbidden Passion: The Oscar Wilde Movie poster
NR

As in earlier Oscar Wilde biopics, this version preoccupies itself with the homosexuality scandal involving Lord Alfred Douglas and his lordship's political powerful father, the Marquis of Queensbury. Arrested for corrupting Lord Douglas' morals, Wilde spends a debilitating five years in Reading Gaol, emerging a shattered shell of his former self

Forbidden Passion: The Oscar Wilde Movie

1985

1970s · 10 titles

The Canterbury Tales poster
6.1

Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.

The Canterbury Tales

1972

Exposé poster
4.9

A paranoid writer is unable to get started on his second novel. He hires a secretary and then his troubles really begin.

Exposé

1976

Frankenstein: The True Story poster
7.5

Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori.

Frankenstein: The True Story

1974

That'll Be The Day poster
6.5

Britain, 1958. Restless at school and bored with his life, Jim leaves home to take a series of low-level jobs at a seaside amusement park, where he discovers a world of cheap sex and petty crime. But when that world comes to a shockingly brutal end, Jim returns home. As the local music scene explodes, Jim must decide between a life of adult responsibility or a new phenomenon called rock & roll.

That'll Be The Day

1973

No artwork available
NR

Using a case study, the film examines the causes and effects of an industrial accident, highlighting the role of the supervisor and identifying his responsibility as interpreted by the Health and Safety at Work Act. The lessons are then applied to other industries and commercial offices. Intended for safety supervisors.

Safety and the Supervisor

1978

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

The Death of Glory poster
NR

Prevented by health reasons from joining the Army, a man lives out his military fantasies by leading a failing marching band. His life changes when he discovers his beloved ex-Army father has a secret.

The Death of Glory

1973

Porridge poster
6.7

Times are hard for habitual guest of Her Majesty Norman Stanley Fletcher. The new prison officer, Beale, makes MacKay look soft and what's more, an escape plan is hatching from the cell of prison godfather Grouty and Fletcher wants no part of it.

Porridge

1979

Stardust poster
5.5

Jim MacLaine is now enjoying the nomadic 'gigs and groupies' life on tour with his band. When he achieves all his wildest dreams of international stardom, the sweet taste of success begins to turn sour.

Stardust

1974

No artwork available
4.5

An elderly priest recruits a young woman as housekeeper in the presbytery he shares with two young priests, but temptation and jealousy soon sew discord and doubt in some minds.

The Prodigal Daughter

1975

Series credits

EastEnders poster
4.3

The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.

EastEnders

1985

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

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play 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

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play 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

Play for Today poster
6.6

Play 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

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

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

The Professionals poster
7.6

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

The Professionals

1977

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

The Sweeney poster
8.1

Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.

The Sweeney

1975

Blake's 7 poster
7.3

A group of convicts and outcasts fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from a highly advanced alien spaceship.

Blake's 7

1978

Public Eye poster
8.2

Public Eye is a British television drama broadcast from 1965 to 1975 on ITV1. Produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four, the programme follows the investigations and cases handled by the unglamourous enquiry agent Frank Marker.

Public Eye

1965

Angels poster
4.5

Angels is a BBC medical soap-opera which launched on 1st September 1975 and was the blue print for such medical soaps as Casualty, Holby City, plus daytime soap, Doctors. The medical soap focuses on different departments within Heath Green Hospital and was a highly successful continuing drama.

Angels

1975

Angels poster
4.5

Angels is a BBC medical soap-opera which launched on 1st September 1975 and was the blue print for such medical soaps as Casualty, Holby City, plus daytime soap, Doctors. The medical soap focuses on different departments within Heath Green Hospital and was a highly successful continuing drama.

Angels

1975

Dempsey and Makepeace poster
6.8

Dempsey and Makepeace is a British television crime drama made by London Weekend Television for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham. The leading roles were played by Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, who later married each other on 18 November 1989. The series combined elements of previous series such as the mis-matching of British and American crime-fighters from different classes as seen in The Persuaders! and the action of The Professionals.

Dempsey and Makepeace

1985

Van der Valk poster
6.2

Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.

Van der Valk

1972

Boon poster
5.8

Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon.

Boon

1986

Juliet Bravo poster
6.5

Juliet Bravo was a drama that focused on two female police inspectors, neither of whom were called Juliet Bravo! These two inspectors worked in the small fictional town of Hartley, Lancashire. Jean Darblay was on the scene first and had trouble with her sexist colleagues. However she soon managed to gain their trust and prove a woman could be a successful police officer and housewife. Jean's call sign was Juliet Bravo. When she was promoted and moved on she was replaced by Kate Longton who not only took over the patch but also the headaches that went with it.

Juliet Bravo

1980

Softly Softly: Task Force poster
6.0

Softly, Softly: Task Force is a police based drama series which ran on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1976. It was a revamp of Softly, Softly, itself a spin-off from Z-Cars. The change was made partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to the BBC's main channel BBC1. The programme was due to be called simply Task Force, but reluctant to sacrifice a much-loved brand the BBC compromised this so it became Softly, Softly: Task Force.

Softly Softly: Task Force

1969

Brush Strokes poster
6.1

Jacko is a painter and decorator with an eye for the ladies. He works with Eric, who's married to his sister Jean. The painting and decorating firm they work for is owned by Lionel Bainbridge.

Brush Strokes

1986

Man About the House poster
7.1

Man About the House is a British sitcom created and written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer, and starring Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Richard O'Sullivan, Brian Murphy, and Yootha Joyce. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 April 1976. It was considered daring at the time because it featured a man sharing a London flat with two single women. Single roommates Chrissy and Jo search for a third tenant to help pay the rent, they intend on finding another female. But then they encounter Robin Tripp... who's looking for a place to stay. Two spin-offs were produced: George and Mildred (1976–79) and Robin's Nest (1977–81). A film adaptation was released in 1974 and, in 1977, the series was remade for American audiences as Three's Company.

Man About the House

1973

Warship poster
6.7

Written and filmed to reflect the reality of life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in the 1970s, most stories focus on the Captain and his fellow officers, with subplots dealing with life on the lower decks. Episodes typically featured a variety of events at sea (the Cold War, smuggling, the evacuation of civilians from crisis-hit places, etc.), as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties.

Warship

1973

Shelley poster
7.8

James Shelley, an educated, sardonic, permanently unemployed "professional freelance layabout," has many battles with authority, the tax-man, his landlady, and his girlfriend Fran.

Shelley

1979

The Last Detective poster
7.8

"Dangerous" Davies always gets the cases no one else wants, and no one notices when he eventually succeeds. But his old-fashioned decency and dogged determination have won him legions of loyal fans.

The Last Detective

2003

Hazell poster
5.2

Hazell is a British television drama based on the novel series by Terry Venables and Gordon Williams (collectively known as P.B. Yuill), and starring Nicholas Bell as James Hazell, a 'smart parody' of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. The program ran for 2 series, from January 1978 to July 1979.

Hazell

1978

Only When I Laugh poster
6.7

Only When I Laugh is an ITV1 sitcom broadcast from 29 October 1979 to 16 December 1982 for four series with seven episodes each, and a Christmas special in 1981. The title is the answer to the question, "Does it hurt?" A naïve middle-class man is admitted to an NHS hospital ward, shared with a working-class layabout and an upper-class hypochondriac. The trio never fail to cause a nuisance for the poor, unsuspecting staff.

Only When I Laugh

1979

Keep It in the Family poster
7.2

Keep It in the Family is a British sitcom that aired for five series between 1980 and 1983. It is about a likable and mischievous cartoonist, Dudley Rush. Also featured were Dudley's wife, Muriel and their two daughters, Jacqui and Susan. Dudley's literary agent, Duncan Thomas, was also featured. It was made by Thames Television for the ITV network. A remake of Keep It in the Family was produced in the United States under the title Too Close for Comfort, starring Ted Knight.

Keep It in the Family

1980

Fox poster
6.5

The thirteen-part series was based around the lives of the titular Fox family, who lived in London and had gangland connections.

Fox

1980

The Alphabet Game poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Alphabet Game

1996

A Fine Romance poster
5.4

A Fine Romance is a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister was played by Susan Penhaligon. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes over four series; the final episode being broadcast on 17 February 1984. The series takes its name from a song in the 1936 film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which Dench recorded as the theme music. The series was nominated for nine BAFTA British Academy Television Awards and a winner of two, both for Dench's performance in 1982 and 1985.

A Fine Romance

1981

No artwork available
NR

A series of eight dramatic reconstructions of stories which made the headlines.

Life at Stake

1978

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

Slinger's Day poster
5.8

Slinger's Day is a British sitcom created by Brian Cooke and produced by Thames Television for ITV. A continuation of Tripper's Day, which had come to a natural end due to a combination of star Leonard Rossiter's death and an overwhelmingly negative response, Bruce Forsyth plays a different character to Norman Tripper but fulfilling the same role, that of the manager of a Supafare supermarket with a team of incompetent eccentrics. Several cast members from Tripper's Day reprised their roles in the first series but departed in the second, allowing for new characters. Broadcast for two six-episode runs from 1986–87, Slinger's Day represented Forsyth's sole situation comedy acting role, and he remained more associated with stand-up and game shows.

Slinger's Day

1986

Get Some In! poster
6.8

Get Some In! is a British comedy series set in the 1950's that focused on the Royal Air Force National Service. The show was broadcast between 1975 and 1978 by Thames Television. Scripts were by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, the team behind the BBC TV sitcom The Good Life. The programme drew its inspiration from late 1950s/early 1960s National Service situation-comedy The Army Game, and from nostalgic BBC TV sitcom Dad's Army, but the RAF setting gave it enough originality not to seem formulaic. Thirty-four half-hour episodes were made. The series has never been repeated in full on terrestrial TV, although the UKTV Gold cable channel has aired the episodes uncut.

Get Some In!

1975

The Other 'Arf poster
6.5

The Other 'Arf is a British television ITV sitcom series broadcast from 1980 to 1984. It stars John Standing as upper class Conservative politician Charles Latimer, MP, who begins a relationship with working class cockney Lorraine Watts. The series was produced by ATV, and was screened by ITV.

The Other 'Arf

1980

Mulberry poster
7.3

A mysterious man named Mulberry arrives at the home of cantankerous spinster Rose Farnaby, to apply for the position of manservant. His true motivation is soon revealed: Mulberry is an apprentice Grim Reaper dispatched to guide Mrs Farnaby to the next life.

Mulberry

1992

No artwork available
10.0

A pair of small-time crooks, Wayne Todd and Fraser Hood, who met in jail are reunited when Wayne leaves London after being threatened by a thug and travels to Glasgow to look up his old cell mate.

Bad Boys

1996

The Jensen Code poster
6.0

16-year-old Terry Connor uncovers a secret government plot involving mind control and espionage at a Ministry of Defence facility near his Outward Bound camp.

The Jensen Code

1973

No artwork available
NR

Black Silk is a ground breaking 8-part BBC drama series broadcast in 1985. Created by Mustapha Matura and Rudy Narayan, it stars Rudolph Walker as Larry Scott, a charismatic, politically ambitious, and fiercely driven Black barrister advocating for minority communities in London. The series primarily follows Larry Scott taking on tough, complex legal cases while balancing his career with pressing events in his personal and professional life. Alongside Scott, the show highlights key characters like his clerk Julie Smythe, played by Kika Markham, and his mother Marjorie Scott, portrayed by Mona Hammond

Black Silk

1985

Behind the camera