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BBC Play of the Month
1965
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.
Geoffrey Morris
Geoffrey Morris was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), Jean's Plan (1946) and BBC Play of the Month (1965). He died on 1 March 1989 in Ealing, London, England, UK.
Matthew Roberton
Matthew Roberton was born in 1944 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is an actor, known for The Gnomes of Dulwich (1969), BBC Play of the Month (1965) and UFO (1970).
Kate Coleridge
Kate Coleridge was born on 22 September 1943 in Inverness, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for The Cedar Tree (1976), BBC Play of the Month (1965) and The Dancing Years (1976).
Hazel Hughes
Hazel Hughes was born on April 21, 1913 in Transvaal, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Pride and Prejudice (1958), Theatre 625 (1964) and BBC Play of the Month (1965). She was married to Ernest J. Shellard. She died on November 16, 1974 in London, England, UK.
Susan Tracy
Susan Tracy was born in 1945 in Marylebone, London, England as Susan Dawson-Goodey. She is an actress, known for "The Stars Look Down (1974)", "The Diary of Anne Frank (1987)" and "BBC Play of the Month (1965)".
Malcolm Hayes
Malcolm Hayes was born on December 11, 1913 in Islington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Man in the Iron Mask (1968), The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967) and BBC Play of the Month (1965) and many other roles. He died on July 27, 1981 in Camden, London, England, UK.
Dorothy Reynolds
Dorothy Reynolds was born on January 26, 1913 in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Hereward the Wake (1965), Six Days of Justice (1972) and BBC Play of the Month (1965). She was married to Angus Mackay. She died on April 7, 1977 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK.
Anthony Andrews
Anthony Andrews made his West End theater debut at the Apollo Theatre as one of twenty young schoolboys in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" with John Gielgud. He began his career at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the UK. His theater credits include spells with the New Shakespeare Company - "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Royal National Theatre production of Stephen Poliakoff's "Coming in to Land" with Maggie Smith, directed by Peter Hall, the much-acclaimed Greenwich Theatre production of Robin Chapman's "One of Us" and, as "Pastor Manders", in Robin Phillips's highly acclaimed production of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" at the Comedy Theatre in London, produced by Bill Kenwright. Anthony's first television appearance was in The Wednesday Play: A Beast with Two Backs (1968) by Dennis Potter, which was part of The Wednesday Play (1964) series. His first leading role in a series was as the title character in the BBC's The Fortunes of Nigel (1974) by Sir Walter Scott. Subsequently, he distinguished himself in various television classics playing "Mercutio" in Romeo & Juliet (1978) and starred in three different plays in the "Play of the Month" (1976) series, including playing "Charles Harcourt" in "London Assurance". He also starred in Danger UXB (1979), in which he played bomb disposal hero "Brian Ash". Most famously, he received worldwide recognition for his portrayal of the doomed "Sebastian Flyte" in Brideshead Revisited (1981) for which he won a BAFTA in the UK, the Golden Globe award in the USA and an Emmy nomination for Best Actor. Anthony's since gone on to star in Jewels (1992), for which he received another Golden Globe nomination. Most recently, Anthony has received tremendous acclaim for his outstanding portrayal of "Count Fosco" in "The Woman In White" at the Palace Theatre in London's West End. As a producer, he co-produced Lost in Siberia (1991), which translates as "Lost in Siberia", filmed entirely in Russia, which received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film and Haunted (1995), produced by his own production company, Double 'A' Films.
John Weaver
John Weaver was born in Manchester, educated at St Matthew's High School and went on to Xaverian College in 2002. Throughout his education he studied English literature and Drama & Theatre studies then went on to attend various acting classes throughout the North West of England. 2009-10 saw John make the transition from stage to screen when he featured in numerous short films including ‘The Hive’ and 'When the Dust Settles', both of which went on to win Shooting People's 'Film of the Month' after screenings at the London Short Film Festival with 'The Hive' also appearing at BAFTA and going on to be nominated for a world Vimeo award in 2012. During 2011 he filmed for roles in Emmerdale, Waterloo Road and a sit com pilot which went on to win the Audience Vote Award at Cofilmic. During 2012 John filmed the sit com pilot 'Scrims' with Lime Pictures and his second role for Emmerdale as well as appearing in the BBC's 'Turn Up The Talent' showcase. In 2013 he featured in two episodes of Hollyoaks as well as a number of short films. In 2014 John appeared in the feature film 'The Last Showing' and made his third appearance in Emmerdale. He also worked with ITV as part of their trainee director scheme and filmed his third feature film role. In July he completed a run of 'Afterglow', performed as part of the 24:7 Theatre Festival. The play received 4 and 5 star reviews and John picked up the Audience Award for Favourite Actor along with a nomination for Best Fringe Performance at the Manchester Theatre Awards. John also appeared at Contact Theatre in 'Contact Compacts' and has appeared in recent advertising campaigns for Coors Light, 7up and Warburtons. He makes his fourth appearance on Emmerdale in March and plays Dean in the feature 'Lapse of Honour' due for release in 2015.
Glenn Speers
Glenn Speers is a Northern Irish actor based primarily in New York, but with additional bases in London, Dublin and Belfast. Glenn was most recently part of the original Broadway cast of Tony award winning play, The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes. Glenn has worked steadily across all mediums in his acting career, compiling a varied resumé in TV, Film, Theatre, Commercials and VoiceOver. His TV work has included worldwide hits like Dr Who, and Ripper Street on the BBC, and cult UK tv series Misfits. Film work has included Irish productions Perrier's Bounty alongside Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson, and acclaimed real life drama Noble. Glenn has been a principal cast member in acclaimed Roddy Doyle musical comedy,The Commitments, directed by Jamie Lloyd, at the Palace Theatre in London's West End. In 2017 Glenn was a principal cast member of Oliver award winning play The Ferryman, in the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End, directed by Oscar winning Director Sam Mendes. In late 2018 Glenn was part of the original Broadway cast for the New York production of The Ferryman, at the Bernard B Jacobs theatre, which went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Play. The acclaimed Irish comedy short, The Cocaine Famine, in which Glenn co starred, won Best Short Film at The Greenwich Village Film Festival in New York in 2019. His role in the same film has seen Glenn nominated for best supporting actor at the 2020 Intercontinental Film Festival in New York. Since September 2018, Glenn has lived in New York City, having fallen in love with the City during the ten month run of The Ferryman on Broadway.
Marjolein Robertson
Marjolein Robertson is a Scottish stand-up comedian and actress from Shetland. She was Scots Speaker of the Year. She has appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe and her 2023 show "Marj" was nominated for an award. In 2019 Robertson moved to Glasgow, but returned to Shetland when she could no longer perform during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the country was in lockdown she performed comedy online and worked in care. Robertson lived briefly in Amsterdam performing improvisational comedy where she was encouraged to try stand-up comedy. She made her Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut after only a handful of gigs and would write and practise her act in Shetland on her own to an empty room. In 2022, Robertson received funding to write an almanac in the Shetland dialect.At the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Robertson performed a one-woman show at The Stand comedy club entitled Thank God Fish Don’t Have Hands. In September 2022, she won in the Scots Speaker of the Year category at the Scots Leid Awards. The following month she reached the final of the BBC New Comedy Awards after winning the regional Scottish heat. In 2022 she was awarded second place in the final of the Funny Women awards. At the 2023 Edinburgh Festival, Robertson performed an eponymous one-woman stand-up show Marj. The show was nominated for best show at the (ISH) Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2023 alongside acts such as Ed Byrne, Luke Kempner and Paul Foot. At the 2023 Fringe she also appeared in the historical play Me, Myself and Mary (Queen of Scots).
Ella Lily Hyland
Cast · Known for Black Doves
Ella Lily Hyland is an Irish actress. From Carlow, Ireland, her grandfather Dinny Hyland was a record-breaking Irish pole vaulter. Her cousin Jamie Hyland is an All-Ireland schools champion in athletics. She trained in pole vaulting and long jump into her teenage years. A member of the County Carlow Youth Theatre Group and the National Youth Theatre, in 2015 she appeared at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in Salt Mountain by Carmel Winters. She was a graduate of The Lir Academy in Dublin. Hyland had a lead role alongside Aidan Turner in the 2023 Amazon Prime Video tennis-based drama series Fifteen-Love. Hyland trained for the tennis scenes and was helped on-set by tennis coach and former-pro Naomi Cavaday. Lucy Mangan in The Guardian described her performance as "mesmerising" and "absolutely superlative", displaying "many facets" of her character – "dislikable, vulnerable, grief-stricken, a case of forced maturity and arrested development [all] at the same time". Dónal Lynch in the Irish Independent praised her "tremendous central performance" with "a mixture of vulnerability and knowingness, with a diffident and offhand delivery of her lines often belying the turmoil in her eyes." She can be seen in the 2023 Scottish film Silent Roar. In 2024, she featured in the Netflix series Black Doves led by Keira Knightley; the Evening Standard described her as "the breakout star" of the series. In September 2024, Hyland made her Abbey Theatre debut playing the titular character in the Lady Gregory play Grania, which ran until the following month Hyland has a role in Steven Knight's historical drama series A Thousand Blows (2025). She can also be seen in the BBC's 2025 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero, as Audrey Strange, a character Hyland described as "twisted, nihilistic, and hedonistic
Andy Nyman
Cast · Known for Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, Wicked, Spider Island
Andy Nyman is an English actor and magician. Nyman first came to note with his performance as a hard nosed director in Musical! and then as Keith Whitehead in the cult film of the Martin Amis novel, Dead Babies. He has played lead roles in Jon Avnet's Emmy award winning film Uprising (NBC) as a Polish freedom fighter and in Coney Island Baby as a gay French gun dealer. In 2006, he played Gordon in the cult hit Severance. Most recently he played Patrick, a sleazy reality show producer in Charlie Brooker's E4 horror satire Dead Set, and suffers the most violent death in the series, being decapitated and disembowelled. Nyman currently has four films due for release over the next 18 months: London-based romantic comedy Are You Ready for Love?; a bio-pic of 70s Dutch rock group Herman Brood, Wild Romance; and improvised gangster thriller Played where he stars opposite Vinnie Jones, Val Kilmer and Gabriel Byrne. The film was released by Lionsgate Entertainment in 2007. Nyman appeared as one of the leads in the latest Frank Oz movie, Death at a Funeral. He stars opposite Matthew Macfadyen, Ewen Bremner, and Keeley Hawes. The movie was released by MGM in 2007. Nyman is also a magician and the co-creator and co-writer of the Derren Brown TV shows Derren Brown - Mind Control and Trick of the Mind. He and Brown wrote "Russian Roulette", "Séance", and "Messiah", as well as three series of the "Trick of the Mind" series. He also co-wrote and co-directed four of Brown's stage shows, all of which have toured and played the West End. For "Something Wicked This Way Comes" they were awarded the 2006 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. Their fourth show Enigma was also nominated for an Olivier Award. Nyman won the award for best actor at the 2006 Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish & British Film for his role as Colin Frampton in Shut Up and Shoot Me. He was nominated for Lew Grade Award at the 2007 BAFTA Awards for his work on "Derren Brown: The Heist". He shared the nomination with fellow collaborators Derren Brown, Simon Mills, and Ben Caron. In December 2008 he appeared in BBC Four's supernatural drama series Crooked House. In February 2010 he co-wrote (with Jeremy Dyson), directed and starred in the horror play Ghost Stories. In April 2011 he starred in a new British sitcom, Campus.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Cast · Known for Doctor Strange, 2012, American Gangster
Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor CBE (/ˈtʃuːətɛlˈɛdʒioʊfɔːr/ CHOO-ə-tel EJ-ee-oh-for; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2008, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 2015, he was appointed Commander (CBE) for his services to the arts. After enrolling at the National Youth Theatre in 1995 and attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, at age 19 and three months into his course, Ejiofor was cast by Steven Spielberg to play a supporting role in the film Amistad (1997) as James Covey. He later won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for Othello (2008). Ejiofor earned the BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013). Ejiofor's other films include Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Love Actually (2003), Kinky Boots (2005), Four Brothers (2005), Children of Men (2006), Endgame (2009), 2012 (2009), Salt (2010), and The Martian (2015). He joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). He also voiced Scar in The Lion King (2019). He directed, wrote, and starred in the film The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019). On television, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance as a jazz band leader in the BBC Two miniseries Dancing on the Edge (2014). He also acted in the BBC drama series The Shadow Line (2011), the HBO television film Phil Spector (2013), and the Showtime science fiction series The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022). Description above from the Wikipedia article Chiwetel Ejiofor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Amy Nuttall
Cast · Known for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Amy Abigail Nuttall is an English actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Chloe Atkinson in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale (2000–2005), housemaid Ethel Parks in the ITV/PBS period drama Downton Abbey (2011–2012), and "Little" Jane Butterfield in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Nuttall was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. She was educated at Bury Grammar School for Girls and trained at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. She performed with the National Youth Music Theatre, notably playing the lead role of Princess Ismene in Aurelius at the Tyne Opera House, Newcastle and the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in August 1997. Nuttall is credited as the youngest actress to ever understudy and play the lead role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (at age 17) (National Tour), she has sung at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Old Trafford and won an edition of Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Sarah Brightman. Shortly before leaving Emmerdale, Nuttall appeared in Notes from New York at the Trafalgar Studios opposite Jon Lee and Julie Atherton. In 2005, she released her debut album as a classical vocalist, Best Days, on EMI Classics and filmed music videos for her tracks "Best Days", "No Greater Gift" and a version of "Scarborough Fair", which was heavily requested on Classic FM TV. Best Days peaked at number four in the UK classical chart and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2006 Classic BRIT Awards. In the same year, Nuttall took part in the reality TV programme Celebrity Shark Bait, which also featured Richard E. Grant and Ruby Wax and appeared in Celebrate Oliver, a musical special for BBC1. In the autumn of 2005, Nuttall toured the UK extensively as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady to critical acclaim. She shared the role with Lisa O'Hare on the National Tour due to other commitments with her first album. The tour started on 5 October 2005 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester and ended on 12 August 2006 at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. In January 2007, Nuttall performed on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night with an 80-piece live orchestra and in May 2007, she joined the cast of the stage revival of Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre opposite Patricia Hodge, Mark Rylance and Roger Allam. On 2 October 2007, Nuttall replaced Kim Medcalf in the London production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre, transferring directly from her role in Boeing-Boeing. In April 2008, Nuttall's initial six-month contract was extended until the production's closure on 21 June. Nuttall appeared in Hotel Babylon in 2009 as Melanie Hughes, the new hotel receptionist. In June and July 2010, Nuttall played one of the lead roles in the revival of the hit musical The Hired Man at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Later that year, she returned to the Octagon Theatre, Bolton to play Stella Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire. She shared the role of the Lady of the Lake in the UK tour of Spamalot, which began on 18 October 2010 at the Edinburgh Playhouse. From September 2011, Nuttall began appearing in the second series of Downton Abbey, appearing as the new maid, Ethel.
Michael Bryant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Michael Dennis Bryant (5 April 1928 – 25 April 2002) was a British stage and television actor. Bryant attended Battersea Grammar School and after service in the Merchant Navy and Army, he attended drama school and appeared in many productions on the London stage. He made his film debut in 1955. His greatest role was Mathieu in BBC2's 1970 adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's Roads to Freedom trilogy. His guest star appearance as Wing Commander Marsh, who feigns insanity in the 'Tweedledum' episode of the BBC drama series, Colditz (1972), is still widely remembered. Bryant was chosen by Orson Welles to play the lead role in The Deep, Welles's adaptation of the Charles Williams novel Dead Calm. The production frequently ran out of money, and following the death of actor Laurence Harvey in 1973, Welles stopped production and announced the movie - which had been completed except for one special effects shot of a ship exploding - would not be released. (The novel was finally adapted to film in 1989.) In 1969 Bryant took his love of the stage on a strange trip into the realm of cult films, playing a clever male prostitute who outwits a delusional family of killers in the dark comedy Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, an adaptation of a play by Maisie Mosco. Due to poor marketing and a lack of faith in the film by the distributor, the film quickly sank into obscurity even before it could develop a cult following. One of Bryant's most memorable performances was in the classic BBC television play The Stone Tape (1972), in which he plays the leader of a team of scientists who investigate ghost sightings in a brooding gothic mansion. Bryant also had a supporting role as a sadistic psychiatrist in the cult classic black comedy The Ruling Class, with Peter O'Toole and Alastair Sim. He also appeared in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) as a British diplomat. Having played Lenin in the film Nicholas and Alexandria, Bryant would later reprise the role in Robert Bolt's play State of Revolution (1977). He had previously co-starred in Bolt's unsuccessful Gentle Jack. The 1977 production of a Bolt play though was significant for featuring the first role he performed at the National Theatre where he was a constant presence for a quarter of a century. Bryant, described by Michael Billington as "rock-solid company man", had earlier performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1964, including the premiere production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (1965), in which he played Teddy, the returning academic. In 1980, Michael Bryant won the London Drama Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor, and his other theatrical performances were equally well thought of. Bryant won Laurence Olivier Awards in 1988 and 1990 and was nominated twice more. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael Bryant (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Caroline Langrishe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Caroline Langrishe (born 10 January 1958, London, England) is an English actress. In 1976, Langrishe appeared in the BBC production of The Glittering Prizes. In 1977 she played the role of Kitty in a BBC adaptation of Anna Karenina. Her first big part was in the 1978 British adaption of Les Misérables. She also starred as Jane Winters in the futuristic BBC Play for Today episode The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980), and its follow up, Another Flip for Dominick (1982) both by Jeremy Paul and Alan Gibson. She played Janet Hollywell, wife of Fred Hollywell, in the 1984 adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott. She became a leading character actress, taking the female lead in the BBC detective series Pulaski in 1987 and appearing in several episodes of Chancer in 1990. She is perhaps best known for her role as Charlotte Cavendish in the BBC series Lovejoy in which she starred for two series in 1993-94. She later appeared in Sharpe's Regiment (1996) and Sharpe's Justice (1997) as Lady Anne Camoynes. She played the unhappy landlady to Hywel Bennett's professional scrounger James Shelley in the 5th series of "Shelley" on ITV She played Georgina Channing alongside Martin Shaw in drama Judge John Deed and has recently joined BBC medical drama Casualty as executive director Marilyn Fox. She has also starred in Heartbeat, in the episode "Echoes of the Past", she played a mum-to-be Jane Hayes, who is convinced that her house is haunted when she hears a baby crying goes into the nursery and thinks she hears a ghost. This episode was broadcast on 24 December 1998. In 2010 she played Ros, an 'older woman' in an open marriage in Pete Versus Life on Channel 4 Caroline Langrishe married the actor Patrick Drury in London on 15 November 1984, but the couple divorced in 1995 after having two daughters, Rosalind and Leonie. Description above from the Wikipedia article Caroline Langrishe, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Alice Krige
Cast · Known for Silent Hill, Thor: The Dark World
Alice Maud Krige is a South African actress and producer. Her first feature film role was as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. Since then, she has played a variety of roles in a number of genres. Krige first played the role of the Borg Queen in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact and reprised the role for the final episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager. A year after the series ended, she reprised the role in "Borg Invasion 4-D" at Star Trek: The Experience. She attended Rhodes University in Grahamstown where she pursued an undergraduate degree in psychology and literature, but quickly turned to acting, earning an honors degree in drama from Rhodes, before a moving to London to pursue a new career path. Once in England, she studied drama at the London Central School of Speech and Drama before making her acting performance debut in the 1979 BBC Play for Today. After achieving critical acclaim for her role in Chariot's of Fire, and continued to star and support in both film and stage theater throughout the 1980s. This eclectic trend continued into the 1990s before turning to television for both starring and reoccurring minor roles in prominent television series. In addition, she continued to make sporadic convention appearances and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Rhodes University. Alice Krige is married to writer/director, Paul Schoolman, and lives what she describes as an "itinerant" lifestyle. Although she and her husband maintain a permanent home in the United States, they spend much of their time living and working abroad.
Jack Hedley
Jack Hedley (born in London on 28 October 1930 as Jack Hawkins, name changed to avoid confusion with his namesake) was an English actor, best known for his performances on television. His screen career began in 1950 with a 13-minute drama-documentary about polio called A Life to be Lived. In the 1950s he starred in a number of films and TV appearances, such as Left Right and Centre, Fair Game, and the Alun Owen-scripted No Trams to Lime Street with Billie Whitelaw. He became a TV star in the Francis Durbridge-scripted BBC series The World of Tim Frazer (transmitted from November 1960 to March 1961), the 18 instalments of which comprised three separate serials of six episodes each. He also played Corrigan Blake in Alun Owen's 1962 BBC play You Can't Win 'Em All, the role being taken over by John Turner in the series Corrigan Blake that resulted the following year. He was also in Alun Owen's 'A Little Winter Love'. He appeared in a number of British films of the 1960s, notably Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1963), Witchcraft (1964), Of Human Bondage (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1964) and The Anniversary (1968). He also had roles in several 1970s BBC dramas, such as that of Lt Colonel Preston in Colditz (1972-4) and ex-serviceman Alan Haldane in Who Pays the Ferryman? (1977). Reportedly, the series was marked off-screen by personality clashes between Hedley and his co-stars Betty Arvaniti and Maria Sokali. Hedley later appeared in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as Sir Timothy Havelock, also voicing Havelock's parrot. Soon after this, in the autumn of 1981 he played the lead role (cynical investigative cop Fred Williams) in Lucio Fulci's The New York Ripper (Lo squartatore di New York), in which his voice was dubbed. He also starred with Stanley Baker and Jean Seberg in the film of Irwin Shaw's 'In The French Style'. Other TV appearances include: The Saint, Gideon's Way (The Alibi Man), Softly, Softly, Dixon of Dock Green, The Buccaneers, Return of the Saint, One by One, Remington Steele, Only Fools and Horses (A Royal Flush), 'Allo 'Allo, Dalziel and Pascoe, and the television film version of Brief Encounter. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Hedley,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Michael Latimer
Michael James Latimer (6 September 1941 – 25 June 2011) was a British television stage and film actor who later in his career turned to writing, directing and producing. Latimer was born in Calcutta, where his father had a business, and was educated at the Leys School in Cambridge from 1955 to 1959, where he was a middle-distance runner and played rugby for the English Schoolboys Team. Upon leaving school, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for two years, and on leaving began acting in cabaret revues. He stood in for Peter Cook in Beyond the Fringe when the original cast took the show to New York. He appeared in various repertory and West End productions. His television appearances included The Avengers (1966–67), Sexton Blake (1968), Man at the Top (1972), Van der Valk (1972–73), in which he played Johnny Kroon alongside Barry Foster as Van der Valk, Special Branch (1973), Marked Personal (1973), Village Hall (1974), Crown Court (1974–76), The Sweeney (1975), Quiller (1975), The New Avengers (1977), Spectre (1977), Z-Cars (1978), The Professionals (1978), Maggie and Her (1979), Hammer House of Horror (1980) and Rumpole of the Bailey (1988). His film roles include A Man for All Seasons (1966), Prehistoric Women (1967) opposite Martine Beswick, Mosquito Squadron (1969), Man of Violence (1969), Got It Made (1974) and Sweeney! (1977). Latimer was the stage director for the first Johnny Nash and Bob Marley tours of the United Kingdom in 1972. He set up his own production company, Bedrock Productions; this had three top twenty hits in the German music charts for Hansa and Ariola Records. His writing for television included The Rovers (1970), the BBC play The Interview and also four episodes of Sons and Daughters (1983). He taught at RADA, London Academy of Performing Arts (LAPA) and at drama school in Australia. As a director he worked on television commercials in Australia and directed some 37 theatre productions in the United Kingdom, including Daniel Magee's play Paddywack (1994) with James Nesbitt at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone Latimer died at Trinity Hospice in Clapham, London, in 2011, aged 69.
Nigel Rathbone
Nigel Rathbone is a British actor who is perhaps best known for playing Steve Forbes in thirty three episodes of the TV series The Gentle Touch (1980-1984) as well as his role as Arpad Laszlo in the BBC TV play She Loves Me (1979). He played Tim Barber in ten episodes of Look and Read (1967-2004) and he also starred alongside Bob Hoskins in the TV series Pennies from Heaven (1978-1979) in the episode "Painting the Clouds". He also made appearances in films such as No Blade of Grass (1970), The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) and Home Before Midnight (1979). During his life he also worked on TV commercials for Birds Eye Burgers.
Philip Martin
Philip Martin (3 July 1938 – 13 December 2020) was an English television screenwriter. He created the BBC television drama series Gangsters in the 1970s and later wrote two television serials for Doctor Who during Colin Baker's tenure as the Sixth Doctor in the 1980s. His early work included regular series such as Z-Cars in the late 1960s/early 1970s, but his most famous work is the postmodern television series Gangsters. This was an examination of race seen through an increasingly surreal vision of Birmingham's criminal underworld. Beginning as an acclaimed one-off edition of Play for Today in 1975, it was followed by two series of 6 episodes each in 1976 and 1978. Martin appeared in the series in several roles, including as himself. His later work includes Tandoori Nights (1985), Star Cops (1987), Virtual Murder (1992), several episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Luifel & Luifel (2001). He wrote the Doctor Who serials Vengeance on Varos (1985) and The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp (1986). He also wrote a script called Mission to Magnus which featured the character Sil from his previous televised serials. That script was never filmed when the show was put on hiatus in 1985. A novelised version of the script written by Martin was released by Target Books in 1990, and a Big Finish audio drama based on the serial was released in December 2009. He also wrote a Doctor Who gamebook called Invasion of the Ormazoids (1986) as part of the Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who range. His last contributions to the series were The Creed of the Kromon (2004) and Antidote to Oblivion (2013), as Big Finish audio releases. He also revisited the character of Sil in the independent broadcast television series from Reeltime Pictures Ltd., "Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor" (2019).
Virginia Stride
Virginia Stride (born Virginia Thomas in Yokohama, Japan) is a British actress of stage and screen who first came to public attention on television in the 1960s. She was the first wife of the actor John Stride (1936–2018), whom she met when they were studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and in 1964 she introduced the first programme to be seen on BBC2. Virginia Stride played the recurring role of BD Girl Katy Hoskins in Z-Cars (1962–64), the long-running BBC television series about the police in an area of Liverpool. In 1964 she appeared in an episode of The Avengers as Alice Brisket, secretary to Quilpie (played by Ronald Radd), who was the controller of John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman). With Gordon Rollings Stride was the first presenter, on 21 April 1964, of Play School, a daily programme for young children on BBC 2. Because a power failure coincided with the channel's scheduled opening the previous evening,[3] Play School was the first programme to be transmitted on BBC2. In 1966 Stride appeared in the BBC comedy series On the Margin, a collection of sketches and songs written by Alan Bennett, who, together with John Sergeant (later the BBC's political correspondent), also starred in the show. The six episodes of On the Margin were twice repeated in 1967, but were among many programmes "wiped" by the BBC in the 1970s. A compact disc of surviving audio extracts was released by the BBC in 2009. Virginia Stride's best-known role was probably as the "seductive" Liz Champion in Champion House, a weekly drama series created for the BBC by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling,[5] which concerned a family-run textile business in Yorkshire. Liz Champion was a member of the company's board. She was the daughter of Jack Champion, whose father, Joe (played by Edward Chapman), had made the company over to him, only to see it pass, after Jack's early death, to Liz's eldest brother Stephen (James Kerry), who had his own less compliant ideas of the firm's direction. The first episode of Champion House was shown on 28 May 1967 and there was a second series in 1968. Its initial profile was assisted by live coverage on 28 May of the return of Sir Francis Chichester from his solo circumnavigation of the world. Virginia Stride appeared in episodes of a number of other television series, including Out of the World (1962), Public Eye (1966), The Baron (1966, as an hotelier who has an implied "one-night stand" with John Mannering, the "Baron", played by Steve Forrest[7]), The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder (as Margaret Bellman in the first series, in 1969, a role that Gillian Lewis played in the second series in 1971), Callan (1972), The Expert (1976), Target (1978) and A Touch of Spice (1989). Her films include I Want What I Want (1972), based on Geoff Brown's novel of 1966 about transsexualism. In the early 21st century Stride performed with the Agatha Christie Theatre Company, for example on tour in The Unexpected Guest (with, among others, Simon MacCorkindale and former singer Mark Wynter) in 2006 Virginia Stride has three daughters, Philippa and Lindsay, by her first husband, the actor John Stride, and another daughter from a subsequent relationship with the producer and football chairman Bill Kenwright. She has four grandchildren.