John Woodvine

A Song For Jenny is the true story of Julie Nicholson's response to her daughter Jenny’s murder in the July 7th bombing at Edgware Road tube station. Starring Emily Watson as Julie, A Song For Jenny details the dramatic and profound impact of violence on one woman and a family.

7.2/10

Hebburn is a warm and affectionate tale of north east family life. It tells the tale of the Pearson family and their impetuous and ambitious son, Jack, who has left Tyneside for the bright lights and glamour of Manchester. He has secretly married a middle class Jewish girl, Sarah, and realises that it is about time he introduced her to his family.

7.3/10

Newcastle, 1939. Shipyard worker Joe feels emasculated and past his prime; too old to serve in the war, and he’s shocked when his wife leaves him for a younger naval officer. Needing a new challenge, Joe and his friend Harry reluctantly volunteer to join the Home Guard.

7.1/10

Two 19th-century opportunists become serial killers so that they can maintain their profitable business supplying cadavers to an anatomist.

6.2/10
3.2%

David Tennant stars in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Shakespeare's great play. Director Gregory Doran's modern-dress production was hailed by the critics as thrilling, fast-moving and, in parts, very funny.

8.2/10
10%

Memphis cop Lieutenant McKenzie is called in to investigate a series of strange deaths and wierd sightings following the resurrection of a murder victim from the 1950s(a local boy) who is brought back to life in modern times and tries to find his teenage sweetheart who is now aged 62 and also to seek revenge for his death.

4.8/10

Biting political satire starring Robert Lindsay as a beleaguered Tony Blair, who stubbornly refuses to see the danger he faces from a Special Tribunal on Iraq that has been set up to investigate war crimes

6.5/10

A divorcee takes his children on a trip to Cornwall.

7.7/10

The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit', and her struggle for love, happiness and success.

6.9/10
6.7%

London is a 2004 three-part BBC history documentary series about the history of London, presented by Peter Ackroyd.

7.6/10

Based on the controversial novel by Philippa Gregory, "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a fictionalised account of the life of Lady Mary Boleyn (Natascha McElhone) who becomes mistress to England's king, Henry VIII (Jared Harris), before being ousted by her younger sister, Anne (Jodhi May.) Mary leaves the Court to marry a commoner, but returns when Anne embarks on a reckless policy to save herself from ruin.

6.1/10

A woman is held for ransom by a bitter past acquaintance who threatens to disclose a secret that could destroy her.

7/10

The Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of history. It was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983, for production and broadcast in 1986, but was subsequently shelved by Controller of BBC One Michael Grade due to its alleged pro-Margaret Thatcher stance and jingoistic tone. This prompted a press furore over media bias and censorship.The play was not staged until 2002, when it was broadcast in separate adaptations on BBC Television and Radio.

7.5/10

Bob & Rose is a British television drama, originally screened in six one-hour episodes on the ITV network in the UK in autumn 2001. It was produced for the network by the independent Red Production Company, and was that company's first prime-time drama for the ITV network. Bob & Rose was the inspiration for Jules & Mimi, the fictional British television show featured in Sex and the City.

7.7/10

Horatio Homblower, now promoted to Acting Lieutenant, captures the French ship Le Reve off the Spanish coast. The Captain of the French ship is furious that such a youngster has pulled off such a coup. But far more daunting is Hornblower's first taste of the high life, when he is invited to dine with the Governor of Gibraltar and his wife. The prospect of this is frightening enough, but an unexpected guest, the glamorous Duchess of Wharfedale, adds another spin to his evening.

7.9/10

This film adaptation of Jane Austen's last novel follows Anne Elliot, the daughter of a financially troubled aristocratic family, who is persuaded to break her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a young sea captain of meager means. Years later, money troubles force Anne's father to rent out the family estate to Admiral Croft, and Anne is again thrown into company with Frederick -- who is now rich, successful and perhaps still in love with Anne.

8.1/10
8.6%

Michael Gambon stars in this high-tension thriller of political corruption and international intrigue. Peter Moreton, a high-ranking government official, scrambles to keep his secret lifestyle hidden from the world when his daughter purposely leaks his affair to a reporter she is dating. Nick Simon is the reporter caught between his love for Moreton’s daughter Polly and his desperation to keep his job and land the biggest story of his career.

6.9/10

Young John McGowan travels to Scotland to live at his grandfather's castle after he loses his parents in a traffic accident. At the wishing tree he conjures up a dragon friend, Yowler. They grow up together, and one day documentary film maker Bob Armstrong and his daughter Beth stumble upon Yowler. Hungry for fame (and money), Bob convinces John to "rent" Yowler to local unscrupulous businessman Lester McIntyre. John is convinced in part by the offer to have the outstanding taxes on the castle paid off, partly because of his growing interest in Beth. Yowler is miserable in the new theme park built for him, and when it becomes clear that McIntyre has tricked them in order to exploit the dragon, John and his new friends take action.

5.5/10

Fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany's war crimes have so far been kept a secret. Hitler wants to talk peace with the US president. An American journalist and a German homicide cop stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide.

6.5/10
5%

Finney is a 5-hour, 6-episode made-for-British television film that follows the struggle for power between various crime families in the North of England.

7.1/10

Receiving a tip from his dentist Jack Shorter, policeman Peter Pascoe takes a closer look at the Calliope Kinema Club, a film club notorious for showing adult entertainment movies. Shorter is convinced that one particular scene in a movie he recently saw was too realistic to have been staged with fake blood, but when Pascoe and his bluff superior Andy Dalziel starts investigating, they soon comes across the actress in question, Linda Abbott, who obviously didn't suffer from any harm and assures Pascoe that the concerns are unnecessary.

Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.

6/10
2.9%

An irreverent comedy is set in motion when Leon Geller, a sensitive Jewish boy from London, accidentally learns that his is the product of artificial insemination.

5.6/10
8.3%

Runaway Bay was a children's adventure television series, which ran from 1992 to 1993. The series followed a group of friends having adventures while living on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. The show was principally produced by Lifetime Productions International Ltd with Ellipse Productions for the television networks Antenne 2, CBS Television, and Yorkshire Television. In the UK, the show was screened on ITV. The character of Shuku was one of Naomie Harris's first television roles.

8.3/10

A father and son set up a firm of bailiffs to seize the property of poll-tax dodgers.

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

6.8/10
2.5%

Docudrama film exploring the efforts of World in Action researchers Ian MacBride and Chris Mullin in proving that the "Birmingham Six" only admitted to the bombing under extreme duress, and that the five IRA members were in fact responsible for the deadly attacks

7.3/10

Based on a Russian folk tale. A proclamation went out through all the land that whosoever could build a flying ship would win the hand of the Tsar's daughter. The youngest son of a simple peasant shows up to claim her, and the dumbfounded Tsar quickly has second thoughts, setting several 'impossible" tasks for 'The Fool of the World' and his remarkable friends.

8.5/10

Set in working class Newcastle, the Stott family fight their private battles against the backdrop of the conflict of World War II. Helen Stott, over thirty and with a limp, is resigned to being left on the shelf until she meets and falls in love with Norman, a serviceman from London. In contrast, her younger sister Joyce has quite a way with men, and finds herself a little too popular with the troops, especially when her husband pops up on leave from his regiment.

7.7/10

In Stoppard's "LeCarrecature, Rupert Purvis jumps off a bridge onto a dog, and causes problems for Blair, his superior at MI5. And Blair must convince Hogbin, the agent who's been tailing Purvis, of which side Purvis is really on--once he finds out what it is.

7.7/10

Somewhere in England, in the Autumn of 1955, a widowed father and his son live an idyllic life together. Only their gas station happens to sit on a piece of land that a local developer wants to buy. And when he won't take no for an answer, and sets government inspectors and social works onto Danny and his father, Danny and his father decide to get even with Hazell and his pheasant- shooting friends in a manner in keeping with their own family tradition.

6.7/10

A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amongst the turmoil of the French Revolution.

7.2/10

This highly acclaimed film version of Béla Bartók's searing psychological opera, performed by Robert Lloyd and Elizabeth Laurence, won the 1989 Prix Italia Music Prize. Bartók's short opera, one of the composer's most impressive early works, tells the macabre legend of Duke Bluebeard, who brings his young wife Judith to live in his remote castle. The dramatic intensity increases as sinister secrets are gradually unveiled, bringing the opera to its haunting conclusion.

8.3/10

Satirical and surreal play by Arthur Ellis, dealing with the manner in which the British police force has been represented on TV for four decades. In 1949 Tom Riley is arrested for the murder of PC George Dixon. As he awaits interrogation at the station he is mysteriously transported into an episode of The Filth - a 1988 police series where the hard men rule. This black comedy questions whether the police have changed or is it the way film and television present them.

Glory Enough for All is the 1988 television movie depicting the discovery and isolation of insulin at the University of Toronto by Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best. It won the 1989 Gemini award for best miniseries.

8.5/10

Knights of God was a British science fiction children's television serial, produced by TVS and first broadcast on ITV in 1987. It was written by Richard Cooper, a writer who had previously worked in both children's and adult television drama. Set in the year 2020, it showed a Britain ruled by the Knights of God, a fascist and anti-Christian religious order that came to power during a brutal civil war twenty years previously. It starred George Winter as Gervase Owen Edwards, the Welsh son of a resistance leader, and John Woodvine as the Prior Mordrin, leader of the titular cult. Patrick Troughton played Arthur, the apparent leader of the English resistance, and Julian Fellowes played Mordrin's ambitious and ruthless second-in-command, Brother Hugo.

7.8/10

In an unscripted inquest, three practicing barristers interrogate actors portraying relevant figures of the 16th century in order to determine what really happened to the playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe.

British sitcom in which Reverend Philip Lambe, after becoming bored in his wealthy Oxfordshire parish, asks for a transfer to a more difficult assignment. Sent to Edendale, a fictional urban town in the Midlands, he is accompanied by his wife Emma, sixteen-year-old daughter Miranda and twelve-year-old son Peter.

5.7/10

Yorkshire detective Ronald Craven is haunted by the murder of his daughter and begins his own investigation into her death.

8.4/10

Adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play produced for the BBC in 1985.

8/10

An account of how Lech Walesa and the "Solidarity" trade union confronted the might of Communist dictatorship in Poland.

7.4/10

The Big Six, and its companion story, Coot Club, are based on the celebrated Swallows & Amazons series of childrens' books written by Arthur Ransome. For anyone who loves sailing and adventure, the Arthur Ransome classics stand alone. Set in the '30s, both stories take place on the lakes and waterways of England, and feature the same cast of lively characters, led by six children, who become firm friends, sharing a love of wildlife and all things nautical.

7.9/10

When Pericles discovers the dread answer to Antioch's riddle, he flees for his life straight into famine, shipwreck, love, fatherhood, and another shipwreck; he loses his wife and daughter, and doesn't find them again until the story moves us through resurrection, attempted murder, pirates, prostitution, and divine revelation.

7.1/10

Coot Club and its companion story, The Big Six, are based on the celebrated Swallows & Amazons series of childrens' books written by Arthur Ransome. For anyone who loves sailing and adventure, the Arthur Ransome classics stand alone. Set in the '30s, both stories take place on the lakes and waterways of England, and feature the same cast of lively characters, led by six children, who become firm friends, sharing a love of wildlife and all things nautical.

7.6/10

The Tripods is a television adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods series of novels. It was jointly produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom and the Seven Network in Australia. The music soundtrack was written by Ken Freeman. Series one of The Tripods, broadcast in 1984, which had 13 half-hour episodes written by the well-known author of many radio plays Alick Rowe, covers the first book, The White Mountains; the 12-episode second series covers The City of Gold and Lead. Although a television script had been written for the third series, it never went into production. The first series was released on both VHS and DVD. The BBC released Tripods - The Complete Series 1 & 2 on DVD in March 2009. The series introduced several minor changes from the book, notably the shape of the Masters and Tripods, which have tentacles in the book, gravity inside the Golden City was increased artificially, which is not mentioned in the TV series; the introduction of "cognoscs", spiritual life-forms vastly superior to the Masters themselves; and more other main characters, including love interests for both Will and Beanpole. The original texts have few female characters. John Christopher was asked about this for an interview on Wordcandy, replying that at the time of writing the series, it was generally accepted that girls would read books with boy main characters, but not vice versa. He also stated that he felt the addition of an entire family of girls to the TV series was somewhat "over the top". The series is also notable for featuring non-humanoid aliens, which was uncommon at the time.

7.4/10

An Englishman on a Ruritarian holiday must impersonate the king when the rightful monarch, a distant cousin, is drugged and kidnapped.

7.3/10

London. Three black robbers break into an Italian restaurant. Bittersweet comedy with political morality, inspired by a news story written by Peter Barnes, Age and Scarpelli.

6.4/10

Young Nicholas Nickleby sets out to make his fortune in order to prevent his mother and sister from depending upon his uncle, Ralph Nicklby. But he finds his first job as master at a Yorkshire school to be cruel, and runs away with one of the students. Meanwhile, Kate is subjected to the unwanted attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk, aided by her uncle. Nicholas and his new friend, Smike, begin their adventures and eventually set out to rescue Kate, with the usual Dickensian twists, turns and asides.

8.9/10

Two American tourists in England are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.

7.5/10
8.7%

Macbeth is a 1978 videotaped version of Trevor Nunn's Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play by William Shakespeare. Produced by Thames Television, it features Ian McKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth. The TV version was directed by Philip Casson. The original stage production was performed at The Other Place, the RSC's small studio theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It had been performed in the round before small audiences, with a bare stage and simple costuming. The recording preserves this style: the actors perform on a circular set and with a mostly black background changes of setting are indicated only by lighting changes.

7.6/10

The final segment of the Key to Time is at the heart of a devastating war between neighbouring planets Atrios and Zeos. The Fourth Doctor discovers that a sinister entity is manipulating events and the cost of obtaining the final segment may be more personal than he imagined.

"Whether priest or thespian, never once let yourself doubt that the role you're playing is real. Lead your little flock from childhood to the grave via God's sweet sacraments and let no doubts intrude -ever. Once you start to question - you're finished."

CIA team in Greece tries to capture a major drug dealer.

6/10

New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network between 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day. The first three series ran from 1972 to 1973 and starred John Woodvine as Det. Chief Supt. Kingdom and John Carlisle as Det. Sgt. Ward. But the series, scheduled on a Saturday night, failed to match the ratings of its more glamorous midweek sister programme, Special Branch. The programme was resurrected for a fourth series in 1974, with an all-new cast headed by Michael Turner as Det. Chief Supt. Clay and Clive Francis as Det. Sgt. Dexter LWT were considered to have broken the rules of Saturday night broadcasting by showing a tough police drama in place of entertainment, but it was an inspiration for The Sweeney. Dennis Waterman, who went on to play a lead role in The Sweeney, appeared in the earlier series. There were several television series about Scotland Yard during the 1950s, the longest-running being Scotland Yard on the American Broadcasting Company from 1957-1958.

7/10

This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.

6.7/10
5%

A dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft following alleged demonic possessions of sexually repressed nuns.

7.8/10

This historical mini-series documents the reign of Elizabeth I with each episode focusing on one dramatic period in the lengthy reign of the Virgin Queen, including her ascension to the throne, her various marital intrigues, her problems with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada.

8.8/10

A young woman's highly ordered and structured life is turned upside-down when she meets a handsome stranger at a party. Friendship soon develops into romance and for the first time in her life she is truly happy. This happiness is short lived, however, as little by little she discovers her partner has been lying to her about his past. It is soon revealed that he and his friends have been planning to rob the auction house that she works for and they require her inside knowledge in order to pull off the crime.

6.4/10

The Dustbinmen is a British television sitcom made by Granada Television for ITV, which starred Bryan Pringle, Trevor Bannister, Graham Haberfield, and Tim Wylton. The show was a spin-off from a one-off 90-minute TV film "There's a Hole in Your Dustbin, Delilah" written by Jack Rosenthal and directed by Michael Apted. This led to the sitcom which ran for three series between 1969 and 1970. Rosenthal wrote all of the episodes of the first two series.

7.8/10

All 16 episodes of the 1967 series based on the Alexandre Dumas novel 'Twenty Years After'. “The Further Adventures of the Musketeers” was a BBC drama series, based on Alexander Dumas' "Twenty Years After." The sixteen episodes were broadcast on BBC1, at 5:25 pm on Sundays. Michael Gothard is credited for appearances in ten of the sixteen episodes, and very briefly appears in another. He plays Mordaunt, formerly John Francis de Winter, the vengeful son of Milady de Winter. Milady was executed by the Musketeers in the previous series, "The Three Musketeers." This series, which features many stalwarts of British entertainment, had lain in the BBC archives for nearly 50 years, unseen by the public, but in May 2016 it was finally released on DVD by Simply Media.

8.3/10

The swinging London, early sixties. Beautiful but shallow, Diana Scott is a professional advertising model, a failed actress, a vocationally bored woman, who toys with the affections of several men while gaining fame and fortune.

7.1/10
6.7%