Pauline Quirke

When the news is announced that a comet is on an unavoidable collision course with Earth, the most hilarious and unexpected chain of events imaginable is set in motion.

7.7/10
8.3%

DS Mary Jane Croft runs the under-resourced Missing Persons Unit.

6.7/10

A Headmistress steals from her own school. As a young girl Colleen McCabe asks a priest in confessional "What is sin?" Thirty years later she is found out for practising it. An ex-nun,she leaves the convent because she becomes disillusioned with spiritual matters and goes into teaching, being appointed headmistress of the John Rigby School in London. Along with a small coterie of chosen staff members to act as her spies,she misappropriates half a million pounds from school funds which she spends on luxury goods and a trip on the Orient Express. Meanwhile the school suffers,having to use ancient text books and pupils as cleaners. She is tried,although admitted to hospital for depression on the trial day, and sentenced to five years in jail, later reduced to four. The film alternates dramatized scenes of Colleen's misbehaviour with interviews with those who knew her.

7.6/10

Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.

7.3/10

Margaret Hale is a southerner from a country vicarage newly settled in the industrial northern town of Milton. In the shock of her move, she misjudges charismatic cotton mill-owner John Thornton, whose strength of purpose and passion are a match for her own pride and willfulness. When the workers of Milton call a strike, Margaret takes their side, and the two are brought into deeper conflict. As events spiral out of control, Margaret - to her surprise - begins to fall in love with Thornton...

8.6/10

Twenty years ago, three men set out on the longest walk of their lives. They vowed to repeat the walk, but this time they are joined by a forty year old wife and mother who is in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

6.2/10

Office Gossip is a British sitcom that aired on BBC One in 2001. Starring Pauline Quirke, it was written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, who co-wrote The Vicar of Dibley, and George Pritchett. Recently, it has been aired in the United States on various PBS stations as part of 'One Season Wonders.

6/10

Down to Earth was a BBC One television series first broadcast in 2000 about a couple who start a new life on a Devon farm. The early episodes of the series were based on a series of books written by Faith Addis about their real-life move from London to Devon. The music in the series was composed by Sheridan Tongue, and had the song "After All this Time" as its opening and closing credits in series 2 and 3.

6.7/10

Charles Dickens' haunting semi-autobiographical tale of a boy who is sent away by his stepfather after his mother dies but manages to triumph over incredible adversities.

David Copperfield (Daniel Radcliffe) lives a nearly idyllic existence with his beautiful mother Clara Emilia Fox) and their housekeeper Peggotty (Pauline Quirke). His life changes forever when his mother re-marries. Mr. Murdstone (Trevor Eve) is a no-nonsense businessman and a strict disciplinarian who believes in corporal punishment. David is soon sent to a strict boarding school, but when his mother dies, his stepfather sends him to London to work in a foul-smelling factory. He forms a close friendship with Mr. Micawber (Bob Hoskins) and moves in with the man and his loving family, but as the Micawbers are forced by circumstance to relocate, he seeks out his aunt Betsey Trotwood (Dame Maggie Smith). She sends him to fine school and he lodges with Mr. Wickfield (Oliver Ford Davies) and his daughter Agnes (Antonia Corrigan). As he grows, older David (Ciarán McMenamin) is apprenticed to a law firm where he soon meets the senior partner's daughter, Dora (Joanna Page)

A young boy's dream of finding his dead father comes true when his father visits him as an angel. But things turn sour when he discovers that his father was not the hero he imagined him to be.

6.1/10

A parent's grief has no bounds. Our Boy tells the moving and tragic story of one couple’s struggle to come to terms with the disappearance and death of their only son. Woody, Sonia and their son, Lee, live contentedly in West Ham, London. When Lee is killed in a hit-and-run everyone grieves but Woody’s grief has no limit. His best friend, Phil, counsels revenge, while in the view of the ambitious Detective Constable Spence, Woody himself is the prime suspect. Woody searches for a way to react with extraordinary and touching results. Features award-winning performances by Ray Winstone and Pauline Quirke.

8.2/10

'The Canterville Ghost' is one of the most popular choice for making a film in Oscar Wilde's works, and the original short story deserves the popularity. It is a witty spoof about a ghost and the 'haunted' mansion where a rich American family start to live. In this story, the family are not annoyed by the presence of the ghost; no, it is the ghost who is annoyed by the family who just refuse to be terrified. After all, why should we be scared by an old man wearing rusty coat of mail, whose best trick is to walk in the middle of night making big noises?

5.7/10

When author Rosalind Leigh is assigned to write a book about the life of Olive Martin, a woman sentenced to life in prison for killing her mother and sister, she develops a relationship with Olive and is soon convinced of her innocence. With the help of restaurant owner and former policeman Hal Hawksley, she sets out to prove it and undo what she sees as a miscarriage of justice.

7.4/10

Birds of a Feather is a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC One from 1989 until 1998 and on ITV from 2013. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers. The first episode sees sisters Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodos brought together when their husbands are sent to prison for armed robbery. Sharon, who lived in an Edmonton council flat, moves into Tracey's expensive house in Chigwell, Essex. Their next-door neighbour, and later friend, Dorien Green is a middle-aged married woman who is constantly having affairs with younger men. In the later series the location is changed to Hainault. The series ended on Christmas Eve 1998 after a 9-year-run. On 3 March 2009, the The Mirror reported that the classic sitcom was set for a return reporting that Lesley Joseph, Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson have all been asked by the team behind the sitcom to make another series. Quirke was reported as saying that they were up for the challenge if the writers came up with good ideas. After this speculation of a return in early 2009 nothing more was said. However, in July 2012 Lesley Joseph hinted that Birds of a Feather could return for another series following a successful stage tour.

6.3/10

The second film in Terence Davies's autobiographical series (along with "Trilogy" and "The Long Day Closes") is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on Davies's own family. Through a series of exquisite tableaux Davies creates a deeply affecting photo album of a troubled family wrestling with the complexity of love.

7.4/10
8%

The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret Grey. His amnesia also makes him a ready target for the affections of his older cousin, Jenny.

6.8/10

"We were so close, we loved each other, we made a whole together. I feel cut in half." Meg struggles with the sudden death of her husband.

Shine on Harvey Moon! is a British comedy-drama series made by Central Television for ITV from 8 January 1982 to 23 August 1985 and briefly revived in 1995 by Meridian. This generally light-hearted series was created by comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. The series is set in the East End of London shortly after the Second World War. Upon being demobbed RAF serviceman Harvey Moon, played by Kenneth Cranham, returns home and finds his family involved in various troubles. His wife Rita, played by Maggie Steed, is not interested in resuming their relationship, and works in a seedy nightclub frequented by American servicemen. He becomes involved with the Labour Party and the union movement. The name of the series is a wordplay on the title of the popular 1908 song 'Shine On, Harvest Moon'. The first series was commissioned and recorded by ATV at their Elstree studios with the remaining series filmed at newly constructed facilities in Nottingham.

7.3/10

It's such a simple, natural thing to have a baby, thinks Mary. But she and husband Paul are preoccupied with their careers. Can their young neighbour Tessa help, or are the emotions around a new baby more complex than anyone had expected?

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

8.1/10
9.2%

Clive decides he will go mad. Stark raving mad. His wife doesn't take him seriously, until Clive does something that makes her realise he means it.

Sixteen-year-old Otis loathes school. He wants to be a professional footballer, but is good at drawing, so his mother wants him to be a draughtsman. Then, a new sports teacher appears at his South London comprehensive school, and life starts to look a little more hopeful...

6.2/10

Eleanor seems normal enough to her parents and teachers. Why then has she disappeared?

A tough young girl lives with her aging grandfather near a cove on the coast of Cornwall. She supports herself and him by gathering seaweed to sell as fertilizer. A cocky young neighboring boy decides to help her with the work.

7.1/10

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.

4.8/10

It isn't really the fault of the children in 2B that their efforts to be helpful end in disaster.

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

A series of six short films concerning the adventures of form 2B and their inventive science master, Mr Potter

Science-fiction comedy: Junket, a schoolboy, borrows an apparatus invented by the absent-minded science master for transporting matter - and, by accident, makes it work...

6.1/10

DS Granger's relationship with Jake Osbourne is threatened when she investigates the murder of an Army corporal, who is shot dead during an exercise involving no live ammunition. Does Jake hold vital information?

DS Granger turns to Wicklow for help whilst investigating a murder supposedly committed by a boy with learning difficulties, which has been overturned on appeal. But when Wicklow is stabbed, Granger suspects he is playing games with her.

DS Granger comes face to face with Brian Wicklow once more when a young boy named Jake Osbourne is abducted from a shopping centre - and not one for believing in co-incidence, discovers that Wicklow's sister is involved in the kidnap.