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Damien Thomas
Damien Thomas (born 1942 or 1943) is a British actor noted for his roles in British films and television, such as his role as Father Martin Alvito in the 1980 hit miniseries ''Shōgun'' and as Richard Mason in the 1983 BBC production of ''Jane Eyre''. Film credits include '' Journey into Darkness'' (1968), ''Julius Caesar'' (1970), ''Twins of Evil'' (1971), ''Henry VIII and His Six Wives'' (1972), '' Tiffany Jones'' (1973), '' The Message'' (1976), ''Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'' (1977), '' Pirates'' (1986), '' Never Let Me Go'' (2010) and '' Grave Tales'' (2011). TV credits include: '' Jason King'', ''Van der Valk'', '' Special Branch'', ''Warship'', '' Wilde Alliance'', '' The Professionals'', ''A.D.'', '' Noble House'', ''Blake's 7'', ''Beau Geste'', '' Tenko'', '' Widows'', ''Dempsey and Makepeace'', ''Wish Me Luck'', ''House of Cards'', '' Doctors'', ''The Brittas Empire'', '' Sherlock Holmes'', and ''Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shōgun (1980 Miniseries)
''Shōgun'' is a 1980 American historical drama television miniseries based on James Clavell's 1975 novel of the same name. The series was produced by Paramount Television and first broadcast in the United States on NBC over five nights between September 15 and September 19, 1980. It was written by Eric Bercovici and directed by Jerry London, and stars Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, and Yoko Shimada, with a large supporting cast. Clavell served as executive producer. , it is the only American television production to be filmed on-location entirely in Japan, with additional soundstage filming also taking place in Japan at the Toho studio. The miniseries is loosely based on the adventures of English navigator William Adams, who journeyed to Japan in 1600 and rose to high rank in the service of the shōgun. It follows fictional Englishman John Blackthorne's (Chamberlain) transforming experiences and political intrigues in feudal Japan in the early 17th century. ''Shōgun'' r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Branch (TV Series)
''Special Branch'' is a British television series made by Thames Television for ITV and shown between 1969 and 1974. A police drama series, the action was centred on members of the Special Branch anti-espionage and anti-terrorist department of the London Metropolitan Police. Production The first two series were shot mainly in a studio on videotape with filmed location inserts; a standard method of the time but one which suffered from jarring differences in picture quality between interior and exterior scenes. The location scenes of some episodes were shot on outside broadcast cameras, leading to smoother transitions between location and studio work for those episodes. Series 1 and 2 starred Derren Nesbitt as Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Jordan, working to Detective Superintendent Eden (Wensley Pithey) and subsequently Det. Supt. Inman (Fulton Mackay). The episodes featuring Eden (the first nine of Series 1) were recorded in black and white, while all subsequent episodes wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Brittas Empire
''The Brittas Empire'' is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie played titular character Gordon Brittas, the well-intended but hugely incompetent manager of the fictional Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. The show ran for seven series and 52 episodes – including two Christmas specials – from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Creators Norriss and Fegen co-wrote the first five series. The series peaked at 10 million viewers. In 2022, the series was described by Daily Mirror as "fondly-remembered". ''The Brittas Empire'' enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC's ''Britain's Best Sitcom'' poll, and all series have been released on DVD both individually as series and as a complete boxset. ''Best of the Britcoms'' noted the series has been hailed as "the Fawlty Towers of the 1990s" due to its "fast-paced, outrageous omedyfull of inventive gag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctors (2000 TV Series)
''Doctors'' is a British medical soap opera, first broadcast on BBC One on 26 March 2000. Set in the fictional West Midlands town of Letherbridge, the soap follows the lives of the staff of both an NHS doctor's surgery and a university campus surgery, as well as the lives of their families and friends. Initially, only 41 episodes of the programme were ordered, but due to the positive reception, the BBC ordered it as a continuing soap opera. ''Doctors'' was filmed at the Pebble Mill Studios until 2004; production then relocated to the BBC Drama Village. Episodes are filmed three months prior to transmission. The soap is typically broadcast on weekdays at 1:45 pm on BBC One and takes three annual transmission breaks across the year; at Easter, during the summer and at Christmas. Since its inception, ''Doctors'' has consistently won the share of viewers in its daytime time slot, and as of 2022, it averages at 1.6 million live viewers in its daytime broadcast. The program ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Cards (UK TV Series)
''House of Cards'' is a 1990 British political thriller television serial in four episodes, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised by the BBC from 18 November to 9 December 1990, to critical and popular acclaim. The story tells the manipulative and sudden rise to power of the machiavellian Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, Francis Urquhart. Urquhart, on the party's classical extreme right, is frustrated over his lack of promotion in the wake of Thatcher's resignation and the moderate government that succeeds it. Thus, he plots an extremely calculated and meticulous plan to bring down the Prime Minister and replace him, in vein of Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' (which he often quotes). During this drawn-out, ruthless coup, his life is complicated by his relationship with young female reporter Mattie Storin, whom he uses to leak sensitive information in confidence. The question of whether the serial's ending is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wish Me Luck
''Wish Me Luck'' is a British television drama about the exploits of British women undercover agents during the Second World War. The series was made by London Weekend Television for the ITV network between 17 January 1988 and 25 February 1990 and created by Lavinia Warner and Jill Hyem, who had previously produced and written the BBC women prisoner of war series '' Tenko''. The series was filmed on location in England and France. ''Wish Me Luck'' is similar to '' Tenko'' and the 1970s BBC drama '' Secret Army'', in that it deals with strong female characters coping under extreme conditions in wartime. The organisation for which the series' women agents worked, the Outfit, was based on the real-life Special Operations Executive. Season 1 and 2 were based on the exploits of SOE agent Nancy Wake and much of the dialogue was copied from her autobiography ''The White Mouse''. The series also addressed social issues and divisions under wartime conditions. A great deal of atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dempsey And Makepeace
''Dempsey and Makepeace'' is a British television crime drama made by LWT for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham. Lead roles were played by Michael Brandon (Lieutenant Dempsey) and Glynis Barber (Detective Makepeace), who later married each other in real life in 1989. Premise The premise of ''Dempsey and Makepeace'' is the oddball pairing of two police detectives: an elegant British noblewoman, Sgt (Lady) Harriet Makepeace, and a streetwise working-class New Yorker, Lt James Dempsey, both working for an elite and armed unit of the London Metropolitan Police. When his partner Joey dies in a botched drugs operation and he uncovers police corruption at the highest level, Dempsey is under threat of assassination. With help from his colleagues, he hurriedly leaves New York for London, on the pretense of an undercover international police exchange programme. Harriet "Harry" Makepeace is the daughter of Lord Winfield (Ralph Michael), who owns an English stately home. Reference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Widows (TV Series)
''Widows'' is a British primetime television crime drama that was broadcast in 1983 and 1985, produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and aired on the ITV network. Two six-part series were written by crime writer Lynda La Plante. The executive producer for the series was Verity Lambert. In 1984 it was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series or Serial. Plot Three armed robbers — Harry Rawlins, Terry Miller, and Joe Perelli — are killed during an armed robbery. They are survived by their widows, Dolly Rawlins (Ann Mitchell), Shirley Miller ( Fiona Hendley), and Linda Perelli ( Maureen O'Farrell). With the police applying pressure, and a rival gang intending to take over Harry Rawlins' crime business, the widows turn to Dolly for leadership. She uses Harry's famous "ledgers", a cache of books detailing all his robberies over the years, to find the details of the failed robbery, and, enlisting the help of a fourth woman, Bella O'Reilly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenko (TV Series)
''Tenko'' is a television drama series co-produced by the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which was broadcast between 1981 and 1985. The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women who were captured after the Fall of Singapore in February 1942, after the Japanese invasion, and held in a fictional Japanese internment camp on a Japanese-occupied island between Singapore and Australia. Having been separated from their husbands, herded into makeshift holding camps and largely forgotten by the British War Office, the women had to learn to cope with appalling living conditions, malnutrition, disease, violence and death. Background ''Tenko'' was created by Lavinia Warner after she had conducted research into the internment of nursing corps officer Margot Turner (1910–1993) for an edition of '' This Is Your Life'' and was convinced of the dramatic potential of the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese. Aside from the first t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beau Geste (TV Series)
''Beau Geste'' is a BBC television serial, based on the 1924 novel by P. C. Wren. The series aired on BBC1 from 31 October to 19 December 1982 and starred Benedict Taylor, Anthony Calf and Jonathon Morris as the three brothers. Plot Although minor plot points separate the versions, all of the versions share a common element of a stolen gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau Geste, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family. This version, unlike the Hollywood movies, stays true to the book, in that the three young brothers join the legion, are later commanded by Sergeant Major Lejaune (not Markov, as in one of the Hollywood versions), and this TV adaptation contains the scene from the book where the surrounded Legionnaires defiantly sing '' Le Boudin''. The Legionnaires' equipment is spot-on too, right down to the correct mess-tins and bayonets. Filmed entirely in England, at various locations, with its desert scenes being filmed in a sand pit in Dorset. Cast * B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blake's 7
''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, produced by David Maloney (series 1–3) and Vere Lorrimer (series 4), and the script editor throughout its run was Chris Boucher, who wrote nine of its episodes. The main character for the first two series was Roj Blake, played by Gareth Thomas. ''Blake's 7'', which was broadcast in 25 other countries, had a low budget but featured many tropes of space opera, such as spaceships, robots, galactic empires and aliens. Critical responses have been varied; some reviewers praised the programme for its dystopian themes, strong characterisation, ambiguous morality and pessimistic tone, as well as displaying an "enormous sense of fun", but others have criticised its production values, dialogue, and accused it of lacking originality. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noble House (miniseries)
''Noble House'' is an American action-drama television miniseries that was produced by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, and broadcast by NBC in four segments on February 21–24, 1988. Based on the 1981 novel of the same name by James Clavell, it features a large cast headlined by Pierce Brosnan as business tycoon Ian Dunross and was directed by Gary Nelson. Due to time restrictions, several of the many subplots from the book were removed. This was NBC's second miniseries adaptation of a Clavell novel, the first being 1980's highly successful ''Shōgun''. Both take place in the same fictional universe with ''Noble House'' featuring connections to ''Shōgun'' and another Clavell work, ''Tai-Pan''. For the miniseries, the timeframe of the novel was changed; Clavell's original novel takes place in the early 1960s, but the miniseries was updated to the 1980s. The building prominently displayed and used as Struan's is Jardine House. Synopsis Despite being Hong-Kong-based most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
