
Des McAleer
Actor · b. 1952 · Belfast, Northern Ireland
Des McAleer is a Belfast born actor of film, TV and stage.
Movies23
Movie6.6DramaRomanceAn American girl, sent to the English countryside to stay with relatives, finds love and purpose while fighting for her survival as war envelops the world around her.
How I Live Now
2013 · 970 votes
Movie6.7DramaRomanceLondon, 1956. Genius actor and film director Laurence Olivier is about to begin the shooting of his upcoming movie, premiered in 1957 as The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe. Young Colin Clark, who dreams on having a career in movie business, manages to get a job on the set as third assistant director.
My Week with Marilyn
2011 · 1.4K votes
Movie6.6DramaIn the midst of a marital crisis, a High Court judge must decide if she should order a life-saving blood transfusion for a teen with cancer despite his family's refusal to accept medical treatment for religious reasons.
The Children Act
2018 · 659 votes
Movie7.3DramaAn Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.
Angela's Ashes
1999 · 362 votes
Movie7.2DramaHistoryThe story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.
Hunger
2008 · 1.3K votes
Movie6.9DramaThrillerIn Ireland, American lawyer Ingrid Jessner and her activist partner, Paul Sullivan, struggle to uncover atrocities committed by the British government against the Northern Irish during the "Troubles." But when Sullivan is assassinated in the streets, Jessner teams up with Peter Kerrigan, a British investigator acting against the will of his own government, and struggles to uncover a conspiracy that may even implicate one of Kerrigan's colleagues.
Hidden Agenda
1990 · 114 votes
Movie5.6ThrillerCrimeA young boy and his sister are drawn into one man's obsessive pursuit of his former lover.
I Want You
1998 · 50 votes
Movie6.4CrimeDramaDeeply mentally unbalanced drifter Eunice roams grim northern Britain committing psychosexual serial murders of both men and women while ostensibly searching for an unknown woman named Judith. She spares the life of lonely but kind-hearted gas station cashier Miriam, who abandons her dismal life to follow her damaged new lover. While attempting to hide the evidence of her multiple crimes, Miriam tries to understand Eunice's bizarre quest.
Butterfly Kiss
1995 · 39 votes
Movie5.3DramaBelfast 1972: The politically naive Bernie is trying to bring up a normal family in less than normal surroundings. Her best friend is accidentally shot dead by the IRA, and her neighbours are constantly raided by the army. In this climate of fear she stands up and condemns the murders. Criticising both factions, her call for a ceasefire is interpreted as an attack against the IRA, and as her peace movement takes momentum, she and her family are placed in the frontline.
Titanic Town
1998 · 7 votes
Movie6.0DramaRomanceThe film is set in Northern Ireland shortly after 1994 cease-fire. Hazel is a Protestant and Malachy a Catholic. Romance between them is threatened by Rohan (leader in militant underground and pal of Malachy's brother Padhar), who wants Malachy to be recruited and fight for the cause and by Hazel's brother Jef, who spies on her meetings.
This Is the Sea
1997 · 8 votes
Movie4.7DramaFact-based story about Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, who invaded the Irish underworld and attempted to expose the illegitimate activities she found. Hampered by the system, a police consort is ineffectual at aiding her despite trying to step outside of the normal bounds. Kevin McNally plays her husband, who hates her activities and the danger in which she places herself. Nonetheless, he grudgingly admires her persistence and encourages her investigation.
When the Sky Falls
2000 · 10 votes
Movie6.0DocumentaryThis poignant testament to the physical and emotional cost of war, centres on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Lost Lives
2019 · 1 votes
Movie5.9ComedyCrimeColin is a Catholic and George is a poetry-loving Protestant. In Belfast in the 1980s, they could have been enemies, but instead they became business partners. After persuading a mad wig salesman, known as the Scalper, to sell them his leads, the two embark on a series of house calls
An Everlasting Piece
2000 · 10 votes
Movie6.4DramaFamilyIsolated on a farm and fighting against his family's decision, Aaron struggles to be heard as he watches his mother willingly die.
North
2014 · 5 votes
- Movie
8-year-old Terry comes to stay with his uncle and aunt on their farm on one of the magical Irish isles. But this is a lonely place for a little boy whose mother has just died... A movie of Celtic pathos, "The Schooner" will remain in the memory long after its viewing.
The Schooner
1983
Movie6.7ComedyLee, a soccer player who descends into depression when he goes blind, is encouraged to take up the game again by a maverick American and the inspiration of Leeds Utd legend, Billy Bremner.
The Penalty King
2006 · 3 votes
Movie6.6DramaAfter a police investigation, a young mother, confused and scared, confesses to a crime she did not commit and is charged with murder.
Out of Innocence
2019 · 5 votes
Movie6.6DramaTV MovieTwo couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland.
Four Days in July
1984 · 14 votes
MovieOn a summer's day in a makeshift theatre by a lake, Konstantin's cutting-edge new play is performed, changing the lives of everyone involved forever. Chekhov's masterly meditation on how the old takes revenge on the young is both comic and tragic, and marks the birth of the modern stage. Adapted by David Hare whose stage plays include Skylight, Pravada, and screenplays include The Hours and The Reader, directed by Jonathan Kent (Gypsy, Private Lives).
MovieShoot to Kill is a four-hour drama documentary reconstruction of the events that led to the 1984–86 Stalker Inquiry into the shooting of six terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland in 1982 by a specialist unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), allegedly without warning (the so-called shoot-to-kill policy); the organised fabrication of false accounts of the events; and the difficulties created for the inquiry team in their investigation.
Shoot to Kill
1990
Movie7.0HistoryWarThe Nuremberg trials, 1946 Goering and the Nazi high command stand trial. Within the prison a dangerous mind game is being conducted by Goering and the prison guards who stand watch over the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Nuremberg: Goering's Last Stand
2006 · 2 votes
Movie10.0TV MovieDramaLeo Doyle, a convicted IRA murderer, is released into the community after 14 years in prison on a scheme to rehabilitate former terrorists. He soon finds that the ceasefire has robbed him of both purpose and identity. Relationships with his family are difficult and reach boiling point when they find that he has rekindled his affair with a former fiancee Roisin, now married with three children.
Life After Life
1995 · 1 votes
Movie7.0CrimeTwo bored twentysomethings buy a Vauxhall Cavalier kit it out with a siren and spend their evenings masquerading as police officers in this Screen One TV movie
Coppers
1988 · 2 votes
Series18
TV6.2DramaSoapDrama 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 · 88 votes
TV6.8CrimeDramaThe 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 · 47 votes
TV8.2DramaThe gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The Crown
2016 · 2.4K votes
TV7.6CrimeDramaA team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.
Silent Witness
1996 · 113 votes
TV7.2CrimeDramaSet during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat
1992 · 33 votes
TV7.1DramaSeries of single made-for-television dramas.
Screen Two
1985 · 7 votes
TV5.5DramaDetective Superintendent Tony Clark is an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark overcomes strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean.
Between the Lines
1992 · 13 votes
TV5.2DramaCrimePort Devine, a small town in Northern Ireland, sees the mysterious arrival of English detective Leila Hussain, the first Muslim police officer in the town's history. Her entrance opens the door for a variety of cases among the locals.
Hope Street
2021 · 14 votes
TV6.2DramaCrimeFocuses on brothers Frank and Danny Kane. Their mother is the matriarch of a South London criminal gang, assisted by Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club following the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from crime.
The Paradise Club
1989 · 5 votes
TV7.1MysteryComedyThree lifelong pals embark on a chaotic quest to solve the mystery of their old friend's suspicious death and keep their own dark secret under wraps.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast
2026 · 90 votes
TV7.1DramaYoung 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.
Wuthering Heights
2009 · 104 votes
TV6.0DramaTrainer was a British television series transmitted by the BBC between 1991 and 1992. Filmed in and around the village of Compton near Newbury, the series was set in the world of horse racing. It starred Mark Greenstreet as Mike Hardy, an aspiring horse trainer keen to set up his own stables. Other major characters included local gambler John Grey and widow Rachel Ware. Trainer lasted for two series and was the last TV project for producer Gerard Glaister. The theme song, "More to Life", was performed by Cliff Richard. The song was written by Simon May and Mike Read. The first series of 13 episodes was given the prime time Sunday night slot on BBC1 which had previously been occupied by another Glaister creation Howards' Way and a horse-racing storyline from that earlier programme provided much of the inspiration for Trainer. However, with ratings of around 6 million, the second series was reduced to ten episodes and shown on Wednesday evenings.
Trainer
1991 · 3 votes
TV7.6DramaCrimeFollow the exploits of the Organized and Serial Crime Unit (OSC). Maverick Detective Inspector Dave Creegan is the newest member of the unit, an elite, rapid-response crime squad. The OSC uses their diverse crime-fighting skills to bring justice to society.
Touching Evil
1997 · 15 votes
TV6.4DramaFermanagh, Irish countryside, 1885. On her 23rd birthday, Beth, who lives on a remote farm with Billy Winters, her tyrannical stepfather, whom she can barely stand, prepares to flee from such a suffocating life with the help of the seductive Liam Ward, without being aware that her decision will unearth deeply buried secrets a long time ago.
Death and Nightingales
2018 · 25 votes
TV6.4DramaDrama series set in 1943 following the Coyne family and their neighbours as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a US Army Air Force base is set up in the middle of their rural parish.
My Mother and Other Strangers
2016 · 16 votes
- TV7.0ComedyDrama
Belfast-set comedy series about best mates and colleagues, Catholic Tommy and protestant Dougy, who own and run the Safe And Sound garage.
Safe And Sound
1996 · 2 votes
- TV10.0
The series follows the lives of a team of paramedics and emergency medical technicians with the North Area Ambulance Service, facing life and death situations in the fictional city of Matherton.
Picking Up the Pieces
1998 · 1 votes
- TV
Short lived sitcom about an inept and run down motorbike courier business.
Roy's Raiders
1991