
Paddy Joyce
Actor · 1923 – 2000 · Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Born Patrizio Schaurek in Trieste, Italy to a Czech father, Frantisek Schaurek, and an Irish mother Eileen (sister of James) Joyce, Paddy Joyce was an Irish actor of British stage, film and television. Returning to Dublin at the age of five following his father's death, Joyce studied at Belvedere College, the alma mater of his famous uncle. After school, Paddy turned his attention to singing. Initially, he formed a close harmony quartet with three other gentlemen named Four Dots and a Dash, subsequently renamed The Four Ramblers. In 1949, he was part of a trio with two ladies named The Humoresques, which toured Canada with the popular English comedian and actor George Formby. Turning to actor, Joyce took his mother's maiden name because Schaurek limited him to Eastern European roles. He made his cinematic debut in The Cruel Sea and performed in Lionel Bart and Joan Littlewood's Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be in the early 60s, before later working regularly with Ken Loach, appearing in The Big Flame, written by Jim Allen, and Poor Cow. He also starred in Allen's play The Lump. Joyce was a regular in two of the UK's biggest soaps. Between 1968 and 1974, he had a recurring role as the rag and bone man Tommy Deakin in Coronation Street, and between 1990 and 1993 he played John Royle, the father of Queen Vic owner Eddie Royle (Michael Melia) in EastEnders. Joyce lived in Muswell Hill, London, with his Canadian wife, Dorothy, and two children. He died of a stroke in London in the year 2000, aged 77.
Movies24
Movie6.2FantasyFamilyAlice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Alice in Wonderland
1999 · 402 votes
Movie5.9AdventureFantasyErik the Viking gathers warriors from his village and sets out on a dangerous journey to Valhalla, to ask the gods to end the Age of Ragnorok and allow his people to see sunlight again. A Pythonesque satire of Viking life.
Erik the Viking
1989 · 260 votes
Movie6.0HistoryDramaThe Titanic disaster as seen through the eyes of one couple in each of the three classes on board.
S.O.S. Titanic
1980 · 43 votes
Movie6.6ComedyMusicThe working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.
Oh! What a Lovely War
1969 · 54 votes
Movie5.3ComedyDramaCharlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
Sparrows Can't Sing
1963 · 25 votes
Movie6.9DramaHistoryAt the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer.
The Cruel Sea
1953 · 85 votes
Movie6.4DramaJoy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
Poor Cow
1967 · 54 votes
Movie6.2ComedyScience FictionBritannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.
Britannia Hospital
1982 · 74 votes
Movie5.9DramaHistoryLady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.
Lady Caroline Lamb
1972 · 15 votes
Movie6.6DramaRomanceA penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to open.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
1987 · 32 votes
Movie5.4ComedyBritish comedy satirising Stalin's inner circle as an absolute monarchs court. In the face of rampant abuse of power and poisonous distrust some still manage to keep faith with the Bolshevist creed until the very end. In front of the firing squad a stalwart bolshevist of the first hour exclaims: "Even in the best democracy errors are being made!"
Red Monarch
1983 · 12 votes
Movie5.7ComedyTwo London tailors horse around, wind up robbed, go to Rome and disrupt the Vatican.
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
1973 · 6 votes
Movie8.5DramaTV MovieThe Grass Arena is based on the autobiography of John Healy. Raised in an strongly religious family, with an abusive father, John soon learns that he has to defend himself. Growing into adulthood he takes up boxing, but soon falls victim to alcoholism. His boxing career over, John takes to the Grass Arena (the park) where he lives with other alcoholics. Prison time introduces him to a new and unexpected path.
The Grass Arena
1991 · 2 votes
Movie9.0FamilyPeter and his friends find unexpected and exciting adventures when all their wishes are granted by a magic marble.
One Wish Too Many
1956 · 1 votes
Movie8.0FamilyStory of how a young Irish boy loses the donkey he has reared from birth.
Tim Driscoll's Donkey
1955 · 2 votes
Movie3.5ComedyAdventureA female film crew journeys to Africa where a giant ape, Queen Kong, falls in love with the crew's male star.
Queen Kong
1976 · 25 votes
Movie4.2WarDirected by cult British director John Krish, the film was sponsored by the Army Kinematograph Corporation. This tightly plotted drama shows British POWs enduring brainwashing and torture during the Korean War, thereby revealing what a soldier could expect if he was ever captured by enemy forces.
Captured
1959 · 8 votes
Movie6.5CrimeMysteryA crime reporter investigating a murder discovers the case hinges on a mysterious woman he had photographed earlier.
The Girl in the Picture
1957 · 6 votes
MovieWalt finds the voluptuous Jasmine a more exciting proposition than digging a trench...
- Movie
Newlyweds Jackson and Daphne are on honeymoon when they find themselves in the same hotel as Jackson's old headmaster.
The Grass Widows
1971
Movie7.0ComedyDramaComedy featuring interweaving stories of seven households caught up in a property chain on moving day, each one dependent on the other.
The Chain
1984 · 7 votes
Movie5.1CrimeDramaA madman is on the loose... killing fashion models that appear on the cover of magazines. The police start a manhunt in an attempt to capture the killer.
Cover Girl Killer
1959 · 13 votes
Movie7.0HistoryWarIs there nothing new under the sun? 1770. The South Atlantic. A fleet sets sail from Buenos Aires to expel the British forces and reconquer the Falkland Islands. A major international crisis explodes. What follows may sound strangely familiar, but is firmly based on the historical record and the actual speeches and writings of the time.
The Falklands Factor
1983 · 1 votes
- Movie10.0TV Movie
The life and passions of a speaker at Hyde Park Corner.
The Voices in the Park
1967 · 1 votes
Series24
TV4.3SoapDramaThe everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
EastEnders
1985 · 230 votes
TV5.7DramaCrown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.
Crown Court
1972 · 6 votes
TV5.2DramaA 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.
BBC Play of the Month
1965 · 8 votes
TV7.1ComedyDramaRoguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Minder
1979 · 30 votes
TV6.5DramaPeak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.
Peak Practice
1993 · 10 votes
TV5.2DramaAn anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
The Wednesday Play
1964 · 5 votes
TV6.4Action & AdventureFamilyThe legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
1955 · 19 votes
TV7.4ComedyDramaThe adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.
Lovejoy
1986 · 56 votes
TV9.0DramaThe Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
The Expert
1968 · 2 votes
TV5.0DramaWar & PoliticsChurchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.
Churchill's People
1974 · 2 votes
TV7.0Action & AdventureFollow the swashbuckling exploits of Simon Templar, a modern-day Robin Hood of sorts.
Return of the Saint
1978 · 10 votes
TV6.5ComedyMiddle-aged Terry and June Medford are beginning to find the trials of life more difficult as they try to succeed in their daily lives. The couple have just moved to Purley, south-east London... Aunt Lucy and the mynah bird have disappeared, as had the occasionally visiting daughters. Terry and June now mixed with friendly next door neighbour Beattie; Terry's chatty work colleague, Malcolm; and their gruff boss Sir Dennis Hodge. Otherwise, things were much as before, with Terry's pigheaded childishness causing no end of problems, usually thwarting June's attempts at leading a cosy life.
Terry and June
1979 · 13 votes
TV8.2ComedyA crazy comedy about three rather strange parish priests exiled to Craggy Island, a remote island off the Irish west coast.
Father Ted
1995 · 360 votes
TV6.5MysteryDramaCampion is a television show made by the BBC, adapting the Albert Campion mystery novels written by Margery Allingham. Two series were made, in 1989 and 1990, starring Peter Davison as Campion, Brian Glover as his manservant Magersfontein Lugg and Andrew Burt as his policeman friend Stanislaus Oates. A total of eight novels were adapted, four in each series, each of which was originally broadcast as two separate hour-long episodes. Peter Davison sang the title music for the first series himself; in the second series, it was replaced with an instrumental version.
Campion
1989 · 11 votes
TV7.0ComedyA hapless but caring teacher tries to control his class of unruly kids. The teacher sees much good and potential in his pupils, much to the dismay of his fellow teachers who have lost hope in these kids.
Please Sir!
1968 · 12 votes
- TV8.0Drama
An anthology of single plays offering up adaptations of either of prominent stage plays or novels.
Festival
1963 · 1 votes
TV7.5ComedyYou Rang, M'Lord? is a British comedy series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC. The show was a comedy set in the house of an aristocratic family in the 1920s, contrasting the upper-class family and their servants in a house in London, along the same lines as the popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs. The series featured many actors who had also appeared in their earlier series, notably Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard, all of whom had previously been in Perry and Croft's holiday camp sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!. Also featured were Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles from Perry and Croft's It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Bill Pertwee and occasionally Frank Williams from Dad's Army. The memorable 1920s-style theme tune was sung by Bob Monkhouse.
You Rang, M'Lord?
1990 · 25 votes
- TVDramaComedy
An anthology of 1920s set plays and musicals, transmissioned from 10 September to 10 December 1968 on BBC One.
The Jazz Age
1968
TVDramaLondon itself takes the starring role in this series of plays from the BBC – a role which varies between hero and villain, enchantress and harpy. The series features extensive location filming, ranging from Soho to the Law Courts, Wembley to the docks. Of the twelve episodes, eleven are believed to be lost.
Londoners
1965
TV7.6DramaPennies From Heaven is a 1978 BBC television drama serial written by Dennis Potter. The title is taken from a song of the same name written by Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston. It was one of several Potter serials to mix the reality of the drama with a dark fantasy content, and the earliest of his works where the characters burst into miming to popular 1930s songs. During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.
Pennies from Heaven
1978 · 17 votes
TV6.3ComedyDramaGone to the Dogs is a comedy-drama miniseries produced by Central Films for Central Independent Television, and broadcast by ITV between 29 November and 27 December 1991. The six-episode series revolves around the relationship of Jim Morley and Lauren Patterson in the world of greyhound racing.
Gone to the Dogs
1991 · 3 votes
TV6.0DramaArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.
Armchair Theatre
1956 · 6 votes
TV7.3ComedyTwo's Company is a British television situation comedy series that ran from 1975-79. Produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV Network, the programme starred Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden.
Two's Company
1975 · 6 votes
TV7.1Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaThree children stumble upon imprisoned sorcerer Rothgo and are drawn into a mysterious search through time for the magical Nidus, which has been stolen by the evil witch Belor.
Into the Labyrinth
1981 · 7 votes