
Peter Halliday
Actor · 1924 – 2012 · near Llangollen, Wales, UK
One of the UK's most prolific television actors for 50 years, Peter Halliday was the son of an auctioneer and estate agent. He was schooled in Shropshire. Halliday failed his exam as apprentice auctioneer, worked briefly for Rolls-Royce, then served in the British Army during the Second World War, based in Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, until 1947. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1949. He became a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which later became the Royal Shakespeare Company. He achieved his greatest fame in the BBC's science-fiction television drama A for Andromeda (1961). He also gained further cult status for several appearances in Doctor Who (1963), which included providing monster voices for two serials and appearing under heavy makeup to play the alien Pletrac in Robert Holmes' witty parody of television and its viewers, Carnival of Monsters: Episode One (1973).
Series24
TV7.9DramaAction & AdventureThe adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Doctor Who
1963 · 722 votes
TV7.8Action & AdventureCrimeA quirky spy show of the adventures of eccentrically suave British Agent John Steed and his predominantly female partners. Jonathan Steed - an urbane, proper gentleman spy - teams with various assistants throughout the series' run, including Dr. David Keel, Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King, to repeatedly save the world from diabolical schemes plotted by equally diabolical evil-doers (among them robots and man-eating monsters).
The Avengers
1961 · 156 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
TV7.4Action & AdventureCrimeSimon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need.
The Saint
1962 · 136 votes
TV8.1Action & AdventureDramaJack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.
The Sweeney
1975 · 28 votes
TV7.2DramaTheatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Theatre 625
1964 · 5 votes
TV6.4MysteryCrimeIn the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton, the unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-China-shop-copper DS Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick DS, later DI, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining down-to-Earth wit and humour.
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996 · 28 votes
TV4.3DramaAn anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965 · 8 votes
TV7.7Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaA secret, high-technology international agency called SHADO defends Earth from alien invaders.
UFO
1970 · 62 votes
TV7.2Sci-Fi & FantasyComedyGary Sparrow is an ordinary bloke in 1990s Britain, married to the ambitious Yvonne and working as a TV repairman. Then his whole world changes when he stumbles upon a portal to WWII-era London and begins a dual life as an accidental time traveler.
Goodnight Sweetheart
1993 · 50 votes
TV7.1Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaOut of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.
Out of the Unknown
1965 · 8 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
TV5.1Action & AdventureSir Francis Drake was a British adventure television series starring Terence Morgan as Sir Francis Drake, commander of the sailing ship the Golden Hind. As well as battles at sea, sword fights, the series also deals with intrigue at Elizabeth's court, often caused by Spaniard, Mendoza.
Sir Francis Drake
1961 · 7 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
TV8.3DramaThe Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV between 1969,1970,1972 and 1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds.
The Main Chance
1969 · 4 votes
TV8.0DramaAction & AdventureThe second collection of short stories written by Baroness Orczy about the gallant English hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel and his League.
The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel
1955 · 6 votes
TV7.2DramaSergeant Cork is a British detective television series which first aired between 1963 and 1968 on ITV. It was a police procedural show that followed the efforts of two police officers and their battle against crime in Victorian London. In all 66 hour-long episodes were aired during the five-year run, although the last episode was not broadcast until January 1968, 16 months after the others. Journalist Tom Sutcliffe has credited it as a first example of the use of the Victorian-era policeman in a television crime series. A 1969 review in The Age opined that rather than suspense, the strengths of the series were its "excellent period settings and wonderfully thick pea-soupers" which "add up to splendid evocative stuff", as well as the performance of star John Barrie. At no time during the whole series is Sergeant Cork's first name given.
Sergeant Cork
1963 · 5 votes
TV7.7DramaWar & PoliticsOver the course of four decades, the personal lives of a quartet of Newcastle friends—Nicky, Geordie, Mary, and Tosker—intertwine with various political machinations, often for the worse: slum housing projects, police corruption, the rise of Thatcherism, political sleaze, and specific events like the 1984 Miners' Strike.
Our Friends in the North
1996 · 26 votes
TV6.4Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaBeasts is a series of six television plays by Manx writer Nigel Kneale, unconnected save for a bestial horror theme, made by ATV for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in 1976. The series avoids typical monster horror clichès, moreso focusing on psychological and supernatural themes.
Beasts
1976 · 8 votes
TV6.7DramaHow Green Was My Valley is a six-part television miniseries adapted by Elaine Morgan, based on Richard Llewellyn's eponymous 1939 novel. The serial is produced by the BBC and 20th Century Fox Television for BBC Two—the latter's involvement is due to their ownership of the rights to the novel and its subsequent Oscar-winning 1941 film. Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.
How Green Was My Valley
1975 · 3 votes
TV5.5DramaSci-Fi & FantasyIn the not-too-distant future of 1970, a mysterious signal from space arrives with instructions to build a powerful super-computer. Once completed, the evice's motives provokes discourse between scientists John Fleming and Madeleine Dawnay as further instructions are to create a living organism, which Dawnay develops. The entity compels lab assistant Christine to commit suicide, and, upon manifestation, adopts her form, now known as Andromeda.
A for Andromeda
1961 · 4 votes
- TV7.0CrimeDrama
After surviving a series of attempts on his life, successful businessman Lew Burnett decides to remain 'dead' after the most recent one so he can go undercover and find out which of his close friends and business associates want him dead.
The Hanged Man
1975 · 3 votes
TV8.0DramaComedyAlan, Terry and Graham have been inseparable since primary school. In a drunken haze they pay a visit to their old headmaster — and there their troubles begin.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
1999 · 4 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
Movies18
Movie7.4DramaRomanceA rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
The Remains of the Day
1993 · 1.6K votes
Movie6.4AdventureDramaA family in financial crisis is forced to sell Lassie, their beloved dog. Hundreds of miles away from her true family, Lassie escapes and sets out on a journey home.
Lassie
2005 · 148 votes
Movie6.8AdventureDramaEsther, the beautiful queen of Persia, intervenes to save the Jewish people from a bloody massacre.
Esther
1999 · 40 votes
Movie6.6DramaRecently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.
Sunday Bloody Sunday
1971 · 143 votes
Movie3.4DramaA beautiful massage parlor/sex clinic owner financially & emotionally mistreats her customers.
Clinic Exclusive
1971 · 7 votes
Movie3.0HorrorTV MovieWhen a nightclub owner buys a derelict dolphinarium, he and a young woman seem to be haunted by the ghost of Buddy Boy, the star attraction. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale's "Beasts" horror anthology miniseries.
Beasts: Buddyboy
1976 · 3 votes
Movie4.5HorrorA pair of mini-skirted birds travel to a remote castle in order to land a contract in the modelling agency of the mysterious lesbian Sybil Waite.
Virgin Witch
1972 · 55 votes
Movie6.3ThrillerActionA British agent's son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can't even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.
The Black Windmill
1974 · 99 votes
Movie6.9DramaWarA British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.
Dunkirk
1958 · 77 votes
Movie6.3AdventureCrimeA captain and his sailors investigate the rampaging "Marsh Phantoms" terrorizing a coastal town, but their search is hindered by a local reverend and a horrifying curse.
Captain Clegg
1962 · 77 votes
Movie6.2HorrorMysteryA horror movie star returns to his famous role after spending years in a mental institution, but the character seems to be committing murders independent of his will.
Madhouse
1974 · 123 votes
Movie7.2ThrillerCrimeIn Tiger Bay, the docklands of Cardiff, street urchin Gillie witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman. Instead of reporting the crime, she merely pockets a prize for herself — the perpetrator's shiny black revolver — and flees. When Detective Graham discovers that Gillie has the murder weapon, the fiery young girl weaves a web of lies to throw him off course.
Tiger Bay
1959 · 58 votes
Movie4.2ComedyThe year is 1904; the setting is Cockshute Towers, one of England's stateliest homes. When the household is threatened with bankruptcy, both the masters and the servants are prepared to co-operate in trying to find some cash - after all, most of them are enjoying liaisons of one kind or another among themselves, and none have any desire to give up their rewarding way of life...
Keep It Up Downstairs
1976 · 9 votes
Movie7.0DramaTV MovieThe four-year-old Nicolas Shield leads a brash and peaceful life. An annual unpleasant day has arrived: he has to visit the doctor to get an injection against mumps, measles and rubella. This goes without any problem, because Nicolas - also called Nicky - is a good guy. However, after a few months, Nicolas's behavior begins to change. Mother Christine does everything to get the boy back on the right track. But then comes the dreaded diagnosis: Nicky suffers from autism.
Hear the Silence
2003 · 2 votes
Movie8.9Science FictionDramaLondon, 1963: The Doctor returns to the place where it all began — alongside his latest companion, Ace, with unfinished business. Not for the first time, unusual events are unfolding at Coal Hill School. At 76 Totter's Lane, the Doctor discovers that his oldest foes — the Daleks — are on the trail of stolen Time Lord technology that he left on Earth long ago. The Daleks are planning to perfect their own time-travel capability, in order to unleash themselves across the whole of time and space.
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks
1988 · 13 votes
- Movie7.5DramaTV Movie
Night Flight was a powerful drama set in 1943 and the present telling the story of two World War II veterans. Harry Peters piloted a Lancaster bomber at just 20. His now middle-class world is thrown into disarray when former comrade Vic Green lands. A tale of secrets, scandal and corruption based on ghosts as yet not laid to rest.
Night Flight
2002 · 2 votes
Movie6.5FamilyActionChris & Jill discover a South American shrunken head with magical powers.
The Boy with Two Heads
1958 · 2 votes
Movie6.7DramaTV MovieAn isolated, overweight girl with a penchant for shoplifting, gets pushed from pillar to post as the authorities struggle to know what to do with her.
R.H.I.N.O.; Really Here in Name Only
1983 · 10 votes