
Sebastian Shaw
Actor · 1905 – 1994 · Holt, Norfolk, England, UK
Sebastian Lewis Shaw was an English actor, director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his 65-year career, he appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions. Shaw was born and brought up in Holt, Norfolk, and made his acting debut at age eight at a London theatre. He studied acting at Gresham's School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Although he worked primarily on the London stage, he made his Broadway debut in 1929, when he played one of the two murderers in Rope's End. He appeared in his first film, Caste, in 1930 and quickly began to create a name for himself in films. He described himself as a "rotten actor" as a youth and said his success was primarily due to his good looks. He claimed to mature as a performer only after returning from service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Shaw was particularly known for his performances in productions of Shakespeare plays which were considered daring and ahead of their time. In 1966, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he remained for a decade and delivered some of his most acclaimed performances. He also wrote several poems and a novel, The Christening, in 1975.
Movies22
Movie7.9AdventureActionLuke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.
Return of the Jedi
1983 · 17K votes
Movie5.8DramaHistoryTrue story about the tragic nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl.
Chernobyl: The Final Warning
1991 · 15 votes
Movie7.2DocumentaryThe Skywalker family is at the heart of the Star Wars saga. Now hear the inside story of Luke and Anakin Skywalker from the characters who witnessed it all: the famous droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2. Episodes IV,V and VI are explored in "The Story of Luke Skywalker," which follows the young man escaping from his daily chores on Tatooine to his becoming a hero in the Rebal Alliance. In "The Story of Anakin Skywalker," you'll go behind the mask of the greatest Star Wars villain and discover how Darth Vader started life as a young Podracing Champ on Tatooine and later became a headstrong young Jedi seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. With clips from the Star Wars films, C-3PO and R2-D2 take you on an hour-long journey through the saga and prepare you for the explosive final chapter: Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
The Story of Star Wars
2004 · 22 votes
Movie6.6ComedyFantasyPeter Hall's film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, filmed in and around an English country house and starring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1968 · 13 votes
Movie5.1ComedyRomanceOn the isle of Rhodes, Katherine, an expatriate English photographer, lives with her daughter. A young local wants to encourage tourism, so he commissions a sculpture of the Unknown Tourist for the town square; the sculptor he brings to Rhodes is Kate's ex-husband. Also there to see Kate is Sharp, an aging antiquarian and her dear friend. He has something important to tell her. As Kate, her ex, and Sharp sort out things that go back years, two English tourists bumble about, one thinking he's fallen in love with Kate, his wife thinking she's found her own lover. A rare vase, a spy, old friendships, the statue's unveiling, and off-hand English sorting-out play into the resolution.
High Season
1987 · 14 votes
Movie6.8DramaScience FictionWorld War II, 1940. When the Nazi hordes invade and occupy Great Britain, the English citizens are soon divided between those who choose to submissively collaborate and those who are willing to fight.
It Happened Here
1966 · 37 votes
Movie6.4WarThrillerA German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
The Spy in Black
1939 · 66 votes
Movie6.2ComedyAn ex-con searching for a hidden jewel is assumed by a group of people to be investigating them.
The Lad
1935 · 4 votes
Movie6.3RomanceCrimeLondon's jewel thieves are under the thumb of a mysterious fence, who ruthlessly exposes any thief who crosses him. Desperate, Scotland Yard re-hires ex-Inspector Barrabal who, as a known drunkard, is ideally suited to go undercover with a faked criminal record (which may spoil his chances with lovely Carol Stedman).
The Squeaker
1937 · 7 votes
Movie6.3MysteryA series of murders in the West End of London baffle the officers of Scotland Yard and draw the interest of a crime reporter to the case.
East of Piccadilly
1941 · 4 votes
Movie6.6WarDramaTwo Englishmen train with the Royal Air Force, ending with a bombing raid on Berlin.
Journey Together
1945 · 7 votes
Movie4.3DramaRomancePassion comes calling when a man suffering through an unhappy marriage in 1920s England runs into first love.
The Weather in the Streets
1983 · 4 votes
Movie6.5DramaThe wife of a candidate for Parliament is having an affair with the brother of her husband's rival. Her lover is running for election on a promise of building a railway that the community needs, but a wealthy landowner won't give permission for the railway to be built over his land. When the landowner is later found dead, suspicion falls on the adulterous candidate.
The Ace of Spades
1935 · 4 votes
MovieDramaComedyIbsen's play is the story of Halvard Solness, Master Builder of a town in Norway. Solness is a successful architect but he's afraid of the being surpassed by those younger than himself. The arrival of a young woman called Hilda stirs up memories and feelings with stories of a promise he made her many years ago.
Movie10.0DramaThe daughter of a Cockney drunkard marries a young aristocrat who is presumed killed in action in WWI. When she gets the news she goes to stay with her aristocratic in-laws.
Caste
1930 · 1 votes
Movie8.5DramaTV MovieTimon loves to give parties and objects to friends, but when he cannot pay his creditors, his "friends" refuse to help him, and he becomes a misanthropic hermit.
Timon of Athens
1981 · 2 votes
- Movie10.0ComedyDrama
An adaptation directed by Claude Whatham for the BBC's Theatre 625 slot. Essentially a recording of John Barton's acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company production starring Catherine Lacey (the Countess), Ian Richardson (Bertram), Lynn Farleigh (Helen), Clive Swift (Parolles) and Sebastian Shaw (the King), it was broadcast on 3 June 1968.
All's Well That Ends Well
1968 · 1 votes
Movie5.6DramaActor Edmund Davey becomes a star overnight when his wife and co-star teams up with the secretary of a noted stage critic to produce a glowing review of his 'Othello'.
Men Are Not Gods
1936 · 16 votes
Movie6.5DramaFarewell Again is a multiplotted British comedy/drama about soldiers on leave and the people they've left. Given a six-hour pass after a tour of duty in India, several British Tommies (among them Robert Newton, Sebastian Shaw and Anthony Bushell) try to unravel their domestic tribulations before having to ship out again. American expatriate Tim Whelan was the directorial hand who kept the various plot threads from entangling, while another Hollywood vet, James Wong Howe, manned the cameras. The film became instantly dated with the advent of World War II, but in its own time Farewell Again was a box-office smash. The film was issued in the US as Troopship.
Farewell Again
1937 · 2 votes
Movie7.6WarDramaA British coastal command pilot is charged with neglect when it is thought that he has sunk a British submarine rather than a German U-boat. Unable to live with his actions, he volunteers for a deadly mission. His girlfriend meanwhile tries to prove that he is innocent.
Landfall
1949 · 5 votes
Movie6.8DramaAn aspiring composer, in the British Air Force for WWII, is downed in Italy and rescued by an Italian girl. He returns home to his wife, inspired to write an opera and aware that he's fallen in love with his rescuer.
The Glass Mountain
1949 · 5 votes
- Movie7.0ComedyRomance
A starchy parliamentary delegation is sent to a remote Scottish Highlands community, where the residents are protesting the poor condition of their road by withholding their taxes, and spend a few days among the locals.
Laxdale Hall
1953 · 3 votes
Series12
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
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
TV7.0DramaA one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.
Playhouse
1974 · 1 votes
TV7.1DramaComedyRumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
Rumpole of the Bailey
1975 · 24 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
TV7.0CrimeDramaReilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatising the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the British. Among his exploits, in the early 20th-century, were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of the Bolsheviks in 1918. His reputation with women was as legendary as his genius for espionage.
Reilly: Ace of Spies
1983 · 25 votes
TV7.0DramaComedyAn anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.
BBC2 Play of the Week
1977 · 1 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
TV7.5DramaThe Old Curiosity Shop is a 1979 BBC miniseries based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It was directed by Julian Amyes, and adapted by William Trevor. A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.
The Old Curiosity Shop
1979 · 2 votes
TV8.0DramaMysteryDead of Night is a British television anthology of supernatural fiction, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in 1972. It ran for a single series; of its seven 50-minute episodes, only three—'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight', and 'A Woman Sobbing'—are known to survive in the Archives. Another programme made by the same production team under Innes Lloyd, 'The Stone Tape', intended to be the eighth episode, does survive in the Archives but was not broadcast under the Dead of Night banner.
Dead of Night
1972 · 6 votes
TV6.0Sci-Fi & FantasyA journalist investigates the death of his girlfriend at a fertility clinic where she worked and uncovers a plot to create a new breed of human based on crossing the genetics of man and ape.
Chimera
1991 · 4 votes
TV8.3DocumentaryA milestone 26-part history of the First World War, conceived to mark the 50th anniversary of its outbreak.
The Great War
1964 · 16 votes