
William Russell
Actor · 1924 – 2024 · Sunderland, County Durham, England, UK
William Russell Enoch (19 November 1924–3 June 2024) was an English actor. He achieved prominence in 1956 when he took the title role in the ITV television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–1957). In 1963, he became part of the original lead cast of BBC1's Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton opposite William Hartnell from the show's first episode until 1965. Russell's film roles include parts in The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Great Escape (1963) and Superman (1978). On television, he notably appeared as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street in 1992. In recent years, Russell has maintained his association with Doctor Who; he returned to the show in 2022, making a cameo appearance as Ian in "The Power of the Doctor", 57 years after the character's last television appearance. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movies23
Movie7.2Science FictionActionMild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the nefarious Lex Luthor launches a plan to take over the world.
Superman
1978 · 4.4K votes
Movie7.9AdventureDramaThe Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
The Great Escape
1963 · 2.9K votes
Movie7.0ThrillerWarThe true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.
The Man Who Never Was
1956 · 95 votes
Movie6.3DramaScience FictionIn a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera.
Movie7.7DramaActor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
An Adventure in Space and Time
2013 · 222 votes
Movie6.1WarIn World War II, the greatest threat to the British navy is the German battleship Tirpitz. While anchored in a Norwegian fjord, it is impossible to attack by conventional means, so a plan is hatched for a special commando unit to attack it, using midget submarines to plant underwater explosives.
Above Us the Waves
1955 · 37 votes
Movie6.9DramaScience FictionIn a dystopian future, the Brazilian government decrees a measure that forces black citizens to migrate to Africa in an attempt to return to their origins. Seeing themselves in the center of terror, two cousins take refuge in an apartment, where they debate social and racial issues, and share the same yearning for the change of country.
Movie6.2Science FictionDramaThe TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrieve four of the five operating keys to a machine called the Conscience of Marinus, of which he is the keeper. These have been hidden in different locations around the planet to prevent them falling into the hands of the evil Yartek and his Voord warriors, who plan to seize the machine and use its originally benevolent mind-influencing power for their own sinister purposes.
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
1964 · 13 votes
Movie7.3DramaAdventureThe TARDIS arrives in a desolate future London, where the Doctor discovers his old enemies the Daleks have taken control of Earth.
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
1964 · 13 votes
Movie5.8MysteryCrimeA private detective goes after the people who murdered his girlfriend.
The Saint's Return
1953 · 28 votes
Movie4.0DramaRomanceA black soldier in World War II England begins an affair with a white woman whose husband is a soldier currently overseas in battle and in doubts of her relationship with him as she discovered he had been having an affair with his secretary.
The Affair
1995 · 16 votes
Movie7.4Science FictionAdventureThe TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power.
Doctor Who: Marco Polo
1964 · 14 votes
Movie5.9WarIn Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble.
They Who Dare
1954 · 24 votes
MovieDocumentaryScience FictionA look at the subtle (and not so subtle!) links to the show's past and future contained within the story of The Five Doctors.
Movie6.3DramaWarMalta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl.
Malta Story
1953 · 24 votes
Movie6.6HistoryActionIn 12th century Palestine, the Doctor and his friends are drawn into the holy war between the forces of King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen ruler Saladin.
Doctor Who: The Crusade
1965 · 8 votes
Movie6.2DramaComedyOne hot June day, three friends decide there is nothing they would like to do more than to get away from London. A boating holiday with lots of fresh air and exercise would be just the very thing, or so their doctors tell them. So, after debating the merits of hotel or camp beds and what to pack, they set off on their voyage - a trip up the Thames from Henley to Oxford - but very quickly find themselves ill-equipped for the trials of riverbank life.
Three Men in a Boat
1975 · 17 votes
Movie7.5DramaAdventureThe TARDIS materialises inside an Aztec tomb. Outside it, the Doctor and his companions soon discover that Mexico in the 15th century is a bloodthirsty and dangerous place... And with Barbara mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient high priest called Yetaxa, the history teacher thinks that she can put an end to the barbaric human sacrifices once and for all. But can she rewrite history without disastrous consequences?
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
1964 · 14 votes
Movie6.6Science FictionDramaThe very first crew of the TARDIS land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy... the mutant Daleks. It's time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you've never seen them before. Originally transmitted in December 1963 to February 1964, the seven original episodes of the first Dalek story have received a cosmic makeover, dazzlingly colourised and woven together into a 75-minute blockbuster with brand-new sound and a brand-new score created by Mark Ayres. The Daleks has been gloriously updated, whilst ensuring the original story remains as thrilling as it was in 1963.
Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour
2023 · 9 votes
Movie6.6AdventureWarCompton Bennett's war drama The Gift Horse follows the fortunes of ageing destroyer The Ballantrae and her crew from the time they come together in 1940 until the climactic raid on occupied St Nazaire in 1942. Trevor Howard plays Lt Cmdr Hugh Alginon Fraser, the newly appointed captain, back in service after having left the navy following a court martial.
Gift Horse
1952 · 23 votes
Movie8.0Science FictionAdventureThe TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history...
Doctor Who: The Romans
1965 · 10 votes
Movie7.3Science FictionAdventureThe TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival.
Doctor Who: The Daleks
1964 · 28 votes
Movie6.2ComedyNorman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to decide what to do
One Good Turn
1955 · 12 votes
Series23
TV5.4SoapThe residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap.
Coronation Street
1960 · 118 votes
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
TV8.2CrimeDramaFrom England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989 · 584 votes
TV6.1ComedyDocumentaryThe best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Great Performances
1971 · 25 votes
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
TV6.6DramaPlay for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Play for Today
1970 · 10 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
TV7.0DramaITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
ITV Playhouse
1967 · 3 votes
TV7.6Action & AdventureCrimeThe lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
The Professionals
1977 · 47 votes
TV8.0ComedyBlackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.
Blackadder
1983 · 576 votes
TV3.5DramaSunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.
Sunday Night Theatre
1950 · 2 votes
TV6.7ComedyDramaDr Finlay's Casebook is a BBC television series that was broadcast from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s.
Dr. Finlay's Casebook
1962 · 3 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
TV7.3DramaJustice is a British drama television series which originally aired on ITV in 39 hour-long episodes between 8 August 1971 and 16 October 1974. Margaret Lockwood stars as Harriet Peterson a female barrister in the North of England. It was made by Yorkshire Television and was based loosely on Justice Is a Woman, an episode of ITV Playhouse broadcast in 1969 in which Lockwood had previously also played a barrister. The theme music was Crown Imperial by William Walton.
Justice
1971 · 3 votes
TV6.2DramaVan der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.
Van der Valk
1972 · 10 votes
TV7.0Action & AdventureThe Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network. The series starred William Russell as the eponymous Sir Lancelot, a Knight of the Round Table in the time of King Arthur at Camelot.
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
1956 · 5 votes
TV7.6Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaHerne the Hunter picks Robin of Loxley as his successor in his mission to support the oppressed. Robin builds his army and leads a guerrilla attack to suppress the exploited's Norman tormentors.
Robin of Sherwood
1984 · 94 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
TV9.0CrimeA BBC anthology series featuring adaptations of detective stories over 45 episodes in three seasons that ran from 1964 to 1969. As with many BBC programmes made before the early 1970s, many of its episodes no longer exist. Of the eighteen episodes from the first season only twelve are currently known to exist; likewise six of the sixteen editions from the second run are considered lost, and just one of the final ten survives in the archives.
Detective
1964 · 1 votes
TV7.7CrimeDramaShoestring is a BBC detective drana set in Bristol and starring Trevor Eve as private detective Eddie Shoestring, who operatee his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 hour-long episodes. Eve opted not to return after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre, so the production team changed the setting to Jersey and created Bergerac, also following a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.
Shoestring
1979 · 6 votes
TV7.3CrimeDramaStrangers is a 1978–82 ITV police procedural created and principally written by Murray Smith, based on characters created by Kenneth Royce in his novel series and subsequent 1977–78 television adaptation The XYY Man. Don Henderson and Dennis Blanch reprise their roles, respectively, of Detective Sergeant (DS) George Bulman and Detective Constable (DC) Derek Willis. A group of police officers are brought together from across the country to the north of England. There, the fact that they're not well-known gives them the advantage to infiltrate where a more familiar local detective could not. Despite being based around a comparatively small team of detectives, a regular feature in its early years is that few episodes feature the entire team, with most using just two or three regulars in any major role.
Strangers
1978 · 4 votes
TV6.7MysteryDramaAnthology series telling suspenseful tales.
Suspense
1962 · 3 votes
TV6.8MysteryCrimeBased on the short stories by G. K. Chesterton, Father Brown is a Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective.
Father Brown
1974 · 10 votes