
Linda Bassett
Actor · b. 1950 · Pluckley, Kent, England, UK
Linda Bassett was born in the Kentish village of Pluckley - location for the television series The Darling Buds of May (1991). She was brought up in Pimlico, South London, by her typist mother and police officer father. She became interested in acting as a child when she was frequently taken to see plays in London, most notably at the Old Vic, the famous classical theater. On leaving school, Linda went to work at the Old Vic as an usherette and catering manager, before going to read English at Leeds University. However, she dropped out after a year and became involved in a local drama group which put on plays in community-based locations, such as schools. She regards this as her theatrical schooling, having had no formal training. She made her London stage debut at the age of 32 in 1982 and, in 1991, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Although she was a well-regarded stage performer, it was the 1999 film version of the play East Is East (1999) (in which she had been an original stage cast member) which brought her to a larger audience and, throughout the 2000s, she has been a familiar face in a variety of films and television series. In the late 1980s, she returned to live in Pluckley.
Movies24
Movie7.5DramaRomanceThe story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
The Reader
2008 · 3.5K votes
Movie7.3DramaThe story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
The Hours
2002 · 1.9K votes
Movie6.5DramaComedyMembers of a Yorkshire branch of the Women's Institute cause controversy when they pose nude for a charity calendar.
Calendar Girls
2003 · 420 votes
Movie6.6DramaHarold Fry is an unremarkable man who has made mistakes with all the important things: being a husband, a father and a friend. And now, well into his 60s, he is content to fade quietly into the background of life. Until, one day – Harold learns his old friend Queenie is dying. Harold leaves home, walking to his post office to send her a letter. And out of the blue, Harold decides to keep walking, all the way to her hospice, 450 miles away.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
2023 · 166 votes
Movie6.7ComedyDramaCharles Price may have grown up with his father in the family shoe business in Northampton, central England, but he never thought that he would take his father's place. Charles has a chance encounter with the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer Lola and everything changes.
Kinky Boots
2005 · 370 votes
Movie6.0DramaA look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Effie Gray
2014 · 199 votes
Movie5.8RomanceDramaFollowing a traffic accident, things take a turn when the victim's identity is revealed.
Separate Lies
2005 · 79 votes
Movie6.1MysteryHorrorProfessor David Ash exposes false spiritulists and mediums. He is invited to Edbrook to resolve the fears and torments within its secretive family. Soon after arriving Ash begins to doubt his own senses, and watching the strange behaviour of its residents does not make his task any easier. In time, he finds there's more to Edbrook than even he can debunk.
Haunted
1995 · 184 votes
Movie5.8DramaHorrorA housemaid falls in love with Dr. Jekyll and his darkly mysterious counterpart, Mr. Hyde.
Mary Reilly
1996 · 349 votes
Movie6.7DramaIn 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
Let Him Have It
1991 · 51 votes
Movie6.4DramaRomanceAfter a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.
Oscar and Lucinda
1997 · 80 votes
Movie6.5DramaComedyIn 1971 Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.
East Is East
1999 · 231 votes
Movie6.4ComedyScience FictionIt's 2067, the UK is vegan, but older generations are suffering the guilt of their carnivorous past. Simon Amstell asks us to forgive them for the horrors of what they swallowed.
Carnage: Swallowing the Past
2017 · 47 votes
Movie5.7ComedyDramaThe true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him.
Colour Me Kubrick
2005 · 89 votes
Movie5.5ComedyDramaA passionately committed young dancer is forced to re-examine his career and life when faced with death, finding hope through an older man who becomes his lover, mentor and companion.
Alive and Kicking
1996 · 14 votes
Movie6.2DramaRomanceThis powerful adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel spins a story of passion and destruction set in the nineteenth century. The proud, flighty and bewitching Bathsheba Everdene finds herself entangled into the passions of three men and her impulsive nature pushes her into a web of deceit and destruction.
Far from the Madding Crowd
1998 · 11 votes
Movie6.3AdventureComedyAdapted from the work of Miguel de Cervantes, this is the story of a hidalgo, fanatic for chivalry novels, who loses his sanity and believing to be a knight named Don Quixote de La Mancha, decides to go on imaginary adventures along with his friend, the simple farmer Sancho Panza, who becomes his squire. On their journeys, they rescue dames in distress in honorable acts and fight giants among other perils, with Don longing to be with the love of his life, lady Dulcinea, and Sancho waiting to be rewarded with an island where he's about to become a governor.
Don Quixote
2000 · 41 votes
Movie5.9CrimeDramaThe incredible true story of how an orphaned Jamaican baby, adopted by an elderly white couple and brought up in an all white area of London, became one of the most feared and respected men in Britain.
Cass
2008 · 81 votes
Movie6.4ComedySalford, North of England, 1976. The now much diminished, but still dysfunctional, Khan family continues to struggle for survival. Sajid, the youngest Khan is deep in pubescent crisis under heavy assault both from his father's tyrannical insistence on Pakistani tradition, and from the fierce bullies in the schoolyard. So, in a last, desperate attempt to 'sort him out', his father decides to pack him off to Mrs Khan No 1 and family in the Punjab, the wife and daughters he had abandoned 35 years earlier.
West Is West
2010 · 44 votes
Movie5.7ActionComedyJack, Steve and Goat are East-End Spivs. They spend their time wheeling and dealing wherever and whenever they can. It's not until Jack and the others get involved with a guy called Villa, and they are landed with a big payday they have been waiting for, when they realise what a mess they are into. At the back of the lorry they have smuggled goods in, they find illegal immigrants. Most of them escape but they are left with 2 kids; a boy and a girl, and have to decide what to do with them... Are they going to look after them and feed them, clothe them, love them, etc. or are they going to leave them on the streets of East-End London?
Spivs
2004 · 3 votes
Movie5.4DramaRomanceTells the story of a girl who, while working in a London cafe, meets a "raver" who introduces her to the drug Ecstasy and the whole British drugs scene. The girl falls in love with the raver, played splendidly by Ian Hart, but - when fired from her cafe job - she becomes involved with the seedier world of dealing.
Loved Up
1995 · 17 votes
Movie4.5ComedyDramaA darkly comic psychological horror, which visits three women as they indulge their taste for recreational cruelty.
Careful How You Go
2018 · 2 votes
Movie4.8DramaThrillerClara Bell is a busy Euro MP with a husband and child at home and a high powered career - but on a trip to Paris her ordered existence is overturned by a murder and a chance encounter.
Paris by Night
1989 · 13 votes
Movie4.9ComedyDramaFictionalized portrait of one of history's great literary couples: Stein & Toklas. Summer 1930s France, Alice tends to ailing Gertrude; they visit Fernande Olivier, Guillaume Apollinaire, others; and Hemingway pops in.
Waiting for the Moon
1987 · 7 votes
Series24
TV7.5CrimeDramaThe peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
Midsomer Murders
1997 · 374 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
TV6.8CrimeDramaThe 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
TV7.6DramaDrama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
Call the Midwife
2012 · 267 votes
TV6.6DramaComedyAmerican Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.
American Playhouse
1982 · 8 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
TV7.6DramaCrimeJack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.
A Touch of Frost
1992 · 79 votes
TV7.3CrimeDramaA war veteran turned private detective operates out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Although wounded both physically and psychologically, his unique insight and background as a military police investigator prove crucial in solving complex crimes that have baffled the police. Based on the bestselling novels written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
Strike
2017 · 273 votes
TV7.5DramaSense and Sensibility is a 2008 British television drama, based on Jane Austen's 1811 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies, who said that the aim of the series was to make viewers forget Ang Lee's 1995 film version. As such, this series was more overtly sexual than previous Austen adaptations, and Davies included scenes featuring a seduction and a duel that are suggested in Austen's novel but absent from the feature film. A story of two sisters attempting to find happiness in the tightly structured society of 18th century England. Elinor, disciplined, restrained and very conscious of the manners of the day, represents sense. Outspoken, impetuous, emotional Marianne represents sensibility.
Sense and Sensibility
2008 · 127 votes
TV8.4DramaSet in the small hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town, Candleford, the series chronicles the daily lives of farm-workers, craftsmen and gentry at the end of the 19th Century. Lark Rise to Candleford is a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.
Lark Rise to Candleford
2008 · 33 votes
TV7.3Sci-Fi & FantasyDramaDramarama is the name of a British children's anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. It tended to feature drama of a science fiction or supernatural bent. The series was created by Anna Home, then head of children's and youth programming at TVS, however production responsibilities were divided amongst most of the regional ITV franchise holders. Thus, each episode was in practice a one-off production with its own cast and crew, up to and including the executive producer. Dramarama was largely a place for new talent to prove themselves and was a launching pad for the likes of Anthony Horowitz, Paul Abbott, Kay Mellor, Janice Hally, Tony Kearney, David Tennant and Ann Marie Di Mambro. It was one of Dennis Spooner's last credits. One of Dramarama's episodes, "Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest", gained so much popularity that it was turned in to its own series the following year. It starred Lee Ross and was based around a large foster home. The episode "Blackbird Singing In The Dead of Night" was developed by Granada into the TV series Children's Ward. It was also repeated for the first time since its original broadcast on 5 January 2013, during CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend. The Series 7 episode "Back To Front" – notable for featuring a mirror image of the Yorkshire Television logo card at the end – was repeated on 6 January 2013, again as part of CITV's 30th anniversary Old Skool Weekend.
Dramarama
1983 · 4 votes
TV7.3CrimeDramaJohn Thaw dons the silks as barrister James Kavanagh Q.C., one of the most highly respected criminal advocates in London, commanding admiration from colleagues and opponents alike. However, all this has come at a price as his dedication to work has taken its toll on his private life… Going beyond traditional courtroom dramas, “Kavanagh Q.C.” uncovers the pressures of legal battles and the problems of defining the truth, providing a compelling representation of the euphoric ups and costly downs of success and failure in the legal world.
Kavanagh Q.C.
1995 · 11 votes
TV7.5ComedyFrank Stubbs (Timothy Spall) is a down-at-heel ticket tout with grand ideas. He has an ambition to become a 'high class' promoter of famous and talented performers. In reality, his ambitions tend to outstrip his capabilities.
Frank Stubbs Promotes
1993 · 2 votes
TV7.5ComedyDinnerladies is a BBC sitcom written by and starring Victoria Wood that chronicles the antics of a group of workers in a canteen in the north of England. Bren tries to maintain a semblance of order in amongst the chaos, while dealing with the canteen supervisor, slightly sex-obsessed cancer sufferer Tony. Dolly and Jean are the bickering menopausal older women, always at odds but best friends beneath it all. Then there's thick-as-two-short-planks Anita, and the terminally uninterested Twinkle, more concerned with having a good time than anything else. Making up the motley crew are military man handyman Stan, all rules and regulations, and ditzy Philippa, who never seems to get anything right.
dinnerladies
1998 · 37 votes
TV4.2DramaThe story of Eleanor Bramwell , a pioneering female doctor in the late nineteenth century, and the struggles she has with her friends, her colleagues and society. Determined to take the medical profession out of the dark ages, her strongly held opinions often draw her into conflict with the chief surgeon, a man keener on tradition than he is on progress.
Bramwell
1995 · 6 votes
TV6.5ComedySimon Amstell stars as a fictionalised version of himself, a TV presenter who quits his job, leading to family drama, particularly with his mother, Tanya, and her boyfriend, Clive, all unfolding at his grandmother's house.
Grandma's House
2010 · 20 votes
TV6.6DramaA military attaché at the French embassy is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. A classic tale of spying, intrigue, and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst and adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Spies of Warsaw
2013 · 39 votes
TV7.8DramaAfter his father's will stipulates he must marry Bella Wilfer to inherit his fortune, John Harmon fakes his death to avoid the marriage and the threats on his life. He returns as John Rokesmith and becomes the secretary for the Boffins, who inherit Harmon's estate following his alleged death.
Our Mutual Friend
1998 · 20 votes
TV7.6DramaCrimeTraffik is a 1989 British television serial about the illegal drugs trade. Its three stories are interwoven, with arcs told from the perspectives of Afghan and Pakistani growers and manufacturers, German dealers, and British users. It was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, winning three. It also won an International Emmy Award for best drama. The 2000 crime drama film Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh, was based on this television serial. In turn, the 2004 American television miniseries Traffic was based on both versions.
Traffik
1989 · 21 votes
TV7.7DramaThis 10-episode television miniseries, set in England during World War II, tells the story of two families, the wealthy Hamiltons and the working-class Slaters, now united through marriage.
No Bananas
1996 · 3 votes
TVDramaModern interpretation of the classic Charles Dickens tale about a young man who must support his family following the death of his father, turning to his sinister uncle for help.
TV7.0DramaHenry Farmer is a clever minded criminal practice attorney whose every day is a juggling act between surviving his messy personal life and pleading cases only he can win. Whether he's trying to keep an innocent person from going to jail or save himself from financial ruin, Henry's life is a symphony of chaos. His long list of problems includes a mountain of gambling debts, an affair with an important politician's wife, a distant son, and a sharp-tongued father who's also a judge.
The Brief
2004 · 3 votes
TV8.0DramaThis powerful adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel spins a story of passion and destruction set in the nineteenth century. The proud, flighty and bewitching Bathsheba Everdene finds herself entangled into the passions of three men and her impulsive nature pushes her into a web of deceit and destruction.
Far from the Madding Crowd
1998 · 1 votes
- TVDrama
Three on-call GPs based in the fictional city of Haventry in Birmingham face a series of difficult patients and testing situations as they attempt to provide an "out of hours" service for the city's residents.
Out of Hours
1998