Peter Howell
Birth : 1919-10-25, Kensington, London, England, UK
Death : 2015-04-20
History
Peter Howell was an English actor of stage and screen. Despite his relatively privileged life (he was educated at Winchester and at Christ Church, Oxford, leaving the latter when called up for service as an officer in the Rifle Brigade during WWII) Howell was a lifelong active member of the Labour Party and campaigned for a number of social issues. One of his most remembered roles is that of the governor in Alan Clarke's 1979 film version of Scum, which he took because he wanted to highlight the issues regarding the penal system. He was also a longtime member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, and opposed their planned 1968-69 England cricket tour of apartheid-era South Africa, which was eventually cancelled. He helped to raise funds for the building of Watermans Arts Centre near his home in Chiswick, west London. Howell died at Denville Hall, a home for retired actors in Northwood, London, on 20 April 2015 after a short illness, aged 95
Clerk of the Court
Bristol, England, early 19th century. A beautiful young stranger who speaks a weird language is tried for the crime of begging. But when a man claims that he can translate her dialect, it is understood that the woman is a princess from a far away land. She is then welcomed by a family of haughty aristocrats that only wants to heighten their prestige. However, the local reporter is not at all convinced she is what she claims to be and investigates. Is Caraboo really a princess?
College President
C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham.
Harley Street Doctor
Farah is an independent young British woman who manages to reconcile her modern lifestyle with her Pakistani heritage. As a Muslim in love with a married man, she can become his second wife - especially as his first marriage to Maryam seems to exist in name only. But with all three under one roof, Farah becomes increasingly insecure.
Churchill's Secretary
It is May 1944, two weeks before D-day. Britain stands poised for the long-awaited invasion of France - thousands of troops wait anxiously for the orders to come for embarkation. MI5 is horrified to discover the top-secret codewords for the invasion suddenly appearing as clues in the Daily Telegraph crossword. Two agents are immediately dispatched to confront the culprit, the headmaster of a boys' school in southern England.
The Bellman
Hiller, a computer expert, was bribed by group of bank robbers to obtain details of the security system at a newly-built bank. Having obtained the information, he thought he'd seen the last of the robbers. But now they've traced him and his son to London. They hold the son hostage and force Hiller to decode the information about the alarm and then to take part in the robbery.
Prison Governor
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl, a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A.".
Dr. John Wycliffe
This affecting biography chronicles the life and times of prominent European philosopher John Wycliffe, who was the first to translate the Bible into English. The 14th century, Oxford University scholar often found himself caught between opposing theological, political and societal forces: He defended England's autonomy against the pontiff's authority and championed the indigent against the wealthy's abuses.
Counsel
In 1960, at the age of 56, Dr. Barbara Moore became a national hero by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. One of the last great English eccentrics, even though she was Russian.
Major
A soldier at an elite military institution is sent on a strange and increasingly nightmarish errand in this full-on fever-dream thriller from long-time Pete Walker collaborator David McGillivray (House of Whipcord).
Governor
Powerful, uncompromising drama about two boys' struggle for survival in the nightmare world of Britain's notorious Borstal Reformatory. [This is the feature film version Alan Clarke made after the BBC banned the original before its scheduled TV broadcast (see Scum (1977)].
Through the story of a single family, Brassneck traces a history that parallels the Labour Party's advent to power in 1945 through to the property speculation of the 1960s and the disillusionment with the Labour government in the early 1970s. Like most of the early work of the writers, David Hare and Howard Brenton, committed radical (if not revolutionary) socialists throughout the 1970s, it is a satirical attack on capitalist greed and corruption, full of savage, and often disturbing, humour.
Ward
A young American girl on her way to visit friends in rural England is brutally attacked and raped. After spending the next few months in a mental institution trying to recover from her ordeal, she is released into the care of her friends. The police assure her that they have the man responsible in custody, and she begins to rest easy. That is until she sees her attacker wandering the streets of the town. After planning her revenge she follows the man and kills him. This, she thinks, is the end of her ordeal. That is until the man she thinks she has killed arrives at the house she is staying in.
Gerald Frankiss
Under stress, Irish tenant farmer Michael Regan, suddenly snaps one day and locks himself in his home, threatening the lives of his wife and child.
Carlton
Charles Hilary is in love with Kathy Forrester, a beautiful television personality, but is married to Louise, an alcoholic with as many lovers as whisky bottles. His pleas for a divorce are met with threats and abuse. "You'll have to murder me first", Louise tells him and three hours later she is found dead, shot with her husband's pistol. When Charles is arrested, Kathy desperately sets to work to prove his innocence.
Prof. Lumb
'Carry On' director Gerald Thomas helms this comedy caper featuring early appearances by James Robertson Justice, Sid James, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Liz Fraser and Eric Barker. The film follows the hi-jinks of a group of music students who move into a shared flat in order to cut costs and have somewhere to practice their instruments. Things get tricky when Mervyn Hughes (Phillips) accidentally sells one of his compositions to an advertising agency and risks losing his scholarship. Can he and his friends find a way to raise the money to buy back the song rights?
Father of Angus
A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins.
Admiral's secretary
When the details of a secret torpedo are destroyed by an incompetent seaman, the crew of the ship rally round, when the Admiral needs the plans to show to a visiting scientist.
Dr. Blake
After the Banton family rob a store is a small village and kill the local police constable, Tarzan captures one of them, Coy Banton. He decides to return him to the authorities so that the dead policeman's family will benefit from the $5000 reward. The head of the clan, Abel Banton and his two sons have no intention of letting Tarzan deliver Coy and burn the river boat they were to use. Several of the passengers are now stranded forcing Tarzan to take them along on a trek through the jungle. Abel Banton trails them intent not only getting his son back but getting rid of Tarzan.
