David Threlfall
Birth : 1953-10-12, Burnage, Manchester, England, UK
History
Born in Burnage, Manchester in 1953, David Threlfall is a celebrated actor of stage, film and television. In the latter, he is perhaps best known as the feckless Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's Shameless. In 1994 whilst working on a production of The Count of Monte Cristo at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Threlfall met Bosnian actress Brana Bajic and the pair subsequently married a year later.
Teddy
The Fantastic Francis Hardy travels the most remote corners of Wales, Scotland and Ireland attempting to heal those who wish to be healed. His wife Grace and manager Teddy complete this nomadic triptych, each with their own telling of the loss, love and struggle of life on the road with a seemingly predestined Faith Healer.
Cream
Krapp’s Last Tape: James Hayes uses his natural Irish accent to deliver the best known of these works, a meditation on ageing. He plays the eponymous Krapp, a sad, lonely man recollecting emotion in tranquility with the assistance of a reel to reel tape recorder. Now somewhere near 70, he is reminded of the past, as a recording of his 39-year-old self recalls life a dozen years before. As such, we are able to glimpse the hope of relative youth, the acceptance of middle age failure and the resignation of an old man. The Old Tune: It features two old men sitting on a park bench next to a hurdy-gurdy and almost inevitably brings to mind the song from Gigi, “I Remember It Well”. As cars pass, irritating the men who fondly remember the days of horse-drawn carriages, every statement delivered by either Niall Buggy or David Threlfall, playing the grumpy septuagenarians, is instantly contradicted by his fellow, often to great humorous effect.
Noah
Noah, a farmer and family man, is instructed by an angel to build an ark in the middle of a desert in order to save both his family and the faithful from a devastating flood. A seemingly impossible task, especially when his sons refuse to believe him and help, Noah risks ridicule and humiliation from the degenerate townsfolk as well as his loving but exasperated family, in his quest to carry out his God-given task.
Peters
A rogue submarine captain pulls together a misfit crew to go after a sunken treasure rumored to be lost in the depths of the Black Sea. As greed and desperation take control on-board their claustrophobic vessel, the increasing uncertainty of the mission causes the men to turn on each other to fight for their own survival.
Tommy Cooper
The life and times of Tommy Cooper
Himself
A look at the life of John Cooper Clarke. From his rise as a 'punk poet', through his heroin addiction, and finally to his comeback.
George Toogood Smith
The drama tells the story of John Lennon's teenage years in Liverpool and the start of his journey to becoming a successful musician. The story also examines the impact on his early life and personality of the two dominant females in his childhood.
Dr. John Dee
When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army, she and her shrewd adviser must act to safeguard the lives of her people.
Martin Blower
As a former London constable, Nicholas Angel finds it difficult to adapt to his new assignment in the sleepy British village of Sandford. Not only does he miss the excitement of the big city, but he also has a well-meaning oaf for a partner. However, when a series of grisly accidents rocks Sandford, Angel smells something rotten in the idyllic village.
Will Last
Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.
John Colbie
A forensic psychologist must determine if a minor should be charged with murder.
Jeffrey
Humouristic reconstruction of the 1995 scandal when two British lads were accused of having faked a documentary from the Roswell incident in 1947.
Prince Philip
An in-depth biopic of Princess Margaret from the days following her father's death in 1952 until the 1970s. She was known to be a flamboyant royal but she remained a stickler for protocol. She had many controversial romances and also infamously kissed the daughter of the US ambassador. Also the film gives some focus on what others thought of Margaret, from normal people of the era to a backbench MP opposed to her 1961 wedding. Written by Reece Lloyd
Preserved Killick, Captain's Steward
After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
Donald Leek
Fitness fanatic, Donald Leek, indulges in a monthly Chunky Monkey experience with, someone vaguely resembling movie-songstress, Julie Andrews, who he's expecting at 7:30pm. His obsession with Ms. Andrews (and her posterior) is somewhat disturbing to say the least. Before she arrives however, he has to dispose of the body parts of Mr Azam, manager of his favourite Indian restaurant, who has neglected to send him a Christmas card. He is interrupted by a peculiar assortment of unwelcome visitors, amongst them, Jesus Christ and a one-testicled self-made millionaire. Each one is as unhinged as their host, who retaliates to the intrusion in extreme fashion
Dr. Wilhelm Kritzinger
The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Led by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.
Joseph of Nazareth
Mary, Mother of Jesus is a 1999 made-for-television Biblical film that retells the story of Jesus through the eyes of Mary, his mother.
The BBC drama about growing up in the turbulent, tuneful '60s. Manchester, England, 1965. "You'll never meet anybody worth knowing working at the Chip Shop," says Ellie and Arden Brookes' overbearing granny. But that's where the sisters meet The Ice Cubes, a struggling rock trio that opens their eyes to the whole swingin' world beyond staid Manchester. Arden sees lead singer Dallas McCabe as her ticket out. Ellie has more practical plans, but she and Dallas get drawn together by the music and their irresistible attraction to each other. A story of twin sisters who are each other's best friend-and worst enemy.
Prince Charles
Television film telling the story of Diana, Princess of Wales, based on the publication of the same name by Andrew Morton.
Syl
Margaret (Lena Headey) is a shy, pale, middle-class Englishwoman who is reluctantly engaged to her older, twittish neighbor Syl Monro (David Threlfall). Both bride- and groom-to-be still live with their mothers in the humdrum suburb of Croydon. However Margaret has been acting strangely ever since a vacation in Egypt, where she stayed with her mother's friend Marie-Claire (Catherine Schell). She secretly despises Syl, but does not resist when her mother Monica (Julie Walters), who has repressed the failure of her own matrimony, insists on marriage for the sake of social convention.
Inspector Highland
When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.
Stanley Rode
At the request of his old war time colleague Ailsa Brimley, George Smiley agrees to look into the murder of Stella Rode. Brimley had only just received a letter from her saying she feared for her life at her husband's hand. The husband, Stanley Rode teaches at Carne School, but Smiley is doubtful that he had anything to do with his wife's death. As Smiley investigates, he learns that Stella was a nosy busybody who loved to learn other's little secrets and then gossip about them - or possibly blackmail them. When a student is killed and Smiley unearths a secret, he has the evidence to name the killer.Based on John Le Carré's 1962 thriller (his first) in which George Smiley is brought out of spy retirement to solve a murder in a British public school. The setting is based on Le Carre"s own schooldays in Sherborne and his brief experience teaching at Eton.
Wicklow
Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.
After a sheltered upbringing in St. Helena, Norah arrives in England and goes to live in London, taken under the wing of her Uncle and his business associate Andy. She works for the latter and falls in love with him, but he refuses to reciprocate her feelings. When she starts receiving a series of obscene phone calls and letters at home and work, she is determined to identify the caller, and strongly suspects Andy
Tom Rowse
David Threlfall stars as Tom Rowse, a retired British secret service agent turned thriller novelist who is brought back into the world of espionage for one last job. The mission - foiling a Libyan plot to supply the IRA with a massive shipment of high-tech weapons in order to wreak revenge upon the UK for their support and co-operation with the US during the 1986 bombing of Libya and the attempted assassination of Colonel Gaddafi .
Tony
Tony has begun to panic that life may be passing him by. As his friends forge ahead, he feels stuck in a dead end job and trapped by his relationship with Judith. One day, he starts to be plagued by a series of mysterious phone calls and letters. Tony becomes haunted by a growing premonition of catastrophe.
A biographical portrayal of Simon Wiesenthal, famous Nazi Hunter. From his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, the film follows his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbee. (Written by Anthony Hughes)
Jack Jenkins
A pair of children befriend an eccentric old man, who lives isolated on the far shore of their island home. But it turns out that the old man knows a terrible secret about the island and the whales who sometimes come. Meanwhile WWI is making life hard in the village.
Leslie Titmus
A clergyman noted for his support of left-wing causes, leaves his considerable estate to a Conservative member of parliament. Adaptation of the novel by John Mortimer.
Robert
A middle-aged man is feeling the strain of looking after his elderly grandfather, who is demanding and needs a lot of medical treatment. Then a neighbour suggests a painless way to be rid of him. This black comedy is set in the future, where euthanasia is lawful and increasingly common, but it should still, ideally, be voluntary.
Vasily
British comedy satirising Stalin's inner circle as an absolute monarchs court. In the face of rampant abuse of power and poisonous distrust some still manage to keep faith with the Bolshevist creed until the very end. In front of the firing squad a stalwart bolshevist of the first hour exclaims: "Even in the best democracy errors are being made!"
Edgar
An aging King invites disaster when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters and rejects his one loving, but honest one.
Himself
Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays.
An RAF ground crew, having committed an offence, is punished to guard all night an who an East Anglian airfield in the depths of winter. Gaining frostbite as a result, he's sent to recuperate in the nearby cottage hospital which is used for aircrew who have mentally cracked under the strain of bombing Berlin.
Archer
A hard and shocking story of life in a British borstal for young offenders. [This is the original version scheduled for broadcast on 'Play for Today' on 8-Nov-1977 but withdrawn by the BBC because it was deemed too controversial. Director Alan Clarke edited the film and released it in cinemas in 1979 (See 'Scum (1979)'). The BBC would eventually broadcast the original on 27-Jul-1991.]
Trevor
Trevor is an extremely shy undertaker's assistant. He always tags along with his good friend Ronnie, when he goes to the pub with his girlfriend Sandra. Sandra introduces Trevor to her more forward friend Linda. Linda has a difficult time getting Trevor to go out with her, but she finally gets him to go to a disco; he won't dance, so Linda dances with Ronnie.
Alan
A group of six friends, who have known each other since childhood, find their friendship tested when one of their number is found dead, leading to the question - were they murdered or did they commit suicide?