
James Ellis
Acting
Biography
Legendary Northern Irish actor who came to prominence in the 1960s for his role of Bert Lynch in the BBC TV series Z Cars.
Known For

The 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

Drama 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

Play 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

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Heartbeat

Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Wogan

The 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

Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.
Z-Cars

Series of single made-for-television dramas.
Screen Two

The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.
All Creatures Great and Small

The legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most episodes were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
The Adventures of Robin Hood

The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.
Lovejoy

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.
Performance

The absurd adventures of two defective detectives, who - despite unbelievable incompetence - somehow manage to solve their cases (or be nearby when the cases are solved) and retain their jobs.
The Detectives

This final follow-up to 'Till Death Us Do Part' follows an aged Alf Garnett, now dealing with his wife Else's declining health and mobility, as well as the challenges of navigating the social security system and other everyday situations.
In Sickness and in Health

A short-lived anthology television series from Hammer Studios. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials. Co-produced by Hammer Studios with 20th Century Fox Television, it is known in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater. Unlike 1980's Hammer House of Horror, all episodes feature American actors as either the leads or in key roles. It first broadcast in the UK on ITV in 1984, though was not simulcast and was shown in different timeslots throughout the various regions.
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

This English follows the East End working-class Garnett family, headed by patriarch Alf, a reactionary working-class man who wields racist and anti-Socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else manages to keep things in control... for the most part. Their progressive daughter Rita lives with them, as does her Irish husband Mike, who, with an array of liberal worldviews, often quarrels with his father-in-law. It inspired the American show "All In The Family" and several other international variations on the same theme.
Till Death Us Do Part
Magic Grandad was an educational programme which originally aired on BBC Two under the title 'Switch On, Switch Off' during Schools section of 1993. The show saw 'Magic' Grandad take his young grandchildren back in time, many of the adventures are about comparing the past and the present and seeing how evidence of what happened in the olden days still survives. The show was said to make learning about history "fun for youngsters" and was aimed at children aged 5-7 years. The series was introduced to support the History National Curriculum at Key Stage 1. New seasons have been made periodically to support new areas of the infant history curriculum such as seaside holidays and toys. The early season have a companion booklet of teacher's notes with descriptions of the episodes, various suggestions for follow-up work and photocopiable worksheets.
Magic Grandad

Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.
Boys from the Blackstuff

Common As Muck is a gritty BBC comedy drama serial focusing on the lives of a crew of bin men and their management staff. It ran for two series. The first series was screened in 1994 and the second in 1997. Both were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama.
Common As Muck

The Scales of Justice is a series of thirteen British cinema featurettes produced from 1962 to 1967 for Anglo-Amalgamated at Merton Park Studios in London. The first nine were made in black and white, and the last four in colour. The finale, Payment in Kind, was Merton Park's final production. Episodes were based on criminal cases, and each film was introduced by criminologist Edgar Lustgarten. The series derives its title from the symbolic scales held by the statue of Justice, situated above the dome of London's Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey. The opening narration describes her as having "in her right hand, the Sword of Power and Retribution, and in her left – The Scales of Justice".