Peter Ellis
Acting
Biography
Peter Ellis (born 30 May 1936) is an English actor. Ellis has worked extensively in theatre and television both as an actor and director. He spent four seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as spending five years at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and three years with the Old Vic Company which included playing Benvolio in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1 and later Rosencrantz in a world tour of Hamlet starring Derek Jacobi. He also played Guildenstern in Hamlet on the site of the new Globe Theatre. In the West End he appeared in The Tulip Tree and in Ray Cooney's Funny Money. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow in the long running ITV drama The Bill. Has also appeared as a semi-regular in Emmerdale Farm and Coronation Street. Other series include Sam Lyttons Diary, Edward and Mrs Simpson, The XYY Man, Nolan, The Les Dawson Show, Victoria Wood's play Talent for Granada and Acorn Antiques for BBC TV. He appeared in the David Mercer television play In Two Minds (1967), a work which was directed by Ken Loach. Ellis also appeared as a Jury Foreman in Granada Television’s daytime legal drama series Crown Court, the case of Regina v Vennings & Vennings. In 1981 Ellis appeared as a police officer in Trafalgar Square in the horror film An American Werewolf in London. In 1983, he appeared in the play Trafford Tanzi, starring Toyah Willcox, at the Mermaid Theatre in London. Ellis was a regular cast member of The Bill from the first series in 1984 until 2000 when he left the series. His last episode was written by his son Hugh Ellis who went on to write the award-winning feature Summer starring Robert Carlyle. However he did return to The Bill in 2002 for a guest appearance. He also appeared in Hugh's film The Mortician's Tea Party playing Jed. Ellis played the title role in The Mikado, Carl Rosa's opera tour of Australia. Ellis played Mr Bennet opposite Susan Hampshire in Bath Theatre tour of Pride and Prejudice, Sorin in the Bristol Old Vic production of The Seagull. More recently Ellis directed his wife Anita Parry in the comedy drama What Would Helen Mirren Do? for the Edinburgh Festival 2010. In 2011 he played Adam/Corin in Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Ellis has also appeared in Hindle Wakes at the Finbourgh Theatre In 2018, Ellis starred in For King & Country at the Southwark Playhouse.
Known For
The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.
The Crown
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984.
Crown Court
Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need.
The Saint
The lives of several families in the Yorkshire Dales revolve around a farm and the nearby village. With murders, affairs, lies, deceit, laughter and tears, it's all there in the village.
Emmerdale
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
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart.
No Hiding Place
Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 to 20 December 2006 and starred Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Linda Henry, Jack Ellis and many more throughout the eight-year run. The series was broadcast in 17 countries and was produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road. It is set in the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, and features a mixture of serious and light storylines focusing on the prisoners and staff of G Wing. From 2010, the UK broadcast rights were bought by CBS Drama, and is repeated regularly – as of September 2012, the channel is re-running the series again in a late-night time slot.
Bad Girls
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
The Expert
Justice 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
The 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
American tourists David and Jack are savagely attacked by an unidentified animal while hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. After retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse to recuperate, David soon begins experiencing disturbing changes to his body and mind.
An American Werewolf in London
The four-part drama series will tell the story of Cary Grant’s life, from his humble beginnings as Archie Leach in Bristol, England to the Hollywood leading man he became.
Archie: The Man Who Became Cary Grant
Following the death of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bill Brand is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency.
Bill Brand
Lytton's Diary is a 1985–86 British comedy-drama programme created and written by Peter Bowles and Philip Broadley. Produced by Thames Television for ITV, it originated as a single play on the anthology programme Storyboard before expanding into two popular series, known for their mix of glamour, intrigue, and social commentary. Bowles stars as Neville Lytton, a suave and successful Fleet Street gossip columnist for the Daily News. Lytton navigates the world of high-society scandals, political corruption, and personal challenges, balancing his professional life with his love life and his ambition to write a novel.
Lytton's Diary
While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her.
Edward and Mrs Simpson
A ten-part serial based on Jeffrey Archer's 1984 novel of the same name, which follows the careers and personal lives of a quartet of fictional Parliament members from 1964 to 1991, with each vying to become Prime Minister.
First Among Equals
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.
Armchair Theatre
The XYY Man is a 1976–77 British crime thriller television series created by Kenneth Royce, based on his novel series about reformed cat burglar William 'Spider' Scott, recruited by British intelligence for secret missions due to his unique genetic makeup (an extra Y chromosome), which supposedly predisposes him to crime. The plot follows his reluctant work for the secret service and his constant pursuit by the dogged Detective Sergeant George Bulman, leading to spin-offs like Strangers and Bulman.
The XYY Man
No description available.
Sanctuary
A group of Devonport-based Royal Navy ratings, due to sail to America for a six-month NATO exercise, go out on the town on their last night in port, hitting Plymouth's notorious Union Street district, with violent results.