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Nabil Shaban

Nabil Shaban

Acting

Biography

Nabil Shaban (1953-2025) was born in Amman, Jordan and arrived in England when he was three for treatment for his osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle-bone disease). He spent the next six years in hospital and seven in a children's home. In 1980, he and Richard Tomlinson founded Graeae (pronounced Grey Eye), a professional theatre company of disabled performers. A writer and performer with many film and television credits, he was probably best known to television viewers for his role as ruthless businessman Sil in the Doctor Who stories 'Vengeance on Varos' and 'The Trial of a Time Lord' (BBC, 1985 + 1986).

Known For

Doctor Who
7.9

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

1963
Children of Men
7.6

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

Children of Men

2006
Tales of the Tardis
5.6

Classic Doctor Who duos are reunited as they board a very special TARDIS on a nostalgic voyage through space and time.

Tales of the Tardis

2023
South of the Border
10.0

Female private detectives Pearl Parker and Finn Gallagher operate within the bustling multicultural communities of South London.

South of the Border

1988
City of Joy
6.6

Max Lowe is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of finding himself. Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.

City of Joy

1992
Wittgenstein
6.4

A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius.

Wittgenstein

1993
Sorry About Last Night
8.0

A romantic comedy written by and starring Alexei Sayle. A couple on a first date in London are determined to find a drink after closing time, to prove to themselves that they are not careworn and middle-aged. What follows is a series of misadventures

Sorry About Last Night

1995
Walter
5.9

A man with learning difficulties suffers neglect and ill-treatment, and this is only exasperated when his parents die and nobody seems to know what to do with him. A sequel to this film, titled "Walter and June", was released in 1983 and set 19 years later in time. In the United States, these two are sometimes bundled together under the title "Loving Walter".

Walter

1982
Born of Fire
6.0

For reasons unknown, a flautist and an astronomer find themselves drawn to one another. But, when the flautist stumbles upon a secret regarding his late father, the two wind up in a celestial duel against the ancient Master Flautist for earth's future.

Born of Fire

1987
Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor
5.5

An original drama from the world of BBCtv's Doctor Who, featuring Sil, the ruthless alien entrepreneur from planet Thoros Beta, played by Nabil Shaban. Sil is worried, very worried, which doesn't keep his reptilian skin in the best condition! Confined in a cold detention cell on the moon, awaiting a deportation hearing for trial on drugs offences on Earth, he faces a death sentence if the application is successful and he is found guilty. And his employers at the Universal Monetary Fund aren t pleased either. Not at all. As time runs out and friends desert him, Sil must use all of his devious, vile, underhanded, ruthless, and amoral business acumen to survive. Can he possibly slime his way out of this one?

Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

2019
Doctor Who: Mindwarp
7.7

As the Doctor's trial continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure, one where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memories of the events begins to return and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.

Doctor Who: Mindwarp

1986
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos
7.4

When the TARDIS is in need of repairs, the Doctor and Peri are forced to land on Varos, a mining planet whose population is entertained and enslaved by a sadistic system of public torture and execution, and find themselves the latest unwilling subjects in this most extreme form of reality TV.

Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos

1985
Slave of Dreams
4.3

The Egyptian executioner's wife tries to seduce Hebrew slave Joseph to fulfill a dream they are experiencing simultaneously.

Slave of Dreams

1995
A Different Hand
N/A

A musical comedy drama about a young woman (played by Tina Leslie) rebelling against society's attitudes (including her parents, her doctor, her priest and teacher) towards people like her who are without hands or in other ways different. Everyone is trying to force her to wear artificial hands, everyone except for her disabled friend (Nabil Shaban), who assists in her revolt.

A Different Hand

1992
No image
4.0

A Palestinian refugee attempting to avoid deportation.

Trouble Sleeping

2008
The Story of Doctor Who
8.0

Documentary to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of this popular cult sci-fi television series.

The Story of Doctor Who

2003
Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor
N/A

SIL is worried, very worried, which doesn't keep his reptilian skin in the best condition! Confined in a cold detention cell on the moon, awaiting a deportation hearing for trial on drugs offences on Earth, he faces a death sentence if the application is successful and he is found guilty. And his employers at the Universal Monetary Fund aren't pleased either. Not at all. As time runs out and friends desert him, SIL must use all of his devious, vile, underhanded, ruthless, and amoral business acumen to survive. Can he possibly slime his way out of this one?

Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor

2019
Iranian Nights
8.0

A Channel Four special presentation of the Royal Court Theatre 1989 production, London. with Paul Bhattacharjee, Nabil Shaban and Fiona Victory. "Iranian Nights" was a play written and produced as a direct response by writers and artists to the notorious Feb 14 1989 Fatwa (a sentence of death) from Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, placed on Salman Rushdie for his novel "The Satanic Verses", regarded by fundamentalist Muslims as blasphemous.

Iranian Nights

1989
Skallagrigg
4.0

Back in the 'bad old days' when the physically and mentally disabled were locked away in institutions a legend grew of someone who could stand up to the authorities and help them. This charming story is how a group of disabled people went to chase that legend. To assist them John is forced to come to terms with his daughter and her friends.

Skallagrigg

1994
Raspberry Ripple
8.0

A clever paraplegic man, haunted by visions of imaginary gangsters, becomes desperate to leave the "cripple" facility he's stuck in. To get out, he must outwit the facility's matron and the constant surveillance of one of his fellows.

Raspberry Ripple

1986