
John Turner
Acting
Biography
John Turner (born 7 July 1932) is a British television and film actor. One of Turner's most recognisable roles was that of Roderick Spode (6 episodes, 1991–1993) in the ITV television series Jeeves and Wooster, based on the P. G. Wodehouse novels. He had performed the same role earlier in his career at Her Majesty's Theatre, London in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical flop Jeeves. At the Prince Edward Theatre he performed in the role of Juan Perón in the musical theatre show Evita. He later returned to the West End playing Molokov in Tim Rice’s Chess. He also portrayed Charlemagne in the original West End cast of Pippin at His Majesty's Theatre. Turner made his television debut in 1957, playing a hillbilly in Operation Fracture. In 1963 he appeared in 5/13 episodes of The Sentimental Agent as Bill Randall and in four episodes replaced the lead character played by Carlos Thompson. In a career that lasted more than 40 years, he also appeared in 36 episodes of Knight Errant Limited as Adam Knight (1959–1960), as well as in episodes of Z-Cars (1967), The Saint (1968), The Champions (1968), Fall of Eagles (1974), the TV mini series Lorna Doone (1976), Heartbeat (1992), The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1999) and The Bill (2000). Film roles include John in Behemoth the Sea Monster (1959), Lieutenant Pattinson in Petticoat Pirates (1961), Sir Richard Fordyke in The Black Torment (1964), Joab in Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969), The Major-domo in The Slipper and the Rose (1976), the Afrikaner Minister in The Power of One (1992), Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996) and Lord Lot in Merlin (1998).
Known For

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

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

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

After a plane carrying three Agents crashes in the Himalayas, they are rescued by an advanced civilisation secretly living in Tibet who grant them enhanced versions of the ordinary five senses, and intellectual and physical abilities.
The Champions

ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
ITV Playhouse

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.
Theatre 625

Jeeves and Wooster is a British comedy-drama series adapted by Clive Exton from P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 1990 to 1993, starring Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, a young gentleman with a "distinctive blend of airy nonchalance and refined gormlessness", and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, his improbably well-informed and talented valet. Wooster is a bachelor, a minor aristocrat and member of the idle rich. He and his friends, who are mainly members of The Drones Club, are extricated from all manner of societal misadventures by the indispensable valet, Jeeves. The stories are set in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1930s.
Jeeves and Wooster

Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.
Thriller

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

Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers and other modern technology. It was originally broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One, and was produced for the BBC by the independent production company Carnival Films.
Bugs

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.
Churchill's People
The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, qualify as a pop-culture curio if only for star Arthur---later Art---Fleming, who hosted the original `Jeopardy!'
International Detective

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

"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs).
Fall of Eagles

New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for ITV from 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day.
New Scotland Yard

Frank Stubbs (Timothy Spall) is a down-at-heel ticket tout with grand ideas. He has an ambition to become a 'high class' promoter of famous and talented performers. In reality, his ambitions tend to outstrip his capabilities.
Frank Stubbs Promotes

'Zero One' is the call sign of the International Air Security Board, an international security network dedicated to the safety of air travel all around the world, with its HQ at London Airport. Airline detective Alan Garnett is called upon to combat hijackers and smugglers, prevent disasters, and generally preserve peace in the air and at airports.
Zero One

The Sentimental Agent is a television drama series spin-off from Man of the World. Produced in the United Kingdom in 1963 by Associated Television and distributed by ITC Entertainment, the series ran for 13 one-hour monochrome episodes. Some episodes were edited into a 1962 feature film Our Man in the Caribbean. Argentinian Carlos Varela is a successful import-export agent based in London, whose company takes him into unusual and sometimes dangerous situations. Impeccably dressed, cigar smoking and using wit, ingenuity, and charm, which often involves a damsel in distress, he is typically assisted by Chin, a resourceful Chinese manservant, and Miss Carter, an ultra-efficient secretary.
The Sentimental Agent

Adam Knight is a young man who, having tried several jobs, decides to set up an agency, 'Knight Errant '59', to solve other people's problems - whatever they may be. There's plenty of scope and, assisted by former reporter Liz and idealistic young writer Peter, the latter-day Sir Lancelot is kept busy with a variety of curious and exciting cases. The series had two titles, Knight Errant '59 and Knight Errant Limited of which only two episodes exist out of the 75 produced.
Knight Errant Limited

PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.