Eileen Atkins Filmography

Evening

Actors: Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy

Synopsis: As Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette) gather at the deathbed of their mother Ann (Vanessa Redgrave), they learn for the first time that their mother lived an entire other lifetime during one evening 50 years ago, one she kept secret all their lives. In vivid flashbacks, the Read More

Cranford

Actors: Judi Dench, Philip Glenister, Francesca Annis, Michael Gambon, Simon Woods

Synopsis: The small town gossip, secrets, and romance of Mary Gaskells' popular series of novels comes to the small screen in this BBC drama series from director Simon Curtis. The year is 1842, and Cranford is a modest Cheshire market town on the verge of great change. The railway is reaching to Cranford Read More

Ask the Dust

Actors: Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins, Idina Menzel

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by John Fante, Robert Towne's Ask the Dust stars Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini, a young writer who comes to Los Angeles during the Great Depression in order to write a novel. As the film opens, he is down to his last nickel and decides to spend it on coffee in a diner. He is Read More

Scenes of a Sexual Nature

Actors: Ewan McGregor, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville, Holly Aird, Eileen Atkins, Tom Hardy, Douglas Hodge, Adrian Lester, Andrew Lincoln, Gina McKee, Mark Strong, Catherine Tate, Polly Walker, Benjamin Whitrow

Synopsis: A handful of couples discuss their romantic and erotic tribulations on a sunny afternoon in this romantic comedy drama. It's a beautiful day in London, and a number of people head out to Hampstead Heath Park to enjoy the weather, though not every couple on hand is as comfortable as the weather Read More

The Feast of the Goat

Actors: Tomas Milian, Isabella Rossellini, Paul Freeman, Juan Diego Botto, Stephanie Leonidas

Synopsis: With his English-language political thriller The Feast of the Goat, action helmer Luis Llosa cinematizes Mario Vargas Llosa's sweeping, epic novel about the myriad of events leading up to the assassination of a real-life tyrannical despot. The story opens in 1992, when a Dominican émigré attorney Read More

Vanity Fair

Actors: Geraldine McEwan, Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Rhys Ifans, Gabriel Byrne, Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins, Ruth Sheen

Synopsis: William Makepeace Thackeray's witty assessment of the British class system, as seen through the experiences of one young woman, is brought to the screen with some serious star power in this period comedy drama. Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon) is a bright and ambitious girl born to a poor British Read More

The Queen of Sheba's Pearls

Actors: Helena Bergström, Lorcan Cranitch, Lindsay Duncan, Tim Dutton, Rolf Lassgård

Cold Mountain

Actors: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's star-studded Cold Mountain is a sweeping tale set in the final days of the American Civil War. Jude Law stars as Inman, a young soldier who, despite an injury, is struggling to make his way home to Cold Mountain, NC, where his beloved Ada (Nicole Kidman Read More

What a Girl Wants

Actors: Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Jonathan Pryce, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor

Synopsis: Loosely based on the 1958 comedy The Reluctant Debutante starring Sandra Dee, the family-friendly comedy What a Girl Wants features popular Nickelodeon teen star Amanda Bynes in her first feature-starring performance after her debut in Big Fat Liar. She plays teenager Daphne Reynolds, who lives in Read More

Egy Het Pesten Es Budan

Actors: Ivan Darvas, Mari Töröcsik, Eszter Nagy-Kálózy, Eileen Atkins, Dezso Garas

Synopsis: Károly Makk is reunited with actors Ivan Darvas and Mari Töröcsik in the drama A Long Weekend in Pest and Buda. After being forced to leave Hungary 45 years earlier, Ivan (Darvas) gets word that the woman he left behind, Mari (Töröcsik), is dying. He breaks a promise to himself and travels back to Read More

The Hours

Actors: Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Toni Collette

Synopsis: Three women, separated by a span of nearly 80 years, find themselves weathering similar crises, all linked by a single work of literature in this film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Cunningham. In 1923, Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is attempting to start work on her Read More

Bertie & Elizabeth

Actors: James Wilby, Juliet Aubrey, Alan Bates, Eileen Atkins, Charles Edwards

Synopsis: The fascinating story of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth is recounted in this British made-for-TV effort. It all begins in 1920, when the then-Duke of York Albert (James Wilby), known affectionately as Bertie, meets and falls in love with the aristocratic, 19-year-old Elizabeth Bowes-Lytton (Juliet Aubrey Read More

Gosford Park

Actors: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson

Synopsis: Maverick American filmmaker Robert Altman takes a witty and absorbing look at the foibles of the British class system in this intelligent murder mystery set in the early '30s. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) are a pair of wealthy British Read More

Wit

Actors: Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra McDonald

Synopsis: Mike Nichols directs Emma Thompson in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Margaret Edson. Thompson plays Vivian Bearing, a college professor who teaches a course on English poetry. Vivian learns that she has advanced ovarian cancer and only a short time to live Read More

Madame Bovary

Actors: Frances O'Connor, Hugh Bonneville, Greg Wise, Hugh Dancy, Keith Barron

Synopsis: Previously filmed by such cinematic geniuses as Jean Renoir and Vincente Minnelli, Gustave Flaubert's once-scandalous 1857 novel Madame Bovary was transformed into a two-part British miniseries in 2000. Set in the rural Normandy of the 1830s and 1840s, this is the story of Emma Rouault (Frances O'Connor Read More

David Copperfield

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of the BBC's multipart 1999 adaptation of Charles Dickens' semiautobiographical novel David Copperfield came this American-financed version, prepared for the TNT cable network as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Child actor Max Dolbey and adult performer Hugh Dancy share the Read More

Women Talking Dirty

Actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Gina McKee, Richard Wilson, Eileen Atkins, Kenneth Cranham

Synopsis: British director Coky Giedroyc's sophomore feature outing concerns a pair of working class women in Edinburgh, Scotland. Down-to-earth Ellen (Gina McKee), a noted cartoonist, invites her wacky, outgoing best friend Cora (Helena Bonham Carter) to a post-divorce party. Ellen is recovering from an Read More

Titus Andronicus

Actors: Eileen Atkins, Eileen Peacock

Synopsis: Like many of the plays in the BBC's Shakespeare series, this version of Titus Andronicus is essentially a filmed stage performance. The Roman general Titus returns from war, bringing with him Tamora, Queen of the Goths and her sons as hostages, and consequently orders the dismemberment of Tamora's Read More

The Avengers

Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Patrick Macnee, Jim Broadbent

Synopsis: Jeremiah Chechick directed this $60 million adaptation of the whimsical 1961 British TV spy series, imported to the United States five years later for ABC airing (beginning 3/28/66), followed by The New Avengers (CBS, 1978-79). In the feature-length version, secret agent John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) Read More

Mrs. Dalloway

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, Rupert Graves, Michael Kitchen, John Standing

Synopsis: This adaptation of the novel by Virginia Woolf stars Vanessa Redgrave as Clarissa Dalloway, a woman in her mid-'50s living in London five years after the end of WWI. As Mrs. Dalloway prepares an elaborate dinner party at the home she shares with her husband, a prominent politician, she finds Read More

A Dance to the Music of Time

Synopsis: Author Anthony Powell's wildly popular series tomes are translated for the small screen in this sweeping miniseries starring Sir John Gielgud and James Purefoy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Read More

Jack and Sarah

Actors: Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Eileen Atkins

Synopsis: A temperamental London lawyer adapts to the challenges of fatherhood when he is left with sole responsibility for his infant daughter in this well-performed British comedy-drama. Richard E. Grant stars as Jack, a high-pressure attorney who believes his life is on the right track: a successful Read More

Cold Comfort Farm

Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Sheila Burrell, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Ivan Kaye

Synopsis: Stella Gibbons' popular novel was published in 1932, and it has been adapted twice for British television, first as a miniseries in 1971, then by director John Schlesinger in 1995. That version proved so popular that it was released to theaters in the U.S. The heroine of Gibbons' story, Flora Read More

Wolf

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer

Synopsis: Jack Nicholson becomes a werewolf in this bizarre comedy-horror film directed by Mike Nichols. Nicholson plays Will Randall, a book editor with a testosterone deficit who has just been sacked at his publishing firm by a new boss, Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer). A colleague, Stewart Swinton (James Spader Read More

The Lost Language of Cranes

Actors: Brian Cox, Eileen Atkins, Angus MacFadyen, Corey Parker, René Auberjonois

Synopsis: Adaptation of the David Leavitt novel in which a young man agonizes over revealing his homosexuality to his parents, but doesn't realize that his father is also gay and is about to come out of the closet in a way that will destroy his marriage. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide Read More

Let Him Have It

Actors: Christopher Eccleston, Paul Reynolds, Tom Courtenay, Eileen Atkins, Clare Holman, Tom Bell

Synopsis: The Derek Bentley Case has been an uneasy blight on the British legal system since the early 1950s. Two young, frightened boys were caught by police trying to break into to a building. One of the boys had a gun. When the policeman reached out to the youth to turn over the gun, his friend shouted Read More

House of Eliott [TV Series]

Crew: Show Creator

Synopsis: The British producers of the internationally popular Upstairs, Downstairs were responsible for The House of Eliott. Set in the 1920s and 1930s, this series opened with a two-hour installment; all subsequent episodes ran 60 minutes. Two sisters, Beatrice (Stella Gonet) and Evangeline (Louise Lombard Read More

A Hazard of Hearts

Actors: Marcus Gilbert, Diana Rigg, Helena Bonham Carter

Synopsis: Hazard of Hearts was adapted for television from a 1948 bodice-ripper by Barbara Cartland. Set (where else?) in 1810 England, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter as the obligatory innocent young lass with a dynamite figure. Falling in love with a Rochester-like Marquis (Marcus Gilbert), Helena is Read More

The Vision

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Lee Remick, Eileen Atkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Maxwell

Synopsis: Grace Gardner (Lee Remick) is a money-minded television manager who hires out-of-work air personality James Marriner (Dirk Bogarde) to broadcast a religious program. When the show is broadcast in England, the country feels the Armageddon paranoia that paralyzes the religious right and their Read More

Roman Holiday

Actors: Tom Conti, Catherine Oxenberg, Eileen Atkins, Patrick Allen

Synopsis: All the charm and joie de vivre of the 1953 Gregory Peck/Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday is purged from this hollow TV remake. The stunning but lifeless Catherine Oxenberg assumes the Hepburn role of a young princess who escapes the protocol of court life for a romantic fling in Rome. Tom Conti Read More

A Better Class of Person

The Children's Rebellion

Synopsis: As Children's Rebellion demonstrates, the Americans have no monopoly on fact-based TV movies. Eileen Atkins stars in this British tale of populism triumphant. Atkins plays one of two teachers, fired for a variety of contradictory reasons by their local school board. Incensed, the young Read More

Shades of Darkness: Bewitched

Synopsis: The spirit of a dead woman is intent on making life difficult for an elderly couple in this British made-for-TV thriller. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Dresser

Actors: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Edward Fox, Zena Walker, Eileen Atkins

Synopsis: The complicated relationship of two men who have given their lives to the theater forms the basis for this acclaimed drama. During World War II, an aging but once famous Shakespearean actor, addressed by his cast and crew only as "Sir" (Albert Finney), continues to tour the British theater circuit Read More

Nelly's Version

Actors: Eileen Atkins, Anthony Bate, Barbara Jefford, Nicholas Ball, Brian Deacon

Synopsis: Heavy with symbolism and light on storyline, this unbalanced tale of an unbalanced woman leaves a few open questions at the end. When Nelly (Eileen Atkins) is first encountered in a hotel, she does not remember her family or her friends and draws a blank when a detective arrives to connect her Read More

Oliver Twist

Actors: George C. Scott

Synopsis: Clive Donner directs Oliver Twist, the 1982 made-for-TV version of the classic Dickens novel. Richard Charles plays Oliver Twist, an orphan boy who gets kicked out of his juvenile workhouse when he asks for some more food. He is sent to work as an apprentice, but he quickly escapes and joins a Read More

Smiley's People

Actors: Alec Guinness, Vass Anderson, Eileen Atkins, Anthony Bate, Andrew Bradford

Synopsis: A sequel to 1980's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, this BBC miniseries once again focuses on British spy George Smiley (Sir Alec Guinness), once again called out of retirement, this time by the fussy Oliver Lacon Anthony Bate, to deal with a scandal in the British spy establishment. An ex-Russian Read More

Equus

Actors: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: Richard Burton plays a psychiatrist who attempts to discover why young Peter Firth has taken to mutilating live horses. In probing Firth's psyche, Burton discovers that the source of the boy's obsession is his mother, Joan Plowright, who has raised Firth with a convoluted set of values. Even as he Read More

Raku Fire

Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 05

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh, David Langton, Jenny Tomasin, Angela Baddeley

Synopsis: The fifth and final season of Upstairs, Downstairs covers the years 1910 to 1930, bringing the saga of the Bellamy household to a close. So much time has to be dealt with this season that the producers expanded the episode output from 13 to 16 hour-long episodes. And because virtually every one of Read More

The Devil Within Her

Actors: Joan Collins, Eileen Atkins, Donald Pleasence, Ralph Bates, Caroline Munro

Synopsis: This weird British hybrid of The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and It's Alive! stars Joan Collins as a stripper who spurns the advances of a lecherous dwarf and is subsequently cursed by a monstrous baby -- which emits horrifying demonic howls and attacks everyone within reach, including his parents Read More

The Lady from the Sea

Actors: Eileen Atkins

Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 04

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh, David Langton, Jenny Tomasin, Angela Baddeley

Synopsis: The fourth season of the British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs takes place during the war years of 1914 through 1918, a time of great anxiety and upheaval for England in general and the Bellamy household at 165 Eaton Place in particular. The season begins as Hazel Bellamy (Meg Wynn Owen), wife Read More

Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 03

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh, David Langton, Jenny Tomasin, Angela Baddeley

Synopsis: The third season of the British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs sweeps past the Edwardian era to cover the pre-war years between 1912 and 1914. Because actress Rachel Gurney had already announced her intention to leave the series, the producers decided to provide the character of Lady Marjorie Read More

Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 02

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh, Rachel Gurney, David Langton, Jenny Tomasin

Synopsis: Inasmuch as Season One of the British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs covered the years 1903 to 1909, logic dictates that the second season should have moved on to the second decade of the 20th century. However, the produced decided for the time being to keep the action concentrated in the Read More

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 01

Crew: Show Creator

Actors: Gordon Jackson, Jean Marsh, Rachel Gurney, David Langton, Angela Baddeley

Synopsis: The first season of the British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs takes place from November 1903 through June 1909, an era popularly known as "Edwardian" in honor of King Edward VII. Fans of the series will notice that the familiar characters are still in the developmental process during the first Read More

Upstairs, Downstairs [TV Series]

Crew: Show Creator

Synopsis: The internationally popular British series Upstairs, Downstairs was created by actresses Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, and originally conceived as a contemporary half-hour situation comedy. By the time the series had been accepted by London Weekend Television, it had been revised as a hour-long Read More

The Three Sisters

Inadmissible Evidence

Actors: Nicol Williamson, Eleanor Fazan, Jill Bennett, Peter Sallis, David Valla

Synopsis: Based on a play by John Osborne, this is one of those movies where the audience pulls for the protagonist but has a hard time actually saying that he IS a protagonist. A highly unlikeable fellow, this protagonist is an attorney in all the ways that make this more an epithet than a profession. He's Read More

A Room of One's Own