James Bolam Filmography

Stella Does Tricks

Actors: Kelly MacDonald, Ewan Stewart, James Bolam, Lindsay Henderson, Hans Mathieson

Synopsis: The film begins in a London park where a teenage girl wearing pig tails, a short, childish skirt and carrying an ice cream cone sits upon a bench beside an older man and promptly performs a sexual act for him. The girl is Stella and the "stranger" is her pimp, Mr. Peters. As harsh as it is Read More

Dirty Tricks

Actors: Martin Clunes, Julie Graham, Lindsay Duncan, James Bolam, Neil Dudgeon, Matt Bardock

It Was An Accident

Actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Hugh Quarshie, Max Beesley, James Bolam

Synopsis: An ex-con tries to go straight, but finds that nearly everyone who knows him has other plans in this darkly comic crime story. Nicky Burkett (Chiwetel Ejiofor) grew up in the rough-and-tumble North London community of Walthamstow, where he slid into a criminal career as a lad that landed him in Read More

The End of the Affair

Actors: Heather-Jay Jones, Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart, Sam Bould

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Graham Greene, this romantic drama stars Ralph Fiennes as Maurice Bendrix, a novelist who, during World War II, had an affair with Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore), the wife of his best friend Henry (Stephen Rea). Sarah abruptly broke off the romance in 1944, but two years later Read More

The Island on Bird Street

Actors: Patrick Bergin, Jordan Kiziuk, Jack Warden, James Bolam, Simon Gregor

Synopsis: A young boy learns a grownup's lesson in survival in this dramatic adventure. Alex (Jordan Kiziuk) is an 11-year-old boy who is living with his father Stefan (Patrick Bergin) and Uncle Boruch (Jack Warden) in a Jewish ghetto in Poland during WWII. While Alex has been able to hold onto some shards Read More

Clockwork Mice

Actors: Ian Hart, Catherine Russell, Ruaidhri Conroy, Art Malik, Claire Skinner

Synopsis: This syrupy British drama stars Ian Hart as an English teacher assigned to a "special needs" school. Faced with a classroom full of angry, unruly children, Hart hopes to bring about order and unity by sharing his love of cross-country running. As is generally the case in films of this ilk, the Read More

Seaview Knights

Actors: James Bolam, Clive Darby, Sarah Alexander, Anita Dobson, Hildegard Neil

Synopsis: King Arthur returns and tries to save modern England in this British comedy. When bank robber Arthur sustains a head injury due to a heavy object shaken loose during his neighbor's vigorous lovemaking, the addled thief believes himself King Arthur incarnate. His mission is to save England from Read More

The Beiderbecke Connection

Synopsis: Four years after the success of the British mini-series The Beiderbecke Affair, the BBC followed with The Beiderbecke Connection, its sequel. The lives of jazz lovers Trevor (James Bolam) and Jill (Barbara Flynn), now married and raising their first child, become more complicated after they agree Read More

Shades of Darkness: The Maze

Synopsis: In this made for British TV movie, a young girl meets a ghost of her mother's lover on her estate. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Al Mas A La Al Kubra

Actors: Oliver Reed, James Bolam

Synopsis: This film on the 1920s liberation movement in Iraq, though needing work on dialogue and dramatic progression, is still a passable portrayal of the story of Dari Mahmud, one of the martyrs of the Iraqi uprising against British colonial rule. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide Read More

The Plague Dogs

Actors: John Hurt, Christopher Benjamin, James Bolam, Nigel Hawthorne, Warren Mitchell

Synopsis: Like Watership Down, Plague Dogs is an animated cartoon feature based on a novel by Richard Adams and produced by Martin Rosen. And also like Watership Down, it is more appropriate for an older audience. Two dogs escape from a British government research lab. As the authorities hunt down the Read More

As You Like It

Actors: Helen Mirren, Richard Pasco

Synopsis: The second presentation of the BBC/PBS 37-installment project The Shakespeare Plays was the Bard's As You Like It. The plot, borrowed from Thomas Lodge's romance tale "Rosalynde", takes place in the forest of Arden. Rosalind (Helen Mirren) is forced by various political intrigues to disguise Read More

When the Boat Comes In [TV Series]

Actors: James Bolam, Susan Jameson, James Garbutt, John Nightingale, Edward O. Wilson

Synopsis: Created by James Mitchell, the long-running British drama series When the Boat Comes In was set in the decades between the two World Wars. Disillusioned by his wartime experiences in France, ex-sergeant Jack Ford (James Bolam) arrived in the town of Gallowshields on Tyneside in search of a job Read More

The Likely Lads

Actors: Rodney Bewes, James Bolam

Synopsis: Likely Lads was inspired by the popular British television series of the same name. Returning to their TV roles after an absence of several years are Rodney Bewes and James Bolam, playing a pair of Northern English screw-ups. With their girl friends in tow, Bewes and Bolam embark on a motor trip Read More

In Celebration

Actors: Alan Bates, James Bolam, Brian Cox, Constance Chapman, Gabrielle Daye

Synopsis: One of the more cinematic entries in the mid-1970s American Film Theatre series, In Celebration is adapted from the play by David Storey. Lindsay Anderson, who directed the original stage version, reassembles his cast for this filmization. Alan Bates, James Bolam and Brian Cox play Andrew Read More

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? [TV Series]

Actors: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Brigit Forsyth, Sheila Fearn, Anita Carey

Synopsis: The surprise British TV hit of 1965, The Likely Lads was a sitcom built around the misadventures of two Northerners, Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes). Flying in the face of rumors that the two stars despised each other, Bolam and Bewes were reteamed eight years later for a Read More

O Lucky Man!

Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, Helen Mirren

Synopsis: One man's dreams of success take him on a Byzantine journey through the various stations of the British class system in this politically charged black comedy from director Lindsay Anderson. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is an ambitious young man who is looking to get his foot on the first rung of Read More

Crucible of Terror

Synopsis: A crazed sculptor (Mike Raven) realizes that his craft is made much easier by simply pouring molten bronze over his beautiful female models. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Straight on Till Morning

Synopsis: In this thriller, a naive young woman travels from Liverpool to London to search for a man willing to sire her child. She meets a perfectly charming fellow and decides that he is the one. Unfortunately, "Mister Perfect" turns out to be a psychotic killer. The film is also titled Til Dawn Do Us Read More

Otley

Actors: Tom Courtenay, Romy Schneider, Alan Badel, James Villiers, Leonard Rossiter

Synopsis: Gerald Arthur Otley (Tom Courtenay) is a British secret agent called in to investigate the murder of a suspected influence pedlar and document smuggler. He trails double agents and double martinis at a posh cocktail party before discovering the villains have the cooperation of top government Read More

Half a Sixpence

Actors: Tommy Steele, Julia Foster, Cyril Ritchard, Grover Dale, Penelope Horner, Elaine Taylor

Synopsis: British musical star Tommy Steele had starred in Half a Sixpence in London and on Broadway, thus he was first choice for this garish film version. Based on the H.G. Wells story Kipps (previously filmed in 1941 with Michael Redgrave), Half a Sixpence tells the tale of a humble London drapery clerk Read More

Inheritance [TV Series]

Actors: John Thaw, James Bolam

Murder Most Foul

Actors: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Andrew Cruickshank, Megs Jenkins, Dennis Price, Ralph Michael, James Bolam, Stringer Davis, Francesca Annis, Alison Seebohm, Terry Scott

Synopsis: Murder Most Foul represented Margaret Rutherford's third appearance as Agatha Christie's spinsterish sleuth Miss Marple. The film opens with Marple serving on a murder-trial jury. She forces a mistrial because she considers the accused to be innocent; to prove her theory, she traces the trail of Read More

A Kind of Loving

Actors: Alan Bates, June Ritchie, Thora Hird, Bert Palmer, James Bolam, Leonard Rossiter, Gwen Nelson

Synopsis: This well-wrought romance takes place in Lancashire, England in an industrial area where Vic (Alan Bates) and Ingrid (June Ritchie) work in the same factory. He is a draftsman who wants only a physical relationship with the woman of his choice (Ingrid), and she is a typist who wants true love with Read More

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Actors: Tom Courtenay, Michael Redgrave, James Bolam, Avis Bunnage, James Cairncross, Alec McCowen, Peter Madden

Synopsis: One of the key "angry young man" films which helped define the British "Kitchen Sink Drama" style of the late 1950's and early 60's, this story centers on Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), a bitter young man from a working-class family. Uninterested in school and determined not to follow his father Read More

The Kitchen

Actors: Mary Yeomans, Carl Möhner, Eric Pohlmann, Brian Phelan

Synopsis: This microcosmic comedy/drama is set in the kitchen of a swank London restaurant. The kitchen's unofficial father-figure is chef Carl Mohner, who gleefully advises his fellow workers to enjoy life and to seek their heart's desires. But no one is around to boost Mohner's morale when his planned Read More