Stratford JohnsFilmography

Scarlet & Black

Actors: Ewan McGregor, Alice Krige, Stratford Johns, T.P. McKenna, Rachel Weisz

Synopsis: Published in 1830, Stendhal's landmark historical novel Le Rouge et le Noir has long been required reading in college literature courses, but has generally defied most attempts at adaptation to other mediums. Noteworthy exceptions include the 1954 theatrical-film version by director Claude Autant-Lara Read More

A Demon in My View

Synopsis: Anthony Perkins, in one of his last roles, is the sole highlight of this mundane, German-made psychological thriller, based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. Perkins plays Arthur, an obsessive-compulsive English bachelor with a history of far more destructive habits -- the worst of which include his Read More

Great Expectations

Actors: Anthony Calf

Synopsis: Produced for British television, this multipart adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations stars Anthony Hopkins as the mysterious convict Magwich, who secretly finances the education and entree into society of young Pip. With 6 hours at its disposal, this version is able to cover the length and Read More

The Lair of the White Worm

Actors: Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Sammi Davis, Peter Capaldi

Synopsis: Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm uses Dracula author Bram Stoker's final novel as the basic springboard into a surreal and dark-humored tale concerning a bizarre cult and a series of sacrificial murders in honor of an ancient pagan god. When archeologist Angus Flint (Peter Capaladi) discovers Read More

Salome's Last Dance

Actors: Glenda Jackson, Stratford Johns, Nickolas Grace, Imogen Millais-Scott

Synopsis: Ken Russell's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's Salome, Salome's Last Dance takes the form of a play within a film. Wilde (Nickolas Grace) arrives at a brothel with his lover, Bosey (aka Lord Alfred Douglas played by Douglas Hodge), where the proprietor, Alfred (Stratford Johns), has gathered his staff Read More

Foreign Body

Actors: Victor Banerjee, Warren Mitchell, Geraldine McEwan, Denis Quilley, Amanda Donohoe

Synopsis: Victor Banerjee, the India-born star of David Lean's A Passage to India, is the central figure of director Ronald L. Neame's Foreign Body. Jobless in Calcutta, Banerjee steals money from his own father to afford passage to Britain. There he makes contact with his cousin Warren Mitchell, who Read More

Car Trouble

Actors: Julie Walters, Ian Charleson, Stratford Johns, Vincenzo Ricotta

Synopsis: In this comedy, Julie Walters and Ian Charleson play a married couple, Jacqueline and Gerald, who somehow endure a fractious relationship that would have sent others running to divorce court in a second. One point of contention is Gerald's new Jaguar, a car he would take over Jacqueline any day. Read More

The Wild Geese 2

Actors: Scott Glenn, Barbara Carrera, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier, Robert Webber

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier trots out his late-career German accent once again, playing Rudolf Hess in this sequel to Wild Geese. Richard Burton was set to star in the film, but when he died, Edward Fox was brought in as a replacement, playing Burton's younger brother. (the film is dedicated to Burton). The Read More

Dance with a Stranger

Actors: Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm, Matthew Carroll, Tom Chadbon

Synopsis: This darkly haunting slightly fictionalized film is a retelling of the life and death of Ruth Ellis (Miranda Richardson), the last woman to be executed in England. Ellis, a divorcee and ex-prostitute works as a "hostess" in a tacky nightclub. There she meets and begins an obsessive love affair Read More

Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil

Actors: John Shea, Bill Nighy, Tony Randall, José Ferrer, Lucy Gutteridge

Synopsis: The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl (John Shea), a top athlete and Read More

The Beggar's Opera

Synopsis: Dr. Jonathan Miller, onetime Beyond the Fringe trouper, who was one of the leading lights of the PBS Shakespeare productions of 1978-83, serves as director of The Beggar's Opera. This adaptation of John Gay's lusty 18th-century "play with song" stars The Who's Roger Daltrey as robber captain Read More

Master of the Game

Actors: Dyan Cannon, Harry Hamlin, Ian Charleson, Cliff De Young, Fernando Allende

Synopsis:

Another of the many Sidney Sheldon novels given the TV-miniseries treatment in the 1970s and '80s, Master of the Game yielded a three-part, nine-hour extravaganza, with enough corporate and romantic intrigue to fill an entire television season. Covering nearly 100 years, the story (which Read More

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday, Episode 2

Actors: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Stratford Johns

Synopsis: In the second episode of the four-part story "Four to Doomsday," the Doctor (Peter Davidson) and his companions are trapped aboard a space vessel commandeered by the frog-like Urbankans. Likewise in the same predicament are four other passengers, all apparently earthlings, each from a different Read More

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday, Episode 1

Actors: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Stratford Johns

Synopsis: The Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions materialize on a huge Urbankan space vessel. They soon learn that their frog-like "hosts" intend to attack and plunder the earth -- but at first, the Doctor does not know how this is going to be accomplished. Beginning its four-episode run on January Read More

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday, Episode 3

Actors: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Stratford Johns

Synopsis: In the third episode of the four-part story "Four to Doomsday," the Doctor (Peter Davison) is still imprisoned on an Urbankan space vessel, still at the mercy of two frog-like aliens who hope to conquer the world. Hoping to prevent this catastrophe, the Doctor enlists the aid of four earthling Read More

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday, Episode 4

Actors: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Stratford Johns

Synopsis: In the conclusion of the four-part story "Four to Doomsday," the Doctor (Peter Davison) discovers that the alien Urbankans intend to wipe out humankind, then repopulate the earth with androids designed to resemble the planet's various ethnic types. Only by hoodwinking the androids into performing Read More

The Saint and the Brave Goose

Actors: Ian Ogilvy, Gayle Hunnicutt, Stratford Johns, Derren Nesbitt, Joe Lynch

Synopsis: Saint and the Brave Goose was culled from the revived Saint TV series of the late 1970s. Ian Ogilvy takes over from Roger Moore in the role of international adventurer Simon Templar, aka "The Saint." In this one, Templar comes to the aid of an imperiled young widow, played by Gale Hunnicutt. Stratford Johns Read More

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

Actors: Robert Hardy, Sian Phillips, Nigel Havers, Chloe Salaman, Tamsin Murray-Leach

Synopsis: As indicated by its title, this British miniseries concentrated on the years between the two world wars, when the eminent Winston Churchill (Robert Hardy) was politically out of favor in his own country. Acutely aware of the danger looming in a newly re-armed Germany, Churchill vainly tried to Read More

Great Expectations

Actors: Patsy Kensit, Gerry Sundquist

Synopsis: Dickens' oft-filmed novel Great Expectations has been adapted several times for British television. This version was offered as a two-parter in 1980, then distributed to the U.S. in 1981. Gerry Sundquist stars as Pip, a young boy of humble means whose subsequent career in London is subsidized by a Read More

Blakes 7: Games

Actors: Michael Keating, Paul Darrow, Josette Simon, Steven Pacey, Glynis Barber

Synopsis: The crew attempts to smuggle vital power-source crystals onto the Scorpio. This action may well cost them their lives -- unless they can outwit the game-playing computer owned by shifty swindler Belkov (Stratford Johns). And what of the evil Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce), who now has a score to Read More

George and Mildred

Synopsis: George and Mildred originated as a spin-off of the popular British sitcom Man About the House. Thus, the feature-length version of George and Mildred can be labelled a spin-off of a spin-off. Brian Murphy plays George, landlord of an apartment building chock-full of lechers and satyrs. Yootha Joyce Read More

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu

Actors: Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson, Sid Caesar, Simon Williams

Synopsis: Peter Sellers gets to play both hero and bad guy at the same time in this comedy variation on Sax Rohmer's infamous stories of Asian super-villian Fu Manchu. The 168-year-old Fu Manchu (Sellers) is starting to run out of the youth-preserving formula that has kept him alive and kicking for the past Read More

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization As We Know it

Synopsis: John Cleese co-wrote and stars in this satiric comedy as the less-than-spectacular progeny of the world's greatest detective. A mysterious super-villain announces across the globe that the world will come to an end in five days unless their demands are met. Research reveals that the fiend in Read More

I, Claudius

Actors: Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips, Brian Blessed, Margaret Tyzack, John Hurt

Synopsis: This 13-episode miniseries was adapted from the book by Robert Graves, which chronicles the tumultuous life and times of Claudius (Derek Jacobi), who despite a deformed leg and a speech impediment through prophecy becomes the Roman Empire. An aging Claudius looks back at the bizarre and Read More

Jack the Ripper

Actors: Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor, Sebastian Cabot

Cromwell

Actors: Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Robert Morley, Dorothy Tutin, Frank Finlay, Timothy Dalton, Charles Gray, Michael Jayston

Synopsis: This biography of Oliver Cromwell recalls the political and religious struggles of 17th century England. Cromwell (Richard Harris) is the Anglican religious fanatic who fights corruption and Catholicism with equal zeal, while King Charles (Alec Guinness) is the vacillating monarch who believes his Read More

Those Fantastic Flying Fools

Actors: Burl Ives, Troy Donahue, Gert Fröbe, Hermione Gingold, Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries

Synopsis: Produced in the wake of the all-star "comedy spectacular" Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Fantastic Flying Fools (originally titled Blast-Off, and also released as Those Fantastic Flying Fools) is based very loosely on a Jules Verne novel. A 19th century British newspaper offers a Read More

The Plank

Actors: Tommy Cooper, Eric Sykes, Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Graham Stark

Synopsis: In this slapstick comedy two bumbling workmen attempt to take a long wooden plank through a London suburb to a building site. Mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery

Actors: Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney, Richard Wattis, Stratford Johns, Desmond Walter-Ellis, Cyril Chamberlain, Eric Barker, Dora Bryan, Arthur Mullard

Synopsis: Cartoonist Ronald Searle's delightfully diabolical private-school girls are back in action in The Great St. Trinian's Bank Robbery. Comedian Frankie Howerd plays the head of a train-robbery gang who cleverly hides the loot from their biggest haul (presumably the infamous "Great Train Robbery" of Read More

Avengers: Legacy of Death

Synopsis: No sooner has Steed inherited an ornate dagger from an unknown benefactor than he is besieged by mysterious characters who offer him enormous sums of money and other tantalizing inducements to hand the dagger over to them. Things go from mildly amusing to highly dangerous when several of the Read More

Z Cars [TV Series]

Actors: Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor, James Ellis, Dudley Foster, Brian Blessed

Synopsis: The incredibly durable cop show Z Cars (pronounced "Zed Cars") was one of the great guilty pleasures of British television -- a program which everyone watched, but no one would admit to watching. Created by Troy Kennedy Martin, the series focused on a "typical" crime-ridden Liverpool police Read More

Two Letter Alibi

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a TV star tries to prove that her lover did not murder his boozy wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Avengers: The Frighteners

Synopsis: This episode was originally telecast May 27, 1961. The title refers to an organization that specializes in "persuading" people to do their bidding via brutal beatings. The head of the crooks is a man called The Deacon (Willoughby Goddard). The current target for the Frighteners is a man who Read More

The Professionals

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a renowned safecracker, just out of the slammer, finds himself immediately involved with a plot to rob a bank by entering the vault via the sewer system below. The plot goes awry and they all go back to the pokey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hand in Hand

Actors: Loretta Parry, Philip Needs, John Gregson, Sybil Thorndike, Derek Sydney

Synopsis: Director Philip Leacock, praised for his handling of child actors, does another excellent job with the two young stars in this story about religious tolerance -- and intolerance. Loretta Parry is Rachel, a seven-year-old Jewish girl whose best friend and playmate Michael (Philip Needs) is exactly Read More

The One That Got Away

Actors: Hardy Kruger, Colin Gordon, Michael Goodliffe, Terry Alexander, Jack Gwillim

Synopsis: The title character in this fact-based POW drama is Franz von Werra, played by Hardy Kruger. Shot down early in the war, Luftwaffe pilot von Werra is incarcerated in an English prison camp. He refuses to submit to camp routine, insisting that he's on the brink of escaping. After two failed Read More

Tiger in the Smoke

Actors: Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Tony Wright, Bernard Miles, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: In this British crime drama, an escaped killer heads for the French coast to find a mysterious treasure reportedly buried in a widow's mansion. The lonely widow is preparing to marry a man she doesn't love. Suddenly she begins receiving mysterious photos of her late spouse; they seem to suggest Read More

Who Done It?

Actors: Benny Hill, Belinda Lee, David Kossoff, Garry Marsh, George Margo

Synopsis: Already a popular TV comedian in 1956, Benny Hill heads the cast of the zany comedy-mystery Who Done It? Eschewing his usual double entendres in favor of pure-and-simple slapstick, Hill plays a would-be private eye named Hugo. Before he quite knows what's happening, Hugo is up to his neck in Read More

The Third Key

Actors: Jack Hawkins, John Stratton, Dorothy Alison, Michael Brooke, Sam Kydd

Synopsis: Jack Hawkins is starred as a gruff, intensely dedicated Scotland Yard superintendent. Working as much by instinct as through scientific methods, Hawkins and rookie sergeant John Stratton tackle the case of a string of unsolved safecrackings, committed by the elusive Richard Leech. This Dragnet Read More

The Ship That Died of Shame

Actors: Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen, Virginia McKenna, Roland Culver

Synopsis: Richard Attenborough stars as a former crew member of a British gunboat, which was distinguished by a heroic wartime record. Attenborough and several fellow ex-crewmen buy the vessel in peacetime. They clean, paint and renovate the ship, then proceed to launch a smuggling operation. The film Read More

The Night My Number Came Up

Actors: Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, Alexander Knox, Denholm Elliott, Ursula Jeans

Synopsis: The Night My Number Came Up was based on an actual incident in the life of Britain's Sir Victor Goddard. Michael Redgrave stars as an RAF pilot who is tormented by the premonition that his plane will crash. After much trepidation, he agrees to take a routine flight. As Redgrave prepares to take Read More

The Ladykillers

Actors: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Katie Johnson, Danny Green

Synopsis: Music professor Alec Guinness rents a London flat from sweet old lady Katie Johnson. He tells her that, from time to time, several other musicians will visit in order to rehearse. In truth, Guinness can't play a note, nor can his visitors: he's a criminal mastermind, holding court over a gang of Read More