William Hartnell
William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975), also known as Billy Hartnell or Bill Hartnell, was an English actor. Hartnell played the first incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, from 1963 to 1966. He was also known for his roles as Sergeant Grimshaw, the title character of the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant in 1958, and Company Sergeant Major Percy Bullimore in the sitcom The Army Game from 1957 until 1958, and again in 1960.
Hartnell entered the theatre in 1925 working under Frank Benson as a general stagehand. He appeared in numerous Shakespearian plays, including The Merchant of Venice (1926), Julius Caesar (1926), As You Like It (1926), Hamlet (1926), The Tempest (1926) and Macbeth (1926). He also appeared in She Stoops to Conquer (1926), School for Scandal (1926) and Good Morning, Bill (1927), before performing in Miss Elizabeth's Prisoner (1928). This play was written by Robert Neilson Stephens and E. Lyall Swete. It featured the actress Heather McIntyre, whom he married during the following year. His first of more than sixty film appearances was in Say It With Music (1932).
Hartnell continued to play comic characters until he was cast in the robust role of Sergeant Ned Fletcher in The Way Ahead (1944). From then on his career was defined by playing mainly policemen, soldiers, and thugs.
Hartnell's performance in This Sporting Life was noted by Verity Lambert, the producer who was setting up a new science-fiction television series for the BBC entitled Doctor Who; and, mainly on the strength of that performance, Lambert offered him the title role.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 3.248 |
| Birthday | 1908-01-08 |
| Place of Birth | St. Pancras, London, England, UK |
| Also Known As | Billy Hartnell , Bill Hartnell, Уильям Хартнелл, |
1958
Carry On Sergeant
6.4/65
Fall in for the first ever film in the highly successful Carry On comedy series—now an acclaimed British institution. Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtr...
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Carry On Sergeant
1959
The Mouse That Roared
6.3/115
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign...
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The Mouse That Roared
1948
Brighton Rock
6.8/113
Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's m...
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Brighton Rock
1944
The Way Ahead
6.4/35
A mismatched collection of conscripted civilians find training tough under Lieutenant Jim Perry and Sergeant Ned Fletcher when they are called up to...
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The Way Ahead
1948
Escape
5.7/15
A convict sentenced to three years for killing a detective escapes from a prison and goes on the run aided by a local girl.
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Escape
1950
Double Confession
6.1/13
The hero discovers his estranged wife dead and tries to frame her lover for the murder. He becomes involved with the criminals who make various unsucc...
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Double Confession
2021
Doctor Who: Galaxy 4
0/0
The TARDIS lands on a planet on the verge of total annihilation as it drifts too close to the three suns which its orbits.
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Doctor Who: Galaxy 4
1947
Odd Man Out
7.3/188
Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.
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Odd Man Out
1957
Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
7.2/10
While sailing lawfully up the Yangste in 1949, the British warship Amethyst found its return to the open sea blocked by Communist Chinese shore batter...
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Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
1957
Hell Drivers
6.6/53
An ex-con trying to go clean ends up working for a crooked trucking company swindling money.
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Hell Drivers
1977
That's Carry On!
5.762/21
Celebrating twenty years of classic Carry On films, two of the films’ best-loved stars, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor return to Pinewood film s...
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That's Carry On!
1963
This Sporting Life
7/107
In Northern England in the early 1960s, Frank Machin is mean, tough and ambitious enough to become an immediate star in the rugby league team run by l...
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This Sporting Life
1952
The Magic Box
6.3/20
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to i...
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The Magic Box
1956
Private's Progress
6.4/23
Stanley Windrush has to interrupt his university education when he is called up towards the end of the war. He quickly proves himself not to be office...
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Private's Progress
1946
Appointment with Crime
5.9/15
Small-time jewel thief Leo Martin is deserted by his partners-in-crime, club owner Gus Loman and driver Hatchett, when the robbery they are committing...
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Appointment with Crime
1947
Temptation Harbour
4.8/7
The story of a harbor signalman who retrieves a suitcase full of money after witnessing a murder, fails to report it to the police, and finds himself...
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Temptation Harbour
1958
Date with Disaster
5.3/7
A car salesman and suspected safecracker Miles saves his fiancee Sue from those who would kidnap her.
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Date with Disaster
1943
Headline
5.5/2
A crime reporter begins to investigate the disappearance of his bosses wife who had witnessed a murder.
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Headline
1939
Murder Will Out
0/0
Paul and Pamela Raymond become immersed in intrigue after receiving a costly jade. As they look for assistance in saving their skins, all their leads...
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Murder Will Out
1949
Now Barabbas
6.5/2
A prison governor deals with a variety of different prisoners, including a charming murderer.
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Now Barabbas
1943
The Dark Tower
6.1/14
While working at a circus, a man hypnotizes a trapezist to kill her partner.
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The Dark Tower
1960
And the Same to You
5.6/7
Dickie Dreadnought is the boxing-mad nephew of pious clergyman Reverend Sydney Mullet. To mollify his disapproving uncle, Dickie embarks on an elabora...
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And the Same to You
1960
Piccadilly Third Stop
6.5/9
A playboy tries to recruit a gang, who include an American who needs cash to satisfy his wife's expensive tastes, and an old time expert cracksman, to...
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Piccadilly Third Stop
1953
Will Any Gentleman...?
5.6/5
A trip to the theatre changes a meek bank clerk's life, as he undergoes hypnosis and leaves without being woken up. Suddenly, he believes he is the wo...
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Will Any Gentleman...?
1959
The Night We Dropped a Clanger
5.9/6
The movie takes place during WWII. A dashing British RAF Officer is earmarked for a secret mission behind enemy lines in occupied France, but wishing...
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The Night We Dropped a Clanger
1936
Midnight at Madame Tussaud's
6/1
Explorer Sir Clive bets that he can spend the night alone in Madame Tussauds Chamber of Horrors. Meanwhile, crooks hope to exploit his ward, Carol, fo...
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Midnight at Madame Tussaud's
1934
The Perfect Flaw
0/0
A clerk is planning to murder a stockbroker but is foiled in the attempt.
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The Perfect Flaw
1943
The Bells Go Down
6.8/8
Comedian Tommy Trinder plays it straight in this tribute to the wartime AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service). The dedicated band who kept the fires of London...
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The Bells Go Down
1949
The Lost People
5.7/3
Set in a German theatre after the Second World War, two British soldiers are holding a disparate and hostile band of refugees in this theatre, prior t...
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The Lost People
1963
Heavens Above!
6.2/22
A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and p...
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Heavens Above!
1963
The World Ten Times Over
7/4
Early 1960s realist drama following a day in the lives of two London flatmates. Sylvia Syms and June Ritchie star as Billa and Ginnie, two singletons...
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The World Ten Times Over
2023
Talking Doctor Who
5/3
As part of the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, David Tennant time-travels back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the Doct...
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Talking Doctor Who
1952
The Ringer
5.8/5
An underhand solicitor receives threatening notes, and the police are called in to protect him.
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The Ringer
2023
Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour
6.5/6
The very first crew of the TARDIS land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal...
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Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour
2024
Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
8/1
While the Doctor plays the Trilogic Game, Steven and Dodo are forced to play seemingly childish but ultimately dangerous games with the aim of being r...
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Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
1956
Doublecross
7/2
A Cornish fisherman becomes involved with Iron Curtain spies.
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Doublecross
1959
The Desperate Man
5/1
Two reporters are held hostage in old castle, by thief, looking for jewels, that he had buried, after robbing a local house.
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The Desperate Man
1959
Shake Hands with the Devil
6.5/23
In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea ho...
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Shake Hands with the Devil
1959
Strictly Confidential
4.5/2
Two con-men just released from prison get straight back to their old tricks.
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Strictly Confidential
1963
To Have and to Hold
5/2
A young woman is harassed by a man and seeks help from the police. The officer who visits her falls in love with her, but shortly after she is murdere...
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To Have and to Hold
1957
The Hypnotist
5.3/3
Culver is a psychiatrist who uses hypnotism to treat his patients. When Carpenter, a test pilot, comes to see him complaining of blackouts that make h...
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The Hypnotist
1945
The Agitator
6/2
The Agitator is a 1945 British drama film directed by John Harlow and starring William Hartnell, Mary Morris and John Laurie. Its plot follows a young...
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The Agitator
2013
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
8.2/745
In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in spa...
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Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
1964
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
7.8/8
The TARDIS materialises inside an Aztec tomb. Outside it, the Doctor and his companions soon discover that Mexico in the 15th century is a bloodthirst...
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Doctor Who: The Aztecs
1936
The Crimson Circle
5.2/2
Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, detectives at Scotland Yard try and track down The Crimson Circle, a secret society of blackmailers
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The Crimson Circle
1933
Follow the Lady
0/0
A Frenchwoman attempts to blackmail a wealthy man...
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Follow the Lady
1942
Suspected Person
5.5/2
After a $50,000 heist in New York, two of the suspected robbers walk free from the courtroom and they waste no time in heading to London in search of...
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Suspected Person
1951
The Dark Man
6.3/6
A killer called 'The Dark Man' commits double murder. This is witnessed by the young aspiring actress Molly Lester. The Dark Man tries everything to p...
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The Dark Man
1960
Jackpot
5/4
Back in London after serving time, an ex-convict learns that his wife is not willing to return to him. He plans to crack a safe at a club.
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Jackpot
1942
They Flew Alone
6/3
The story of flyer Amy Johnson the girl from Yorkshire who won the hearts of the British public in the 1930s with her record-breaking solo flights aro...
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They Flew Alone
1937
Farewell Again
5/1
Farewell Again is a multiplotted British comedy/drama about soldiers on leave and the people they've left. Given a six-hour pass after a tour of duty...
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Farewell Again
1964
Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction
5.6/14
In this completely TARDIS-based story, the crew find themselves and their ship acting very strangely indeed. Blame runs high for the Ship's unusual be...
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Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction
1964
Doctor Who: Marco Polo
7.2/9
The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fab...
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Doctor Who: Marco Polo
1964
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
6/9
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrie...
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Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
1964
Doctor Who: The Sensorites
5.2/5
The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew, who are suffering fr...
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Doctor Who: The Sensorites
1935
The Guv'nor
7.3/3
The Guv'nor (released in the U.S. as Mr. Hobo) is a 1935 British comedy film starring George Arliss as a tramp who rides a series of misunderstandings...
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The Guv'nor
1964
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
6.6/5
The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involve...
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Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
1964
Doctor Who: Planet of Giants
7/6
When the TARDIS malfunctions, it and its travellers land on Earth at the size of insects. They uncover a murderous plot involving a new insecticide, b...
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Doctor Who: Planet of Giants
1964
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
7.6/7
The TARDIS arrives in a desolate future London, where the Doctor discovers his old enemies the Daleks have taken control of Earth.
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Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
1965
Doctor Who: The Rescue
6.2/5
On the planet Dido, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara meet two survivors from a crashed spaceship who are terrorised by the monster Koquillion.
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Doctor Who: The Rescue
1965
Doctor Who: The Romans
7.9/7
The TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettu...
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Doctor Who: The Romans
1965
Doctor Who: The Web Planet
6.2/5
On the planet Vortis, the Doctor and his companions aid the butterfly-like Menoptra in their battle against the parasitic Animus and its mind-controll...
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Doctor Who: The Web Planet
1965
Doctor Who: The Crusade
6.2/4
In 12th century Palestine, the Doctor and his friends are drawn into the holy war between the forces of King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen rul...
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Doctor Who: The Crusade
1965
Doctor Who: The Space Museum
6.6/5
On the planet Xeros, the TARDIS crew discover their own future selves frozen in time as exhibits in a galactic museum and must avert this potential fu...
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Doctor Who: The Space Museum
1965
Doctor Who: The Chase
6.8/4
The Doctor and his companions are pursued through time and space by the Daleks on the desert planet Aridius and beyond.
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Doctor Who: The Chase
1965
Doctor Who: The Time Meddler
7.6/5
In England, 1066, the Doctor confronts a mysterious Monk who is attempting to change history.
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Doctor Who: The Time Meddler
1965
Doctor Who: Galaxy 4
5.7/3
The Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on an arid planet where they meet the beautiful Drahvins and the hideous Rills. Each has crash-landed after a conf...
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Doctor Who: Galaxy 4
1965
Doctor Who: The Myth Makers
7.3/3
When the TARDIS arrives on the plains of Asia Minor not far from the besieged city of Troy, the Doctor is hailed by Achilles as the mighty god Zeus an...
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Doctor Who: The Myth Makers
1966
Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan
7.8/5
In the year 4000, the Daleks conspire to conquer the Solar System. Their scheme involves treachery at the highest levels and a weapon capable of destr...
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Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan
1966
Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
7/3
The TARDIS materialises in Paris in the year 1572 and the Doctor decides to visit the famous apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven, meanwhile, is befrien...
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Doctor Who: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
1966
Doctor Who: The Ark
6.8/4
The Doctor and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet arrive some ten million years into the future, on board a generation starship which is ca...
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Doctor Who: The Ark
1966
Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
5.3/3
The travellers arrive in a strange domain presided over by the Celestial Toymaker — an enigmatic, immortal entity who forces them to play a series of...
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Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
1966
Doctor Who: The Gunfighters
7/4
Arriving in the town of Tombstone, the First Doctor finds himself involved with gunmen out to kill Doc Holliday...
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Doctor Who: The Gunfighters
1966
Doctor Who: The Savages
7.3/3
The TARDIS has arrived on a far-distant and seemingly idyllic world. Yet the Doctor, Steven and Dodo learn it hides a terrible secret: the apparently...
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Doctor Who: The Savages
1966
Doctor Who: The War Machines
7.3/6
The TARDIS arrives in London in 1966 and the First Doctor and Dodo visit the Post Office Tower. There they meet Professor Brett, whose revolutionary n...
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Doctor Who: The War Machines
1966
Doctor Who: The Smugglers
5.7/3
The TARDIS arrives on the coast of seventeenth century Cornwall — much to the astonishment of Polly and Ben. Pirates led by Captain Samuel Pike and hi...
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Doctor Who: The Smugglers
1973
Doctor Who: The Three Doctors
7.2/10
Time itself is in peril! The Time Lords and UNIT find themselves besieged by a mythic figure from the Time Lords' past hell-bent on destruction. The o...
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Doctor Who: The Three Doctors
1956
Tons of Trouble
5/4
An apartment handyman is unusually attached to a pair of boilers he names "Mavis" and "Ethel."
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Tons of Trouble
1941
Freedom Radio
6.3/3
Hitler's doctor is gradually realising that the Nazi regime isn't as good as it pretends to be when his friends start to "disappear" into the camps. H...
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Freedom Radio
1940
They Came by Night
5/2
A man is blackmailed into taking his brother's place in a gang for a jewellery heist.
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They Came by Night
1944
Strawberry Roan
6/1
Farmer Chris Lowe meets and falls in love with Molly , a chorus-girl. Despite the fact that she is a city girl through and through, she accepts his pr...
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Strawberry Roan
2017
Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time
8/123
As the Twelfth Doctor nears regeneration, he stumbles on his first incarnation, also refusing to change. It takes a captain, a glass avatar and a fami...
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Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time
1955
Footsteps in the Fog
7/40
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
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Footsteps in the Fog
1952
The Holly and the Ivy
6.7/23
An English clergyman's neglect of his grown children, in his zeal to tend to his parishioners, comes to the surface at a Christmas family gathering.
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The Holly and the Ivy
1962
Tomorrow at Ten
6.2/10
A British policeman (John Gregson) tries to find a rich man's (Alec Clunes) son before a kidnapper's (Robert Shaw) time bomb blows.
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Tomorrow at Ten
1942
The Goose Steps Out
6.4/12
Schoolteacher William Potts is the double of a captured German spy, so he is sent to Germany by British Intelligence to obtain the plans of a new secr...
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The Goose Steps Out
1966
Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet
7.9/9
The Doctor's TARDIS lands at the Snowcap space tracking station in Antarctica in December 1986. A routine space mission starts going wrong. When the b...
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Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet
1963
Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
7.5/15
Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, two humble teachers during 1963, discover a genius student's grandfather, simply known as "the Doctor", and his pol...
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Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
1964
Doctor Who: The Daleks
7.4/19
The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creature...
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Doctor Who: The Daleks
1983
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors
7.8/15
Many incarnations of the Doctors and their old companions are taken out of time and deposited in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. There, they must battle...
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Doctor Who: The Five Doctors
1945
Murder in Reverse?
6.5/4
Tom Masterick, a dock worker, is wrongfully convicted of a murder charge. His death sentence is commuted to a long prison term. When released as an ol...
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Murder in Reverse?
1938
They Drive by Night
5.8/15
“Shorty” Matthews having recently been released from prison visits his girlfriend in London only to discover her murdered. Fearing he will be wrongly...
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They Drive by Night
2006
Creation of the Daleks
0/0
Featured on the "Doctor Who: The Beginning" box set and tells the story of the Creation of the Daleks.
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Creation of the Daleks
1955
Josephine and Men
6.3/3
The trouble with Josephine is that her ever-loving and over-sympathetic nature leads her to switch from needful men to even more needful men...
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Josephine and Men
1952
The Pickwick Papers
6.6/12
The Pickwick Club sends Mr. Pickwick and a group of friends to travel across England and to report back on the interesting things they find...
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The Pickwick Papers
1943
The Peterville Diamond
5.3/3
Frantic farce involving a neglected wife, a stolen diamond and four identical briefcases.
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The Peterville Diamond
1982
Doctor Who: Earthshock
8.1/7
The Doctor and his companions must prevent the Cybermen from bombing the Earth in the 26th century. It is a battle not everyone will survive...
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Doctor Who: Earthshock
1942
Sabotage at Sea
5/1
The captain of a British cargo ship shanghais a group of sabateurs, unaware that the daughter of the ship’s owner is among them.
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Sabotage at Sea
2013
An Adventure in Space and Time
7.7/198
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass...
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An Adventure in Space and Time
2006
Masters of Sound
0/0
Documentary on the sound effects of Doctor Who in the 1960s.
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Masters of Sound
2006
Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS
0/0
A feature on Doctor Who: The Beginning box set which tells the stories of the Doctor's time machine - the TARDIS.
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Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS
2009
The Sets of Marinus
0/0
The Sets of Marinus is a BBC documentary looking at set design for the Doctor Who story The Keys of Marinus. It was released on the DVD of the serial.
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The Sets of Marinus
2002
Remembering 'The Aztecs'
0/0
The guest actors of the 1964 "Doctor Who" (1963) story, "The Aztecs", reminisce about their time on the programme and making the series.
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Remembering 'The Aztecs'
2012
Vision On
0/0
Vision On was a documentary of Clive Doig discussing the role of the vision mixer in making early Doctor Who episodes, including footage and discussio...
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Vision On
2012
Don't Lose Your Head
0/0
Don't Lose Your Head was a DVD documentary concerning Doctor Who that was released on 28 January 2013.
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Don't Lose Your Head
1933
The Lure
0/0
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The Lure
1936
Parisian Life
0/0
Watch Now
