Ian Richardson
Birthday: 1934-04-07 Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Synopsis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ian William Richardson CBE (7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007) was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian Richardson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting
Memorial Memorial
A memorial of sorts to the plinth on St. Peter's Hill, Grantham, which stood empty for two years before a statue of Margaret Thatcher was mounted in 2022.
Becoming Jane
A biographical portrait of a pre-fame Jane Austen and her romance with a young Irishman.
The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby
This is the true story of a little dog that refused to leave his master's graveside in Edinburgh. The dog visited the grave for years.
Dæmos Rising
Trapped in an isolated cottage, Captain Cavendish thinks he is seeing ghosts. The only person who might understand and help is Kate Lethbridge-Stewart ... but when she arrives, she realises that Cavendish is key in a plot to summon the Daemons back to the Earth. With time running out, Kate discovers that sometimes even the familiar can turn out to be your worst nightmare.
Nero
As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.
From Hell
Frederick Abberline is an opium-huffing inspector from Scotland Yard who falls for one of Jack the Ripper's prostitute targets in this Hughes brothers adaption of a graphic novel that posits the Ripper's true identity.
Gormenghast
A four-episode television serial based on the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. It was produced and broadcast by the BBC. Gormenghast is an ancient city-state which primarily consists of a rambling and crumbling castle. The narrative, based on the first two of the three Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, begins with the birth of a son, Titus, to the 76th Earl, Sepulchrave Groan, and Countess Gertrude. This mismatched pair (he'd prefer the melancholy privacy of his library; she'd prefer the company of her menagerie of cats and birds) also have a teenaged daughter, Fuchsia, who resents her new brother but comes to love him dearly. Simultaneously, a young kitchen apprentice, Steerpike, takes advantage of an altercation between head cook Swelter and the Earl's manservant, Mr. Flay, and escapes from the kitchens. Gormenghast is rigidly feudal in structure, but Steerpike has ambitions.
Gormenghast
At the Castle of Gormenghast, the Groan family has ruled with dusty ceremony for more than seventy generations. A clever and ambitious new kitchen boy, Steerpike, begins to insinuate himself into the affections of Lady Fuchsia Groan and to murder his way to power.
102 Dalmatians
Get ready for a howling good time as an all new assortment of irresistible animal heroes are unleashed in this great family tail! In an unlikely alliance, the outrageous Waddlesworth - a parrot who thinks he's a Rottweiler - teams up with Oddball - an un-marked Dalmatian puppy eager to earn her spots! Together they embark on a laugh-packed quest to outwit the ever-scheming Cruella De Vil.
The Magician's House
The Magician's House is a quartet of children's fantasy books by William Corlett. Two mini-series were produced in 1999 for British television, which were directed by Paul Lynch. The series featured Jennifer Saunders and Stephen Fry voicing some of the animal characters.
The books were published in the early 1990s, and named as follows:
⁕The Steps up the Chimney
⁕The Door in the Tree
⁕The Tunnel behind the Waterfall
⁕The Bridge in the Clouds
Although in a rural setting, this series' focus on subjects such as industrial development and the combining of present-day and past settings in the plotline gives it a feeling tending more towards urban fantasy than simply contemporary fantasy.
In addition, though there is no specific mention of Welsh myths and legends, the strong part nature plays in the stories and the settings bring to mind other British children's authors. Authors like Alan Garner, who is perhaps best known for The Owl Service and Elidor, and Susan Cooper, famous for The Dark Is Rising sequence of books, who allude more specifically to British myth and legend in their writings.
The King and I
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
A Knight in Camelot
Yet another variation on Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee At King Arthur's Court." Here, a computer malfunction causes a science researcher to be sent back in time with her laptop, which she uses to amaze the court.
Dark City
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
Incognito
Harry Donovan is an art forger who paints fake Rembrandt picture for $500,000. The girl he meets and gets into bed with in Paris, Marieke, turns out to be an arts expert Harry's clients are using to check the counterfeit picture he painted.
B.A.P.S
Two clueless homegirls move to L.A. to become dancers, but instead find themselves scamming a dying millionaire to eventually become B*A*P*S (Black American Princesses).
The Woman In White
Based upon Wilkie Collins Victorian mystery, the gothic tale tells of a pair of half sisters whose lives end up caught in a grand conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed in white. As the story unfolds, murder, love, marriage, and greed stand between the two women and happy lives. Their only hope is the secret the woman in white waits to tell them.
The Treasure Seekers
Five motherless children, with the help of a famous doctor, are determined to save their financially strapped father.
Catherine the Great
Trapped in a loveless arranged marriage to the immature future Czar, a young German Princess proves a skillful political infighter and rises to become Catherine the Great.
The Final Cut
Urquhart aims to secure his legacy on the international stage, but faces threats both from abroad and closer to home.
To Play the King
Francis Urquhart's survival at the top is threatened by the new king's populist agenda.
An Ungentlemanly Act
Based on actual accounts, this film portrays the days and hours before and during the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina, which eventually lead to the Falklands War. As the Argentine forces land on the main island and make their way towards Government House, the handful of British defenders batten down the hatches and prepare to defend the Governor Rex Hunt, his family and their fellow islanders from the invaders.
Year of the Comet
Year of the Comet is a 1992 romantic comedy adventure film about the pursuit of the most valuable bottle of wine in history. The title refers to the year it was bottled, 1811, which was known for the Great Comet of 1811, and also as one of the best years in history for European wine.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Two minor characters from the play "Hamlet" stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.
The Phantom of the Opera
Count de Chagnie has discovered Christine's singing talent on a market place and sent her to his friend Carriere, the director of the Parisian opera. However just when she arrives Carriere's dismissed. His arrogant successor refuses to let a woman of low birth sing in his opera, but graciously employs Christine as gadrobiere for his wife Charlotta, who's installed as first singer. He also fights the phantom, an unknown guy who lives since many years in the catacombs below the opera and was granted privileges by Carriere. However the phantom knows how to defend himself and at the same time helps Christine to her career.
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1990 NBC two-part drama television miniseries. It is adapted from Arthur Kopit's book for his then-unproduced stage musical Phantom, which is based loosely on Gaston Leroux's novel.
House of Cards
Frustrated at a new moderate Conservative government and deprived of a promotion to a senior position, chief whip Francis Urquhart prepares a meticulous plot to bring down the Prime Minister then to take his place.
The Plot to Kill Hitler
A historical recreation of the 1944 attempt by several German High Command Officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the German government.
