Spine Chillers was the name of two separate supernatural television series, broadcast on the BBC.
Spine Chillers was a 1980 British children's supernatural television series produced by the Jackanory team and broadcast on BBC1. It featured readings of classic ghost and horror stories aimed at older children, and ran for 20 episodes of 10 minutes each.
Spine Chillers was also the name of a British series aimed at older viewers, a comedy horror anthology first shown on BBC Three in 2003. [1] It comprised six episodes:
In 2005, a similar fourteen-part anthology series Twisted Tales premiered on the same channel. [2] [3] [4]
Elizabeth R is a BBC television drama serial of six 90-minute plays starring Glenda Jackson as Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was first broadcast on BBC2 from February to March 1971, through the ABC in Australia and broadcast in the United States on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The series has been repeated several times, most recently from 15 March 2023, by BBC Four.
Sir Jonathan Pryce is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards, and a knighthood for services to drama.
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secrets of his parentage, and reconnects with his remaining family.
Frederick Charles Jones was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in The Dresser; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in The Elephant Man (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2005 to 2018.
Damian Watcyn Lewis is a British actor, presenter and producer. He is best known for portraying U.S. Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the Showtime series Homeland, and nominations for both for his performance as Henry VIII of England in Wolf Hall. He portrayed Bobby Axelrod in the Showtime series Billions in six out of seven seasons, and appeared in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) as actor Steve McQueen.
"Sredni Vashtar" is a short story by Saki, written between 1900 and 1911 and first published in his 1912 short story collection The Chronicles of Clovis. It has been adapted for opera, film, radio and television.
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London. Designed by the architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfeld, it became the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street when it opened its doors on 21 February 1901, with the American musical comedy The Belle of Bohemia.
Stephen Gallagher is an English screenwriter and novelist. Gallagher was born in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Toby Edward Heslewood Jones is an English actor. He is known for his extensive character actor roles on stage and screen. From 1989 to 1991, Jones trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, which played in the West End and on Broadway, earning him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2020, he was nominated for his second Olivier Award, for Best Actor for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya.
John Woodvine is an English actor who has appeared in more than 70 theatre productions, as well as a similar number of television and film roles.
Freddie as F.R.O.7 is a 1992 British animated musical action fantasy comedy film written and directed by Jon Acevski and starring the voice of Ben Kingsley. Inspired by bedtime stories Acevski told to his son about his favourite toy frog working as a secret agent, it is a parody of James Bond.
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered dramatic territory similar to that of the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the early emperors of Ancient Rome, but differed in its less sensationalist depictions of historical characters and their motives; in particular, the Emperor Tiberius is portrayed much more sympathetically.
Consuming Passions is a 1988 black comedy film which stars Vanessa Redgrave, Jonathan Pryce, and Sammi Davis and was directed by Giles Foster. The film is based on Secrets by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, a BBC television play broadcast in 1973.
Fagin is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist. In the preface to the novel, he is described as a "receiver of stolen goods". He is the leader of a group of children whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities, in exchange for shelter. A distinguishing trait is his constant and insincere use of the phrase "my dear" when addressing others. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children. Nancy, who is the lover of Bill Sikes, is confirmed to be Fagin's former pupil.
Amanda Abbington is an English actress. In a career spanning over thirty years on stage and screen, her most prominent roles include Josie Mardle in Mr Selfridge (2013–2016) and Mary Morstan in Sherlock (2014–2017).
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.
Haven is a supernatural drama television series loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid (2005). The show, which dealt with strange events in a fictional town in Maine named Haven, was filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, and was an American/Canadian co-production. It starred Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Nicholas Campbell and Eric Balfour, whose characters struggle to help townspeople with supernatural afflictions and protect the town from the effects of those afflictions. The show was the creation of writers Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst.
Twisted Tales is a British comedy-horror anthology television series written by a mix of established writers and upcoming talent that aired on BBC Three from January to April 2005. It consisted of fourteen self-contained episodes with a mysterious twist and had the same format as a previous BBC Three series of six comedy-horror stories, Spine Chillers (2003).