Charles Pemberton
Biography
Character actor Charles Pemberton had a long career in television but found theatrical fame with his one man entertainment, WS Gilbert - A Disagreeable Man? which he toured throughout the UK and Europe. The two hour show, from a script by Brian Jones, traced the life of the 19th century popular composer and martinet. Pemberton was born on September 19, 1939 in Leyland, Lancashire. He trained for the stage at the Rose Bruford Drama School and graduated with distinction in 1963. He joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company where he remained for two years before appearing in repertory at the Library Theatre, Manchester, Harrogate and Derby. He made his television debut in 1964 as a detective sergeant in the soap Crossroads and went on to play a succession of policemen, military types and officials in countless dramas and sitcoms such as Callan, The Professionals, Minder, Juliet Bravo and Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective. He was in two storylines of Doctor Who, The Tomb of the Cybermen and The War Games and he played Johnny Mann in Coronation Street (1973). He also had cameos in the award-winning drama The Naked Civil Servant (1975), John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy (1987), Great Expectations (1989) (as Mr Philbean 1989), Victoria Wood's Pat & Margaret (1994) and Foyle's War (2004). On the West End stage he appeared with Ingrid Bergman in Sir John Gielgud's revival of The Constant Wife (Albery Theatre 1973) and he played Ormonroyd in Priestley's When We Are Married (Whitehall Theatre). He also starred in several commercials including the award-winning series of John Smith's Yorkshire Bitter adverts. He later recorded his one man show on CD. Pemberton was an accomplished magician and held the Inner Magic Circle Silver Star. He was vice president of the Catholic Stage Guild and a much revered member of the CAA. He had recently been elected to the Savage Club where he had performed his own man show to much acclaim. A genial and kind man with a self effacing sense of humour he was a familiar figure in London's theatreland with his bewhiskered looks and jaunty smile. He will be much missed by his many colleagues in the profession. Friend Barbara Angell said, "We were friends through thick and thin - we were sometimes rich together but mostly poor, at least financially. We shared a lot of laughs. Pemberton had been suffering from cancer and died on May 13, 2007. He was survived by his mother.
Known For & Full Filmography59 Titles
Drama Series - 1989, 16 episodes • as Stooge
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Drama Series - 1989, 16 episodes • as Harry Clarke
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Drama Series - 2002, 16 episodes • as Policeman
As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Policeman
Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.
Drama Series - 1977, 16 episodes • as Big Man
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
Drama Series - 1977, 16 episodes • as Styles
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.
Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes • as Pub Man
Series of single made-for-television dramas.
Drama Series - 1978, 16 episodes • as Reg Wilkey
The trials and misadventures of the staff at a country veterinary office in Yorkshire. James Herriot, a young animal surgeon, moves to a small Yorkshire town to begin his first job.
Drama Series - 1990, 16 episodes • as Mr. Bradshaw
The Upper Hand is a British television sitcom, produced by Central Independent Television and Columbia Pictures Television and broadcast by ITV from 1990 to 1996. The programme was adapted from the American sitcom Who's the Boss?. As in the former series, an affluent single woman, raising a son with the help of her mother, hires a housekeeper only to have a man apply for the job.
Drama Series - 1973, 16 episodes • as Sergeant
Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Man with dog
Middle-aged Terry and June Medford are beginning to find the trials of life more difficult as they try to succeed in their daily lives. The couple have just moved to Purley, south-east London... Aunt Lucy and the mynah bird have disappeared, as had the occasionally visiting daughters. Terry and June now mixed with friendly next door neighbour Beattie; Terry's chatty work colleague, Malcolm; and their gruff boss Sir Dennis Hodge. Otherwise, things were much as before, with Terry's pigheaded childishness causing no end of problems, usually thwarting June's attempts at leading a cosy life.
Drama Series - 1986, 16 episodes • as DHSS Claimant
Bread is a British television sitcom, written by Carla Lane, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC1 from 1 May 1986 to 3 November 1991. The series focused on the devoutly-Catholic and extended Boswell family of Liverpool, in the district of Dingle, led by its matriarch Nellie through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support. The street shown at the start of each programme is Elswick Street. A family called Boswell had also featured in Lane's earlier sitcom The Liver Birds and Lane admitted in interviews that the two families were probably related. Nellie's feckless and estranged husband, Freddie, left her for another woman known as 'Lilo Lill'. Her children Joey, Jack, Adrian, Aveline and Billy continued to live in the family home in Kelsall Street and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.
Drama Series - 1980, 16 episodes • as Policeman
Each self-contained episode features a different kind of horror, varying from witches, werewolves, ghosts, devil worship and voodoo, but also includes non-supernatural themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers.
Drama Series - 1978, 16 episodes • as Security Man
Follow the swashbuckling exploits of Simon Templar, a modern-day Robin Hood of sorts.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Court Officer
Shoestring is a BBC detective drana set in Bristol and starring Trevor Eve as private detective Eddie Shoestring, who operatee his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 hour-long episodes. Eve opted not to return after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre, so the production team changed the setting to Jersey and created Bergerac, also following a detective returning to work after a bad period in his life.
Drama Series - 1976, 16 episodes • as Police Constable
After his death, Fred Mumford wants a second chance at achieving the success that eluded him in life. Coming back to Earth as a spirit, he recruits a Victorian gent and a medieval jester to set up 'Rentaghost', a supernatural service for wanted hauntings.
Drama Series - 1994, 16 episodes • as Roger
All Quiet on the Preston Front (or the shortened Preston Front as it became known for series two and three) was a BBC comedy drama about a group of friends in the fictional Lancashire town of Roker Bridge, and their links to the local Territorial Army infantry platoon. It was created by Tim Firth and ran from 1994 to 1997.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Police Sergeant
Danger UXB is a 1979 British television series developed by John Hawkesworth and starring Anthony Andrews as Lieutenant Brian Ash, an officer in the Royal Engineers. The programme is titled and partly based on the memoirs of Major A. B. Hartley, M.B.E, RE, Unexploded Bomb - The Story of Bomb Disposal, with episodes written by Hawkesworth and four screenwriters. The series chronicles the exploits of the fictional 97 Tunnelling Company which, as a result of thousands of unexploded bombs in London during the Blitz, has become a bomb disposal unit. As with all his fellow officers, Ash must for the most part learn the techniques and procedures of disarming and destroying the UXBs through experience, repeatedly confronted with more cunning and deadlier technological advances in aerial bomb fusing. The storylines were primarily military, with a romantic thread between Ash and an inventor's married daughter, and other human interest vignettes.
Drama Series - 1989, 16 episodes • as Charlie O'Neill
Focuses on brothers Frank and Danny Kane. Their mother is the matriarch of a South London criminal gang, assisted by Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club following the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from crime.
Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes • as Sergeant Rose
When a handful of grain is found in the pocket of a murdered businessman, Miss Marple seeks a murderer with a penchant for nursery rhymes.
Drama Series - 1984, 16 episodes • as Fireman
The ups and downs of small time London gambler Robby Box, and the effect that his poker addiction has on his long suffering girlfriend Jan Oliver and family.
Movie - 2002, 2h 15m • as Impressario
A young British officer resigns his post when he learns of his regiment's plan to ship out to the Sudan for the conflict with the Mahdi. His friends and fiancée send him four white feathers as symbols of what they view as his cowardice. To redeem his honor, he disguises himself as an Arab and secretly saves their lives.
Drama Series - 1976, 16 episodes • as Uncle William Dickens
A 13-episode miniseries from Yorkshire Television, about Charles Dickens, by now an internationally renowned novelist, during an 1869 tour of America, looking back over his life.
Drama Series - 1979, 16 episodes • as Policeman
Sapphire & Steel is a British television science-fiction fantasy series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 on the ITV network. The series was created by Peter J. Hammond who conceived the programme under the working title The Time Menders, after a stay in an allegedly haunted castle. Hammond also wrote all the stories except for the fifth, which was co-written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read. None of the stories had onscreen titles, or any official titles assigned by the writers. The Region 1 Complete Series DVD release gives the titles "Escape Through a Crack in Time", "The Railway Station", "The Creature's Revenge", "The Man Without a Face", "Dr. McDee Must Die" and "The Trap", respectively. These titles have often been cited as having been created by science fiction magazine Time Screen.
Drama Series - 1972, 16 episodes • as Ron Bailey
Romany Jones is a British sitcom created and written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe for LWT. Broadcast between 1973 and 1975, the programme follows the comic misadventures of two layabout families living on a caravan site. Originally designed as a starring vehicle for James Beck (Dad's Army), the 1972 pilot and 1973 first series centred on Bert and Betty Jones (Jo Rowbottom), newlywed after seven years, who spend their wedding night in their rickety caravan, natural to Bert but distinctly alien to Betty, born and bred in Streatham. Most of the humour focused on life in theirs and a neighbouring caravan housing Lily and Wally Briggs (Queenie Watts and Arthur Mullard, although Arthur English was cast in the pilot). Following Beck's death after completion on the second series, Bert and Betty were written out, and replaced with a city gentleman and his debutante wife, both of whom remain blissfully oblivious to the Briggs' antics.
Drama Series - 1967, 16 episodes • as Ron
Jennifer Corner is a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry is a school art teacher, and they have three children, Henry, Robin and Trudi.
Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes • as Warden
An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.
Drama Series - 1992, 16 episodes • as PC
Eccentric psychology professor Dr John Cornelius solves technologically-charged crimes with his partner Samantha Valentine, police contact Inspector Cadogan, and his HOD Professor Owen Griffiths.
Drama Series - 1984, 16 episodes • as Chief Constable
Patrick Troughton stars in this children's fantasy tale with dark undertones. When a young schoolboy is given a box for safekeeping by a mysterious magician, little does he know the wondrous things he’ll soon discover.
Drama Series - 1981, 16 episodes • as Sgt Phillips
Shillingbury Tales is a 1980–81 British sitcom produced by Associated Television for ITV. Comprising a single feature length pilot and six one-hour episodes, the series deals with life in an idealised fictional English village and stars Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Nigel Lambert, Jack Douglas, John Le Mesurier, Bernard Cribbins and Trevor Howard. The series was written by Francis Essex and directed by Val Guest. Unusual for the time, it was shot entirely on location in the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire on 16mm and consequently there was no laugh track. The show ended when ATV lost their licence to broadcast and their replacement Central declined to continue production.
Drama Series - 1992, 16 episodes • as Don
Gone to Seed is a British comedy-drama series created by Tony Grounds, a standalone spin-off to his earlier Gone to the Dogs. With much of the cast returning—albeit in new roles—the six-episode series follows the Plant family, who have run a garden centre in Rotherhithe since Dickens’ time, surviving both war and redevelopment. But now, family rivalry threatens to poison their unlikely paradise when matriarch Mag refuses to hand over control to her triplet children. Frumpy Hilda has only one passion in life: Milwall FC. Country/western singer Monty dreams of turning the run-down nursery into a floral oasis in the heart of Docklands, whilst his one-eyed jobless builder and part-time wrestler Winston doesn’t know a begonia from a buttercup! Meanwhile, local conman Wesley Willis lurks in the shadows and knows the true-worth of prime-location London real-estate.
Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Sgt. Ted Mundy
At the request of his old war time colleague Ailsa Brimley, George Smiley agrees to look into the murder of Stella Rode. Brimley had only just received a letter from her saying she feared for her life at her husband's hand. The husband, Stanley Rode teaches at Carne School, but Smiley is doubtful that he had anything to do with his wife's death. As Smiley investigates, he learns that Stella was a nosy busybody who loved to learn other's little secrets and then gossip about them - or possibly blackmail them. When a student is killed and Smiley unearths a secret, he has the evidence to name the killer.Based on John Le Carré's 1962 thriller (his first) in which George Smiley is brought out of spy retirement to solve a murder in a British public school. The setting is based on Le Carre"s own schooldays in Sherborne and his brief experience teaching at Eton.
Movie - 1975, 2h 15m • as Arthur (uncredited)
A hard-nosed Chicago cop is sent to London to bring back an American mobster being held for extradition. Brannigan in his Irish-American way brings American law to the people of Scotland Yard but has to contend with a stuffy old London first.
Drama Series - 1989, 16 episodes • as Publican
No Strings is a British sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, broadcast from 12 April to 31 May 1989. It stars Edward Petherbridge and Joan Marsh. Sam comes home to find that his wife has run off with another man. He contacts Rosie, the other man's wife, and finds that they have a lot in common. Gradually, a relationship develops between them.
Movie - 1976, 2h 15m • as Sergeant Jeeves
Joe North is a London taxi driver who manages to get himself into any number of sexual situations with various women.
Movie - 1975, 2h 15m • as Court PC
Story of the life of Quentin Crisp, an Englishman who was brave enough to live his life according to his own style even in the hostile days of WW2.
Movie - 1977, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A gung-ho ex-military man pursues a secret life of crime, culminating in the kidnapping of a teenage heiress.
Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • as PC Baxter
A demobbed soldier, Gordon Laid, returning from World War II meets Maxine Lupercal, a member of a traveling troupe of actors returning to England on the same ship. As Gordon closely resembles a member of the troupe of actors, mistaken identity causes him to become embroiled in various murders and an international espionage plot involving a cigarette lighter that strangely affects electricity. The action reaches its comical climax on stage with Gordon and his double as the spies and the police converge on the theatre is a desperate attempt to retrieve the missing cigarette lighter.
Movie - 1995, 2h 15m • as ÄŚernĂk
Communism seen through the eyes of a young girl who watches her beloved uncle struggle with the oppressive government .
Drama Series - 1985, 16 episodes • as Court Sergeant
Charters and Caldicott is a 1985 BBC mystery series featuring the characters Charters and Caldicott from the film The Lady Vanishes. It featured six 50 minute episodes broadcast on BBC1 at 9.25pm on Thursdays from 10 January to 14 February 1985.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Alien Technician (archive footage)
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on an unnamed planet. At first believing themselves in the midst of World War I, they realise it to be one of many War Zones overseen by the War Lords, who have kidnapped large numbers of human soldiers to form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this plot is the War Chief, another renegade Time Lord like the Doctor. The creeping realisation sets in that the Doctor cannot solve this problem alone, and that his days of wandering may be at an end...
Movie - 1981, 2h 15m • as Det. Const. Evans
When D. C. Dangerous Davies, not held in high regard by his superiors, is assigned to find a notorious criminal kingpin, he uncovers the details of 15-year-old cold case.
Movie - 1976, 2h 15m • as Chauffeur
Joe, the chauffeur to an unnamed South American embassy, enjoys the small prks of privilege that his job provides him. When a coup in the country results in the ambassador's recall, his halycon life is upended.
Movie - 1988, 2h 15m • as Large Man
The story of the Australian Rugby League's first visit to England.
Movie - 1969, 2h 15m • as Alien Technician
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on an unnamed planet. At first believing themselves in the midst of World War I, they realise it to be one of many War Zones overseen by the War Lords, who have kidnapped large numbers of human soldiers to form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this plot is the War Chief, another renegade Time Lord like the Doctor. The creeping realisation sets in that the Doctor cannot solve this problem alone, and that his days of wandering may be at an end...
Movie - 1981, 2h 15m • as Sergeant Jeeves (archive footage) (uncredited)
A feature-length compilation of the funniest and naughtiest bits from the legendary 1970s 'Adventures of a...' series!
Movie - 1994, 2h 15m • as Porter
Unexpected events occur when Pat, a glamorous British-born star of American soaps, returns home to plug her auto-biography on television and meets, for the first time since they were teenagers, Margaret her plain and frumpy younger sister. The meeting is painful for both women highlighting the vast differences in their lives and resurrecting painful memories of their unhappy childhood with an uncaring, errant mother. The tabloid press smell a juicy story and a race ensues to trace the whereabouts of the long lost parent.
Movie - 1981, 2h 15m • as Dad
The Metaliens, alien robots intent on galactic domination, encounter a major setback. Their enormous Space Saucer, 'Compromise', enters a black hole in a strange, uncharted region of Space, and collides with another craft – sending the Kleptonite Ball, their precious cargo and the key to Universal Conquest, hurtling to a planet inhabited by primitive life forms: Earth. Having materialised in a bar, the Ball variously functions as a Christmas tree decoration, a bathroom ornament, and a fortune-teller's prop. The Metaliens must retrieve the Kleptonite Ball if their mission is ever to succeed. And that's when their problems really begin…
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • as Miller
Times are hard for habitual guest of Her Majesty Norman Stanley Fletcher. The new prison officer, Beale, makes MacKay look soft and what's more, an escape plan is hatching from the cell of prison godfather Grouty and Fletcher wants no part of it.
Movie - 1977, 2h 15m • as White Official
An innocent and unsophisticated Guyanese immigrant is exposed to the hustlin' way of life in the Brixton ghetto.
Movie - 1975, 2h 15m • as Policeman (uncredited)
Three young men, a scriptwriter, a producer and a director are called in by Benny U Murdoch, an exotic movie producer. He wants to make a new erotic movie starring a big woman - the "Eskimo Nell" of the title. However problems start from the beginning, the scriptwriter is a virgin, a lover of penguins and hasn't a clue on how to write an erotic movie, each of the three main backers want a different type of movie - a western, an erotic and a kung-fu movie with different people in the main part. However problems really start for the three when Benny runs off with all the money and they have to make three different versions of the same film and try not to let the backers and stars know what has happened. And this is made harder when there is a clean-up-filth society breathing down their necks....
Movie - 1967, 2h 15m • as Cyberman
Aided by his two assistants Jamie and Victoria, the Doctor lands the TARDIS on Telos, last resting place of the infamous Cybermen. There he discovers a band of archaelogists on a secret expedition to unearth the reason for his old enemies' extinction. In the underground shadowy depths, they find the icy tomb. A whole army in hibernation. A threat to no one, if the temperature remains low. But if the traitor in their midst gets his way, things could really heat up.
Movie - 1989, 2h 15m • as Policeman
A mockumentary charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith.
Movie - 2004, 2h 15m • as 2nd Stereo Customer
A play about an ambitious young manager of a Dixons-style electrical warehouse who gets saddled with a 65-year-old re-trainee on a frenetic bank holiday.
Movie - 1983, 2h 15m • as Barman
When Wayne has to go and live with his grandfather Albert, they both initially resent the arrangement. Hostilities soften when they discover some common interests.
Movie - 1987, 2h 15m • as Constable
To mark the conclusion of their "Third World Week" celebration, a cricket team in a small English village invites a black cricket team from South London to a charity game with comical results.
Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • as Plainclothes Policeman
What is it that Edgar Garrett sees, or thinks he sees, on his farm one morning in the mists of early spring? Whatever it is, one thing is certain. Life will never be the same again for him and his family.
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • as Employment clerk
The true story of Terry Wiles, born with no limbs in 1962 as a result of his mother's use of the drug thalidomide. This film tells the story of his childhood and adoption by the couple Len and Hazel Wiles who live on a remote farm, and the subsequent challenges and resistance to give Terry a 'normal' life.
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as Pub Man
Julie Walters stars as a single mother seemingly haunted by a sinister telephone system that seems to have become an evil intelligence in its own right.