Nicholas Farrell
Encyclopedia
- This page is about the actor Nicholas Farrell. For the biographer of Mussolini, see “Nicholas Burgess FarrellNicholas Burgess FarrellNicholas Burgess Farrell is an English journalist and the author of Mussolini: A New Life, accused by some of playing down the crimes of Benito Mussolini, a former Italian dictator....
”.
Nicholas Farrell (born Nicholas Frost, in 1955) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. His early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
novel, Mansfield Park
Mansfield Park (1983 TV serial)
Mansfield Park is a 1983 British television drama serial, made by the BBC, and adapted from Jane Austen's novel of the same name, originally published in 1814. The serial was the first screen adaptation of the novel...
. In 1984, he appeared in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes and The Jewel in the Crown.
Since then, his film and television work has included several screen adaptations of Shakespeare's works, including Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
's 1996 Hamlet , in which he played Horatio, a role he had played previously with Branagh for the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
. He has also appeared in film adaptations of Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season...
(1996), Othello
Othello (1995 film)
Othello is a 1995 film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago...
(1995) and In the Bleak Midwinter
A Midwinter's Tale
A Midwinter's Tale is a 1995 romantic comedy written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Many of the roles in the film were written for specific actors....
(1995). He provided the voice of Hamlet for the animated television adaptation Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
Shakespeare: the Animated Tales
thumb|right|[[Banquo]] and [[Fleance]] from the "Macbeth" episode. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales comprised two six-part television series, first broadcast in 1992 and 1994...
(1992).
Other television appearances have included two Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
movies, Sharpe's Regiment
Sharpe (TV series)
Sharpe is a British series of television dramas starring Sean Bean about Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books...
, To Play the King
To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
, Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
and Collision
Collision (TV series)
Collision is a five-part television drama miniseries, which debuted on ITV in November 2009. In the same month, it was also on PBS as a series in two parts. It tells the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash...
. He has also appeared in episodes of Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
, Foyle's War
Foyle's War
Foyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during World War II, created by screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, and was commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000. It has aired on ITV since 2002...
, Absolute Power
Absolute Power (series)
Absolute Power is a British comedy series, set in the offices of Prentiss McCabe, a fictional public relations company in London, run by Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe ....
, Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
, Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
, Drop the Dead Donkey
Drop the Dead Donkey
- Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...
and Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
.
Farrell's theatre work includes performances of The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
, Camille
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
, and The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
as well as Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
productions of The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
, and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
. In the 2011 Chichester Festival
Chichester Festival production history
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, is one of the United Kingdom's flagship theatres with an international reputation for quality and innovation...
he played schoolmasters Dewley and Crocker-Harris in the double bill of South Downs
South Downs (play)
South Downs is a 2011 play by the British playwright and author David Hare. It is set in 1962 in a public school, similar to Hare's own school, Lancing, in the South Downs...
and The Browning Version.
He is married to Scottish actress Stella Gonet
Stella Gonet
Stella Gonet is a Scottish theatre, film and TV actress.- Career :Gonet trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and is known for playing Beatrice Eliott, one of the two lead roles, in three series of the television drama, The House Of Eliott and Chief Executive Officer Jayne...
.
Selected film and television appearances
Film credits include:- Amazing GraceAmazing Grace (2006 film)Amazing Grace is a 2006 U.S.–UK co-production film, directed by Michael Apted, about the campaign against slave trade in the British Empire, led by William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the hymn...
(2006) - Driving LessonsDriving LessonsDriving Lessons is a 2006 British dramedy film written and directed by Jeremy Brock. The plot focuses on the relationship between a shy teenaged boy and an ageing eccentric actress.-Plot:...
(2006) as Robert Marshall - The Third Wave (film)The Third Wave (film)The Third Wave is a Swedish action movie from 2003 directed by Anders Nilsson and starring Jakob Eklund. It is the third film in the series about police officer Johan Falk , the first two being Zero Tolerance and Executive Protection...
(2003) as Frank Devlin - Bloody SundayBloody Sunday (TV drama)Bloody Sunday is a 2002 film about the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" shootings in Derry, Northern Ireland. Although produced by Granada Television as a TV film, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 16 January, a few days before its screening on ITV on 20 January, and then in selected London cinemas...
(2002) as Brigadier Maclellan - Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (film)Charlotte Gray is a 2001 British-Australian-German feature film directed by Gillian Armstrong, based on the novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks...
(2001) as Mr. Jackson - Pearl HarborPearl Harbor (film)Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American action drama war film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay...
(2001) as RAF Squadron Leader - LegionnaireLegionnaire (film)Legionnaire is a 1998 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a 1920s boxer who wins a fight after having been hired by gangsters to lose it, then flees to join the French Foreign Legion. The cast includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Steven Berkoff, Nicholas Farrell and Jim Carter...
(1998) as Mackintosh - HamletHamlet (1996 film)Hamlet is a 1996 film version of William Shakespeare's classic play of the same name, adapted and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars in the title role as Prince Hamlet...
(1996) as Horatio - The Treasure SeekersThe Treasure Seekers (1996 film)The Treasure Seekers is a 1996 British television family film directed by Juliet May and starring Camilla Power, Felicity Jones and Kristopher Milnes. In Edwardian England, a family have only a few days to raise enough money to stop their home being repossessed. It is based on the novel The Story...
(1996) - Twelfth Night, or What You WillTwelfth Night, or What You WillTwelfth Night; or, What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season...
(1996) as Antonio - OthelloOthello (1995 film)Othello is a 1995 film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Oliver Parker and stars Laurence Fishburne as Othello, Irène Jacob as Desdemona, and Kenneth Branagh as Iago...
(1995) as Montano - In the Bleak MidwinterA Midwinter's TaleA Midwinter's Tale is a 1995 romantic comedy written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Many of the roles in the film were written for specific actors....
(USUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
title A Midwinter's Tale) (1995) as Tom Newman (Laertes, Fortinbras, and messengers) - Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) as Sir Hugh Belcher
- Chariots of FireChariots of FireChariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
(1981) as Aubrey Montague
Television credits include:
- New TricksNew TricksNew Tricks is a BBC television drama series which follows the work of the Metropolitan Police Service's Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad . Led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes...
(2011) as James Winslow - CollisionCollision (TV series)Collision is a five-part television drama miniseries, which debuted on ITV in November 2009. In the same month, it was also on PBS as a series in two parts. It tells the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash...
(2009) as Guy Pearson - TorchwoodTorchwoodTorchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
(2009) as Prime Minister Brian Green - Casualty 1909 (2009) as Chairman Sydney Holland
- The Diary of Anne FrankThe Diary of Anne Frank (TV serial)The Diary of Anne Frank is a BBC adaptation, in association with France 2, of The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Deborah Moggach.It was shown from 5–9 January 2009 in five half-hour episodes. Representatives of the BBC have said that they "hope [that] this drama will bring Anne [Frank] alive to...
(2009) as Mr. Dussell - Casualty 1907 (2008) as Sydney Holland
- PersuasionPersuasion (2007 TV drama)Persuasion is an adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel of the same name published in 1818. The TV-film premiered on 1 April 2007 on the UK channel ITV at 9pm, as part of their Jane Austen Season...
(2007) as Mr. Musgrove - Casualty 1906 (2006) as Sydney Holland
- Agatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
- The Mystery of the Blue TrainThe Mystery of the Blue TrainThe Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on March 29, 1928 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at...
(2005) as Major Knighton - Jericho, To Murder and Create (2005) as Charles Hewitt
- Trial & RetributionTrial & RetributionTrial & Retribution is a feature-length ITV police proceduraltelevision drama series that began in 1997. It was devised and written by Lynda La Plante as a follow-on from her successful television series Prime Suspect. Each episode of the Trial & Retribution series is broadcast over two nights. The...
VIII: Blue Eiderdown (2004) as Jonathan Southwood MP - Foyle's WarFoyle's WarFoyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during World War II, created by screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, and was commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000. It has aired on ITV since 2002...
, The Funk Hole (2003) as Chief Inspector James Collier - Absolute PowerAbsolute Power (series)Absolute Power is a British comedy series, set in the offices of Prentiss McCabe, a fictional public relations company in London, run by Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe ....
, Mr Fox (2003) as Simon Wellington - SpooksSpooksSpooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
, The Rose Bed Memoirs (2002) as Richard Maynard - The JuryThe Jury (TV serial)The Jury is a British television serial broadcast in 2002 . The series was the first ever to be allowed to film inside the historic Old Bailey courthouse.-Series One:...
(2002) as Jeremy Crawford (Juror #5) - SparkhouseSparkhouseSparkhouse is a BBC drama, originally shown in 2002, written by Sally Wainwright which is a modern take on Wuthering Heights.-Synopsis:Two young lovers battle against the odds to be together...
(2002) as Paul Lawton - Sex, Chips & Rock n' RollSex, Chips & Rock n' RollSex, Chips & Rock n' Roll is a six-part television mini-series which was written and created by Debbie Horsfield and directed by John Woods...
" (1999) as Howard Brookes - Midsomer MurdersMidsomer MurdersMidsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
, Strangler's Wood (1999) as John Merrill - The ChoirThe ChoirThe Choir is an atmospheric Christian alternative rock band, led by Derri Daugherty on guitar and vocals, Steve Hindalong on drums—who also writes most of the band's lyrics—along with Tim Chandler on bass guitar, Dan Michaels on saxophone and lyricon and Marc Byrd on guitar .Each band member has...
(1995) as Leo Beckford - Drop the Dead DonkeyDrop the Dead Donkey- Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...
, Dave and Diana (1996) as Martin Jones - Sharpe's RegimentSharpe (TV series)Sharpe is a British series of television dramas starring Sean Bean about Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books...
(1996) as Lord Fenner - BramwellBramwellBramwell is a British television series starring Jemma Redgrave as Dr. Eleanor Bramwell, a woman challenging the domination of men in the medical establishment, who runs a free hospital for the poor in the East End of London, during the late Victorian era .The series by Carlton Television was shown...
(1995) as Major Stuart Hyde - MacGyverMacGyverMacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
: Trail to Doomsday (1994) as Paul Moran - To Play the KingTo Play the KingTo Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
(1993) as David Mycroft - The Riff Raff ElementThe Riff Raff ElementThe Riff Raff Element was a 1990s British television series written by Debbie Horsfield and directed by Jeremy Ancock, who also directed Dressing for Breakfast and episodes of The Bill and Bergerac....
(1993) - Lipstick on Your CollarLipstick on Your CollarLipstick on Your Collar is a 1993 British television serial written by Dennis Potter, originally broadcast on Channel 4 expanded from Potter's earlier play Lay Down Your Arms...
(1993) as Maj. Church - Agatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's PoirotAgatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
- The ABC Murders (1992) as Donald Fraser - Shakespeare: The Animated TalesShakespeare: the Animated Talesthumb|right|[[Banquo]] and [[Fleance]] from the "Macbeth" episode. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales comprised two six-part television series, first broadcast in 1992 and 1994...
: HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(1992) as Hamlet (voice) - CasualtyCasualty (TV series)Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, Facing Up (1991) as Phil Byron - LovejoyLovejoyLovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
, The Italian Venus (1991) as Douglas Holden - The Jewel in the Crown (1984) as Teddy Bingham
- Mansfield ParkMansfield Park (1983 TV serial)Mansfield Park is a 1983 British television drama serial, made by the BBC, and adapted from Jane Austen's novel of the same name, originally published in 1814. The serial was the first screen adaptation of the novel...
(1983) as Edmund Bertram - The Manhood of Edward RobinsonThe Listerdale MysteryThe Listerdale Mystery is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins and Sons in June 1934. The book retailed at seven shillings and sixpence...
(1981) as Edward Robinson - MatadorMatador (TV series)Matador is a Danish TV series produced between 1978 and 1981. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The...
(1978) as Jim Donaldson