Derek Benfield

Acting

Derek Benfield

Born March 11, 1926 · Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Died March 10, 2009 · aged 82

Derek Benfield was an English actor and writer.

Known For

LifeforceLifeforce · 1985
Lifeforce
6.21985
MovieHorrorScience Fiction
A race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, commencing an apocalyptic descent into chaos.
Room at the TopRoom at the Top · 1958
Room at the Top
6.91958
MovieDramaRomance
An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Welcome HomeWelcome Home · 1971
Welcome Home
1971
MovieHorrorTV Movie
Dr Frank Bowers has been looking forward to returning home after a long stay in a psychiatric ward. But when he gets there, he finds that not only does no one recognize him, but another man called Frank Bowers is living in his place.
The GirlThe Girl · 1987
The Girl
4.91987
MovieDramaRomance
Pat Carlsson is a 14-year-old Swedish schoolgirl who though very young is very streetwise as she offers sex, for a price, to middle-aged attorney John Berg who can not resist the young girl. What starts as an immoral sexual escape, becomes a nightmare of tragedy and deception involving blackmail, kidnapping and murder.
Immortality IncImmortality Inc · 1969
Immortality Inc
1969
MovieScience FictionTV Movie
The very rich can buy eternal life: all that's needed is someone desperate enough to donate, for a high price, a young body into which their personality can be transferred.
CrossplotCrossplot · 1969
Crossplot
5.51969
MovieThrillerAction
A successful London ad-exec hires a beautiful Hungarian girl to pose for some modeling shots, little realising that she has overheard an assassination plot and is now being hunted by some dangerous killers.
I Don't Want to Be BornI Don't Want to Be Born · 1976
I Don't Want to Be Born
5.11976
MovieThrillerHorror
A woman gives birth to a baby, but this is no ordinary one. The child is seemingly possessed by the Devil.
RemembranceRemembrance · 1982
Remembrance
4.51982
MovieDrama
A group of Devonport-based Royal Navy ratings, due to sail to America for a six-month NATO exercise, go out on the town on their last night in port, hitting Plymouth's notorious Union Street district, with violent results.

Filmography

Sort
Peak PracticePeak Practice · 1993
Peak Practice
6.51993
SeriesDrama
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.

Fred Hargrave

Sergeant CorkSergeant Cork · 1963
Sergeant Cork
7.21963
SeriesDrama
Sergeant Cork is a British detective television series which first aired between 1963 and 1968 on ITV. It was a police procedural show that followed the efforts of two police officers and their battle against crime in Victorian London. In all 66 hour-long episodes were aired during the five-year run, although the last episode was not broadcast until January 1968, 16 months after the others. Journalist Tom Sutcliffe has credited it as a first example of the use of the Victorian-era policeman in a television crime series. A 1969 review in The Age opined that rather than suspense, the strengths of the series were its "excellent period settings and wonderfully thick pea-soupers" which "add up to splendid evocative stuff", as well as the performance of star John Barrie. At no time during the whole series is Sergeant Cork's first name given.

Mr. Spiller

The ExpertThe Expert · 1968
The Expert
9.01968
SeriesDrama
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.

Harry Murdoch

The Brittas EmpireThe Brittas Empire · 1991
The Brittas Empire
6.61991
SeriesComedy
The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. The show ran for seven series and 53 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show. The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained itself large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll, and all series have been released on DVD. The creators Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen often combine farce with either surreal or dramatic elements in episodes. For example in the first series, the leisure centre prepares for a royal visit, only for the doors to seal, the boiler room to flood and a visitor to become electrocuted. Unlike the traditional sitcom, deaths were quite common in The Brittas Empire.

Mr Franklin

Shine on Harvey MoonShine on Harvey Moon · 1982
Shine on Harvey Moon
7.71982
SeriesDrama
Shine on Harvey Moon! is a British comedy-drama series made by Central Television for ITV from 8 January 1982 to 23 August 1985 and briefly revived in 1995 by Meridian. This generally light-hearted series was created by comedy writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. The series is set in the East End of London shortly after the Second World War. Upon being demobbed RAF serviceman Harvey Moon, played by Kenneth Cranham, returns home and finds his family involved in various troubles. His wife Rita, played by Maggie Steed, is not interested in resuming their relationship, and works in a seedy nightclub frequented by American servicemen. He becomes involved with the Labour Party and the union movement. The name of the series is a wordplay on the title of the popular 1908 song 'Shine On, Harvest Moon'. The first series was commissioned and recorded by ATV at their Elstree studios with the remaining series filmed at newly constructed facilities in Nottingham.

Chairman

Hi-de-Hi!Hi-de-Hi! · 1980
Hi-de-Hi!
7.01980
SeriesComedy
Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom set in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, during 1959 and 1960, and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum amongst others. It aired on the BBC from 1980 to 1988. The series revolved around the lives of the camp's management and entertainers, most of them struggling actors or has-beens. The inspiration was the experience of writers Perry and Croft: after being demobilised from the army, Perry was a Redcoat at Butlin's, Pwllheli during the holiday season. The series gained large audiences and won a BAFTA as Best Comedy Series in 1984. In 2004, it came 40th in Britain's Best Sitcom and in a 2008 poll on Channel 4, 'Hi-de-Hi!" was voted the 35th most popular comedy catchphrase.

Rose's Dad