Production

Tony Garnett

Born April 3, 1936 · Erdington, Birmingham, England, UK

Died January 12, 2020 · aged 83

Tony Garnett is a British film and television producer, director and former actor. He is best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, which started with The Wednesday Play and the groundbreaking Cathy Come Home amongst others, and continued into Play For Today and big screen features such as Kes. His other TV productions have included the controversial Law and Order and Th…

Known For

Earth Girls Are Easy

Earth Girls Are Easy · 1988

Earth Girls Are Easy

MovieComedyScience Fiction

In this musical comedy, Valerie is dealing with her philandering fiancé, Ted, when she finds that a trio of aliens have crashed their spaceship into her swimming pool. Once the furry beings are shaved at her girlfriend's salon, the women discover three handsome men underneath. After absorbing the native culture via television, the spacemen are ready to hit the dating scene in 1980s Los Angeles.

Fat Man and Little Boy

Fat Man and Little Boy · 1989

Fat Man and Little Boy

MovieDramaHistory

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

Follow That Bird

Follow That Bird · 1985

Follow That Bird

MovieFamilyComedy

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker, who thinks it would be better for him to live with other birds. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing · 1996

Beautiful Thing

MovieComedyDrama

During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

Kes

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

The Sweet Body of Deborah

The Sweet Body of Deborah · 1968

The Sweet Body of Deborah

MovieDramaMystery

A newlywed couple visits the husband's hometown of Geneva, where they are subjected to threats stemming from the death of his former fiancée.

Hostile Waters

Hostile Waters · 1997

MovieTV MovieDrama

Based on true events, an American submarine collides into a Soviet sub of the coast of America and an ensuing standoff occurs that could lead to total annihilation.

Cathy Come Home

Cathy Come Home · 1966

Cathy Come Home

MovieDramaTV Movie

Cathy and Reg are a couple with three young children, who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional, Cathy Come Home remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction, engaging viewers with social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children.

Filmography

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Earth Girls Are Easy

Earth Girls Are Easy · 1988

Earth Girls Are Easy

MovieComedyScience Fiction

In this musical comedy, Valerie is dealing with her philandering fiancé, Ted, when she finds that a trio of aliens have crashed their spaceship into her swimming pool. Once the furry beings are shaved at her girlfriend's salon, the women discover three handsome men underneath. After absorbing the native culture via television, the spacemen are ready to hit the dating scene in 1980s Los Angeles.

Producer

Fat Man and Little Boy

Fat Man and Little Boy · 1989

Fat Man and Little Boy

MovieDramaHistory

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

Producer

Follow That Bird

Follow That Bird · 1985

Follow That Bird

MovieFamilyComedy

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker, who thinks it would be better for him to live with other birds. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

Producer

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing · 1996

Beautiful Thing

MovieComedyDrama

During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

Producer

Kes

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Producer

The Sweet Body of Deborah

The Sweet Body of Deborah · 1968

The Sweet Body of Deborah

MovieDramaMystery

A newlywed couple visits the husband's hometown of Geneva, where they are subjected to threats stemming from the death of his former fiancée.

Producer

Hostile Waters

Hostile Waters · 1997

MovieTV MovieDrama

Based on true events, an American submarine collides into a Soviet sub of the coast of America and an ensuing standoff occurs that could lead to total annihilation.

Producer

Cathy Come Home

Cathy Come Home · 1966

Cathy Come Home

MovieDramaTV Movie

Cathy and Reg are a couple with three young children, who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional, Cathy Come Home remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction, engaging viewers with social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children.

Producer

Black Jack

Black Jack · 1979

MovieAdventureHistory

When honest young Tolly is forced on the run with ‘Black Jack’, a villainous ruffian, adventure and mishap are never far away. As the two enter a world of body-snatchers, private lunatic asylums, and travelling fairs, they find friendship in the most unlikely places.

Producer

Family Life

Family Life · 1971

A young woman, Janice, is living with her restrictive and conservative parents, who lead a dull working-class life and consider their daughter to be “misbehaving” whenever she’s trying to find her own way in life.

Producer

Drums Along The Avon

Drums Along The Avon · 1967

Drums Along The Avon

MovieTV MovieComedy

A liberal white man becomes a Muslim to promote racial harmony.

Producer

Old Chums

Old Chums · 1982

MovieComedyDrama

A man on crutches bumps into an old acquaintance who relentlessly bombards him with small talk.

Producer

Stand Up, Nigel Barton

Stand Up, Nigel Barton · 1965

Stand Up, Nigel Barton

MovieTV MovieDrama

Semi-autobiographical TV play by Dennis Potter, from the BBC's 'Wednesday Play' series. It deals with the experiences of Nigel Barton, a young man from a poor mining community who wins a scholarship to Oxford University. The villagers accuse him of snobbery, while the rich University students treat him like a peasant. Uncertain of which sphere he should be moving in, Nigel tries to reconcile himself with his proud but stubborn father, and also succeed at University, despite its pretentions which apall him.

Story Editor

Incident at Midnight

Incident at Midnight · 1963

Incident at Midnight

In a late night chemist a shot bank robber has been taken for treatment, and to rendezvous with the gang leader.

Brennan

The Big Flame

The Big Flame · 1969

MovieDramaTV Movie

After a prolonged industrial dispute in the Liverpool Docks, the striking workers reject management demands of a return to work and decide instead to occupy the docks and run the operation themselves.

Producer

The Turnaround

The Turnaround · 1995

MovieCrimeDrama

Private investigator Nick Sharman accepts a case which at first seems intriguing, but ends up causing him bitter regret.

Executive Producer

Up the Junction

Up the Junction · 1965

Up the Junction

MovieDramaTV Movie

The lives and loves of three young working class women, set in the pubs, terraced houses and factories of Battersea, South London.

Story Editor

Carry On Ken

Carry On Ken · 2006

MovieDocumentary

A documentary on the films of Ken Loach. Interviews with cast and crew who worked with Loach over the years. It describe his approach to allowing actors a wide range of freedom.

Right to Work March

Right to Work March · 1972

Right to Work March

MovieDramaDocumentary

They're young, unemployed and on the march - from Glasgow, Liverpool and Swansea to London.

The Coming Out Party

The Coming Out Party · 1965

The Coming Out Party

MovieDramaTV Movie

When a boy discovers that both his parents are in prison, he sets out to find them.

Story Editor

The Price of Coal, Part 2: Back to Reality

The Price of Coal, Part 2: Back to Reality · 1977

The Price of Coal, Part 2: Back to Reality

MovieDramaTV Movie

A month after the royal visit, the workers at Milton Colliery are brought crashing back down to earth by an underground explosion.

Producer

The Boys

The Boys · 1962

MovieCrimeDrama

A night watchman at a garage is found murdered, and four teddy boys are put on trial for the crime. Witnesses and suspects give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime, and the truth emerges.

James Alan "Ginger" Thompson

The Spongers

The Spongers · 1978

MovieDramaTV Movie

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

Producer

Prostitute

Prostitute · 1980

The tale of two women: Sandra, an ambitious but naive Birmingham working girl who moves to London with the hope of securing wealthier patrons, and Louise, her social worker friend, who is fighting to change the antiquated and hypocritical prostitution laws. As both strive to achieve their goals, a cold dose of reality dashes their hopes, and the built-in biases against women in society are unmasked.

Director

BBC Play of the Month

BBC Play of the Month · 1965

BBC Play of the Month

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

Producer

World in Action

World in Action · 1963

World in Action

SeriesNewsDocumentary

World in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964.

Cardiac Arrest

Cardiac Arrest · 1994

This series shows the workings of an English hospital through the eyes of its junior doctors. Naive and idealistic Dr Andrew Collins (Andrew Lancel), soon realises he still has much to learn. His boss, Dr Claire Maitland (Helen Baxendale) on the other hand, has seen it all. She is a competent doctor, with a cynical view, and is ready to work the system when needed, but she and Collins work well together as she guides him through the many minefields of working in the NHS.

Producer

Between the Lines

Between the Lines · 1992

Between the Lines

Detective Superintendent Tony Clark is an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark overcomes strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean.

Producer

Ballykissangel

Ballykissangel · 1996

SeriesComedyDrama

A young British priest adjusts to life in a rural Irish community where life revolves around the church and the local pub. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and everyone usually has an opinion on it. While characters come and go, the small-town qualities remain.

Producer

This Life

This Life · 1996

Five aspiring lawyers are aiming for the top - but behind the scenes they're a mess of love, drugs and excess.

Executive Producer

An Age of Kings

An Age of Kings · 1960

An Age of Kings

SeriesDramaWar & Politics

A linking together of Shakespeare's history plays — Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, Henry V, 1 Henry VI, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, and Richard III — chronicling the rise and fall of monarchs over the 86 years between Richard II and Richard III.

The Cops

The Cops · 1998

Set in and around Stanton, a faceless and grim Northern enclave, The Cops depicts the daily grind for a group of policemen and women out on the beat as they interact, and sometimes clash, with the local community.

Executive Producer

Buried

SeriesDramaCrime

Buried is a British television drama series, produced by World Productions for Channel 4 and originally screened in 2003. The programme starred Lennie James as Lee Kingley, who is serving a long prison sentence in order to protect a member of his family from a violent criminal. Critically well-received, the programme won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards in 2004.

Executive Producer

Days of Hope

Days of Hope · 1975

A series of four feature-length episodes following the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926.

Producer

Sharman

Sharman · 1995

SeriesCrimeDrama

Sharman is a television series starring Clive Owen, based on the "Nick Sharman" books written by London based author Mark Timlin. Nick Sharman is a disillusioned, down-at-heel private investigator. An instinctive loner with a shady past, he can also be charming, quick-witted, determined and, despite his faults, he has an undeniable attraction for many of the women he encounters.

Executive Producer

Law & Order

Law & Order · 1978

Law & Order is a series of four British television plays written by G. F. Newman and directed by Les Blair. It was first transmitted in 1978 on BBC2.

Producer