Directing
Waris Hussein
Born December 9, 1938 · Lucknow, United Provinces, British India (age 87)
Waris Hussein (né Habibullah; born 9 December 1938) is a British-Indian television and film director. At the beginning of his career, he was employed by the BBC as its youngest drama director. He directed early episodes of Doctor Who, including the first serial, An Unearthly Child (1963), and later directed the multiple-award-winning Thames Television serial Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978).
Known For
Copacabana · 1985Copacabana
★ 7.21985
MovieComedyMusic
In 1948, aspiring songwriter Tony works as a bar pianist; he meets aspiring star Lola, and is immediately smitten. At Manhattan's Copacabana lounge, they both start finding fame. However, fate steps in and she is swept to Havana to work in a splashy nightclub act where she is convinced she will find her stardom. Instead, she finds Rico, a suave gangster and the club owner.
Richard Burton: Wild Genius · 2025Richard Burton: Wild Genius
★ 7.52025
MovieDocumentary
The son of a Welsh miner, Richard Burton became a Hollywood star and is considered one of the greatest British actors ever. He lived a big life in a short time. This is his epic story, from the village of Pontrhydyfen to global icon, and from the teacher in Port Talbot spotting his talents and transforming his life to being offered $7 million for seven movies and a scandalous love affair with Elizabeth Taylor that captivated the world.
The Clothes in the Wardrobe · 1993The Clothes in the Wardrobe
★ 6.01993
MovieDramaTV Movie
Margaret is a shy, pale, middle-class Englishwoman who is reluctantly engaged to her older, twittish neighbor Syl. Both bride- and groom-to-be still live with their mothers in the humdrum suburb of Croydon. However Margaret has been acting strangely ever since a vacation in Egypt, where she stayed with her mother's friend Marie-Claire. She secretly despises Syl, but does not resist when her mother, who has repressed the failure of her own matrimony, insists on marriage for the sake of social convention.
Maggie · 1986Maggie
1986
MovieComedyMystery
Following the death of her husband, Maggie Webb finds herself left with numerous debts and back taxes. Her wealthy sister-in-law, Diane, hires her to her London-based PR firm.
Melody · 1971Melody
★ 7.11971
MovieComedyDrama
Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future but as soon as possible.
Her Best Friend's Husband · 2002Her Best Friend's Husband
★ 5.12002
MovieDramaTV Movie
Would you betray your best friend for your own happiness? This is the moral dilemma one woman faces after she is called upon to help save her best friend's marriage, and the unthinkable happens. She and the husband find themselves falling in love.
She Woke Up · 1992She Woke Up
★ 5.71992
MovieMysteryThriller
A socialite comes out of a coma determined to identify her assailant who may be a family member with a motive to strike again.
Sleeping Dog · 1967Sleeping Dog
1967
MovieDramaTV Movie
A black barman upsets a colonial Governor who has just retired and returned to England. He locks the barman in the cellar and treats him like an animal.
Movies
Copacabana · 1985Copacabana
★ 7.21985
MovieComedyMusic
In 1948, aspiring songwriter Tony works as a bar pianist; he meets aspiring star Lola, and is immediately smitten. At Manhattan's Copacabana lounge, they both start finding fame. However, fate steps in and she is swept to Havana to work in a splashy nightclub act where she is convinced she will find her stardom. Instead, she finds Rico, a suave gangster and the club owner.
Richard Burton: Wild Genius · 2025Richard Burton: Wild Genius
★ 7.52025
MovieDocumentary
The son of a Welsh miner, Richard Burton became a Hollywood star and is considered one of the greatest British actors ever. He lived a big life in a short time. This is his epic story, from the village of Pontrhydyfen to global icon, and from the teacher in Port Talbot spotting his talents and transforming his life to being offered $7 million for seven movies and a scandalous love affair with Elizabeth Taylor that captivated the world.
The Clothes in the Wardrobe · 1993The Clothes in the Wardrobe
★ 6.01993
MovieDramaTV Movie
Margaret is a shy, pale, middle-class Englishwoman who is reluctantly engaged to her older, twittish neighbor Syl. Both bride- and groom-to-be still live with their mothers in the humdrum suburb of Croydon. However Margaret has been acting strangely ever since a vacation in Egypt, where she stayed with her mother's friend Marie-Claire. She secretly despises Syl, but does not resist when her mother, who has repressed the failure of her own matrimony, insists on marriage for the sake of social convention.
Maggie · 1986Maggie
1986
MovieComedyMystery
Following the death of her husband, Maggie Webb finds herself left with numerous debts and back taxes. Her wealthy sister-in-law, Diane, hires her to her London-based PR firm.
Melody · 1971Melody
★ 7.11971
MovieComedyDrama
Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future but as soon as possible.
Her Best Friend's Husband · 2002Her Best Friend's Husband
★ 5.12002
MovieDramaTV Movie
Would you betray your best friend for your own happiness? This is the moral dilemma one woman faces after she is called upon to help save her best friend's marriage, and the unthinkable happens. She and the husband find themselves falling in love.
She Woke Up · 1992She Woke Up
★ 5.71992
MovieMysteryThriller
A socialite comes out of a coma determined to identify her assailant who may be a family member with a motive to strike again.
Sleeping Dog · 1967Sleeping Dog
1967
MovieDramaTV Movie
A black barman upsets a colonial Governor who has just retired and returned to England. He locks the barman in the cellar and treats him like an animal.
Cult People · 1989Cult People
★ 7.01989
MovieDocumentary
In interviews, various actors and directors discuss their careers and their involvement in the making of what has come to be known as "cult" films. Included are such well-known genre figures as Russ Meyer, Curtis Harrington, Cameron Mitchell and James Karen.
Daphne Laureola · 1978Daphne Laureola
★ 7.51978
MovieDrama
A young man becomes infatuated with the exotic Lady Pitts whose much older husband is not pleased.
Macready's Gala · 1966Macready's Gala
★ 7.01966
MovieTV Movie
The Headmaster and governors of a boarding school are accidentally locked in the new memorial room with the convicted Great Train Robbers.
Verity Lambert: Drama Queen · 2008Verity Lambert: Drama Queen
2008
MovieDocumentary
A tribute to Verity Lambert, the BBC's first female producer and one of the country's most influential pioneers of television drama.
A Touch of Love · 1969A Touch of Love
★ 6.61969
MovieDrama
Intellectually driven doctoral student Rosamund Stacey, while undertaking graduate work at the British Museum, becomes pregnant after a brief affair with a television newsreader. Against the advice of her best friend, Lydia, Rosamund chooses to keep the baby and adjusts her life to include both her studies and her pregnancy. However, when the baby is born, an unforeseen complication threatens the self-sufficient life Rosamund plans for herself.
Spoiled · 1968Spoiled
1968
MovieDramaTV Movie
A schoolmaster invites a nineteen-year-old student to stay with him and his wife to cram for imminent exams.
The Henderson Monster · 1980The Henderson Monster
★ 6.01980
MovieTV MovieDrama
A small town becomes gripped by an ethical debate when the community discovers a moody, egotistical scientist is experimenting with DNA and the creation of new life.
The Devil a Monk Would Be · 1967The Devil a Monk Would Be
1967
MovieDramaTV Movie
A community of monks decides to solve its financial predicament through the sale of a potent cure for rheumatism made from rare herbs and one hundred per cent proof alcohol.
Doctor Who: Origins · 2006Doctor Who: Origins
★ 8.52006
MovieDocumentary
A 55-minute documentary, detailing the creation of Doctor Who, including a rare interview with creator Sydney Newman, and new interviews with producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein and Richard Martin, actors William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, title sequence designer Bernard Lodge, and TARDIS sound effect creator Brian Hodgson
Arch of Triumph · 1984Arch of Triumph
★ 5.21984
MovieDramaRomance
A 1985 British made-for-television film based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, which was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Dr. Ravic (Anthony Hopkins) is an Austrian doctor who helps Jews escape from the Nazis. In 1939, he meets Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down), a woman he saves from suicide, and their relationship flourishes until he is arrested as a refugee without documentation and realizes he has some unfinished business with the Nazis. After a prolonged separation, without explanation, the two are finally reunited and struggle to put their relationship back on the right course as mayhem breaks out all around them.
Mrs. Henderson Presents · 2005Mrs. Henderson Presents
★ 6.72005
MovieComedyDrama
Recently widowed well-to-do Laura Henderson purchases the Windmill Theatre in London as a post-widowhood hobby. After starting an innovative continuous variety review, which is copied by other theaters, they begin to lose money. Mrs Henderson suggests they add risqué burlesque acts similar to the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS · 2006Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS
★ 8.02006
MovieDocumentary
A feature on Doctor Who: The Beginning box set which tells the stories of the Doctor's time machine - the TARDIS.
The Possession of Joel Delaney · 1972The Possession of Joel Delaney
★ 5.61972
MovieHorror
An upper-class Manhattan divorcee comes to believe that her brother is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who beheaded young women in Spanish Harlem.
Mr. Nice · 2010Mr. Nice
★ 6.12010
MovieComedyCrime
Biopic about 1970s Welsh marijuana trafficker Howard Marks, whose inventive smuggling schemes made him a huge success in the drug trade, as well as leading to dealings with both the IRA and British Intelligence. Based on Marks' biography with the same title.
Days in the Trees · 1967Days in the Trees
1967
MovieDramaTV Movie
A frail old woman meets a middle-aged man - her estranged son, whom she hasn't seen for five years.
Murder Between Friends · 1994Murder Between Friends
★ 10.01994
MovieThrillerTV Movie
True story about two friends become involved in murder when the wife of one of them begins cheating on her spouse.
TV Shows
Doctor Who · 1963Doctor Who
★ 7.91963
SeriesDrama
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Play for Today · 1970Play for Today
★ 6.61970
SeriesDrama
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
Great Performances · 1971Great Performances
★ 6.11971
SeriesComedyDocumentary
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Screen Two · 1985Screen Two
★ 7.11985
SeriesDrama
Series of single made-for-television dramas.
BBC Play of the Month · 1965BBC Play of the Month
★ 5.31965
SeriesDrama
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.
Thirty-Minute Theatre · 1965Thirty-Minute Theatre
★ 4.21965
SeriesDrama
An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.
Doctor Who Confidential · 2005Doctor Who Confidential
★ 8.12005
SeriesDocumentary
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly television episode on BBC One. The running time of the first two series was 30 minutes, being extended to 45 minutes in the third. BBC Three also broadcast a cut-down edition of the programme, lasting 15 minutes, shown after the repeats on Sundays and Fridays and after the weekday evening repeats of earlier seasons.
ITV Playhouse · 1967ITV Playhouse
★ 7.01967
SeriesDrama
ITV Playhouse is a British comedy-drama TV series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour and was produced by various companies for the ITV network, a format that would inspire Dramarama. Actors appearing in the series included Leslie Anderson, Gwen Nelson, Ricky Alleyne, Pat Heywood, Michael Elphick, Ian Hendry, Edward Woodward, Margaret Lockwood, Jessie Matthews and Lloyd Peters.
The Wednesday Play · 1964The Wednesday Play
★ 5.21964
SeriesDrama
An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.
Compact · 1962Compact
★ 5.01962
SeriesDrama
Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal storylines. The show was scheduled for broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding a clash with ITV's Coronation Street on Mondays and Wednesdays.
When Compact began, the editor was a woman, Joanne Minster, yet it was not long before she was replaced by Ian Harmon, the son of the magazine's owner.
Despite being largely criticised by reviewers, Compact was popular with the general public, and in 1964 a regular omnibus edition was introduced, broadcast on Sundays. Morris Barry, a some-time actor and BBC director – he directed several Doctor Who stories in the 1960s – took over as producer and was given a brief to spice the series up in view of the criticism it had received from the national press. But the BBC, never comfortable with the concept of soap opera, quietly dropped the series in 1965.
Armchair Thriller · 1978Armchair Thriller
★ 4.21978
SeriesDrama
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television.
Remembers… · 2022Remembers…
★ 7.02022
SeriesDocumentary
What are the secrets of our favourite TV shows? Famous names from both sides of the camera reflect on making some of the most popular and influential programs of all time.
Londoners · 1965Londoners
1965
SeriesDrama
London itself takes the starring role in this series of plays from the BBC – a role which varies between hero and villain, enchantress and harpy. The series features extensive location filming, ranging from Soho to the Law Courts, Wembley to the docks. Of the twelve episodes, eleven are believed to be lost.
Suspense · 1962Suspense
★ 6.71962
SeriesMysteryDrama
Anthology series telling suspenseful tales.
Hallmark Hall of Fame · 1951Hallmark Hall of Fame
★ 8.81951
SeriesDrama
Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Edward and Mrs Simpson · 1978Edward and Mrs Simpson
★ 6.81978
SeriesDrama
While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her.
Laurence Olivier Presents · 1976Laurence Olivier Presents
★ 7.01976
SeriesDrama
Laurence Olivier Presents is a British television series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978.
The plays, with the exception of Hindle Wakes, all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on productions staged at the National Theatre during the period when Olivier was Artistic Director. In addition to distinguished English actors, the casts assembled for these productions included several Hollywood stars, such as Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton.
Switched at Birth · 1991Switched at Birth
★ 7.01991
SeriesDrama
This is the story of the two babies who were switched at birth. A few years later when one of the girls gets sick and tests revealed that she was not the daughter of the couple who raised her. Eventually she dies. And the couple most especially the mother, search for their real daughter. Eventually they suspect that it's a widower who has their child. Now while they try to find out if she is their daughter, the widower is advised by his attorney not to be so hasty to cooperate, cause if she is their daughter, he might lose her, and she is all he has.
Thirteen Against Fate · 1966Thirteen Against Fate
★ 10.01966
Series
Thirteen Against Fate is a series of thirteen hour-long episodes based on the novels of Georges Simenon. Noted for the sound psychology of his characters, Simenon's stories deal with many nationalities and are set in numerous European cities and villages. There are sequences filmed in these locations integrated into the episodes. In each of the novels chosen for this series, Fate plays a leading role in the development of the story and the characters.
Boy Meets Girl · 1967Boy Meets Girl
1967
SeriesDrama
Anthology series of love stories.
Little Gloria... Happy at Last · 1982Little Gloria... Happy at Last
★ 5.81982
SeriesDrama
The story deals with Gloria Vanderbilt's difficult coming-of-age when, at eleven, she was a pawn in a custody battle between her sybaritic mother and her aunt.
Princess Daisy · 1983Princess Daisy
★ 7.41983
SeriesDrama
The lovely Daisy is the daughter of a Russian prince and an American movie star. After her parents are killed, she flees from her half-brother Ram. She fights her way to the top of the modeling profession and falls in love with a company president. But then, her half-brother arrives on the scene, ready to blackmail and destroy her.
Notorious Woman · 1974Notorious Woman
★ 6.51974
SeriesDrama
Notorious Woman is a 1974 BBC miniseries about the life of French novelist George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin), starring Rosemary Harris in the title role, and focusing on her scandalous life, career, and relationships, particularly with composer Frédéric Chopin.
The seven-episode drama, written by Harry W. Junkin and directed by Waris Hussein, won a Primetime Emmy for Harris's performance and explored Sand's defiance of 19th-century conventions, including her male attire and public cigar smoking.
Divorce His, Divorce Hers · 1973Divorce His, Divorce Hers
★ 6.71973
SeriesDrama
The dissolution of an 18-year marriage, seen first from his point-of-view and then from hers.