John Shrapnel
Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Born: 27 April 1942 • Died: 14 February 2020
Played In
Hamlet Within
The Lions Rule
Narrator (voice)
King Charles III
Archbishop of Canterbury
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
Narrator (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
Narrator - (Voice)
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Camilo
Hamlet
Claudius/Ghost
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Creon
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
Narrator
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Run.
St. Peter
The Awakening
Reverend Hugh Purslow
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
Théramène
An Organization of Dreams
Father
Apparitions
Cardinal Bukovak
Merlin
The Sarrum
The Duchess
General Grey
Mirrors
Lorenzo Sapelli
Chemical Wedding
Crowley
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Himself (Narrator)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lord Howard
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
Billy Palmer
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
Pompey
Alien Autopsy
Michael Kuhn
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
Narrator (English Version)
Shadow of the Sword
Archbishop
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Narrator
Troy
Nestor
I Am Not an Animal
Narrator (voice)
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Narrator
New Tricks
DAC John Felsham
The Race for Everest
Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
Narrator
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
Narrator (English Version)
Foyle's War
Raymond Brooks
Whistle
Paul
K-19: The Widowmaker
Admiral Bratyeev
Claim
Lex Vandenberg
Alone
Hannah
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
The Gentleman Thief
Monty Sinclair
Animals of the Ocean Desert
Narrator
Waking the Dead
John Christie
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
Narrator
The Body
Moshe Cohen
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
Narrator
Gladiator
Gaius
The 10th Kingdom
Governor of Prison
Lost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
Self - Narrator
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Simon
Notting Hill
PR Chief
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
General Charette
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Iwaszkiewicz
Lion Queen
Narrator (voice)
Invasion: Earth
Air Marshal Bentley
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
Narrator (English voice)
Predators Killing for a Living
Jonathan Creek
Prof. Lance Graumann
Bodyguards
Commander Alan MacIntyre
Midsomer Murders
Max Jennings
Midsomer Murders
Leo Clarke
True Tilda
Reverand Glasson
101 Dalmatians
Skinner
Two Deaths
Cinca
Coogan's Run
Douglas Crown
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
Kavanagh Q.C.
Mr. Justice Griffin
England, My England
Samuel Pepys
Fatherland
General Globus
Wycliffe
Dr. Sam Malvern
Selling Hitler
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Hamlet
Claudius
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
Between the Lines
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
Between the Lines
D.C.C. Dunning
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Narrator
Selling Hitler
Gerd Schülte-Hillen
G.B.H.
Dr Jacobs
For the Greater Good
Norman May-Boys MP
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
BKA Police Chief
Centrepoint
Claud Wareing
The Chief
Dan Cheyney
Blackeyes
Detective Blake
About Face
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Psychiatrist
Testimony
Andre Zhdanov
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
Thomas Mann
Vanity Fair
Lord Steyne
Partition
General Flood
Personal Services
Lionel
Theban Plays: Antigone
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
Creon
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
Creon
The Burston Rebellion
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Poppyland
George Sims
Screen Two
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Screen Two
Heiger
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Adrian Vyner
Natural World
Narrator
King Lear
Earl of Kent
The Woman in White
Sir Percival Glyde
Troilus & Cressida
Hector
Private Schulz
German Newsreel Commentator (voice, uncredited)
Timon of Athens
Alcibiades
The Tom Machine
The Victim
Vincent Craig
Screenplay
Matthias Erzberger
Gossip from the Forest
Matthias Erzberger
Edward and Mrs Simpson
Major Alexander Hardinge
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
Flayed
Robert
Armchair Thriller
Vincent Craig
The Three Hostages
Gaudian
Professional Foul
McKendrick
BBC2 Play of the Week
McKendrick
BBC2 Play of the Week
Robert
Hitting Town
Leonard Brazil (voice)
Plays for Britain
Voice of Leonard Brazil
Hennessy
Tipaldi
Space: 1999
Jack Tanner
King Lear
Duke of Cornwall
Good Girl
Christopher Wimple
Pope Joan
Father James
Nicholas and Alexandra
Petya
Justice
Roger Anderson
Elizabeth R
Earl of Sussex
It's Called the Sugar Plum
Wally Zuckerman
The Ha-Ha
Jamie
Omnibus
Zborowski
ITV Playhouse
Schoner
BBC Play of the Month
Duke of Cornwall
BBC Play of the Month
Viktor Myshlaevsky