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.
125 acting credits
Acting · 125
Midsomer Murders
1997
Merlin
2008
Waking the Dead
2001
BBC Play of the Month
1965
Natural World
1983
Troy
2004
New Tricks
2004
Foyle's War
2002
Gladiator
2000
Omnibus
1967
Screen Two
1985
ITV Playhouse
1967
Space: 1999
1975
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
2002
Jonathan Creek
1997
Wycliffe
1994
Between the Lines
1992
Justice
1971
The Chief
1990
BBC2 Play of the Week
1977
Kavanagh Q.C.
1995
101 Dalmatians
1996
Notting Hill
1999
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
1992
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
2006
The 10th Kingdom
2000
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
1988
Elizabeth R
1971
Mirrors
2008
G.B.H.
1991
Edward and Mrs Simpson
1978
I Am Not an Animal
2004
K-19: The Widowmaker
2002
The Awakening
2011
The Duchess
2008
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
1984
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2007
Apparitions
2008
For the Greater Good
1991
Invasion: Earth
1998
Armchair Thriller
1978
About Face
1989
Private Schulz
1981
Blackeyes
1989
Bodyguards
1997
Nicholas and Alexandra
1971
Selling Hitler
1991
Vanity Fair
1987
Alien Autopsy
2006
Fatherland
1994
The Body
2001
True Tilda
1997
Mary, Mother of Jesus
1999
Plays for Britain
1976
The Woman in White
1982
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989
Hennessy
1975
King Charles III
2017
Personal Services
1987
Partition
1987
Shadow of the Sword
2005
Good Girl
1974
Predators Killing for a Living
1997
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
1990
Pope Joan
1972
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
1999
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013
Centrepoint
1990
The Lions Rule
2017
Chemical Wedding
2008
Theban Plays: Antigone
1986
King Lear
1982
Alone
2002
Professional Foul
1977
Whistle
2002
Selling Hitler
1993
Claim
2002
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
1986
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
1986
Troilus & Cressida
1981
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
2009
Testimony
1988
Hamlet
2015
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
2007
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
2004
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
1999
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
Poppyland
1985
The Burston Rebellion
1985
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
2001
Two Deaths
1996
Hamlet Within
2022
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
1992
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
2004
The Gentleman Thief
2001
An Organization of Dreams
2009
England, My England
1995
Gossip from the Forest
1979
It's Called the Sugar Plum
1969
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
1997
Timon of Athens
1981
King Lear
1975
The Race for Everest
2003
Lion Queen
1998
The Three Hostages
1977
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
2002
OXI, an Act of Resistance
2014
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
2007
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
1978
Animals of the Ocean Desert
2001
The Ha-Ha
1969
The Tom Machine
1980
Hamlet
1992
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
2005
Flayed
1978
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
2014
Hitting Town
1976
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
2004
Run.
2013
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
2016
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
1995
The Victim
1980
Wild Women of Viramba
2003
Horizon: Supermassive Black Holes
2000
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
2017