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.
Known for
Midsomer Murders
Max Jennings
Midsomer Murders
Leo Clarke
Foyle's War
Raymond Brooks
Merlin
The Sarrum
Troy
Nestor
Gladiator
Gaius
Notting Hill
PR Chief
New Tricks
DAC John Felsham
Natural World
Narrator
Waking the Dead
John Christie
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
BBC Play of the Month
Duke of Cornwall
BBC Play of the Month
Viktor Myshlaevsky
Space: 1999
Jack Tanner
Mirrors
Lorenzo Sapelli
Omnibus
Zborowski
Fatherland
General Globus
Wycliffe
Dr. Sam Malvern
Alien Autopsy
Michael Kuhn
The Duchess
General Grey
Two Deaths
Cinca
Jonathan Creek
Prof. Lance Graumann
Testimony
Andre Zhdanov
Hennessy
Tipaldi
101 Dalmatians
Skinner
Chemical Wedding
Crowley
The Body
Moshe Cohen
Hamlet Within
K-19: The Widowmaker
Admiral Bratyeev
Shadow of the Sword
Archbishop
Hamlet
Claudius/Ghost
King Lear
Earl of Kent
Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
General Charette
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lord Howard
Kavanagh Q.C.
Mr. Justice Griffin
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Psychiatrist
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Simon
Partition
General Flood
National Theatre Live: Macbeth
Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
Nicholas and Alexandra
Petya
Justice
Roger Anderson
Whistle
Paul
Troilus & Cressida
Hector
Alone
Hannah
The 10th Kingdom
Governor of Prison
Personal Services
Lionel
Professional Foul
McKendrick
Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
Creon
The Chief
Dan Cheyney
Hamlet
Claudius/Ghost
BBC2 Play of the Week
McKendrick
BBC2 Play of the Week
Robert
Claim
Lex Vandenberg
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
Creon
Timon of Athens
Alcibiades
Theban Plays: Antigone
Creon
Between the Lines
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
Between the Lines
D.C.C. Dunning
Hamlet
Claudius
Edward & Mrs. Simpson
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
Poppyland
George Sims
The Three Hostages
Gaudian
The Awakening
Reverend Hugh Purslow
National Theatre Live: Phèdre
Théramène
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Camilo
The Race for Everest
Narrator
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
Iwaszkiewicz
Hitting Town
Leonard Brazil (voice)
The Gentleman Thief
Monty Sinclair
Run.
St. Peter
I Am Not an Animal
Narrator (voice)
Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
Himself (Narrator)
Animals of the Ocean Desert
Narrator
Flayed
Robert
An Organization of Dreams
Father
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
Pompey
The Burston Rebellion
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
The Tom Machine
The Ha-Ha
Jamie
OXI, an Act of Resistance
Creon
Schönbrunn - Well of Beauty
Narrator (English Version)
Apparitions
Cardinal Bukovak
Elizabeth R
Earl of Sussex
Gossip from the Forest
Matthias Erzberger
Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
Narrator
Lion Queen
Narrator (voice)
G.B.H.
Dr Jacobs
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
Thomas Mann
Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece
Narrator
Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome
Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
Narrator
Supermassive Black Holes
Narrator
Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
Narrator (Voice)
Wachau - Valley of Golden Magic
Narrator (English Version)
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Adrian Vyner
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Narrator
It's Called the Sugar Plum
Wally Zuckerman
Armchair Thriller
Vincent Craig
Edward and Mrs Simpson
Major Alexander Hardinge
King Arthur: His Life and Legends
Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
Narrator
Vanity Fair
Lord Steyne
St. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
Narrator (English voice)
About Face
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
Narrator - (Voice)
Invasion: Earth
Air Marshal Bentley
Bodyguards
Commander Alan MacIntyre
Centrepoint
Claud Wareing
The Woman in White
Sir Percival Glyde
King Charles III
Archbishop of Canterbury
Predators Killing for a Living
The Lions Rule
Narrator (voice)
The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
BKA Police Chief
England, My England
Samuel Pepys
Pope Joan
Father James
True Tilda
Reverand Glasson
Selling Hitler
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
The Victim
Vincent Craig
King Lear
Duke of Cornwall
Once Upon a Time on the Westway
Billy Palmer
Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Narrator