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