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