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