Neville Smith

Neville Smith

Born: January 1, 1940
in Liverpool, England, UK
Born in Liverpool in 1940, Neville Smith, a one time collaborator of director Ken Loach, is one of a number of working-class actors and writers to have transformed the subject-matter and tone of television drama in the 1960s and 1970s. He was responsible for two of Loach's finest television films - 'The Golden Vision' (The Wednesday Play, BBC, tx. 17/4/1968) and After a Lifetime (ITV, tx. 18/7/1971) - but also developed a partnership with the director Stephen Frears, for whom he wrote the cult British detective film, Gumshoe (UK/US, 1971).

Movies for Neville Smith...

Completely Bad News
Title: Completely Bad News
Character: Manager
Released: November 29, 2019
Type: Movie
A double offering of heavy metal madness from The Comic Strip and Bad News.
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Wish You Were Here
Title: Wish You Were Here
Character: Cinema Manager
Released: July 24, 1987
Type: Movie
In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex. She eventually becomes pregnant by an acquaintance of her father.
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Prick Up Your Ears
Title: Prick Up Your Ears
Character: Police Inspector
Released: April 17, 1987
Type: Movie
When the young, attractive Joe Orton meets the older, more introverted Kenneth Halliwell at drama school, he befriends the kindred spirit and they start an affair. As Orton becomes more comfortable with his sexuality and starts to find success with his writing, Halliwell becomes increasingly alienated and jealous, ultimately tapping into a dangerous rage.
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Coast to Coast
Title: Coast to Coast
Character: Wedding Guest
Released: January 4, 1987
Type: Movie
Two guys meet, one American, a deserter from the US army, one Brit, and they are drawn together by their mutual love of Soul music. Neither being gainfully employed they decide to start a mobile disco service for fellow soul lovers, which leads them to buy an ice cream van, and the adventure begins. Before long they find themselves on the run from the bad guys and the police.
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Bad News Tour
Title: Bad News Tour
Character: Manager
Released: January 24, 1983
Type: Movie
A documentary crew films heavy metal band Bad News as they have trouble starting their van, pick up a schoolgirl groupie, and meet up with rock journalist Sally at a motorway service station where they argue about the cost of sausage and chips.
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Title: The Comic Strip Presents...
Character: Manager
Released: November 2, 1982
Type: TV
The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents... which was labelled as an example of alternative comedy. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and others.
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Long Distance Information
Title: Long Distance Information
Character: Christian Harvey
Released: October 11, 1979
Type: Movie
Play For Today written by and starring Neville Smith. Christian Harvey , a local radio DJ and ageing rocker, is an obsessive fan of Elvis and the news of Elvis's death is for him a personal tragedy as well as the end of an era.
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Afternoon Off
Title: Afternoon Off
Character: Cyril
Released: February 3, 1979
Type: Movie
Lee, a Chinese man, works as a waiter in a hotel in England, despite speaking very little English. Told that a girl called Iris might be interested in him, on his afternoon off work he buys a box of chocolates and sets off to find her.
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Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Title: Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Character: Hopkins
Released: December 2, 1978
Type: Movie
A repressed night-school teacher, secretly homosexual, struggles to cope with his demanding, eccentric mother.
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Long Shot
Title: Long Shot
Character: Neville
Released: November 17, 1978
Type: Movie
A budding Scottish film producer tries to get his ambitious Aberdeen-set western financed, and while he attracts some major stars and directors to the film he finds that with their support come more and more script changes... Filmed around the 1977 Edinburgh Film Festival, Long Shot is a deadpan satire about the trials and tribulations of British independent filmmaking, with terrific cameos from Wim Wenders, Susannah York, Stephen Frears, Alan Bennett and John Boorman.
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Bag of Yeast
Title: Bag of Yeast
Character: Tony Scannell
Released: February 22, 1976
Type: Movie
When teacher Tony Scannell decides he wants to be ordained as a Catholic Priest his decision has wide ranging effects on his family and loved ones.
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Match of the Day
Title: Match of the Day
Character: Chance
Released: March 18, 1974
Type: Movie
Chance has missed the match, but the girls at his sister's wedding might make up for it
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Gumshoe
Title: Gumshoe
Character: Arthur
Released: December 1, 1971
Type: Movie
A would be private eye gets mixed up in a smuggling case.
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After a Lifetime
Title: After a Lifetime
Character: Young Billy
Released: July 18, 1971
Type: Movie
Ken Loach's first production for ITV, shown under the 'Sunday Night Theatre' strand (originally broadcast 18th July 1971). After a Lifetime is something of a neglected, social realist masterpiece that focuses on two brothers, brought together by the death of their father, reflecting on his life of militancy and political activism. At the time critic Nancy Banks Smith called it ‘brilliantly funny, and moving with a sort of subterranean rage’. Smith himself plays the older brother with a brilliant, raw emotion.
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The Rank and File
Title: The Rank and File
Character: Jerry
Released: May 20, 1971
Type: Movie
Wilkinsons glass-works dominates a Staffordshire town. After a small walkout over pay discrepancies, the workers of the factory vote to go on strike, but they are denied support by their trade union.
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Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition
Title: Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition
Character: Liverpool Delegate
Released: January 1, 1970
Type: Movie
A Marxist-Leninist expelled from the British Communist Party joins the Revolutionary Party of the Third World, sleeps around, and attempts to rethink his place within the revolution after the events of the 1968 May uprising in Paris.
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There Is Also Tomorrow
Title: There Is Also Tomorrow
Character: Izzy
Released: November 19, 1969
Type: Movie
The commanding officer of a regiment handling nuclear missiles is shocked to see his daughter Sally on television taking part in a student demonstration.
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Sling Your Hook
Title: Sling Your Hook
Character: Spider
Released: April 2, 1969
Type: Movie
A group of coal miners from Nottingham go on their annual trip to Blackpool.
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The Big Flame
Title: The Big Flame
Character: Strike Committee
Released: February 19, 1969
Type: Movie
After a prolonged industrial dispute in the Liverpool Docks, the striking workers reject management demands of a return to work and decide instead to occupy the docks and run the operation themselves.
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The Golden Vision
Title: The Golden Vision
Character: Vincent Coyne
Released: April 17, 1968
Type: Movie
The obsessive supporters of Everton FC forsake wives, families and God to follow their beloved team. Meanwhile, the club and its players try to live up to their expectations.
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In Two Minds
Title: In Two Minds
Character: Man at Pub
Released: March 1, 1967
Type: Movie
Kate, a young girl under psychiatric examination, suffers from a lack of confidence, self-esteem and self-control – telling of the “bad Kate” who commits immoral acts. Could the hypocrisy, selfishness and weakness of those around her have led to this state of mind or can Kate simply be diagnosed and dismissed as a schizophrenic?
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The Lump
Title: The Lump
Character: Eddie
Released: February 1, 1967
Type: Movie
The Lump is an uncompromising exploration of exploitation and resistance within the building trade.
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The End of Arthur's Marriage
Title: The End of Arthur's Marriage
Character: He
Released: November 17, 1965
Type: Movie
In this off-beat musical – a satire that combines fantasy, social observation and songs – a working class man goes to put a deposit on a new house only to find he prefers spending to saving and is happy to spend his money on a few hours of happiness rather than a lifetime's conventionality.
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Title: Thirty-Minute Theatre
Released: October 7, 1965
Type: TV
Thirty-Minute Theatre is an anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. Thirty-Minute Theatre followed on from a similarly named ITV series, beginning on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parsons Pleasure. In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.
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Wear a Very Big Hat
Title: Wear a Very Big Hat
Character: Johnny Johnson
Released: February 17, 1965
Type: Movie
A young couple celebrate their wedding anniversary with a night on the town.
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Title: The Wednesday Play
Released: September 30, 1964
Type: TV
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
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Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
Title: Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
Character: D'Argenson
Released: September 12, 1964
Type: Movie
The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involved with an escape chain rescuing prisoners from the guillotine and get caught up in the machinations of an English undercover spy, James Stirling — alias Lemaitre, governor of the Conciergerie prison.
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Billy Liar
Title: Billy Liar
Character: Youth (uncredited)
Released: August 15, 1963
Type: Movie
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.