Ray Brooks

Ray Brooks

Born: April 20, 1939
in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK
Ray Brooks is a British actor famous for his role as the narrator in the classic children's cartoon series Mr Benn, for the films The Knack...And How To Get It, Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD and Cathy Come Home, and for the TV series Big Deal and Growing Pains. In recent years he played Joe Macer, the husband and murderer of Albert Square stalwart Pauline Fowler, in the BBC's long running soap opera EastEnders and has written several books, including his autobiography.

Movies for Ray Brooks...

The Enigmatic Charlotte Rampling
Title: The Enigmatic Charlotte Rampling
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: June 18, 2023
Type: Movie
Screen icon Charlotte Rampling has fascinated the world of cinema, fashion and photography with her mysterious and almost inaccessible beauty. A major figure in genre and auteur films, she is unclassifiable: between presence and absence, shyness and audacity, she's always hypnotic, magnetic and fascinating. From her film debut in the mid-1960s in England, to her unconventional career path, through the tragic loss suicide of her older sister that will irremediably mark her acting, this film is a dive into the existential quest of a complex actress, whose every facet is discovered through her roles. Through a conversation with the actress herself, along with personal archives and extracts from her films, this documentary raws a dazzling portrait of her life and career.
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Dr. Who: Classic Movie Double Bill
Title: Dr. Who: Classic Movie Double Bill
Released: July 10, 2022
Type: Movie
A double dose of the doctor! Two classic Dr. Who adventures return in new 4K restorations. Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) were the first time the good Doctor was ever seen in colour and on the big screen. The films, directed by Gordon Flemyng, remain the doctor’s only cinematic outings and feature the legendary Peter Cushing as everyone’s favourite timelord alongside a supporting cast that includes Roy Castle, Bernard Cribbins, Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey.
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Title: Growing Pains
Character: Tom Hollingsworth
Released: May 16, 1992
Type: TV
Family drama series about a middle aged couple (Ray Brooks and Sharon Duce) who, with their own three children in their teenage years, decide to become foster parents.
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The World of Eddie Weary
Title: The World of Eddie Weary
Character: Alex Conway/Eddie Weary
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
Alex Conway is an actor who plays the part of 'Eddie Weary', a sympathetic, down-at-heel, shabby, Northern, working-class private detective, in a TV show. Except Conway is actually a complete idiot in real-life: stuck up, pretentious and selfish, the constant focus of tabloid interest for his bad, usually drunken behaviour. But then he discovers he gets truckloads of mail from fans who think he really is Eddie Weary, asking for his help, so he decides to help them - with the aid of his assistant, Birdie.
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Title: Running Wild
Character: Max Wild
Released: March 6, 1987
Type: TV
Sitcom about male mid-life crises. Max Wild longs to return to his 1950s Teddy Boy youth - but after living the life again, soon wants to return home.
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Title: Open Air
Released: October 27, 1986
Type: TV
Open Air was BBC1's flagship programme for their new daytime service which began on 27 October 1986. It discussed all aspects of television and also tried to answer any questions which viewers had.
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Title: EastEnders
Character: Joseph "Joe" Macer
Released: February 19, 1985
Type: TV
The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.
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The Pickwick Papers
Title: The Pickwick Papers
Character: Narrator
Released: January 6, 1985
Type: Movie
The Pickwick Papers is a twelve-part BBC adaption of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, first broadcast in 1985. It starred Nigel Stock, Alan Parnaby, Clive Swift and Patrick Malahide, with narration spoken by Ray Brooks.
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Title: The Pickwick Papers
Character: Narrator
Released: January 6, 1985
Type: TV
Mr Pickwick, Tupman, Winkle, Snodgrass and Sam Weller begin their travels through the England of stage-coaches and coaching inns.
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Title: Big Deal
Character: Robby Box
Released: October 14, 1984
Type: TV
The ups and downs of small time London gambler Robby Box, and the effect that his poker addiction has on his long suffering girlfriend Jan Oliver and family.
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Office Romances
Title: Office Romances
Character: Gordon Spelle
Released: May 21, 1983
Type: Movie
Angela is insecure and gawky, overawed by her new job at an advertising agency. Her boss, Pam, is poised and sophisticated - the epitome of a successful career woman. Together both women share an emotional vulnerability. For while Angela falls prey to the office Romeo, Pam continues an unsatisfying affair with a married colleague. Office Romances is an engaging look at the many secrets of love and relationships that lead to tormented love. It's an honest, sensitive view of romance and human nature!
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Title: Dalgliesh
Character: Henry Kerrison
Released: April 8, 1983
Type: TV
Centred on the cases of P. D. James' gentleman detective Adam Dalgliesh. In addition to his career as a policeman, Dalgliesh is also a published poet and an intensely private man.
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Title: Death of an Expert Witness
Character: Dr. Henry Kerrison
Released: April 8, 1983
Type: TV
When Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, a forensic scientist working at a private laboratory is found killed, Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate. Dalgliesh had been in the area a few months previously investigating the murder of a young woman found in an abandoned car. There are several suspects: Lorrimer's subordinate, Clifford Bradley, who despises him; the new head of the laboratory, Maxim Howarth, who is jealous of his sister's relationship with him; a colleague, Paul Middlemass, who had a fight with Lorrimer. There is also a gruff and likely unethical policeman who was on the grounds of the laboratory at the time of the killing and a local pathologist who is raising his two young children after his wife leaves him for another man. When one of the suspects is also murdered, Dalgliesh learns a key piece of information.
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Title: Wogan
Character: Self
Released: May 4, 1982
Type: TV
Wogan is a British television chat show
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Some of Your Bits Ain't Nice!
Title: Some of Your Bits Ain't Nice!
Character: Narrator
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
An educational film about proper hygiene.
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Title: The Paul Daniels Magic Show
Character: Self
Released: June 9, 1979
Type: TV
A British magic show and variety show that aired on BBC1 from 9 June 1979 to 18 June 1994. Daniels' assistant throughout the series was Debbie McGee, whom he married in 1988. At its peak in the 1980s, the show regularly attracted viewing figures of 15 million and was sold to 43 countries.
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A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts
Title: A Touch of the Tiny Hacketts
Character: Raymond Collis
Released: October 31, 1978
Type: Movie
Three a.m. A crash of breaking glass ... the slow creak of a door opening ... is it a burglar? Raymond Collis finds out the hard way.
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Title: Rumpole of the Bailey
Released: December 17, 1975
Type: TV
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.
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House of Whipcord
Title: House of Whipcord
Character: Tony
Released: April 19, 1974
Type: Movie
Somewhere in the middle of the English countryside a former judge and a group of former prison warders, including his lover, run their own prison for young women who have not been held properly to account for their crimes. Here they mete out their own form of justice and ensure that the girls never return to their old ways.
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Assassin
Title: Assassin
Character: Craig
Released: November 1, 1973
Type: Movie
When the British government orders the assassination of an Air Ministry official suspected of leaking top secret intel, their top assassin assigned to the job discovers there may be more to the hit than meets the eye.
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Tiffany Jones
Title: Tiffany Jones
Character: Guy
Released: August 16, 1973
Type: Movie
Light-hearted and occasionally unclothed adaptation of a British comic strip in the over-the-top, on-beyond-Bond spy fantasy vein. Based on the Daily Mail comic strip.
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Title: Black and Blue
Released: August 14, 1973
Type: TV
Black and Blue was a BBC TV comedy-drama series, first broadcast in 1973. It was so named because of the black and blue humour. The show consisted of 6 episodes of 50–60 minutes duration, each episode was a separate self-contained playlet. The only connection between them was the Black and Blue humour theme. The first episode was broadcast on 14 August 1973, with the last episode airing on 18 September 1973. The play Secrets was wiped, only surviving thanks to a domestic videotape copy made from the mastertape by its producer, Mark Shivas.
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Baffled!
Title: Baffled!
Character: George Tracewell
Released: December 17, 1972
Type: Movie
Tom Kovack is a hard-nosed race car driver until a sudden supernatural vision causes a near-fatal crash while he's hurtling down the backstretch at 140 miles per hour. Michele Brent is the woman who convinces Kovack that his visions are significant. She leads him to the manor house that appeared in his vision, which in turn leads him into a world of revenge and murder from beyond the grave. Kovack must tap into his newfound power to conquer the evil forces at work.
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Carry On Abroad
Title: Carry On Abroad
Character: Georgio
Released: December 1, 1972
Type: Movie
A group of holidaymakers head for the Spanish resort of Elsbels for a 4-day visit. When they get there, they find the Hotel still hasn't been finished being built, and the weather is awful. And there is something strange about the staff—they all look very similar. To top it all off, the weather seems to be having an adverse affect on the Hotel's foundations.
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Character: 5 of Spades
Released: November 20, 1972
Type: Movie
An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.
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The Flesh and Blood Show
Title: The Flesh and Blood Show
Character: Mike
Released: October 1, 1972
Type: Movie
Actors rehearsing a show at a mysterious seaside theater are being killed off by an unknown maniac.
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The Cherry Orchard
Title: The Cherry Orchard
Character: Yasha
Released: December 19, 1971
Type: Movie
Madame Ranevskaya is a spoiled, aging aristocratic lady who returns from a trip to Paris to face the loss of her magnificent Cherry Orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the re-possessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.
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Office Party
Title: Office Party
Character: Paul
Released: August 17, 1971
Type: Movie
Men behave in a beastly, chauvinistic manner at an office party, turning what should be a fun break from work into an exercise in bad taste.
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Title: Mr. Benn
Character: Narrator
Released: February 25, 1971
Type: TV
Popular British children's animation series. Mr Benn is the ordinary, bowler-hatted office worker who lives in the ordinary suburban street of Festive Road. However, when he tries on a costume in a mysterious shop, he steps out of the changing room into a different time and place, appropriate to his apparel. His adventures include him being a spaceman, a pirate and a cowboy.
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Title: Play for Today
Character: Raymond Collis
Released: October 15, 1970
Type: TV
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.
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The Last Grenade
Title: The Last Grenade
Character: Lt. David Coulson
Released: June 24, 1970
Type: Movie
British mercenaries (Stanley Baker, Alex Cord) finish their Congo feud in Hong Kong, with a woman (Honor Blackman) caught in the middle.
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Title: Doomwatch
Character: Geoff Harker
Released: February 9, 1970
Type: TV
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.
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Title: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Character: Marty
Released: September 21, 1969
Type: TV
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is a British private detective television series. In the initial episode Hopkirk is murdered during an investigation, but returns as a ghost. Randall is the only main character able to see or hear him, although certain minor characters are also able to do so in various circumstances throughout the series.
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Title: The Expert
Character: Eric Redmond
Released: July 5, 1968
Type: TV
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
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Cathy Come Home
Title: Cathy Come Home
Character: Reg Ward
Released: November 16, 1966
Type: Movie
A British woman faces a downward social climb thanks to her country's rigid and problem-ridden welfare system.
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Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
Title: Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
Character: David
Released: August 5, 1966
Type: Movie
Doctor Who and his companions are hurled into the future and make a horrifying discovery: the Daleks have conquered Earth! The metal fiends have devastated entire continents and turned the survivors into Robomen.
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Title: BBC Play of the Month
Character: Yasha
Released: October 19, 1965
Type: TV
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970s. Unless stated otherwise, the indication that the play is "lost" is taken from the lostshows.com website page as of 25 May 2013.
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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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The Knack... and How to Get It
Title: The Knack... and How to Get It
Character: Tolen
Released: May 1, 1965
Type: Movie
A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.
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Title: Gideon's Way
Character: Frank Romano
Released: March 18, 1965
Type: TV
Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey. The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series. It starred Liverpudlian John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, with Alexander Davion as his assistant, Detective Chief Inspector David Keen, Reginald Jessup as Det. Superintendent LeMaitre, Ian Rossiter as Detective Chief Superintendent Joe Bell and Basil Dignam as Commissioner Scott-Marle. The show did not acknowledge any help from Scotland Yard, any other police force or advisor. Daphne Anderson starred as his wife, Kate with Giles Watling as young son, Malcolm, Richard James as older son, Matthew who seemed to have a lot of new girlfriends and Andrea Allan as daughter, Pru. Unusually for police stories, Gideon was shown as a family man at home though urgent phone calls from his bosses tend to disrupt family plans too often. However, he did admit in "State Visit" that his wife had walked out on him for a while years ago when he put the job first and her second. They live in an expensive detached house in Chelsea.
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Title: The Wednesday Play
Character: Reg
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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Some People
Title: Some People
Character: Johnnie
Released: May 31, 1962
Type: Movie
Four teen-aged Teds are persuaded to form a rock group and undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to keep them out of trouble.
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H.M.S. Defiant
Title: H.M.S. Defiant
Character: Hayes
Released: April 15, 1962
Type: Movie
Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.
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Play It Cool
Title: Play It Cool
Character: Freddy
Released: March 1, 1962
Type: Movie
A struggling singer and his band befriend an heiress who, against the wishes of her father, is searching for the lover who she has been forbidden to see and with whom she is hoping to elope.
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Title: The Avengers
Character: Farrington
Released: January 7, 1961
Type: TV
The Avengers is a British television series created in the 1960s. It initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed. Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity.
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Captured
Title: Captured
Released: January 1, 1959
Type: Movie
Directed by cult British director John Krish, the film was sponsored by the Army Kinematograph Corporation. This tightly plotted drama shows British POWs enduring brainwashing and torture during the Korean War, thereby revealing what a soldier could expect if he was ever captured by enemy forces.
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Title: King Rollo
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: TV
Animated 1980s TV from the Beeb, about a playful medieval king and his entourage.