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