1942-04-27 Birmingham, England, UK
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.
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Hamlet Within | 2022-05-21 | |
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King Charles III | Archbishop of Canterbury | 2017-05-10 |
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Britain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story | Narrator (Voice) | 2017-05-03 |
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The Return of the Flying Scotsman | Narrator - (Voice) | 2016-03-06 |
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Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale | Camilo | 2015-11-30 |
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Hamlet | Claudius/Ghost | 2015-03-23 |
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Building Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain | Narrator | 2014-01-01 |
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OXI, an Act of Resistance | Creon | 2014-10-09 |
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National Theatre Live: Macbeth | Duncan/Seyton/Old Man | 2013-07-19 |
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Run. | St. Peter | 2013-01-01 |
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The Awakening | Reverend Hugh Purslow | 2011-08-17 |
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National Theatre Live: Phèdre | Théramène | 2009-06-25 |
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An Organization of Dreams | Father | 2009-01-02 |
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Mirrors | Lorenzo Sapelli | 2008-08-14 |
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Chemical Wedding | Crowley | 2008-05-04 |
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The Duchess | General Grey | 2008-09-05 |
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Lord Howard | 2007-09-09 |
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Once Upon a Time on the Westway | Billy Palmer | 2007-05-03 |
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Hindenburg: Titanic of the Skies | Himself (Narrator) | 2007-09-17 |
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Alien Autopsy | Michael Kuhn | 2006-04-07 |
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The Headsman | Archbishop | 2005-05-12 |
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Wachau - Land am Strome | Narrator (English Version) | 2005-06-08 |
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Troy | Nestor | 2004-05-13 |
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Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome | Narrator | 2004-01-01 |
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Seven Wonders of Ancient Egypt | Narrator | 2004-02-17 |
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Seven Wonders of Ancient Greece | Narrator | 2004-06-01 |
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Wild Women of Viramba | Narrator | 2003-01-15 |
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The Race for Everest | Narrator | 2003-05-27 |
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K-19: The Widowmaker | Admiral Bratyeev | 2002-07-19 |
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Whistle | Paul | 2002-08-22 |
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Alone | Hannah | 2002-04-11 |
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Claim | Lex Vandenberg | 2002-07-16 |
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Schönbrunn - Quelle der Schönheit | Narrator (English Version) | 2002-12-19 |
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Mountain Men: The Ghosts of K2 | Narrator | 2001-05-31 |
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Animals of the Ocean Desert | Narrator | 2001-06-21 |
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The Gentleman Thief | Monty Sinclair | 2001-06-24 |
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The Body | Moshe Cohen | 2001-04-13 |
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Supermassive Black Holes | Narrator | 2000-11-30 |
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Gladiator | Gaius | 2000-05-04 |
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Notting Hill | PR Chief | 1999-05-21 |
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Mary, Mother of Jesus | Simon | 1999-11-14 |
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The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka | Iwaszkiewicz | 1999-01-01 |
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Hornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters | General Charette | 1999-04-02 |
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Lion Queen | Narrator (voice) | 1998-06-01 |
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St.Stephan – Der lebende Dom | Narrator (English voice) | 1997-12-23 |
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Two Deaths | Cinca | 1996-06-14 |
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101 Dalmatians | Skinner | 1996-11-27 |
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England, My England | Samuel Pepys | 1995-01-01 |
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King Arthur: His Life and Legends | 1995-09-18 | |
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Fatherland | General Globus | 1994-11-26 |
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Selling Hitler | Gerd Schulte-Hillen | 1993-04-20 |
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SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich | Narrator | 1992-01-01 |
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The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story | BKA Police Chief | 1990-11-26 |
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How to Get Ahead in Advertising | Psychiatrist | 1989-05-05 |
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Testimony | Andre Zhdanov | 1988-11-01 |
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Partition | General Flood | 1987-08-19 |
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Personal Services | Lionel | 1987-02-12 |
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Theban Plays: Antigone | Creon | 1986-09-19 |
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Theban Plays: Oedipus the King | Creon | 1986-09-16 |
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Theban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus | Creon | 1986-09-17 |
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Poppyland | George Sims | 1985-01-13 |
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The Burston Rebellion | Rev. Charles Tucker Eland | 1985-02-24 |
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King Lear | Earl of Kent | 1982-09-19 |
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Timon of Athens | Alcibiades | 1981-04-16 |
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Troilus & Cressida | Hector | 1981-11-07 |
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The Tom Machine | 1980-11-20 | |
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The Victim | Vincent Craig | 1980-01-08 |
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Gossip from the Forest | Matthias Erzberger | 1979-07-28 |
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Flayed | Robert | 1978-02-22 |
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Edward & Mrs. Simpson | Maj. Alexander Hardinge | 1978-11-06 |
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The Three Hostages | Gaudian | 1977-12-27 |
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Professional Foul | McKendrick | 1977-09-21 |
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Hitting Town | Leonard Brazil (voice) | 1976-04-26 |
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Hennessy | Tipaldi | 1975-12-31 |
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King Lear | Duke of Cornwall | 1975-03-23 |
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Pope Joan | Father James | 1972-08-16 |
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Nicholas and Alexandra | Petya | 1971-11-29 |
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The Ha-Ha | Jamie | 1969-08-25 |
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It's Called the Sugar Plum | Wally Zuckerman | 1969-11-01 |
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Hamlet | Claudius |
