Acting · Birmingham, England, UK · Born April 27, 1942
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.
MovieHamlet Within
2022
TVThe Lions Rule
2017
as Narrator (voice)
MovieKing Charles III
2017
as Archbishop of Canterbury
MovieBritain's Nuclear Bomb - The Inside Story
2017
as Narrator (Voice)
The Return of the Flying Scotsman
2016
as Narrator - (Voice)
MovieBranagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
2015
as Camilo
MovieHamlet
2015
as Claudius/Ghost
OXI, an Act of Resistance
2014
as Creon
MovieBuilding Burma's Death Railway: Moving Half the Mountain
2014
as Narrator
MovieNational Theatre Live: Macbeth
2013
as Duncan/Seyton/Old Man
MovieRun.
2013
as St. Peter
MovieThe Awakening
2011
as Reverend Hugh Purslow
MovieNational Theatre Live: Phèdre
2009
as Théramène
MovieAn Organization of Dreams
2009
as Father
TVApparitions
2008
as Cardinal Bukovak
TVMerlin
2008
as The Sarrum
MovieThe Duchess
2008
as General Grey
MovieMirrors
2008
as Lorenzo Sapelli
MovieChemical Wedding
2008
as Crowley
MovieHindenburg: Titanic of the Skies
2007
as Himself (Narrator)
MovieElizabeth: The Golden Age
2007
as Lord Howard
MovieOnce Upon a Time on the Westway
2007
as Billy Palmer
TVAncient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
2006
as Pompey
MovieAlien Autopsy
2006
as Michael Kuhn
MovieWachau - Valley of Golden Magic
2005
as Narrator (English Version)
MovieShadow of the Sword
2005
as Archbishop
MovieSeven Wonders of Ancient Greece
2004
as Narrator
MovieTroy
2004
as Nestor
TVI Am Not an Animal
2004
as Narrator (voice)
MovieSeven Wonders of Ancient Egypt
2004
as Narrator
MovieSeven Wonders of Ancient Rome
2004
as Narrator
TVNew Tricks
2004
as DAC John Felsham
MovieThe Race for Everest
2003
as Narrator
Wild Women of Viramba
2003
as Narrator
MovieSchönbrunn - Well of Beauty
2002
as Narrator (English Version)
TVFoyle's War
2002
as Raymond Brooks
MovieWhistle
2002
as Paul
MovieK-19: The Widowmaker
2002
as Admiral Bratyeev
MovieClaim
2002
as Lex Vandenberg
MovieAlone
2002
as Hannah
TVThe Inspector Lynley Mysteries
2002
as Sergent Mike McCaffrey
MovieThe Gentleman Thief
2001
as Monty Sinclair
MovieAnimals of the Ocean Desert
2001
as Narrator
TVWaking the Dead
2001
as John Christie
MovieMountain Men: The Ghosts of K2
2001
as Narrator
MovieThe Body
2001
as Moshe Cohen
MovieHorizon: Supermassive Black Holes
2000
as Narrator
MovieGladiator
2000
as Gaius
TVThe 10th Kingdom
2000
as Governor of Prison
MovieLost on Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine
2000
as Self - Narrator
MovieMary, Mother of Jesus
1999
as Simon
MovieNotting Hill
1999
as PR Chief
MovieHornblower: The Frogs and the Lobsters
1999
as General Charette
MovieThe Strange Case of Delfina Potocka
1999
as Iwaszkiewicz
MovieLion Queen
1998
as Narrator (voice)
TVInvasion: Earth
1998
as Air Marshal Bentley
MovieSt. Stephen's: The Living Cathedral
1997
as Narrator (English voice)
TVPredators Killing for a Living
1997
TVJonathan Creek
1997
as Prof. Lance Graumann
TVBodyguards
1997
as Commander Alan MacIntyre
TVMidsomer Murders
1997
as Max Jennings
True Tilda
1997
as Reverand Glasson
Movie101 Dalmatians
1996
as Skinner
MovieTwo Deaths
1996
as Cinca
TVAlien Empire
1996
as Narrator
TVCoogan's Run
1995
as Douglas Crown
MovieKing Arthur: His Life and Legends
1995
TVKavanagh Q.C.
1995
as Mr. Justice Griffin
MovieEngland, My England
1995
as Samuel Pepys
MovieFatherland
1994
as General Globus
TVWycliffe
1994
as Dr. Sam Malvern
MovieSelling Hitler
1993
as Gerd Schulte-Hillen
MovieHamlet
1992
as Claudius
TVShakespeare: The Animated Tales
1992
as Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
TVBetween the Lines
1992
as Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
1992
as Narrator
TVSelling Hitler
1991
as Gerd Schülte-Hillen
TVG.B.H.
1991
as Dr Jacobs
TVFor the Greater Good
1991
as Norman May-Boys MP
MovieThe Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story
1990
as BKA Police Chief
Centrepoint
1990
as Claud Wareing
TVThe Chief
1990
as Dan Cheyney
TVBlackeyes
1989
as Detective Blake
About Face
1989
MovieHow to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989
as Psychiatrist
MovieTestimony
1988
as Andre Zhdanov
TVThe Modern World: Ten Great Writers
1988
as Thomas Mann
TVVanity Fair
1987
as Lord Steyne
MoviePartition
1987
as General Flood
MoviePersonal Services
1987
as Lionel
MovieTheban Plays: Antigone
1986
as Creon
MovieTheban Plays: Oedipus at Colonus
1986
as Creon
MovieTheban Plays: Oedipus the King
1986
as Creon
MovieThe Burston Rebellion
1985
as Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Poppyland
1985
as George Sims
TVScreen Two
1985
as Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
TVSorrell and Son
1984
as Thomas Roland
TVMr. Palfrey of Westminster
1984
as Adrian Vyner
TVNatural World
1983
as Narrator
MovieKing Lear
1982
as Earl of Kent
TVThe Woman in White
1982
as Sir Percival Glyde
MovieTroilus & Cressida
1981
as Hector
TVPrivate Schulz
1981
as German Newsreel Commentator (voice, uncredited)
MovieTimon of Athens
1981
as Alcibiades
The Tom Machine
1980
The Victim
1980
as Vincent Craig
TVScreenplay
1979
as Matthias Erzberger
MovieGossip from the Forest
1979
as Matthias Erzberger
TVEdward and Mrs Simpson
1978
as Major Alexander Hardinge
MovieEdward & Mrs. Simpson
1978
as Maj. Alexander Hardinge
MovieFlayed
1978
as Robert
TVArmchair Thriller
1978
as Vincent Craig
The Three Hostages
1977
as Gaudian
MovieProfessional Foul
1977
as McKendrick
TVBBC2 Play of the Week
1977
as McKendrick
Hitting Town
1976
as Leonard Brazil (voice)
TVPlays for Britain
1976
as Voice of Leonard Brazil
MovieHennessy
1975
as Tipaldi
TVSpace: 1999
1975
as Jack Tanner
MovieKing Lear
1975
as Duke of Cornwall
Good Girl
1974
as Christopher Wimple
MoviePope Joan
1972
as Father James
MovieNicholas and Alexandra
1971
as Petya
TVJustice
1971
as Roger Anderson
TVElizabeth R
1971
as Earl of Sussex
It's Called the Sugar Plum
1969
as Wally Zuckerman
The Ha-Ha
1969
as Jamie
TVOmnibus
1967
as Zborowski
TVITV Playhouse
1967
as Schoner
TVBBC Play of the Month
1965
as Duke of Cornwall
