Ian La Frenais (Writing)
Little is known about Ian La Frenais, a figure with a modest footprint in Writing. Stay tuned for updates as more details become available.
Works
An Accidental Studio
Charts the early years of HandMade Films seen through the eyes of the filmmakers, key personnel, and the man who started it all: former Beatle George Harrison.
Release Date:2019-07-12
Character:Self
Vote Count:9
My Generation
The vivid and inspiring story of British film icon Michael Caine's personal journey through 1960s swinging London.
Release Date:2017-10-08
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:55
British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves
Documentary celebrating the British sitcom and taking a look at the social and political context from which our favourite sitcoms grew. We enjoy a trip through the comedy archive in the company of the people who made some of the very best British sitcoms. From The Likely Lads to I'm Alan Partridge, we find out the inspiration behind some of the most-loved characters and how they reflect the times they were living in.
Release Date:2016-09-12
Character:Self
Vote Count:2
Spies of Warsaw
A military attaché at the French embassy is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. A classic tale of spying, intrigue, and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst and adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Release Date:2013-01-09
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:2
Vote Count:37
Killing Bono
The true story of Neil and Ivan McCormick, two Irish brothers who attempt to become rock stars but can only look on as their high school friends U2 become the biggest band in the world.
Release Date:2011-04-01
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:104
Marty Feldman: Six Degrees of Separation
A documentary about the legendary and influential comedian, actor and writer, who went out from the BBC to conquer Hollywood, but sadly the system quickly withdrew its support when they couldn't contain his talents. This portrait is spiked with many comments from people who knew Feldman privately or had dealt with him professionally. His early death sadly rendered him all but forgotten by the public. The compilation consists of interviews, some film clips and photos as well as various audio clips from him.
Release Date:2008-03-31
Character:Self
Vote Count:5
The Bank Job
Terry is a small-time car dealer trying to leave his shady past behind and start a family. Martine is a beautiful model from Terry's old neighbourhood who knows that Terry is no angel. When Martine proposes a foolproof plan to rob a bank, Terry recognises the danger but realises this may be the opportunity of a lifetime. As the resourceful band of thieves burrows its way into a safe-deposit vault at a Lloyds Bank, they quickly realise that, besides millions in riches, the boxes also contain secrets that implicate everyone from London's most notorious underworld gangsters to powerful government figures, and even the Royal Family. Although the heist makes headlines throughout Britain for several days, a government gag order eventually brings all reporting of the case to an immediate halt.
Release Date:2008-02-28
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:2357
Across the Universe
When young dockworker Jude leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in the United States, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy, who joins the growing anti-war movement. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad.
Release Date:2007-09-14
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:1344
Comedy Map of Britain
Comedy Map of Britain is a BBC documentary series which visits the places that have inspired many of Britain's leading comedians. It first aired on BBC Two in 2007 and 2008. Narrated by veteran broadcaster Alan Whicker, comedians included in the two series include Angus Deayton, Anton Rodgers, Arthur Smith and Hale and Pace, Bill Bailey, Chris Moyles, the Chuckle Brothers, Dudley Moore, Eric Idle, Graham Fellows, Hugh Grant, Ian Hislop, Ian Lavender, Jim Davidson, Jon Culshaw, Mark Thomas, Maureen Lipman, Michael Palin, Paul Merton, Richard Whiteley, Ricky Gervais, Ronni Ancona, Rowan Atkinson, Roy Chubby Brown, Steve Coogan, Syd Little and Eddie Large, Terry Jones, Leigh Francis and many others.
Release Date:2007-01-27
Episode Count:1
Legends
The story of the big names that have shaped the musical genres, plus an occasional stopgap for the new rock 'n' roll - comedy.
Release Date:2006-11-17
Character:Self
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:1
Flushed Away
London high-society mouse, Roddy is flushed down the toilet by Sid, a common sewer rat. Hang on for a madcap adventure deep in the sewer bowels of Ratropolis, where Roddy meets the resourceful Rita, the rodent-hating Toad and his faithful thugs, Spike and Whitey.
Release Date:2006-10-22
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:3836
Goal!
Like millions of kids around the world, Santiago harbors the dream of being a professional footballer... However, living in the Barrios section of Los Angeles, he thinks it is only that—a dream. Until one day an extraordinary turn of events has him trying out for Premiership club Newcastle United.
Release Date:2005-09-29
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:1131
Archangel
Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives, receives in his hotel a very unexpected visitor.
Release Date:2005-03-19
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:3
Vote Count:52
The Rotters' Club
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' adaptation of Jonathon Coe's novel follow a group of Birmingham teenagers, and their families, through the 1970s.
Release Date:2005-01-26
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:3
The Best of Ronnie Barker
Sketches and clips from his greatest television comedy performances
Release Date:2005-01-01
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:1
The Commitments - Looking Back
Documentary about the 1991 film
Release Date:2004-03-16
Character:Self
Honest
In 1960s London, sisters Gerry, Mandy and Jo don male disguises and rob jewelry stores. Gerry also takes a job at a hip magazine in order to scope out a potential target. Sparks fly, however, between Gerry and American journalist Daniel Wheaton, and their budding romance threatens to expose the sisters' latest operation.
Release Date:2000-05-26
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:3
Still Crazy
In the seventies Strange Fruit were it. They lived the rock lifestyle to the max, groupies, drugs, internal tension and an ex front man dead from an overdose. Even their demise was glamorous; when lightning struck the stage during an outdoor festival. 20 years on and these former rock gods they have now sunk deep into obscurity when the idea of a reunion tour is lodged in the head of Tony, former keyboard player of the Fruits. Tony sets out to find his former bandmates with the help of former manager Karen to see if they can recapture the magic and give themselves a second chance.
Release Date:1998-10-30
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:109
Tracey Takes On...
Tracey Takes On... is a sketch comedy series starring comedienne Tracey Ullman. The show ran for four seasons on HBO and was commissioned after the success of the 1993 comedy special "Tracey Ullman Takes on New York." Each episode focuses on specific subject in which Ullman and her cast characters comment on or experience through a series of sketches and monologues.
Release Date:1996-01-24
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:50
Vote Count:4
The Commitments
Jimmy Rabbitte, just a thick-ya out of school, gets a brilliant idea: to put a soul band together in Barrytown, his slum home in north Dublin. First he needs musicians and singers: things slowly start to click when he finds three fine-voiced females virtually in his back yard, a lead singer (Deco) at a wedding, and, responding to his ad, an aging trumpet player, Joey "The Lips" Fagan.
Release Date:1991-08-14
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:549
Spender
Jimmy Nail plays tough cop Spender, forced to return to his native Newcastle after a failed undercover operation in London. He uses tough and unconventional methods to tackle the criminal underworld, but he must also deal with the friends, enemies and family he left behind, and never expected to return to. Sammy Johnson played Spender's sidekick Stick, while Denise Welch played Spender's wife.
Release Date:1991-01-08
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vote Count:3
Freddie and Max
Maxine Chandler (Anne Bancroft) is a fading Hollywood star who is living in a suite at the Savoy Hotel while she's working in London. She employs a young cockney woman, Freddie Latham (Charlotte Coleman) as her personal assistant. Freddie is an outspoken woman who doesn't hesitate to let Max know about her obvious shortcomings. Max's agent, Malcolm Parkes (Richard Pearson) often echoes Freddie's opinions, though usually much more quietly.
Release Date:1990-11-12
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:6
Vote Count:1
Laat maar zitten
Release Date:1988-10-09
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vice Versa
A mysterious oriental skull transforms a father into his son, and vice versa.
Release Date:1988-02-25
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:198
Lovejoy
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.
Release Date:1986-01-10
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:11
Vote Count:49
Water
The British governor of a tiny island nation in the Caribbean Commonwealth finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when an American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
Release Date:1985-01-11
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Vote Count:30
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Seven British construction workers escape Britain's ever growing dole queues and travel to Germany to work on a site in Dusseldorf. We follow their trials and tribulations of working away from home and away from the women they left behind.
Release Date:1983-11-11
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:5
Vote Count:34
Bullshot
The dashing Captain Hugh "Bullshot" Crummond - WWI ace fighter pilot, Olympic athlete, racing driver, part-time sleuth and all round spiffing chap - must save the world from the dastardly Count Otto van Bruno, his wartime adversary. And, of course, win the heart of a jolly nice young lady.
Release Date:1983-10-27
Department:Production
Job:Producer
Vote Count:13
Sunset Limousine
Alan O'Black is a comic who wants to hit it big. But his endless attempts at stardom have worn down his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Julie. Thinking she'll give him another chance if he gets a real job, Alan gets a gig as a limo driver, which promptly lands him in a slew of trouble when he meets and gets involved in the hijinks of a crooked entrepreneur, Bradley Coleman.
Release Date:1983-10-12
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:7
Wogan
Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Release Date:1982-05-04
Character:Self
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:6
Astronauts
Astronauts was a British sitcom that aired on ITV in 1981. It was written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, two of The Goodies. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who wrote Porridge, were script editors. It was made for the ITV network by ATV, which became Central midway through the production run.
Release Date:1981-10-26
Department:Writing
Job:Script Editor
Episode Count:13
Vote Count:2
The Prisoner of Zenda
Anthony Hope's classic tale gets a decidedly 'un-classic' treatment at the hands of Peter Sellers. Following the story somewhat, friends of the new King Rudolph of Ruritania fear for his life, and switch him with a look-a-like London cabby. Throw in two(!) lovely blondes, treachery, and a battle for life and honour, and enjoy life at its zaniest.
Release Date:1979-08-17
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:34
Porridge
Times are hard for habitual guest of Her Majesty Norman Stanley Fletcher. The new prison officer, Beale, makes MacKay look soft and what's more, an escape plan is hatching from the cell of prison godfather Grouty and Fletcher wants no part of it.
Release Date:1979-08-12
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:37
To Russia... with Elton
Footage of a concert given in Moscow, Russia, by rock singer Elton John.
Release Date:1979-01-01
Department:Directing
Job:Director
Vote Count:5
Going Straight
Going Straight is a BBC sitcom which was a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from the fictional Slade Prison where the earlier series had been set. It sees Fletcher trying to become an honest member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. The title refers to his attempt, 'straight' being a slang term meaning being honest, in contrast to 'bent', i.e., dishonest. Also re-appearing was Richard Beckinsale as Lennie Godber, who was Fletcher's naïve young cellmate and was now in a relationship with his daughter Ingrid. Her brother Raymond was played by a teenage Nicholas Lyndhurst. Only one series, of six episodes, was made in 1978. It attracted an audience of over 15 million viewers and won a BAFTA award in March 1979, but hopes of a further series had already been dashed by Beckinsale's premature death earlier in the same month.
Release Date:1978-02-24
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vote Count:14
The South Bank Show
The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show that was produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.
Release Date:1978-01-14
Character:Self
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:7
Porridge: The Desperate Hours
Fletcher and Godber are in trouble for brewing liquor in the lead-up to Christmas, but are caught up in a hostage situation in the Governor's office.
Release Date:1976-12-24
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
The Likely Lads
With the destruction of their previous neighbourhood has inevitably come the destruction of the lads’ favoured watering hole The Fat Ox. Again, it’s Bob rather than Terry who is visibly distressed by this. Upset and much the worse for free alcohol, Bob then storms into the library to seek sympathy from Thelma - who is, predictably, unimpressed. So when Thelma finds out that Terry has been getting semi-serious with glamorous Finnish shop assistant Chris, she takes it upon herself to try and pair them off for good via planning first a dinner party and then that mainstay of 70s comedy, a camping expedition. Of course, things don’t go quite according to plan and before you can say ‘I can see the way this is going’ we are set up for japes, larks and embarrassing incidents aplenty, which culminate in the lads getting rather fed up with their partners’ attempts to inflict the rugged outdoor lifestyle upon them and trying to hitch up and drive off with the girls still asleep in the caravan.
Release Date:1976-02-01
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:17
Porridge: No Way Out
Fletcher discovers that his fellow inmates are planning to escape.
Release Date:1975-12-24
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
On the Rocks
A minimum-security prison is the setting for gallows humor by wisecracking inmates.
Release Date:1975-09-11
Department:Creator
Job:Creator
Vote Count:1
Porridge
Porridge is a British situation comedy broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film also titled Porridge. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. "Doing porridge" is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. The series was followed by a 1978 sequel, Going Straight, which established that Fletcher would not be going back to prison again. Porridge was voted number seven in a 2004 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British sitcoms.
Release Date:1974-09-05
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:19
Vote Count:51
Percy's Progress
Percy, the man with the world's first penis transplant, discovers that there is a chemical in the world's water that makes men impotent.
Release Date:1974-08-01
Department:Crew
Job:Additional Dialogue
Vote Count:8
Thick As Thieves
British ITV sitcom starring John Thaw and Bob Hoskins as two friends in a love triangle.
Release Date:1974-06-01
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:8
Vote Count:3
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is a British sitcom which was broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 9 April 1974 on BBC1. It was the colour sequel to the mid-1960s hit The Likely Lads. It was created and written, as was its predecessor, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. There were 26 television episodes over two series; and a subsequent 45-minute Christmas special was aired on 24 December 1974. The cast were reunited in 1975 for a BBC radio adaptation of series 1, transmitted on Radio 4 from July to October that year. In 1976, a feature film spin-off was made. Around the time of its release, however, Rodney Bewes and James Bolam fell out over a misunderstanding involving the press and have not spoken since. This long-suspected situation was finally confirmed by Bewes while promoting his autobiography in 2005. Unlike Bewes, Bolam is consistently reluctant to talk about the show, and has vetoed any attempt to revive his character.
Release Date:1973-01-09
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:26
Vote Count:20
Catch Me a Spy
While on vacation, a woman's husband is taken by the Russian government. After one attempt fails, she begins looking for a suitable spy to capture and trade in exchange for her husband, but she develops an attraction to the one she thinks is a good candidate.
Release Date:1971-09-06
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:15
Villain
In 1970s London, Scotland Yard orchestrates the downfall of mob boss Vic Dakin after he crosses the line by blackmailing Members of Parliament.
Release Date:1971-05-26
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:38
A Severed Head
Antonia Lynch-Gibbon, wife of upper-crust wine dealer Martin, falls in love with her husband's best friend, noted psychiatrist Palmer Anderson. While both Palmer and Antonia would like to remain in Martin's life, he has some secrets of his own — namely, a mistress called Georgie, whom his womanizing brother also desires. All the while, Palmer's sister Honor seems to know everyone's business.
Release Date:1971-01-21
Department:Crew
Job:Other
Vote Count:10
The Virgin Soldiers
The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscripted soldier named Private Brigg, a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll, and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency.
Release Date:1969-10-14
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Vote Count:11
Otley
A petty crook finds himself mistaken for a murderer and a secret agent.
Release Date:1969-03-11
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:20
Hannibal Brooks
A POW in World War II is put to work in a Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant. The zoo is bombed by the Americans and the director of the zoo decides it is not safe for his Asian elephant Lucy to remain there. So he sends Brooks to safety with Lucy. They escape and go on the run in order to get to Switzerland.
Release Date:1969-01-18
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:37
The Touchables
British rock star with a love-'em-and-leave-'em reputation. The tables are turned when four cute young girls kidnap the singer. After several days of sex and degradation, the poor fellow is rescued by his friends.
Release Date:1968-11-16
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:4
The Jokers
Brothers Michael and David Tremayne decide to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, not for criminal purposes, but to make themselves famous.
Release Date:1967-05-15
Department:Writing
Job:Screenplay
Vote Count:16
The Likely Lads
The Likely Lads was a black and white British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and produced by Dick Clement. Twenty-one episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between 16 December 1964 and 23 July 1966. However, only eight of these shows have survived.
Release Date:1964-12-16
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:19
Vote Count:12
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.
Release Date:1961-12-15
Department:Writing
Job:Writer
Episode Count:1
Vote Count:2