Herbert Wise

Herbert Wise (31 August 1924 – 5 August 2015) was an Austrian-born film and television producer and director. Herbert Wise was born as Herbert Weisz in Vienna, Austria, and began his career as a director at Shrewsbury Repertory Company in 1950. He was at Hull Rep and then as Director of Productions at Dundee Rep (1952–55). He directed So what about Love in the West End at the Criterion Theatre in a 1970 production with Sheila Hancock in the lead. Wise began his television career in 1956 and directed adaptations of I, Claudius (1976) and Alan Ayckbourn's play cycle The Norman Conquests (1977), the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Julius Caesar (1979), Tales of the Unexpected, The 10th Kingdom, The Woman in Black (1989), and episodes of Cadfael and Inspector Morse. He also directed several episodes of the Thames Television series Rumpole of the Bailey. He directed several made-for-TV films, including Skokie (1981) and Breaking the Code (1996), the latter adapted from the Hugh Whitemore play about Alan Turing. Wise directed two theatrically released films: an entry in the Edgar Wallace Mysteries second feature series titled To Have and to Hold (1963), and the film version of the 1970–1971 television sit-com The Lovers titled The Lovers! (1973). He was married twice, firstly to the actress Moira Redmond (1963–1972) and, after he and Redmond divorced, to actress Fiona Walker in 1988.[1] Wise and Fiona Walker had two children; Susannah Wise and Charlie Walker-Wise.

Works

I, Claudius: A Television Epic

The cast and crew of I, Claudius (1976) discuss the making of the series.

Release Date2002-09-30

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

Play for Today

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.

Release Date1970-10-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count9

Tales of the Unexpected

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

Release Date1979-03-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count9

Vote Count48

A Touch of Frost

Jack Frost is a gritty, dogged and unconventional detective with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice who attracts trouble like a magnet. Despite some animosity with his superintendent, Norman “Horn-rimmed Harry” Mullett, Frost and his ever-changing roster of assistants manage to solve cases via his clever mind, good heart, and cool touch.

Release Date1992-12-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count73

Inspector Morse

Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.

Release Date1987-01-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count134

The Bill

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.

Release Date1984-10-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count43

BBC Play of the Month

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays 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.

Release Date1965-10-19

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count7

Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs: the wealthy, aristocratic Bellamys. Downstairs: their loyal and lively servants. For nearly 30 years, they share a fashionable townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in London’s posh Belgravia neighborhood, surviving social change, political upheaval, scandals, and the horrors of the First World War.

Release Date1971-10-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count29

Rumpole of the Bailey

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.

Release Date1975-12-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Vote Count20

The 10th Kingdom

Virginia and Tony, a father and daughter living in Manhattan, find themselves in a parallel universe where Snow White, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood are struggling to maintain order. Their kingdoms have been fragmented by trolls, giants and goblins.

Release Date2000-02-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count5

Vote Count259

Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is is a British television family drama series set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Skelthwaite. It focuses on the professional and personal lives of the district nurses who work in the town.

Release Date1997-04-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count2

Van der Valk

Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972.

Release Date1972-09-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count9

Z-Cars

Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.

Release Date1962-01-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count6

I, Claudius

Acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. Set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the Roman emperors - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius.

Release Date1976-09-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count12

Vote Count126

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.

Release Date1987-08-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count11

Vote Count11

Theatre 625

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Release Date1964-05-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count4

Welcome Home, Bobby

When a Chicago teen is arrested for drug possession, the ensuing investigation reveals that he has had sexual contact with an older man. Discovering his sexual encounter, other students start shunning him and call for his expulsion from school. His conservative blue-collar dad also rejects him, while his mother does try to offer support.

Release Date1986-02-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

Cadfael

Brother Cadfael is a twelfth-century Anglo-Welsh monk. A retired crusader disappointed in love, and now a herbalist in charge of the gardens of Shrewsbury Abbey, Brother Cadfael is often called on to solve murders and other crimes in and around Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in the border country where England meets Wales.

Release Date1994-05-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count31

The Woman in Black

When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.

Release Date1989-12-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count138

Skokie

A dramatization of the controversial trial concerning the right for Neo-Nazis to march in the predominantly Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.

Release Date1981-11-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Lovers!

Reprising the television series roles which first made them household names, Richard Beckinsale and Paula Wilcox star as Geoffrey Scrimshaw and Beryl Battersby, a hesitant, inexperienced, young couple attempting to negotiate the sexual minefield of the ‘permissive’ society. This big-screen transfer of Jack Rosenthal’s hugely likeable sitcom sees old-fashioned girl Beryl continuing to slap down the advances of her frustrated boyfriend, whose clumsy attempts to initiate ‘Percy Filth’ suggest he’s not quite up to speed himself! Like everyone else, Geoffrey and Beryl want to fall in love – or they think they do; like everyone else, since Adam and Eve. But Adam and Eve didn’t live in Manchester in 1972…

Release Date1973-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

Dalgliesh

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.

Release Date1983-04-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count7

Thirty-Minute Theatre

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Release Date1965-10-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count7

Reunion at Fairborough

World War II vets travel to England for a reunion at their old base. Stars Judi Trott, Barry Morse, Red Buttons, Deborah Kerr, Shane Rimmer, Robert Mitchum

Release Date1985-05-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Mrs. Warren's Profession

Performed in 1902, after being banned by the censor for eight years, Shaw's indictment of the hypocrisy surrounding prostitution still shocked its audiences. Mrs. Warren has graduated from prostitution to opening and operating a chain of brothels throughout Europe. When her educated daughter Vivie discovers the truth about her mother's profession her reactions affect everyone around her.

Release Date1972-10-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Man in a Suitcase

Accused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers.

Release Date1967-09-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count8

The Italian Table

A junk dealer is caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between a woman, her husband and his mistress when they sell a piece of their furniture.

Release Date1970-02-18

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Churchill's People

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

Release Date1974-12-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count1

Strange Interlude

Adaptation of an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Strange Interlude makes extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience.united

Release Date1988-07-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Villa Maroc

A stolid British family from Bishops Stortford are adventurous and book a holiday in a villa in Morocco, where things befall them.

Release Date1972-02-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Budgie

Budgie is a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972. The series was created by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall . The show was produced by Verity Lambert, Rex Firkin was the Executive producer.

Release Date1971-04-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count5

The Drummer and the Bloke

Alf and Jack, two labourers hired to work in a quarry,have decided to go on strike because of the degrading nature of the job.

Release Date1968-01-31

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Day of the Fox

"In Jan Carew’s explosive drama, Sammy Davis Jr gives a memorable performance as a proud but disillusioned revolutionary who aims to destroy the remnants of white colonial rule in a new African nation. The political themes explored remain incredibly prescient." - BFI

Release Date1961-09-06

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Caleb Williams

Release Date1980-12-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.

Release Date1951-12-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count7

Elizabeth R

This historical mini-series documents the reign of Elizabeth I with each episode focusing on one dramatic period in the lengthy reign of the Virgin Queen, including her ascension to the throne, her various marital intrigues, her problems with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada.

Release Date1971-02-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count20

Class Act

Class Act

Class Act is a British comedy-drama series produced by Verity Lambert, and starring Joanna Lumley, Nadine Garner, and John Bowe. The series ran for two seasons of seven episodes each. Broadcast on ITV1, the first premiered on 7 April 1994, until 19 May. The second ran from 7 September to 19 October 1995. Desperate times call for desperate measures when aristocratic Kate Swift's rich husband disappears and she is forced to give up her champagne lifestyle.

Release Date1994-04-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count5

Drama 61-67

Drama 61-67

Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.

Release Date1961-03-19

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Episode Count1

For King and Country: Out There

1915: Determined to do her bit for the country, young Annie Hudd has a burning desire to go to France to help the wounded soldiers but suffers many setbacks before her ambition to become a nurse on the battlefields is realized.

Release Date1963-08-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Big Pride

Three Guyanese jail breakers escape, not only from the law, but from the harsh realities of their pasts.

Release Date1961-05-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Norman Conquests

The trilogy presents a comically fraught weekend from three different perspectives, as family and in laws gather at the decaying country home of their bedridden mother; the drink flows, and hidden enmities, intimate secrets and uncomfortable truths emerge through the veneer of jollity and civility.

Release Date1977-10-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count3

Caleb Williams

Caleb Williams

The four-part miniseries tells the story of a farm boy who becomes involved in a murder case between two feuding noble families in England at the time of the French Revolution.

Release Date1980-12-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Lytton's Diary

Peter Bowles gives a memorable performance as Fleet Street's most successful gossip columnist, Neville Lytton. Co-created by Bowles, this highly popular drama started life as a single play in the Storyboard anthology before continuing through two critically acclaimed series. Featuring appearances by Gwen Taylor, Ralph Bates, Pamela Salem, Jean Kent, Elspet Gray and Lee Patterson, this set comprises both series alongside the original Storyboard play. Suave, shrewd and with an instinct for a good story (tempered by a strong sense of fair play and occasional threats of litigation...), Neville Lytton is justly famed for the Gossip Diary that peps up the pages of The Daily News. Society tit-bits often give way to high-profile exposés, however, when Lytton and his colleagues stumble upon shady dealings, corruption at the highest levels, cover-ups and con-artists...

Release Date1985-01-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count3

Vote Count1

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark is a British television series, which aired on ITV. It was first broadcast on 8 September 1997. The final episode was aired on 13 October 1997. There were 6 episodes in the first series. A second series aired in 1998.

Release Date1997-09-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count1

Number 10

Drama series about the private lives of seven British prime ministers who lived in Number 10 Downing Street between the 1780s and the 1920s: William Pitt the Younger, the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley), Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd-George, Herbert Henry Asquith and James Ramsay MacDonald.

Release Date1983-02-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count1

So ’ne und so ’ne

So ’ne und so ’ne

Release Date1979-01-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count9

Vienna 1900

Release Date1973-12-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count6

Vote Count1

The Gathering Storm

Winston Churchill's life in the years leading up to World War II.

Release Date1974-11-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Ladies' Night

A tradition-bound gentlemen's club is thrown into chaos when women are allowed in during "ladies' night." One member resents the intrusion of women so much, he resorts to murder.

Release Date1986-12-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Breaking the Code

A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when this was illegal, besides being a security risk.

Release Date1996-09-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count16

Pope John Paul II

Bio-drama tracing the life and career of Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla from his days as a young activist in Poland to his rise and installation in 1978 as Pope of the Catholic world.

Release Date1984-04-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

The Christmas Tree

A dying woman recalls the happier days of her past.

Release Date1986-12-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected: The Landlady

The unnamed Landlady (Siobhan McKenna) is the titular main villainess from "The Landlady", episode 1.05 of Tales of The Unexpected (airdate April 21, 1979), based on the Roald Dahl short story of the same name. The episode begins with Billy Weaver (The main protagonist), arriving in Bath as part of a work trip. While there, he looks for accomdation, and sees a bed and breakfast sign in the window of a house. The unnamed woman then invites him in, claiming that a hotel he had been planning to stay at was booked out. Although finding the landlady's overly friendly demeanour off-putting, Billy decides to spend the night.

Release Date1979-04-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Secret Agent

A bomb-throwing incident in 1905 sets off a train of events which ends in a murder and a suicide.

Release Date1975-10-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Siege of Manchester

A German mercenary is hired to defend the small township of Manchester during the English Civil War.

Release Date1965-10-31

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Julius Caesar

The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for Brutus and the republic.

Release Date1979-02-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Song at Twilight

Eddie Ritchie once ' played for England,' or did he? The team have their doubts.

Release Date1973-02-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Life After Life

A 70 year old man gets shunned into a retirement home.

Release Date1990-12-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

A Fear of Strangers

A black saxophonist and small time crook is picked up by police on suspicion of murder. His problems multiply when the investigating officer lets his own issues influence the subsequent interrogation.

Release Date1964-05-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

A Story to Frighten the Children

The story of a brutal crime in a high-rise estate; a girl walking home at night is raped and murdered, and the attitude of some is not always sympathetic.

Release Date1976-02-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

To Have and to Hold

A young woman is harassed by a man and seeks help from the police. The officer who visits her falls in love with her, but shortly after she is murdered.

Release Date1963-07-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3