Tony Garnett

Producer

April 3, 1936 (83 years)

† January 12, 2020

Erdington, Birmingham, England, UK

Biography

Tony Garnett is a British film and television producer, director and former actor. He is best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, which started with The Wednesday Play and the groundbreaking Cathy Come Home amongst others, and continued into Play For Today and big screen features such as Kes. His other TV productions have included the controversial Law and Order and The Spongers and, with his company World Productions, Between the Lines, Ballykissangel, Cops, Cardiac…

Filmography

5.3

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.

5.5

Between the Lines

Detective Superintendent Tony Clark is an ambitious member of the Complaints Investigation Bureau, an internal organisation that investigates claims of corruption inside the police in England and Wales. Along the way Clark overcomes strong influence from his superiors and problems in his private life, most notably the break-up of his marriage following an affair with WPC Jenny Dean.

7.2

Ballykissangel

A young British priest adjusts to life in a rural Irish community where life revolves around the church and the local pub. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and everyone usually has an opinion on it. While characters come and go, the small-town qualities remain.

7.3

This Life

Five aspiring lawyers are aiming for the top - but behind the scenes they're a mess of love, drugs and excess.

7.0

Cardiac Arrest

This series shows the workings of an English hospital through the eyes of its junior doctors. Naive and idealistic Dr Andrew Collins (Andrew Lancel), soon realises he still has much to learn. His boss, Dr Claire Maitland (Helen Baxendale) on the other hand, has seen it all. She is a competent doctor, with a cynical view, and is ready to work the system when needed, but she and Collins work well together as she guides him through the many minefields of working in the NHS.

N/A

Sharman

Sharman is a television series starring Clive Owen, based on the "Nick Sharman" books written by London based author Mark Timlin. Nick Sharman is a disillusioned, down-at-heel private investigator. An instinctive loner with a shady past, he can also be charming, quick-witted, determined and, despite his faults, he has an undeniable attraction for many of the women he encounters.

5.6

Earth Girls Are Easy

In this musical comedy, Valerie is dealing with her philandering fiancé, Ted, when she finds that a trio of aliens have crashed their spaceship into her swimming pool. Once the furry beings are shaved at her girlfriend's salon, the women discover three handsome men underneath. After absorbing the native culture via television, the spacemen are ready to hit the dating scene in 1980s Los Angeles.

7.4

Kes

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

6.2

Fat Man and Little Boy

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

5.0

The Cops

Set in and around Stanton, a faceless and grim Northern enclave, The Cops depicts the daily grind for a group of policemen and women out on the beat as they interact, and sometimes clash, with the local community.

7.0

Days of Hope

Days of Hope is a BBC television drama serial produced in 1975. The series dealt with the lives of a working-class family from the turmoils of the First World War in 1916 to the General Strike in 1926. It was written by Jim Allen, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach.

8.0

Buried

Buried is a British television drama series, produced by World Productions for Channel 4 and originally screened in 2003. The programme starred Lennie James as Lee Kingley, who is serving a long prison sentence in order to protect a member of his family from a violent criminal. Critically well-received, the programme won the Best Drama Series category at the British Academy Television Awards in 2004.

7.2

Beautiful Thing

During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.

5.8

Handgun

Shortly after moving to Dallas, a young woman is raped at gunpoint. Her intense anger drives her to seek revenge, and she becomes a hunter on a vengeance mission.

6.4

Follow That Bird

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker, who thinks it would be better for him to live with other birds. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

7.3

Law & Order

Law & Order is a series of four British television plays written by G. F. Newman and directed by Les Blair. It was first transmitted in 1978 on BBC2.

6.1

Hostile Waters

Based on true events, an American submarine collides into a Soviet sub of the coast of America and an ensuing standoff occurs that could lead to total annihilation.

4.6

The Body

A psychedelic documentary of the body electric, with music by Pink Floyd. The film was directed and produced by Roy Battersby. The film's narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide commentary that combines the knowledge of human biologists and anatomical experts. The film's soundtrack, Music from the Body, was composed by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters.

5.6

The Sweet Body of Deborah

A newlywed couple visits the husband's hometown of Geneva, where they are subjected to threats stemming from the death of his former fiancée.

6.7

Hard Labour

A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence.