Peter Bowles Movies

Steed is assigned to transport a shipment of live corneas to Switzerland to be used in a delicate eye-graft operation. But when one of the surgeons involved is murdered, Steed and Cathy uncover a sinister plot involving a sightless millionaire (John Carson). Also figuring in on the proceedings is a cache of valuable jewels. Written by Martin Woodhouse, "Second Sight" was originally broadcast in England on November 16, 1963; it remained unseen in America until March 14, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another classic "Emma Peel" installment, this episode was first telecast in England on December 4, 1965. A series of mysterious deaths in the upper circles of International Finance have caused a great deal of panic among investors. Hoping to locate the source of all the trouble, Steed and Emma go undercover, with Steed posing as a prominent financier. Meanwhile, Emma faces death at the hands of a strange little man with an obsession for clocks. Written by Roger Marshall, "Dial a Deadly Number" was seen in the U.S. on July 24, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first English-language production was also his only box office hit, widely considered one of the seminal films of the 1960s. Thomas (David Hemmings) is a nihilistic, wealthy fashion photographer in mod "Swinging London." Filled with ennui, bored with his "fab" but oddly-lifeless existence of casual sex and drug use, Thomas comes alive when he wanders through a park, stops to take pictures of a couple embracing, and upon developing the images, believes that he has photographed a murder. Pursued by Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), the woman who is in the photos, Thomas pretends to give her the pictures, but in reality, he passes off a different roll of film to her. Thomas returns to the park and discovers that there is, indeed, a dead body lying in the shrubbery: the gray-haired man who was embracing Jane. Has she murdered him, or does Thomas' photo reveal a man with a gun hiding nearby? Antonioni's thriller is a puzzling, existential, adroitly-assembled masterpiece. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the British television series The Prisoner, medical researchers at the Village have discovered a way to tap into the human mind and observe a person's dreams and sub-conscious thoughts. Number Six (Patrick McGoohan) becomes a test subject, and as he is unconscious, his imaginings are adjusted until he believes he's in Paris on a rendezvous to sell the secrets he learned as an espionage agent. Number Two, the leader of the mysterious Village, is played in this episode by Colin Gordon; Katherine Kath and Sheila Allen also appear. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Several enemy agents escape from a top-security prison, determined to wreak vengeance against the persons responsible for their arrest. When two of Steed's friends are murdered by the escapees, he decides it is time to end the reign of terror once and for all. But the still-imprisoned leader of the enemy minions calmly informs Steed that he is next on the list -- and that his assassin will be completely invisble. Written by Philip Levene, "Get-a-Way" made its American TV debut on April 24, 1969, and its British TV bow on May 14 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a painter finds himself entangled in a murder plot when he gets involved with a pretty girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ziggy (Mark Lester) is the young boy who witnesses the murder of a visiting black official by the police. Much like the boy who cried wolf, Ziggy has been known to stretch the truth and exaggerate. He is unable to convince the adults that he witnessed the killing. The murderous cops are soon on his trail as he hits the road with his sister (Susan George)and her boyfriend (Tony Bonner). The real police soon follow, after convincing his parents that Ziggy has told the truth for once. The boys grandfather (Lionel Jeffries) is the retired Colonel, a lighthouse keeper and lovable curmudgeon. Jeremy Kemp is the police chief, and the main heavy is played by Peter Vaughan. The boyfriend's car is cornered on a treacherous cliff where the villains try to ram the vehicle to the jagged rocks below. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This mystery, adapted from an Agatha Christie story, tells the tale of an ambitious British chauffeur who marries his American employer, one of the richest women in the US and persuades her to buy a palatial country estate. She literally loves it to death and that is where all the real trouble begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Richard Matheson adapted the screenplay of The Legend of Hell House from his own novel. In the tradition of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, four people with alleged extrasensory powers are called upon to spend a weekend in a supposedly haunted house, to either prove or disprove the presence of ghosts. Roddy McDowall has been in the house before, and refuses to treat the possibility of paranormal activity lightly; scientist Clive Revill believes that he can trace the happenings to rational explanations involving electric current; Pamela Franklin is convinced that, if spirits exists, she will be able to communicate with them; and Gayle Hunnicutt plays Revill's young wife, ripe for "possession." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Following up 1975's Golden Bear-winning Overlord, director Stuart Cooper delivered this 1977 psychological thriller starring Donald Sutherland as contract killer Jay Mallory. When his wife goes missing, Mallory finds that his distress is starting to affect his work. The plot thickens when he begins to suspect that his latest assignment is connected to her disappearance. With a supporting cast headed up by Christopher Plummer and John Hurt, The Disappearance was written by Paul Mayersberg who would go on to pen the screenplay for Mike Hodges' critically acclaimed Croupier. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Season Two of the British legal comedy-drama series Rumpole of the Bailey serves up six new episodes, initially telecast by ITV1 from May 29 through July 3, 1979. First on the docket is "Rumpole and the Man of God", in which gloriously irreverent barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) defends a vicar who though accused of shoplifting refuses to offer any defense for his alleged crime; at the same time, Rumpole's old friend George Frobisher (Moray Watson) pays a heavy price for loving neither wisely nor too well. The second episode, "Rumpole and the Case of Identity" finds the title character in court during the Christmas season, defending a man whose alibi on a murder charge depends upon a most untrustworthy witness. A trip to the North Country results in Rumpole exercising his declamatory skills to save an actress from a murder sentence in "Rumpole and the Showfolk". Then in "Rumpole and the Fascist Beast" the lifelong-liberal barrister works on behalf of a notorious racist politician charged with inciting a deadly riot. "Rumpole and the Course of True Love" concerns not only a schoolteacher charged with seducing an unwilling pupil, but also an embarrassing incident in the past life of Rumpole's lovely colleague Phyllida (Patricia Hodge. And in "Rumpole and the Age for Retirement", Rumpole's son Nick urges his father to hang up his wig and move to Maryland (of all places!) after wrapping up his defense of an accused art thief. As a coda of sorts to Season Two, a special two-hour episode, "Rumpole's Return", in which our hero emerges from retirement to tackle a particularly lurid murder case involving a sinister cult, was telecast on December 30, 1980, and has since been added to the standard Rumpole of the Bailey rerun package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a three-year hiatus, the internationally popular British legal series Rumpole of the Bailey returns for a third season of six hour-long episodes, which originally aired in the U.K. from October 11 through November 15, 1983. Leo McKern likewise returns as the equisitely slovenly barrister Horace Rumple, with Peggy Bates-Thorpe as his formidable wife Hilda, aka "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed." In the season opener "Rumpole and the Genuine Article", his client is a disarmingly phlegmatic artist accused of forgery. This is followed by "Rumpole and the Golden Thread", wherein Rumpole heads to a former British colony in Africa to defend a former law pupil charged with murder. In "Rumpole and the Old Boy Net", we meet Rumpole's wide-eyed new law pupil Fiona (Rosalyn Landor), who helps him defend a pair of accused blackmailer-procurers. The notorious East End Timson gang is back in "Rumpole and the Female of the Species", as Rumpole defends a former client (and onetime street gang member) charged with accessory to robbery In "Rumpole and the Sporting Life", things get personal when Fiona's own sister Jennifer is charged with killing her husband. And in "Rumpole and the Last Resort", our hero juggles his personal financial travails with his defense of a seedy realtor suspected of fraudulent business practices. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide