Unless you’ve been asleep since the turn of the century, you’re no doubt are aware of one of the biggest blockbuster cinematic franchises ever – Harry Potter. The eight films premiered over a period of ten years starting in 2001 and it’s no exaggeration to say they made an immense impact on pop culture. Later this week, HBO Max will present a reunion of many of the series’ actors and, as I watched a promo for this much-anticipated event, I couldn’t help but notice how many faces I knew from PBS programs.
In celebration of this celluloid juggernaut, I thought it might be fun to cast an eye (or spell) towards the cast of the Harry Potter franchise and see just who’s who from public broadcasting fare.
To start with, Daniel Radcliffe plays the titular hero, Harry Potter, aka The Boy Who Lived. He was John Kipling in the 2008 Masterpiece production of My Boy Jack (based on David Haig’s 1997 play). However, going back to 1999, we see that Radcliffe made his acting debut as David Copperfield in a 2000 adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic on Masterpiece Theatre.
The late Richard Harris played Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. While it is true that Harris is best known for film, he did appear once on Masterpiece Theatre in the mid-90s – as Ernest Kandinsky in The Great Kandinsky.
Michael Gambon took over as Dumbledore after Harris’ passing. Gambon may be best known to PBS viewers as Chief Inspector Jules Maigret in the Mystery! series Maigret or as Philip Marlow in The Singing Detective. A few years back, he played Mortimer in The Hollow Crown. He’s also appeared on Masterpiece as Mr. Laurence in Little Women, Winston Churchill in Churchill’s Secret, Benedict Baron in Page Eight, Mr. Woodhouse in Emma and Squire Hamley in Wives And Daughters.
Dame Maggie Smith was Professor McGonagall. Of course, she’s the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey (and that may be her best known role to many). She has appeared on Masterpiece series before that, playing Susan in Bed Among The Lentils on Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads and Queen Alexandra in All The King’s Men. She was also Violet Venable in Suddenly, Last Summer on Great Performances. Of special interest, Dame Maggie portrayed Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield – the very same David Copperfield in which a young Daniel Radcliffe starred.
Alan Rickman played Severus Snape. Going back to the 1980s, Rickman was Obadiah Slope (did he chose his roles by how awesome the character names were?) in The Barchester Chronicles. About ten years back, he was credited as He in The Song Of Lunch.
Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffiths were the Dursleys, Harry’s aunt and uncle. Shaw just appeared in series three of Baptiste as Emma Chambers. She also played Coleman in Mrs. Wilson and Irma Prunesquallor in Gormenghast. Griffiths was Swelter in Gormenghast and the Duke of Burgundy in The Hollow Crown.
Julie Walters and David Williams were Ron Weasley’s parents, Molly and Arthur. Walters played Lesley in Her Big Chance on Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, Mrs. Mann in Oliver Twist, Mrs. Holland in Ruby In The Smoke, Mistress Quickly in The Hollow Crown and Cynthia Coffin in Indian Summers. Williams is instantly recognizable to many as the title sleuthing priest in the Father Brown series. He also appeared as Sir John Middleton in Sense & Sensibility and Mr. Beebe in A Room With A View, both on Masterpiece. Williams was also a cast member on the sketch show Alexei Sayle’s Stuff and played Petersen, a crewmate of Lister’s, in Red Dwarf.
Harry’s parents were portrayed by Geraldine Somerville (Lily Potter) and Adrian Rawlins (James Potter). Somerville played Joyce Tennison in Prime Suspect: Tennison and Lady Emily in Aristocrats. Rawlins was Captain Richard Collingsworth in The Ginger Tree and, more recently, Richard Chambers in series three of Baptiste.
Ralph Fiennes played a dark lord called He Who Must Not Be Named (who am I kidding? It’s Voldemort). In 1992, Fiennes played T. E. Lawrence in a Great Performances presentation of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. He was also in the 2003 documentary Freedom: A History Of Us in various roles. Plus, he was Prime Minister Alec Beasley in the Masterpiece Worricker trilogy (Page Eight, Turks & Caicos, Salting The Battlefield).
As I write this post, I can’t help noticing that there are dozens (hundreds?) of actors in this franchise and many have had some presence on public television imports and PBS shows. Some like Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) surprisingly have not. Even Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) has had no major presence over our airwaves even though his careers spans decades (he did have a VO credit on an Are You Being Served? episode but that’s barely worth mentioning). I could go on all day so forgive me if I cut to the chase and just list a few more notable characters and actors.
John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick) will be best known for Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers.
John Hurt (Garrick Ollivander) appeared in I, Claudius as Caligula and in Crime And Punishment as Raskolnikov.
Zoë Wanaker (Rolanda Hooch) played Charlie Fanner in Paradise Postponed, Moyra Henson in Prime Suspect, Susan Harper in My Family, Ariadne Oliver on Poirot and Princess Marie on Mr. Selfridge. She’s also popped up on Edge Of Darkness, a late 90s version of David Copperfield, Doctor Who and a Masterpiece adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop a few years back.
David Bradley (Argus Filch) was Mr. Broune in The Way We Live Now, Arnold Springer in Reckless, David Crimple in Martin Chuzzlewit and Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend.
Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick) appeared as Reepicheep in The Chronicles Of Narnia series that aired on WonderWorks.
Toby Jones (Dobby) played Ste Fox in Aristocrats, Dan Peterson in Midsomer Murders, Edward Oxford in Victoria & Albert, Daniel Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop and Roger in Capital.
Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge) was, of course, Siegfried Farnon in the original All Creatures Great And Small series. Hardy also played Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester) in Elizabeth R, Winston Churchill in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Arthur Brooke in Middlemarch, President Roosevelt in Bertie And Elizabeth and Tite Barnacle in Little Dorrit.
Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart) starred as Kurt Wallander in the Wallander series. He also played Gordon Evans in Strange Interlude: Part 1 on American Playhouse and Guy Pringle in Fortunes Of War on Masterpiece Theatre.
Gemma Jones (Poppy Pomfrey) was Louisa Trotter in Masterpiece Theatre‘s classic series The Duchess Of Duke Street.
Miriam Margoyles (Pomona Sprout) has been Mother Mildred in Call The Midwife, Aunt Prudence in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Miss Amelia in A Little Princess.
Pam Ferris (Marge Dursley) played Laura Thyme in Rosemary & Thyme, Sister Evangelina in Call The Midwife, Mrs. General in Little Dorrit, Grace Poole in Jane Eyre, Mrs. Grose in The Turn Of The Screw, Mrs. Markham in The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Mrs. Boffin in Our Mutual Friend, Eleanor Ramsay in The Rector’s Wife and Mrs. Dollop in Middlemarch.
David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) was Oswald Martin in Dandelion Dead and James Jackson in Prime Suspect 3.
Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) played Fagin in Oliver Twist, Mr. Emerson in A Room With A View and Mr. Venus in Our Mutual Friend.
Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney) portrayed Harriet Pringle in Fortunes Of War, Marie Bonnar in The Blue Boy, She in The Song of Lunch and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.
David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr.) will be seen as Phileas Fogg in Around the World In 80 Days on Masterpiece (premieres Sunday). He also appeared in He Knew He Was Right as Mr. Gibson, in Casanova as Casanova, in Spies Of Warsaw as Jean-François Mercier and in The Escape Artist as Will Burton. Oh – and he was some really cool alien dude called The Doctor in Doctor Who (but we all knew that, right?).
Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour) played Elise Wassermann in The Tunnel, Isabelle in Birdsong and Queen Isabella in The Hollow Crown series.
Frances de la Tour (Olympe Maxine) was Yvette Sabine in The Collection and Violet Crosby in Vicious. Of course, you may have a long memory and know her best as Maud in the film farce Flickers, an early 1980s Masterpiece Theatre series starring Bob Hoskins.
Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter) appeared as Sidonie Reiger in Die Kinder (German for “The Children”).
Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) played Miss Pole in Cranford, Mother in My Family And Other Animals, Barge Lady in The Wind In The Willows and Mrs. Micawber in David Copperfield. She was also Stella Phelps on the fantastic Britcom Is It Legal?
Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy) was Dawn Ellison in Roadkill, Margaret Peel in Lucky Jim, Rose Davies in The Jury and Anna Karenina in a Masterpiece Theatre adaptation circa 2000.
Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn) portrayed Logan Mountstuart (Older) in Any Human Heart on Masterpiece.
Kate Fleetwood (Mary Cattermole) was Lady Macbeth on a Macbeth that aired in 2010 on Great Performances. The production featured Patrick Stewart in the lead role and was an excellent adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play.
Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) played Cecil Meares in The Last Place On Earth, Stamfordham in The Lost Prince, Colonel Osborne in He Knew He Was Right and Johnny Worricker in Masterpiece‘s Worricker trilogy.
Wow! That’s a LOT of familiar faces. And I’m sure I missed a few as I just grabbed some of the more well known actors. I also left out loads of guest roles and minor roles that could possibly be where you know that actor. Still, even if it is an exercise in futility, it’s fun to recognize so many talented people that you’ve seen on our airwaves lending their talents to one of the biggest movie franchises of this century. Happy 20th, Potter!
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