Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Oliviers Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogans Run, Notting Hill and Foyles War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBCs 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexters Inspector Morse and William Gibsons Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.
Admiral Bratyeev
Film 2002
Film 2022
Hannah
Film 2002
Crowley
Film 2008
Lex Vandenberg
Film 2002
Narrator (English voice)
Film 1997
Narrator (English Version)
Film 2005
Narrator (English Version)
Film 2002
Narrator
Film 2003
Leonard Brazil (voice)
Film 1976
Reverend Hugh Purslow
Film 2011
Creon
Film 2014
Father
Film 2009
Jamie
Film 1969
Duncan, King of Scotland/Seyton, attendant to Macbeth/Old Man
Film 2013
Narrator
Film 2001
General Flood
Film 1987
Gerd Schulte-Hillen
Film 1991
Lionel
Film 1987
Narrator (Voice)
Film 2017
Film 1980
McKendrick
Film 1977
BKA Police Chief
Film 1990
Claudius/Ghost
Film 2015
Narrator - (Voice)
Film 2016
Matthias Erzberger
Film 1979
Narrator
Film 2004
Alcibiades
Film 1981
Gaudian
Film 1977
Tipaldi
Film 1975
Samuel Pepys
Film 1995
Narrator (voice)
Film 1998
Narrator
Film 2000
Himself (Narrator)
Film 2007
Archbishop of Canterbury
Film 2017
Hector
Film 1981
Cinca
Film 1996
Creon
Film 1986
Creon
Film 1986
Creon
Film 1986
Paul
Film 2002
George Sims
Film 1985
Maj. Alexander Hardinge
Film 1978
Film 1995
Narrator
Film 2004
Narrator
Film 2004
Father James
Film 1972
Narrator
Film 2001
Narrator
Film 2003
Rev. Charles Tucker Eland
Film 1985
Narrator
Film 2014
Narrator
Film 1992
Robert
Film 1978
Earl of Sussex
Tv 1971
Cardinal Bukovak
Tv 2008
Major Alexander Hardinge
Tv 1978
Pompey
Tv 2006
Commander Alan MacIntyre
Tv 1997
Narrator
Tv 1983
Tv 1997
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dunning
Tv 1992
DAC John Felsham
Tv 2004
Tv 1989
Dr Jacobs
Tv 1991
Prof. Lance Graumann
Tv 1997
Mr. Justice Griffin
Tv 1995
Max Jennings
Tv 1997
Sergent Mike McCaffrey
Tv 2002
Roger Anderson
Tv 1971
Air Marshal Bentley
Tv 1998
Claud Wareing
Tv 1990
Sir Percival Glyde
Tv 1982
D.C.C. Dunning
Tv 1992
Dr. Sam Malvern
Tv 1994
Leo Clarke
Tv 1997
Claudius / The Ghost (voice)
Tv 1992
Vincent Craig
Tv 1978
Thomas Mann
Tv 1988
The Sarrum
Tv 2008
Dr. Julian Storrs
Tv 1987
Narrator (voice)
Tv 2017