Sam Neill was born in Omagh in 1947 and spent his first years in Northern Ireland, which gives these islands a small but genuine claim on one of the great screen careers. This is that career in brief, with six Sam Neill films and shows to stream in the UK tonight. He died on 13 July, at 78, and the quiet, sincere tributes have not really stopped since. For a man who specialised in understatement, that would probably have been about the right volume.
From Omagh to everywhere
The family left County Tyrone for New Zealand in 1954, but British screens kept pulling him back. Reilly: Ace of Spies, the 1983 Thames series that earned him a Golden Globe nomination, made him a star here, and an OBE followed in 1991. Three decades later he was Chief Inspector Campbell in Peaky Blinders, sent up from Belfast to ruin Tommy Shelby's week. In between came Cardinal Wolsey in The Tudors and the guest-of-honour spot in the BBC's Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None. Add The Piano, which took the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and Jurassic Park, and the range starts to look faintly unreasonable. He kept his Irish and British citizenship alongside the New Zealand one, and the accent stayed happily unplaceable.
He spent his later years on his Central Otago vineyard, knighted in 2022 after first declining the honour as too grand, and wrote a well-loved memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, during treatment for the blood cancer he revealed in 2023. He announced in April that he was cancer-free. Three months later, pneumonia took him in Sydney, with his family around him, as reported by the Otago Daily Times. Steven Spielberg described him as exceptionally collaborative and said he adored making every Jurassic film with him. It says something that nobody in fifty years of the industry appears to have a bad word on file.
The range was the point. He could be the establishment, a cardinal here, a Christie house guest there, and the thing that frightens the establishment, all in the same decade, and he treated every job with the same lack of fuss. Horror fans claim him for Event Horizon. Costume drama fans claim him for The Tudors. Thriller people point at Dead Calm and The Hunt for Red October. Everyone is right, which is rather the measure of him.
Six Sam Neill films and shows streaming in the UK
The list writes itself unusually well here: five of the six are on free services tonight, which is not a bad showing for a Tuesday. Reilly: Ace of Spies, his great British role, is streaming nowhere in the UK at the moment, which frankly seems careless of somebody.
Jurassic Park
Free on ITVX, which feels almost indecent for a film this big. Dr Alan Grant made him a household name on every continent, and the sequels are covered below. Only the original makes this list, on merit.
Peaky Blinders
His Inspector Campbell is a masterclass in controlled menace, and the closest thing to a villain he ever fully committed to. If your abiding image of him involves a hat and a flare, two episodes of this will adjust it.
The Tudors
His Cardinal Wolsey is the best thing in the early seasons: sly, weary, and quietly heartbreaking by the end. Free on Channel 4, and a reminder that he did prestige costume drama as well as anyone.
The Hunt for Red October
The submarine thriller that still sets the standard, with Neill doing soulful, doomed dignity in a supporting role he makes unforgettable. One for a Sunday evening when the weather finally breaks.
Apples Never Fall
A late-career family mystery with Neill anchoring the ensemble as the patriarch under suspicion. Free on iPlayer, and proof that he was still getting lead roles, and earning them, right to the end.
And Then There Were None
Honourable mention
The BBC's Christie adaptation, with Neill among the doomed guests. The honourable mention because it is an ensemble piece rather than his show, but it is a very good night in all the same.
One Jurassic Park is enough
He reprised Dr Grant in Jurassic Park III in 2001 and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022, and was the best thing in both, but the 1993 original is the only one that belongs on a best-of list. His final series, Untamed, is on Netflix, and Event Horizon lurks on Prime Video for anyone who prefers their Neill cursed and haunted.
Where to start tonight
The evenings are long and light, the telly is patient, and working through the best Sam Neill films and shows beats another circuit of the scroll. For the wider field, the what to watch tonight guide covers current picks, and the best shows on iPlayer handles the free-to-stream end. Available in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the United States.