text: Ackland appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 film It Couldn't Happen Here, and in the video for their version of the song Always on My Mind, which was taken from the film. Several years later, he said in an interview with the Radio Times that he had appeared with the band purely because his grandchildren liked their music.
  Ackland also co-starred as Emilio Estevez's mentor and friend Hans in the 1992 Disney hit The Mighty Ducks. He reprised the role four years later in 1996's D3: The Mighty Ducks.
  In a 2001 interview with the BBC, Ackland said that he had appeared in some "awful films" due to being a workaholic. He said that he "regretted" appearing in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and the Pet Shop Boys music video. He also criticised former co-star Demi Moore as "not very bright or talented," though he worked with her again years later in Flawless (2008).
  Also in 2007, Ackland appeared in the film How About You opposite Vanessa Redgrave, portraying a recovering alcoholic living in a residential home after being forced to retire and losing his wife to cancer.
  In 2008, Ackland returned to the small screen as Sir Freddy Butler, a much married baronet, in the ITV1 show Midsomer Murders. The episode, entitled Vixens Run, also featured veteran actress Siân Phillips.
  In September 2013, Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Vic in London, with Ackland in the role of Lear.