There’s nothing wrong with an actor specialising, if he does it well. And when it came to short, Jewish cockneys with an air of dodginess about them, Alfie Bass was the specialist’s specialist. Shorty, Basher, Dicey Perkins… Alfie’s career built film by film into a rogue’s gallery of cons exhibiting various degrees of lovability and competence. He also had a sideline in looking on in slack-jawed bewilderment at the antics of Roger Moore in Moonraker.

FINEST HOUR: Coveting the eponymous tailored garment to his ultimate doom in Oscar-winning short The Bespoke Overcoat.