TV Cream

Hall of Fame

FRANKLYN, William

franklynWe’ll ignore that damn tonic water catchphrase (tempting though, isn’t it?) and celebrate the screen’s smoothest operator this side of Peter Bowles for his many films instead. A trick of the memory casts him as an MI5 operative most of the time, but other than The Intelligence Men, that’s down to the telly likes of Master Spy. He did, however, play an amnesiac safe-maker in Pit of Darkness, a rare gem from the cut-price Butcher’s stable. At the other end of the scale, a dandy highwayman in lovely old Regal swashbuckler Fury at Smugglers’ Bay.

FINEST HOUR: As the effortlessly suave Cecil, putting the nervy Donald Pleasence on the spot when he calls round for drinks in Cul-de-Sac.

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