TV Cream

Hall of Fame

BASS, Alfie

bassThere’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.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. THX 1139

    June 19, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    Mr Bass was also the star of Come Play With Me, one of the most successful British films ever made, only it never gets talked about because it’s full of bare naked ladies, including poor old Mary Millington.

  2. Droogie

    June 20, 2021 at 10:32 pm

    Alfie also memorably played a Jewish vampire in Roman Polanski’s Dance Of The Vampires ( crucifixes don’t work on him!)

  3. Droogie

    June 20, 2021 at 10:33 pm

    Alfie also memorably played a Jewish vampire in Roman Polanski’s Dance Of The Vampires ( crucifixes don’t work on him!)

  4. Sidney Balmoral James

    June 20, 2021 at 10:53 pm

    Stop getting Bond wrong! He can hardly be described as looking on in slack-jawed bewilderment. He’s a coughing and wheezing old man, who throws his fag away when he sees a coffin floating along the canal. There can’t be less than 99{30e2395aaf6397fd02d2c79d91a1fe7cbb73158454674890018aee9c53a0cb96} of the population who aren’t familiar with this scene.

    • Sidney Balmoral James

      June 20, 2021 at 10:54 pm

      Or rather, who are familiar with this scene.

      • THX 1139

        June 20, 2021 at 11:07 pm

        I’m still hoping for a TVC entry devoted to the double take pigeon, personally.

        • Sidney Balmoral James

          June 21, 2021 at 7:40 pm

          Yes, time for a TVC entry on the best and worst jokey bits in Bond films. Best: ‘I think he’s attempting re-entry’; the stolen Goya in Dr. No; the bit when Roger Moore makes Carole Bouquet laugh in the 2CV; Jaws’ expression when the speedboat goes over the waterfall. Worst: the pigeon (in fact, whole canal sequence in Moonraker); Sean slagging off the Beatles; ‘She’s just coming sir’; Mrs. Thatcher in For Your Eyes Only, most of Diamonds Are Forever.

  5. Glenn Aylett

    June 22, 2021 at 6:30 pm

    The Beatles reference is one of the best things about Goldfinger as it shows Bond is aware of current trends and dismissive of what he’d probably consider four talentless young men.

    • THX 1139

      June 22, 2021 at 7:05 pm

      Is that why they waited till Sean had left before getting Macca to do a theme tune?

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