A man who always seems to be clad in either a toga or a long coat (or, at the end of The Wildcats of St Trinians, just his pants, but we’ll gloss over that one). A man so somehow comforting in an Old Boys Club sort of way (cf Richard Vernon) even when he plays seedy characters like his cameo as a disgraced bomb expert reduced to operating the scoreboard at a dog track, there’s still a tangible inner core of respectable resilience… somewhere. Always amusing, never Ludicrus (except in Up Pompeii! of course).
FINEST HOUR: His violent death against a plastic sheet in Theatre of Blood is an unshakeable image, but for a bit more pathos, there’s always his BBC newsreader Bules Martin in The Bed-Sitting Room, wandering the wilderness with his cutout telly screen and dinner jacket remnants, broadcasting to an audience of one.
Richardpd
December 13, 2022 at 10:12 pm
He also dabbled in cartoon voices, playing Mr Curry in Paddington Bear & Badger in Wind In The Willows, using almost the same tone of voice.