Peter Blake

Peter Blake: 

† Dec 8 1948 – Jul 21 2018

The tall dark and handsome type, from the same shelf as Paul Nicholas and David Essex perhaps, but not destined for top billing. Peter Blake is probably most remembered as the insufferably cocky Kirk St Moritz in the lonely hearts sitcom 'Dear John' with Ralph Bates and Belinda Lang. I seem to remember it being a genuinely jaw-dropping plot twist when Kirk was revealed to be the alter-ego of a timid sad-sack who lived with his elderly mother at the end of the series.
   

Other solid TV credits include 'Minder', 'The Professionals', 'Shoestring', 'Out', 'Bergerac', 'Agony' (as sleazy DJ Andy Evol), 'A Very Peculiar Practice' and a short stint in 'EastEnders' in 2010, playing Peggy Mitchell's love interest Ken Tate.
 

With Belinda Lang and the late Ralph Bates in 'Dear John'

With Barabara Windsor in 'EastEnders'

After drama school he started out in trendy stage productions like 'Jesus Christ Superstar', 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Rocky Horror', while snagging TV extra roles and working as a stage manager in Soho strip clubs. Perhaps his contacts there led to his first film part in the sex comedy 'Intimate Games' (1976) a typical affair with the usual mix of goose-pimpled dollybirds and veteran character actors (in this case, Mary Millington meets George Baker, Hugh Lloyd, Queenie Watts, and Johnny Vyvyan).   

Probably seeing some bosoms in 'Intimate Games' (1976)

In the forgotten office sitcom, 'Fiddlers Three'. A re-jigged version of 'The Squirrels'

An interesting aside: He was Eddie, the rock'n'roll revival Pepsi drinker in their successful '70s advertising campaign. Like this one.   

There was even a spin-off single… here's his performance on 'Top of the Pops'… Lipsmackin'


Peter Blake - imdb

Robert Gillespie

Robert Gillespie:

Strange, impish character actor with a distinctive 'halting and blinking' delivery. He trained at RADA, which may account for his ability to be memorable and compelling in a lot of fairly slight and minor roles. His star turn in the seemingly bland family sitcom 'Keep It In The Family' was notable for his portrayal of the childlike, manically depressed Dudley Rush - a comic-strip artist with a hinted history of breakdowns and mental issues who lives with his attractive, supportive wife (played by Pauline Yates, echoing her performance in 'Reggie Perrin') and pert grown-up daughters. He only draws when holding the pen with a glove-puppet lion...  

Other TV roles include the unhappy transvestite Mr Mince in the first episode of 'Agony', the fair-minded chairman of the residents association, Mr Carter, in 'The Good Life', and the long suffering police sergeant in 'Man About The House' who was to become a recurring character extending even unto the realms of 'George & Mildred'. His resume stretches back to the '60s, and includes comedy like 'Dad's Army', 'Up Pompeii', 'Porridge', 'Rising Damp' and 'The Liver Birds'. There's a smattering of cult classics too: 'The Avengers', The Sweeney', 'Doomwatch', 'The Survivors', and the rather forgotten kids adventure series 'The Freewheelers'.

On the big screen, watch out for him in 'Otley' (1968), 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' (1969). 'The National Health' (1973), 'Barry MacKenzie Holds His Own' (1974), and of course he played the AA man in my old favourite, 'The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins' (1971).

A scandal of some sort cut his on-screen career short in the '90s, but he is still acting and an innovative and successful director and writer for the stage.

But this is the good stuff, to my way of thinking: from 'Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads?'

Robert Gillespie - imdb profile

John Tordoff

John Tordoff: 

I believe he retired from professional acting a few years ago – and now designs gardens and paints in Cambridge – but he's a welcome sight whenever he pops up in roles as put-upon coppers, harassed officials, and quizzical passers-by. He has a distinctive, slightly nasal, twang to his voice, and his downbeat, measured delivery often serves to suggest a level of intellectual depth and dignified patience, even to the most modest role. 

In a 1970s  advert for Formica worktops, dealing with
a very insistent, out of shot, Brian Murphy and Hilda Braid 

With Robin Nedwell in the LWT series 'Doctor On The Go'

Seen in TV including 'Campion', 'The Sweeney', 'The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes', 'Citizen Smith', 'Coronation Street' (as three different characters, in '68, '78 and '99), and, more memorably for me, 'Murder Most English: A Flaxborough Chronicle' as ghoulish forensic officer Mr Warlock. 

Delivering his forensic report in 'A Flaxborough Chronicle'

Starstruck at meeting Sherlock Holmes in 'Without A Clue' (1988) 

Film parts range from a tiny role in a cafe scene in 'Billy Liar' (1963) to 'Without A Clue' (1988),  Michael Winner's 'Parting Shots' (1999) and 'Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves' (1991).

In an episode of 'The Sweeney'

As the Sheriff of Nottingham's scribe in
'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' (1991)

As he was born locally to me, in Rochester, Kent, an almost exact contemporary of my dad, it's a particular pleasure to salute him and his work.  

John Tordoff - imdb profile