David Rowlands

David Rowlands: 

David Rowlands, with his shock of hair and strong features, pops up fairly regularly in Brit TV of the '70s and 80s, and reminds me a little (and in a good way) of Don Martin's cartoon characters from Mad Magazine.  

Rowlands' stock in trade is mainly characters from the politer end of English society: vicars, vaguely aristocratic and upper middle-class types, military officers, doctors, the occasional scientist and the nicer sort of policeman.  

Enjoying classic billing as the 'man with big bra' in 'Are
You Being Served?', facing the daunting Mrs Slocombe.

He first starts to make appearances in the mid-60s in a fairly even mix of dramas and comedy/variety output, but throughtout his career there is a strong tilt to the comedic side. He can be seen in a lot of mainstream sitcoms, on ITV in the channel's finest comedy 'Rising Damp', and its lesser brethren: 'Bless This House', 'On The Buses', 'Father Dear Father', and Love Thy Neighbour'. Over on the BBC, he crops up in such stalwart midweek fare as 'Are You Being Served?', 'Terry & June', 'Citizen Smith' and 'Allo Allo'. He also remained in demand for sketch and variety shows such as 'The Dawson Watch', 'The Two Ronnies', 'Cannon & Ball', 'Kelly Monteith' and 'Mike Yarwood In Persons'.         

Capturing the Abbot family nuptials in the film
spin-off of Bless This House (1972)

Some of the comedy productions he appeared in are now considered classics, witness the likes of 'The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin', 'The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy', and 'Blott On The Landscape'. He's also got a decent role in the Tom Baker-era 'Doctor Who' adventure, 'The Sun Makers' as an inquisitive intellectual in a world of human slave-drones, earning a whole bag of jelly babies for his assistance in defeating a dastardly Henry Woolf. 

As Bisham in the 1977 'Doctor Who' story 'The Sun Makers'

In the field of more heavyweight drama, he can be spotted in 'Take Three Girls' (and the '80s revisit, 'Take Three Women'), the Boer War saga 'The Regiment', Dennis Potter's 'Pennies From Heaven', and that bizarre ancient-world pot-boiler 'The Cleopatras'.   

As one of the useless Golgafrinchans, sent off into space by
their planet and destined to become the ancestors of humanity,
in the 1981 BBC adaptation of 'Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy'

He's in a very few feature films: the big-screen versions of 'On The Buses' (1971), 'Mutiny On The Buses' (1972) and 'Bless This House' (1972), the Ian Hendry thriller 'Assassin (1973) and the so-bad-it's-all-right-I-suppose comedy horror 'Vampira'/AKA 'Old Dracula' (1974) with David Niven hamming it up as the count. 

In the very silly British horror comedy 'Vampira' (1974)

 David Rowlands-imdb

Moira Foot

Moira Foot: 

Very tall and slender, with a charmingly toothy smile and an eye-catching embonpoint, Moira Foot is one of the troupe of dollybird actresses who populated the fantasy landscape of the '70s: either the glory days of light entertainment or the nadir of casual universal sexism, depending on your viewpoint. A quick glance at her credits (that will do, Mr Lucas) immediately conjures another age and another set of comedy values from a problematic canon: 'The Benny Hill Show', 'The Dick Emery Show', the movie of 'On The Buses' (1972), 'Are You Being Served?', and 'Doctor At Large'.     

Benny Hill, as 'World Of Sport's Dickie Davies, delivers a line
that almost certainly has something to do with Bristol City.   

Getting the benefit of George Layton's best bedside
manner in 'Doctor At Large'. 

Her father, Alistair Foot, was a comedy writer and one of the authors of the great touchstone of British theatrical farce, 'No Sex Please, We're British', so perhaps it's not surprising that the attractive young actress should find her way into this particular stream of light entertainment. Her first appearances were in the comedies of Ronnie Barker, well-known for his obsession with saucy postcard humour - a genre from which the cartoonishly glamorous Miss Foot seems to have miraculously stepped. She appears as Effie the maid in 'Hark At Barker' and the follow-up 'His Lordship Entertains', in which she is the frequent cause of Lord Rustless's popped monocle.   

Effie the maid has been making (surprise surprise) some dumplings,
in which Ronnie Barker naturally takes a keen interest    

In addition to the comedy shows and skits, there were a few brief, decorative appearances in dramas, such as 'Quiller' and 'The New Avengers', and other oddments, like the sleuth panel game 'Whodunnit' and a made-for-America musical evening with Jackie Gleason and Julie Andrews. 

As Denise of the Resistance in the later episodes of 'Allo Allo'

Her most recent role was in the fifth series of 'Allo Allo' where she turns up as René's childhood sweetheart, now a member of the Resistance. The show was still very popular, even if it had long since exhausted it's original premise, and she gives an enthusiastic performance at what must have been rather a flat point in the programme's long history. 
                   

Ready to impress the driving examiner - if it were anyone
but Dick Emery's Hello Honky Tonks that is... 

Benny Hill sight gag No. 235. Short bald Jackie Wright is the man
forgetting bus queue etiquette next to the statuesque Moira Foot    

That was 1988, seemingly her last TV appearances for the time being, but she'll certainly be seared into the memories of many for her iconic comedy show legacy. She was understandably sought after by those elder statesmen of British vaudeville and nudge-nudge humour, and whether it was humiliating Benny Hill on a disco dance floor or helping young Mr Grace with his tablets, she played the gag. It was another time. 

Moira Foot-imdb

Robin Parkinson

Robin Parkinson: 
† Oct 25 1929 – May 7 2022

One of the great skills of the character actor is to invest a peripheral role with enough personality to convince as a real individual in a real situation, without interfering with the main action. In British film and television there exists the recurring figure of the dignified but inconsequential little Englander, a small man who may display any blend of timidity, doggedness, thwarted genius, cheerful dullness, determined helpfulness and ennui. Robin Parkinson is something of a master of these roles.

Desmond pledges to help Miss Jones (Frances De La Tour) with her
drink problem, after a 'word-to-the wise' from a jealous Mr Rigsby

It was recalling his appearance as Desmond, the ardent and poetic librarian suitor of Miss Jones in 'Rising Damp' that got me researching Robin Parkinson, whose name I could not have told you before, and which uncovered a long CV of interesting work stretching back to the '50s.        

In the odd espionage caper 'Catch Me A Spy' (1971) 

On the big screen, you might have spotted him as the jeweller in the ring fiasco of 'Billy Liar' (1963), or in 'The Family Way' (1966), the Clements/La Frenais spy spoof 'Catch Me A Spy' (1971), 'Alfie Darling' (1975), or in the movie spin-off of 'George & Mildred' (1980), but it's probably unlikely.

Assisting Terry (James Bolam) with his suit for Bob's wedding
in 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?'

It's almost certain, though, that you've seen him in television comedy. Apart from the aforementioned 'Rising Damp', he has been in a panoply of vintage sitcoms, ranging from 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?', 'Dad's Army', 'Shelley', 'Moody & Pegg' and 'The Young Ones', to 'The Liver Birds', 'Love Thy Neighbour', 'The Brittas Empire', 'Bless This House', 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum', 'Beryl's Lot' and 'Terry & June'. There are lots more, including taking over the role of Monsieur (It is I...) Le Clerc in the later series of 'Allo Allo', although this was after it had gone from feeble to desperate.

As a chatty cabbie in 'The Professionals'

He also turns up in a lot of sketch comedy and light entertainment. You'll see him in the shows of the Two Ronnies, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Kelly Monteith, Harry Worth, and Peter Serafinovicz. Light dramas, middle-brow classics, cop shows and cosy crime favourites are also his stock in trade. See for instance, 'Clochemerle', 'The Pickwick Papers', 'The Good Companions', Whodunnit', 'All Creatures Great & Small', 'Van Der Valk', 'Softly Softly', 'The Professionals', 'Rosemary & Thyme', to name but a few.

Presenting the face of respectability to be subjected to the cynical
mordant wit of 'Shelley', as played by the late Hywel Bennet  

Then there's children's television, with 'Danger: Marmalade at Work', 'The Tommorow People', and a long-running stint as the soothingly-voiced narrator of the spoon-puppet show for tinies, 'Button Moon'.

Robin Parkinson narrated all the episodes of 'Button Moon'

The 'little man with spectacles' is, or at least was, a mainstay of British entertainment culture, and Robin Parkinson is a maestro at portraying the many nuances of the type. He's also the man forever perplexed by a bunged-up Peter Cleal in the timeless and iconic Tunes commercial. 

Robin Parkinson-imdb

John Leeson

John Leeson: 

"Affirmative, Master."

John Leeson is best known as the voice of K-9 in 'Doctor Who' (and latterly, 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'), although two other actors have stepped in on occasion to play the mechanical mutt. 

Appearing in one of Timothy's dreams of escape from his mother
in the tragicomic 'Sorry' with Ronnie Corbett

Some still feel that the idea of a clunky fibreglass-shelled robo-rover - complete with vintage '70s computer font branding - could drag the nation's favourite sci fi serial perilously close to 'Metal Mickey' territory, yet he seems to be generally accepted by fans, even popping up to add some knowing nostalgia to the show in the David Tennant era.
      
Those who want to spot John Leeson when not acting through an electronic prop have a difficult task, but he has popped up in a few TV bit parts over the years, starting in the late '60s. As Victor, for example, Timothy's librarian mate in 'Sorry', and a smattering of background characters in anything from 'Take Three Girls', 'The Barretts Of Wimpole Street' and 'Vanity Fair', to 'Minder', 'Allo Allo', and 'Tucker's Luck'.

He made a convincing petty official and was quite likely to appear with a clipboard to infuriate and bewilder unwitting victims on 'Beadle's About'.

Checking Arthur's passport in a late episode of 'Minder'

He's in feature films 'Tarka The Otter' (1979) and 'Whoops Apocalypse' (1988) was also the actor in an early version of the Bungle bearsuit in the children's TV show 'Rainbow' for a short while in 1972.    

Leeson as the first, alarmed-looking, Bungle in 'Rainbow'

John Leeson-imdb

Michael Percival

Michael Percival:

† 2015*

Many people's principle memories of Michael Percival date from when he played the sardonic form-teacher Mr Mitchell in the heyday of the popular BBC school series 'Grange Hill'. He's another of those actors who used to show up regularly, but are infuriatingly difficult to place.  

Perhaps you can spot him in feature films like 'Marat/Sade' (1967), 'No Blade of Grass' (1970), and the John Cleese trio 'Clockwise' (1986), 'A Fish Called Wanda' (1988) and 'Fierce Creatures' (1997),

Unusually casual behind the bar in an episode of 'Inspector Morse'

TV appearances include 'Boon', 'Rosemary & Thyme', 'Inspector Morse', 'Kavanagh QC', and 'My Uncle Silas'. He's also in 'Doctor Who' (Matt Smith episode 'Vampires of Venice'), 'Lovejoy' and comedies 'Me and My Girl' and 'Allo Allo', as well as a regular role in the strange secret service sitcom, 'The Piglet Files' starring Nicholas Lyndhurst.    

As an art dealer in 'Allo Allo'. As you'd imagine, he has just
purchased the 'Portrait of the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies'.

Having his car stolen by John Cleese in 'Clockwise' (1986)

*Sorry to see Michael Percival's name included in the 'In Memoriam' section of Equity magazine's Winter 2015 issue. I can find no further details at the moment.  

Michael Percival - imdb

Graham Seed

Graham Seed

Perhaps it's too much of a stretch to suggest that, like Leonard Nimoy's autobiography, 'I Am Not Spock', Graham Seed's one-man stage show, 'Don't Call Me Nigel', attempts to free the actor from the shackles of his most famous role. This pixie-faced, genteel actor - or at least, his voice - is best known in the UK for playing Nigel Pargetter in the everlasting radio serial 'The Archers' between 1983 and 2011. In fact, of course, he's acknowledging the popularity of 'The Archers', but it's true that he's been less championed for appearing in some of the better TV and film of the last four decades.      

As Britannicus, in the classic 1976 BBC serial, 'I,Claudius'

His boyish looks and public school accent and manners were put to use in popular TV dramas including 'Wings', 'The Agatha Christie Hour', 'Good and Bad at Games', 'Band of Brothers' and 'Brideshead Revisited', as well as showings in good old 'Midsomer Murders', 'Juliet Bravo', 'Bergerac' and 'Doctors'. He has also turned his hand to comedy, with the banalities of 'Allo Allo' and the silliness of 'The Kenny Everett Television Show' being substantially outweighed by quality like 'Jeeves & Wooster' and a number of Victoria Wood projects.   



In the TV drama 'Band of Brothers'

On the film front, he can be spotted in 'Gandhi' (1982), 'Little Dorrit' (1988), These Foolish Things (2005), and 'Wild Target' (2010).



A bogus curate jewel thief, thwarted by Jeeves in 'Jeeves & Wooster' 

 

Graham Seed - imdb