Michael Culver

Michael Culver: 

† Jun 16 1938– Feb 27 2024

Now here's a face of the seventies, a lean, shrewd-looking actor who carved his name into a swathe of memorable roles through the heyday of popular television, yet without quite becoming a star.   

As the caddish Danny, telling the world that he doesn't love Annabelle. Soon to be 

pushed off the Albert Bridge by that miffed lady and not, as it turns out, by

a lovelorn Rodney Bewes. All in a day's work for a 'Man In A Suitcase'.  
         

He's another of that dwindling band of actors whose careers straddle the cult TV years of the '60s and '70s, when he appeared in 'Maigret', 'The Avengers', 'The Plane Makers', 'Man In A Suitcase', and 'Space:1999', and more mature roles in dramas such as 'Within These Walls', 'Doomwatch', 'Churchill's People' and 'Warship'. Perhaps his highest-profile part was in the very popular 'Secret Army' as the comparatively sympathetic German officer Brandt who tempers some of the Nazi fervour of his Gestapo counterpart Kessler (played by Clifford Rose). Younger viewers at the time would probably associate him more with 'The Adventures Of Black Beauty'.

Hirsute's you. Culver plays the dastardly kidnapper Kurt with some

impressive mutton chops, alongside the late Ralph Bates at his glossiest

in 'Nuisance Value', an episode of 'The Persuaders' from 1972 

The later '70s and early '80s kept things nicely on the boil with appearances in favourites like 'The Sweeney', 'Minder', 'Squadron', 'Hammer House Of Horror', 'The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes', 'Boon', 'The Professionals' and 'Shoestring'.  

As Prior Robert in the medieval detective series 'Cadfael'

Then there's the cinema CV, which contains some pretty impressive titles, kicking off with (uncredited) roles in 'From Russia With Love' (1963) and 'Thunderball' (1965), and including 'A Passage To India' (1984), the Peter O'Toole 'Goodbye Mr Chips' (1969). As with many British character actors, though, he is known throughout geekdom for his brush with the Star Wars franchise, in this case as Captain Needa, another imperial officer who gets on the wrong side of Darth Vader. 

Still breathing in 'The Empire Strikes Back' (1980). But not for long. 

Michael Culver-imdb

Ellis Jones

Ellis Jones:

Here's a slightly elusive one. As an energetic and distinctively beaky young actor, Ellis pops up in a swathe of TV in the early '70s. These days he's a respected senior drama coach and creative bigwig at RADA, although he has continued to make sporadic appearances on our screens over the years.



In an episode of the BBC naval drama 'Warship'

With the late Ken Jones in an episode of Eric Chappell's
office sitcom, 'The Squirrels', from 1975

I particularly enjoyed his turn as the office ingénue in 'The Squirrels', an unfairly overlooked minor classic from the pen of 'Rising Damp' creator Eric Chappell. He also shows up in 'Warship', 'Z-Cars' and 'Doctor Who' (he is, in fact, the first person to appear in 'Doctor Who' in colour, in the opening Pertwee-era story, 'Spearhead from Space' in 1969) and a number of Shakespearean roles including the Fool in the Thames TV production of 'King Lear' with Patrick Magee, much shown in school English classes. 

In 'Spearhead from Space', the first Jon Pertwee story of 'Doctor Who'

In the 'Cadfael' mystery, 'A Morbid Taste For Bones'

So perhaps it's ironic that he's probably best remembered by many for playing the hapless Hal Adden (geddit) in 'Pardon My Genie' with Hugh Paddick as the crabby and obtuse spirit of the lamp, rather than for helping the acting careers of Tom Hiddleston, Ben Whishaw, Eve Best, Sally Hawkins, Gemma Arterton and Matthew Macfadyen, to name but a few.     

Ellis Jones-imdb

Roger Ashton-Griffiths

Roger Ashton-Griffiths:

The name might mean nothing to you, but pale and jowly Roger Ashton-Griffiths has appeared in a number of high-profile films, including Terry Gilliam's 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Brazil', Martin Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' (playing Phineas T Barnum), Roman Polanski's 'Pirates', Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' and Woody Allen's 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'.

Originally trained as a singer, he was a member of the ENO before making his TV debut as a red-painted demon in an episode of 'The Young Ones' alongside the late David Rappaport. This seems to have led directly into a steady stream of work from the mid-'80s onwards.  

As Orgo the Demon in 'The Young Ones'

As well as the big cinema names listed above, he was seen in a roll-call of some of the most popular, if not always primetime, television of the last three decades: ' Young Indiana Jones Chronicles', 'Cadfael', 'The Darling Buds of May', 'C.A.T.S. Eyes', 'Lovejoy', 'Grange Hill' and inevitably, 'The Bill'. Recent interesting parts have included 'Torchwood' and that great salvation for the British character actor,  'Game of Thrones' in which he plays high lord something-or-other Mace Tyrell.

In the Matthew Holness short 'A Gun for George' (2011)

As Dr Johnson in 'Samuel Johnson: The Dictionary Man'

 Other appearances include the very dark comedy short (by 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace' maverick Matthew Holness) 'A Gun For George'. He is also cast as Alfred Hitchcock in Olivier Dahan's forthcoming 'Grace of Monaco' (2014), which sounds interesting, not least for having Robert Lindsay playing Aristotle Onassis.

Roger Ashton-Griffiths-imdb

Terrence Hardiman

Terrence Hardiman: 
† April 6 1937 - May 8 2023

Steely-eyed, cadaverous, Christopher Lee type. He was memorable looming out of TV screens as Abbot Radulfus in 'Cadfael', and has appeared in 'The Demon Headmaster', 'Poirot' and 'Secret Army'. Rather less fearsomely, he took the classic comic role of Mr Pooter in the 1979 television version of 'Diary of a Nobody', with Sheila Steafel as his long-suffering wife. He was also in the 2010 'Doctor Who' episode 'The Beast Below', the one with the horrible Smilers.

In fact, there seems to be hardly a TV genre that he hasn't conquered. Drama: in 'Colditz', 'When The Boat Comes In', 'Prime Suspect 3', and 'Hannay'. Comedy: in 'Home to Roost', 'Surgical Spirit' and the Dickens pastiche 'The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff'. And a fair bit of kids' TV: 'Chucklevision', 'The Worst Witch', and 'Magic Grandad'.

In an episode of 'Colditz'

'No more questions, m'lud.' In a 1975 episode of 'Crown Court'

I don't remember 'Skorpion', a well-received BBC terrorist thriller series from 1983 that he starred in, but which seems to have been consigned to the corporation's deeper basements. A pity, as it sounds pretty good.

As Abbot Radulfus in 'Cadfael'

In full 'Dr No' mode as 'The Demon Headmaster'

He crops up in a few feature films; 'Pope Joan' (1972), 'Running Scared' (1972), and as Ramsay MacDonald in 'Gandhi' (1980) and Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor thriller 'God's Outlaw' (1986).


Terrence Hardiman - imdb