Granville Saxton

Granville Saxton: 

Gaunt and hawk-like character actor Granville Saxton has turned his hand successfully to comedy and drama since the mid-70s. He appeared in several of the ensuing decades' most popular series, though never really grabbing a solidly memorable role in any. You might possibly recognise him from the not-much-loved 1979 BBC version of 'The Old Curiosity Shop' in which he plays Dick Swiveller, or from the kids TV drama 'The Feathered Serpent', a wordy, studio-bound tale of Mesoamerican temple intrigue that sent kids running outside to play in 1978.                

His 1975 TV debut in the Brian Clemens 'Thriller' episode 'Kill Two Birds' 

As Xipec in the exhausting kids drama series 'The Feathered Serpent'

He pops up in a modest way in some quality series during the '80s and '90s, including 'Poirot', 'Charters & Caldicott, 'Our Friends In The North', and 'Shine On Harvey Moon'. Also, there's some variable comedy fare, ranging from 'The Comic Strip Presents' and the mildly diverting 'If You See God, Tell Him' to playing sketch characters in Jimmy Cricket's 'And There's More'.  One intriguing role was as the sinister Mr Fowl in the grimly satirical school comedy 'Hardwicke House' which seemed to aim for the triangular midpoint between 'Grange Hill', The Young Ones' and 'Britannia Hospital' (1982), but fell somewhat short, resulting in a sort of hyperactive, traumatised version of 'Please Sir'. Even a cast including the late great Roy Kinnear and Familiar Unknown favourites Tony Haygarth and Roger Sloman could save it from being axed after only two episodes.      

As Mr Fowl, brushing up on his classroom technique in 'Hardwicke House' 

The cast of 'Hardwicke House', Granville Saxton to rear,
behind the great Roy Kinnear. 

He's also a Harry Dean Stanton-esque Death Eater in parts I and II of 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows' (2010/2011), which I suppose is where more people have seen him than in any other role. Here's to many more like it.

Suited for the wizarding world. 

 Granville Saxton-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

Pauline Moran

Pauline Moran:

As far as I can ascertain, Pauline Moran is only now about to appear in her first big screen role, in Alan Rickman's period drama, 'A Little Chaos'. As well as directing, Rickman appears as Louis XIV and Kate Winslet plays Versailles landscape architect Madame Sabine De Barra. I don't know what part the most excellent Pauline Moran will play but, after a long career in television, it seems overdue.    

As the estimable Miss Lemon in an episode of 'Poirot'

Best known as Hercule Poirot's resourceful and efficient secretary, Miss Lemon, in 32 episodes of the long-running series of dramatisations starring David Suchet, she has given the part a lot more sassiness than Agatha Christie wrote into the rather severe and spinsterish character. Which isn't to say that there isn't a touch of severity about Ms Moran's attractive features. Her austere good looks have graced such roles as the memorable Cleopatra Berenike in the slightly hysterical 1983 BBC series 'The Cleopatras', while other famous actors made poor headway against the tide of comical costumes and novel video tricks.  

A first glimpse of 'The Lady In Black'

In the 1981 version of Ford Madox Ford's 'The Good Soldier'

She was cast as the disquieting spectre in the 1989 TV version of 'The Lady In Black', but also as the frail and vulnerable Maisie Maiden, deceived by the suave Jeremy Brett in the Edwardian period drama 'The Good Soldier'. Other appearances include 'Nicholas Nickleby' (the 1977 Nigel Havers one), DH Lawrence's 'The Trespasser',  and an episode of Jim Henson's 'The Storyteller' that saw her play the kindly queen to evil king Philip Jackson, later to be Poirot's Scotland Yard connection, Inspector Japp.      

A year before her Poirot debut, with Philip Jackson in 'The Storyteller' 

Trivia: In her early twenties she was the bass player in the all-girl rock group She Trinity (sometimes known in Europe as British Maid, or later, Gilded Cage), and nowadays she is also a professional astrologer. Get your own personal chart from her here.  

With all-girl rock group
 She Trinity in the late '60s.

Rebranded as Gilded Cage, as in 'I'm Only A Bird In A...' 

Pauline Moran - imdb