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

Dudley Sutton

Dudley Sutton: 

† Apr 6 1933 – Sep 15 2018

The disconcerting, pug-faced Mr Sutton will be familiar to many as the eccentric Tinker from 'Lovejoy', but before that he was best known for a string of menacing, unstable young tearaways and sinister villains in some of the UK's most interesting TV and cinema. Notable films include 'The Leather Boys' (1964, as one of the screen's first openly homosexual characters), 'The Boys' (1962), 'A Town Called Bastard' (1971), 'Brimstone & Treacle' (1982), and of course Ken Russell's 'The Devils' (1971). His TV career covers the classic territory of 'The Saint', 'The Baron', 'Department S', 'Strangers' and of course, 'The Sweeney'. He was particularly good as the sinister Connie Rosenthal in 'Shine On Harvey Moon' and as the sardonic schoolteacher, Mr Carter, in 'The Beiderbecke Trilogy' by Alan Plater. I haven't seen the Gillingham FC movie 'The Shouting Men' (2010), so I won't mention it. 

Dudley Sutton in 'The Devils' (1971)

About to trigger 'a series of small explosions' in 'The Beiderbecke Affair'

Dudley Sutton - imdb