John Owens

John Owens:

It seems that lanky, long-chinned actor John Owens has appeared in a lot of my favourite TV programmes over the years, but has always somehow flown just under my recognition radar. Looking at his resumé on the ever-useful imdb website, I notice that he has had a lot of no-name roles that suggest the fringes of extra-dom; 'waiter', 'salesman', 'man in cupboard', 'jumble donor' and quite often 'vicar'. This does him little justice. 

'Oh Crikey!' It's Rik's favourite TV show in 'The Young Ones'

He's in one of the most classic of 'Doctor Who' stories for a start, 'The Daemons' from 1971 (see picture at top of page), as well as classic serials 'Nicholas Nickleby' and 'Sense and Sensibility', period dramas like 'To Serve Them All My Days', 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Monocled Mutineer'. You might also catch a glimpse of him in lots of popular early-evening stuff like 'Lovejoy', 'Shoestring', 'The Professionals' and 'Reilly Ace of Spies'.   

One of several vicar roles, this one in the gentle police sitcom 'Rosie'

Plenty of comedy too. He was a regular on 'The Dick Emery Show' and 'The Two Ronnies' (in fact, he works the slightly weak visual punchline of the famous 'four candles' sketch) plus a sprinkling of sitcoms that includes 'Terry & June', 'Whatever Happened to the The Likely Lads', 'Please Sir', 'Potter', 'Rosie' and 'Rings On Their Fingers'. And some of the more whimsical and sophisticated '70s and '80s offerings, such as 'Fairly Secret Army', 'Mister Pye' and 'Mapp & Lucia', before brushing with alternative comedy, satire and dark humour via 'The Young Ones', 'Time Trumpet', 'Look Around You' (as Teddy Clarke, leader of the vegetable orchestra) and 'Nighty Night'. 

Trying to sell insurance to Hyacinth in 'Keeping Up Appearances' 

Not too much cinema work. But he's in 'Oh! What a Lovely War' (1969), 'An American Werewolf In London' (1981), and 'From Hell' (2001).

As a gangland gunman in 'Clegg' aka 'The Bullet Machine' (1970) 

John Owens- imdb

David Simeon

David Simeon: 

The sandy-haired and usually horn-rimmed Mr Simeon was once a solid regular of British TV, turning up in an assortment of middling comedies and dramas throughout the '70s and early '80s, after getting of to a good start with a decent part in the now-lost 1967 TV series of 'Sexton Blake'. He was one of the key members of the teatime comedy show 'End of Part One' alongside the over-excitable Denise Coffey and kids favourites Fred 'Ragtime' Harris and Tony Aitken, and played the straight man in sketches for comedians as diverse(?) as Dick Emery and Lenny Henry. His sitcom work is a bit patchy: from top-notch stuff like 'Fawlty Towers', 'The New Statesman' and 'Ever Decreasing Circles', to schedule-fillers 'Birds of a Feather' and 'Sykes', and a lot of rubbish along the lines 'Rings on their Fingers', 'The Many Wives of Patrick', and the abysmal Leslie Phillips vehicle 'Casanova '73'.        

On the drama front, he shows up in ho-hum '70s cop soaps 'Z-Cars', 'Hunters Walk', and 'Special Branch', and the obligatory 'Dr Who' or two ('The Daemons' and 'Inferno'), and appears for an instant in the famously hard-boiled (or gratuitously violent) Brit 1969 gangster series 'Big Breadwinner Hog'. After all that comes the wasteland of '80s hospital and courtroom tosh: 'Angels', 'The Bill', 'Casualty' and 'Doctors'. A rare starring role comes in Nigel Kneale's 'Murrain', a segment of the interesting drama series 'Beasts'.    

He hasn't hit Hollywood, or even Borehamwood, in a big way, but minor credits include 'A Fish Called Wanda' (1988), 'Sweet William' (1980) and the interesting-sounding 'Freelance' (1971), a gangland thriller starring Ian McShane and with a soundtrack by Basil Kirchin.   

David Simeon - imdb

Damaris Hayman

Damaris Hayman: 

† June 16 1929 – June 3 2021

The epitome of the eminently respectable horsey lady, Ms Hayman was cast strictly to type, having been born in Kensington and educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College. She was memorably eccentric in the classic Pertwee-era 'Doctor Who' story The Daemons, and had a number of appearances on TV, in 'The Sweeney', 'The Double Deckers', 'Wodehouse Playhouse' and, perhaps less predictably, 'The Young Ones' and 'Filthy Rich & Catflap'.

Damaris maintaining her dignity in 'On The Buses'

About to come a cropper during a seance in
''Full Circle' (aka 'The Hunting of Julia') (1977)

Film appearances include: 'Bunny Lake is Missing' (1965), 'The Pink Panther Strikes Again' (1976), Michael Palin's 'The Missionary' (1982), and the unlikely 'Confessions of a Driving Instructor' (1976). It might also be fun to spot some of her many uncredited extra appearances, such as in 'Greyfriars Bobby' (1961), The Belles of St Trinians' (1954), or the peculiar mystery movie 'Smokescreen' (1964) with Peter Vaughan.   

 'Smokescreen' (1964)

About to be run over by a piano in the Children's Film
Foundation classic, 'The Magnificent Six and a Half' (1968)

Damaris Hayman - imdb profile