Brian Gwaspari

Brian Gwaspari: 

Wiry, resolute sort of character actor, swerving equally expertly through some of the better action thrillers and comedies of the '70s and '80s, Londoner Brian Gwaspari is a more familiar face than he is a name. Getting an initial TV break in the bedsit 1974 drama serial 'Rooms', he soon started to crop up in popular shows such as 'The Sweeney', 'Van der Valk', 'The Professionals', 'Hazell' and 'The Gentle Touch'. He hit the big screen, in a comparatively small way, in 'The Spy Who Loved Me' (1977) and 'A Bridge Too Far' (1977) and was in a European-set episode of the American TV series 'Remington Steele' with Pierce Brosnan.     

After all that burning rubber and gunplay, the '80s saw a bit more comedy and light-hearted material. He had a stint as a copper investigating Roy's car-lot fire on 'EastEnders', and can be spotted in 'Ever Decreasing Circles', 'Help!', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'No Frills' (a short lived sitcom with Kathy Staff reprising a sort of Nora Batty role in yuppy London), 'Hi De Hi', 'Yes, Prime Minister', and 'Joint Account', surely one of the beige-est sitcoms ever, about a female bank manager - whatever next?    

'Sweeney 2' (1978)

And an episode of The Professionals

Into the '90s and '00s and we've got a dusting of cosy crime sneaking into the mix: 'Wycliffe' and 'Poirot' for example, and a few more sitcoms, such as the Gwen Taylor vehicle, 'Screaming', 'The Brittas Empire' and 'Waiting for God'. On the cop show front, we can see him in 'The Chief' with Tim Piggot-Smith, and the oddball, largely-misfiring 'Virtual Murder' a character-actor-studded 1992 effort that might have attained some cult status if not let down by its dreary low budget feel.    

The Brittas Empire

More recently, there's the short 'Raspberry Ripple' (2007), followed by a single episode of 'Doctors' and a 'Midsomer Murders' in 2010. He's about 75 at time of writing, so hopefully he may pop up again somewhere unless he's got out of the business. In any case, a great supporting actor.          

Brian Gwaspari - imdb

David Cann

David Cann: 

Distinctive actor, with a combination of tough-guy and strangely elfin looks - thanks perhaps to his expressively pointy eyebrows - yet equally adaptable to everyday everyman roles. He first caught my attention from cropping up in a lot of modern comedy of the oddball sort, (being one of Chris Morris's development team for the radio show 'Blue Jam' and his later TV output), and also popular with the likes of Kevin Eldon and Reece Shearsmith. 

A typical role in a 'Brass Eye' interview sequence 

Trained at RADA in the mid 70s, his early television jobs saw him tackling some extra and bit-parts in low budget sci-fi faves, such as 'Tomorrow People', 'Sapphire & Steel' and 'Blakes 7', though seemingly never 'Doctor Who'.     

I think this is our chap... An early role as the 'chaircreature'
of a galactic committee in 'The Tomorrow People', played
in a rather jolly Python-esque falsetto.  

Uncredited role in 'Blakes 7' (on right).  

He proved extremely versatile, with small roles gradually giving way to better things in an ever-widening range of genres. He was in 'Shine On Harvey Moon', had a prolonged stint on a later series of 'Grange Hill' as Mr Bentley, and appeared as several characters on both sides of the law in 'The Bill'. He was also in 'EastEnders', 'Bad Girls', 'Silent Witness' and 'Doctors', as well as an episode of 'Killing Eve'.

In the 1981 TV reboot of 'Callan'

Vintage menace in an episode of 'Campion'

But it's in comedy that he's been most visible and memorable, with appearances in Chris Morris's 'Brass Eye' and 'Jam', 'Black Books', 'Saxondale', 'It's Kevin', 'Psychoville', 'Benidorm' and most recently, 'Sex Education'.

More 'Brass Eye'. This time as an astronaut. 

Films have been a mixture of comedies: 'Dog Eat Dog' (2001), 'Run Fatboy Run' (2007), 'Attack The Block' (2011), and more serious fare '1984' (1984), Chromophobia (2005), Les Miserables (2012) and 'Dead Eyes' (2007).

Mostly pretty interesting stuff. One of those actors that it's almost reassuring to see appear, giving the impression of being in good hands. I salute you.      

David Cann-imdb

Leon Lissek

Leon Lissek: 

Although born in Australia, Leon Lissek has spent the majority of his long acting career in the UK where his mobile features and expressive eyes have made him a memorable face in a range of supporting roles. Which isn't to say that he is simply a master of the shrug, gape or head-shake, as a series of slightly more substantial acting successes makes clear.     

In the Hammer horror 'Countess Dracula' (1971)

A few major films have featured his talents, such as 'Nicholas & Alexandra' (1971) which featured a Tom Baker as Rasputin, and alongside Albert Finney's Poirot in 'Murder On The Orient Express' (1974, ), as well as 'Sweeney 2' (1978), 'Time Bandits' (1981), 'Personal Services' (1987), and 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being' (1988). There's also an early role in the revered 'Marat/Sade' (1967). It's in television though, that he has really made the bigger impression.   

In the dock in a 'Crown Court' story from 1973 

With equal aplomb, Leon Lissek has met with television's casting demands for Jewish rabbis, businessmen and revolutionaries, Spanish priests and waiters, Arab sheikhs, French maitre d's, and various Greeks, Russians, Hungarians and Mexicans. You could have spotted him in police and adventure shows ranging from 'Softly Softly', 'Special Branch', 'Z-Cars' and 'Van Der Valk' to 'The Avengers', 'The Protectors', 'The Return Of The Saint' and 'The Professionals'.       

Continental shenanigans in 'Return Of The Saint'

He seems to have returned to Australia for a spell in the mid-'70s, to appear as a regular in 'The Sullivans', and several other Australian programmes. In the UK, lighter fare included low-brow comedies 'Not On Your Nellie' and 'Take A Letter Mr Jones', and kids TV 'Tottering Towers', 'Robert's Robots' and 'The Famous Five.' Better things were around the corner though, with his performance in the big-budget TV drama 'Shogun' as Father Sebastio.    

Waiting for the bathroom in an episode of
the BBC sitcom 'Ever Decreasing Circles'    

The '80s and '90s saw a sprinkling of quality drama - 'Our Friends In The North', 'The Final Cut', 'Cambridge Spies' - and occasional small roles in some popular productions such as 'Ever Decreasing Circles', 'A Fine Romance' and so on, culminating in a stint on 'EastEnders' with the legendary Stella Tanner, as Bruno and Luisa Di Marco, before the cast was dramatically pruned in late 1998.       

Playing Lavoisier in 'Marat/Sade' (1967)

Leon Lissek-imdb

Duggie Brown

Duggie Brown:

† Aug 7 1940 – Aug 16 2022

A popular turn on the club circuit in the late '60s and early '70s, chubby-faced comic Duggie Brown made an unusual transition to cinema and TV in serious and comedy roles after his brief appearance in Ken Loach's 'Kes'. He went on to feature in some of the typically gritty TV plays of the early '70s including 'Another Sunday and Sweet FA', 'Rank and File', Play for Today 'The Price of Coal', and 'The Hard Word'. All the while, he was also appearing on Granada Television's 'The Comedians' performing the presumably less blue parts of his club act for teatime TV audiences.

He had the title role in kitchen-sink doyenne Shelagh Delaney's six-part BBC series 'The House That Jack Built', which appears to be a victim of the corporation's disastrous tape-wiping stinginess. Shame if it hasn't survived, sounds like something of a lost gem.    

In the 1977 Play for Today, 'The Price of Coal'

I first recall him in the rather downbeat modelling-agency sitcom, 'The Glamour Girls', written by Reggie Perrin creator David Nobbs. It also featured our old friend James Warrior, not to mention Brigit Forsyth as a slightly neurotic model constantly at odds with her bubbly blonde colleague played by Sally Watts.  

In a recent TV interview.

Less chubby of face these days, he has also had parts in  'The Bill', 'All Creatures Great and Small', 'Minder', 'Ellington' 'Heartbeat', 'Common as Muck' and is one of the few actors to have appeared in 'Coronation Street', 'Brookside' and 'EastEnders'.

Trivia: He helmed the ITV Saturday morning kids' show 'The Mersey Pirate' - a desolate relation of Tiswas -  filmed on board a cold and draughty boat on Liverpool Docks.

More trivia: His sister, the late Lynne Perrie, was famous as Ivy Tilsley on 'Coronation Street'. The family resemblance is quite marked.   

Duggie Brown-imdb

Peter Blake

Peter Blake: 

† Dec 8 1948 – Jul 21 2018

The tall dark and handsome type, from the same shelf as Paul Nicholas and David Essex perhaps, but not destined for top billing. Peter Blake is probably most remembered as the insufferably cocky Kirk St Moritz in the lonely hearts sitcom 'Dear John' with Ralph Bates and Belinda Lang. I seem to remember it being a genuinely jaw-dropping plot twist when Kirk was revealed to be the alter-ego of a timid sad-sack who lived with his elderly mother at the end of the series.
   

Other solid TV credits include 'Minder', 'The Professionals', 'Shoestring', 'Out', 'Bergerac', 'Agony' (as sleazy DJ Andy Evol), 'A Very Peculiar Practice' and a short stint in 'EastEnders' in 2010, playing Peggy Mitchell's love interest Ken Tate.
 

With Belinda Lang and the late Ralph Bates in 'Dear John'

With Barabara Windsor in 'EastEnders'

After drama school he started out in trendy stage productions like 'Jesus Christ Superstar', 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' and 'Rocky Horror', while snagging TV extra roles and working as a stage manager in Soho strip clubs. Perhaps his contacts there led to his first film part in the sex comedy 'Intimate Games' (1976) a typical affair with the usual mix of goose-pimpled dollybirds and veteran character actors (in this case, Mary Millington meets George Baker, Hugh Lloyd, Queenie Watts, and Johnny Vyvyan).   

Probably seeing some bosoms in 'Intimate Games' (1976)

In the forgotten office sitcom, 'Fiddlers Three'. A re-jigged version of 'The Squirrels'

An interesting aside: He was Eddie, the rock'n'roll revival Pepsi drinker in their successful '70s advertising campaign. Like this one.   

There was even a spin-off single… here's his performance on 'Top of the Pops'… Lipsmackin'


Peter Blake - imdb

Diane Langton

Diane Langton:

† May 31 1947 – Jan 15 2025
A successful belter of stage musicals who has made a few forays into TV and movie roles since the early '70s. She was in a few moderately saucy movies during the depressing drizzly decline of the old school British cinema industry: 'Confessions of a Pop Performer' (1975), 'Carry On England' (1976), and one slightly surprisingly example of its renewal, 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' (1989).

With Linda Regan (right) as the Climax Sisters in
'Confessions of a Pop Performer' (1975)  

As Private Easy in 'Carry On England' (1976)

 On the small screen, she's been in the 'Carry On Laughing' TV spin-off, as a sort of ersatz Barbara Windsor, 'Only Fools and Horses' as Del's old flame June, and in the revival of 'The Rag Trade' in the '70s. She's also had some regular drama roles, in 'Heartbeat', 'EastEnders' and 'Hollyoaks', for instance. 

As Ruby Rowan in 'Heartbeat'

Diane Langton-imdb

Alan David

Alan David:

A dour bollard of an actor with hidden depths. This trim, ascetic-looking Welshman has had a long career in television, but I first remember him in 'The Squirrels', an office sitcom created by 'Rising Damp' writer Eric Chappell (although some episodes were written by Phil Redmond and others by Kenneth Cope). He played the unlikeable Harry, a snarky expert at office politics, forever putting one over on his fellow workers, Ken Jones, Bernard Hepton and Patsy Rowlands among them.    

'The Squirrels'

Giving a medical opinion to Trevor Eve in 'Shoestring'

Other TV work includes a full house of  'Coronation Street', 'EastEnders' and 'Emmerdale', 'A Perfect State', the Boycie and Marlene spin-off 'The Green Green Grass', and the '60s-set 'Foxy Lady' as a chauvinist foil to Diane Keen's lady reporter. To that you can add 'Bulman', 'Inspector Morse' and 'Cracker' as well as the Eccleston-era 'Doctor Who' story 'The Unquiet Dead', a Dickensian spooker written by Mark Gatiss. 
 
Did I mention 'The Sweeney' and 'Minder'? No need really, but of course he was in both.

In 'The Painted Veil (2006)

As Clement Atlee in the time-travel
dram-com 'Goodnight Sweetheart'

He's been in a few films (see imdb link below), but perhaps has a stronger liking for the stage. He was in the 2009 West End hit 'Jerusalem' with Mark Rylance, and has previously appeared in RSC productions of 'Coriolanus' and 'Richard II'. He also took part in the legendary 1970 art/theatre happening 'Come Together' at the Royal Court Theatre with the Alberts and performed with the Ken Campbell Roadshow.

 

In 'Inspector Morse'

   
Alan David-imdb

Kate Williams

Kate Williams: 

Recently back on TV screens playing Liz Turner in 'EastEnders', she is still probably best known for the un-PC ITV favourite, 'Love Thy Neighbour' as Jack Smethurst's long-suffering wife, Joan, or possibly for her role in the Euston-films drama series 'Widows'. Film credits include 'Poor Cow' (1967), 'Melody' (1971), 'Til Death Us Do Part' (1969), and Jimmy's mum in 'Quadrophenia' (1979). My personal favourite might be her role as Blakey's nurse and girlfriend in 'Holiday On The Buses' (1973). It's probably not hers.

Modelling for the camera club in 'Poor Cow' (1967)

With the irresistible Reg Varney in 'On the Buses'

Footnote:

Incidentally, I was sure that she played Frankie Abbot's mum in 'Please Sir!' but that was the excellent BARBARA MITCHELL, who died in 1977. Sadly there isn't much on the internet about her, but she deserves a salute anyway.
http://www.kingstononline.co.uk/barbara-mitchell-actress/ 

Kate Williams - imdb profile

Stephen Greif

Stephen Greif:

† Aug 26 1944 – Dec 23 2022

A face made to play villains, sleekly handsome and slightly sinister. He was able to play it for laughs in 'Citizen Smith' with Robert Lindsay, where he portrayed local gangster Harry Fenning, usually involving the line 'Hello Trotsky, I need you to do me a little favour'…
   

He also sticks in the memory as Travis in 'Blakes 7', complete with sci-fi eyepatch and lots of black leather, generally outdoing Avon in the evil stakes.   

Other notable TV roles included parts in 'Edward II', 'The Persuaders', 'The New Avengers'. 'Dirty Money' (with Ian Macshane), 'Doctor Who' and 'The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil'. He also pops up in diverse stuff ranging from in 'Dick Turpin', 'Return of the Saint' and US detective nonsense 'Hart to Hart', to 'Waking the Dead', 'Mistresses', 'Spooks', 'Space Race', 'Holby City', Dennis Potter's 'Midnight Movie', 'Minder', 'EastEnders' and 'The Bill'.

An entertaining episode of  'The Persuaders' with Terry-Thomas

'The New Avengers'

Film roles include 'No Sex Please, We're British' (1974),  'Boogie Woogie' (2009), 'Shoot on Sight' (2008), 'Eichmann' (2008), 'Back in Business' (2007), 'Sixty Six' (2006), 'Casanova' (2006), 'The Upside of Anger' (2005), 'Fakers' (2004) and 'Spartan' (2004).



Stephen Greif - imdb

Bob Goody

Bob Goody: 

† Apr 16 1951 – March 5 2023

The extremely lanky frame and gaunt features of actor Bob Goody first came to my attention as a marked comedy contrast to the energetically tubby Mel Smith in their kids show, 'Smith and Goody' back in 1980. The show was knockabout, but educational, trying to counteract the 'weedy kid' image of libraries and getting working class kids interested in reading books.  

His old drama school and Edinburgh Fringe pal Smith had already gained instant fame from the wildly popular 'Not The Nine O'Clock News', while Goody slid slightly into the comparative hinterlands of acting and writing – even though his CV still has some interesting high-points. There was 'Lovejoy', 'Porterhouse Blue', 'The Kenny Everett Show', and the usual soap and drama factory-circuit of the '90s an '00s: 'The Bill', 'Doctors' and a stint as drugs counselor Gavin in 'EastEnders'.                

I'm also pretty sure this is Bob Goody (orig pic Keith Morris),
although I haven't been able to find mention of him in relation
to this sleeve artwork. 'Private Practice' - Doctor Feelgood. 

He also shows up in minor roles in a couple of biggish movies; 'Flash Gordon' (1980), The Cook, the Thief his Wife and her Lover' (1989) 'The Borrowers' (1997).

I gather he has also done a fair bit of workshop theatre and a few interesting independent films.
Including a delightfully seedy turn in this one: 'Curtains' directed by Julian Barratt. It can be found among the extras on the DVD 'The Mighty Boosh on Tour: Journey of the Childmen'.

Edit Mar 2023: Very sad to hear of Bob Goody's passing.
There's a lovely YouTube video of an evening with Bob here: Bob Goody & Friends  
 
Bob Goody - imdb

Kate Williams

Kate Williams: 

Recently back on TV screens playing Liz Turner in 'EastEnders', she is still probably best known for the un-PC ITV favourite, 'Love Thy Neighbour' as Jack Smethurst's long-suffering wife, Joan, or possibly for her role in the Euston-films drama series 'Widows'. Film credits include 'Poor Cow', 'Melody', 'Til Death Us Do Part', and Jimmy's mum in 'Quadrophenia'. My personal favourite might be her role as Blakey's nurse and girlfriend in 'Holiday On The Buses'. It's probably not hers.

Incidentally, I was sure that she played Frankie Abbot's mum in 'Please Sir!' but that was the excellent BARBARA MITCHELL, who died in 1977. Sadly there isn't much on the internet about her, but she deserves a salute anyway.
http://www.kingstononline.co.uk/reviews4.htm 

Kate Williams - imdb profile