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

Perry Benson

Perry Benson:

Baby-faced and usually bespectacled cockney actor - almost like a junior Johnny Shannon -  often seen in comedy roles where he seems to make a virtue of a slightly wooden acting style to awkward comic effect. You might have seen him in a number of '80s alternative sitcoms, such as 'The Young Ones', Filthy Rich & Catflap', and 'Dream Stuffing', before he settled things down a little with 'The Black Adder', 'You Rang M'Lord', 'Oh Doctor Beeching!' and more recently 'Benidorm'.     

In the largely forgotten 1983 sitcom, 'Dream Stuffing'

You have been watching... 'Oh Doctor Beeching!'

As a contrast to the comedy has been a darker strain of film and TV dramas in which his flat London vowels have lent a banal gangster menace or fearful snivelling to the proceedings, see for example 'Scum' (1977), the harrowing Ray Winstone/Jude Law movie 'Final Cut' (1998),  'Mr In-Between' (2001), 'and 'Capital Punishment' (2003). Even bleaker was the relentlessly horrible 'Mum and Dad' (2008), a domestic psycho-gore horror set near Heathrow Airport.      

Scary in the grim suburban horror, 'Mum & Dad' (2008)

The '80s comedy and cult film connections are still there though, and he can be seen in interesting stuff like '15 Stories High' (as the neighbour with a horse in his flat), Shane Meadows's 'Somers Town' (2008) and his 'This Is England' (2006) and the TV series 'This Is England '86'. He also seems to appear in a lot of short movies, none of which I've seen, but which suggest that he is somehow involved at the grass roots of the industry.     

In the 1974 Play For Today, 'The Headmaster'

As 'Spaz' in the 'Young Ones' brief piss-take of 'Grange Hill',
with Ben Elton and our old friend Peter Greene     

He's also in the generally unconvincing punk movie 'Sid & Nancy' (1986) playing a chunky version of Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, although I think Graham Fletcher-Cook who plays pre-Pistols frontman Wally Hairstyle looks much more the part. My 2d worth, anyway.   

Perry Benson-imdb