Brian Grellis

Brian Grellis:

A tall Northern actor with a distinctive, slightly crumpled face and often unruly hair, who pops up in quite a few small roles as coppers and servicemen, but making something of a speciality of the befuddled passer-by. You might recall him as the likeable, cricket-loving vegetable pilferer in 'The Good Life', or as the unfortunate stranger lured to Terry's surprise birthday party in 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'.

In the WWII actioner 'Submarine X-1' (1968)

In the Tom Baker era Doctor Who adventure 'The Invisible Enemy'

A stalwart character actor, appearing in a number of stalwarts of British television: 'Minder', 'Z-Cars', 'Softly Softly', 'Bergerac', 'The Gentle Touch', etc. The chances are you've never particularly noticed him, but he's been there all the same. Some middle-brow dramas too, 'Anna Karenina', 'War and Peace' and 'A Tale of Two Cities'. His cult TV tally includes 'Doctor Who' (two stories from the Tom Baker era, one with Peter Davison), plus 'Jason King', 'The Frighteners' and 'Survivors'. 

Waiting for the big bang in the nuclear bomb drama 'Threads'  

Sightings on the big screen are mostly in the war and spy genres, and often uncredited: 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (1969), the forgotten Len Deighton story 'Only When I Larf' (1968), and 'Submarine X-1' (1968), although he does get a speaking role in the latter. 

Get your hair cut... Working at the Ministry
in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (1969). 

He doesn't seem to have done much since the late-'80s, but I trust he is alive and well.

Brian Grellis-imdb

Barbara Murray

Barbara Murray:

† Sep 27 1929 – May 20 2014

Sultry, heavy-lidded, but frightfully British actress who appeared in a few popular films in the '50s and '60s, but never quite attained full-blown stardom. She's in the Ealing classics 'Passport to Pimlico' (1948) and 'Meet Mr Lucifer (1953), both with Stanley Holloway, she was James Robertson Justice's unlikely love interest in 'Doctor in Distress' (1963), and she's in the portmanteau horror 'Tales From The Crypt' (1972). 

As the Brit B-movie studios closed and TV took over in the '60s, she won parts in kitsch favourites like 'Danger Man', 'The Saint', 'Department S' and 'Jason King', but was more at home in period melodramas and serious TV plays. Big successes were the modern political intriguer 'The Power Game' and the Anthony Trollope adaptation 'The Pallisers', in which Murray played major roles. But she was also able to play comedy, as in the Frankie Howerd entendre-fest 'Up Pompeii' (1971).    

In 'The Power Game'

In 'The Pallisers'

By the later '70s she was an occasional sighting on British screens, with a rather mixed bag including 'Doctor Who' (Peter Davison era story, 'The Black Orchid'), 'Robin's Nest', and the rarely-recalled 1987-89 serial 'The Bretts' - a sort of 'Upstairs Downstairs' of theatre folk set in the '20s. 

Barbara Murray - imdb

Kervork Malikyan

Kervork Malikyan:

I'm stretching the definition of British a little here, but this versatile Armenian-born actor has been London-based since coming to study drama in England in the late '60s, and his face is certainly most familiar to British TV audiences. He played Greek student Max in 'Mind Your Language' wearing a succession of generously open-necked shirts, and has popped up in a bewildering array of assumed ethnicities and roles, equally at home with sinister, silly, sympathetic sleazy or sophisticated characterisations.   

 

Kazim chases Indy around the seedy side of Venice in
'Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade' (1989)  

Much in demand for the movies, he played Roger Moore's manservant Luigi in 'The Man Who Haunted Himself' (1970) and, more significantly, the memorable Kazim in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989). Other big movies that you might spot him in include: 'Midnight Express' (1978), 'Pascali's Island' (1988), the remake of 'Flight of The Phoenix' (2004), and the Liam Neeson thriller 'Taken 2' (2012).
        
 

In 'The Man Who Haunted Himself' (1970)

As Max in 'Mind Your Language'

Menawhile, British TV viewers became accustomed to his presence in the likes of 'Doctor Who' (in the Troughton-era Cyberman story 'The Wheel in Space'), 'The Saint', The Avengers', 'Jason King', 'The Professionals', 'Minder', 'Auf Wiedersehn Pet' and 'Silent Witness'. 

'The Bill' and 'Casualty' are presumably more or less a formality if you have an agent who can pick up a phone.

Still going strong at 70 and lending a hand to the Turkish film industry after 50 years away in England. Hokay.   

Kervork Malikyan - imdb
 

David Janson

David Janson: 

Always seemingly eager to please, this boyishly bowl-cut actor has cropped up in odd forgotten corners of British TV for nearly 50 years, including appearances in 'Softly, Softly', 'Doomwatch', 'Jason King', 'The Fenn Street Gang', 'Dixon of Dock Green', 'Z-Cars', 'Brush Strokes', 'T-Bag Strikes Again', 'Ever Decreasing Circles', 'Get Some In!', 'The Upper Hand', and Hyacinth Bucket's long-suffering postman in 'Keeping Up Appearances'.

His first brush with fame came as the truant schoolboy in Richard Lester's much loved Beatles movie 'A Hard Day's Night' (1963) in the sequence where Ringo similarly plays truant from the band, kicking stones into the canal and messing around with his new camera.  A stint in the then-popular TV drama 'The Newcomers' (groovy theme by John Barry) in 1965/66 seemed promising, but it's all-but forgotten now.

The nearest he came to front-room TV star status was in the RAF national service comedy 'Get Some In' as likeable everyman Ken Richardson, constantly victimised by the 'orrible Corporal Marsh (Tony Selby). But somehow his leading man status seemed to ebb away in the direction of cheeky teddy boy Robert Lindsay (soon to get his big break as Wolfie in 'Citizen Smith'). Even more discouraging was his short-lived stint in 'Allo Allo', inexplicably replacing Richard Gibson as Herr Flick of the Gestapo in the last death throes of the series in 1992.  

And so a character actor he has remained, and we salute him here.  

  

As Michael the postman in 'Keeping Up Appearances'

With Ringo Starr in 'A Hard Day's Night' (1963)

David Janson - imdb

Maurice Roëves

Maurice Roëves 

† Mar 19 1937 – July 15 2020

With his dark chiselled features, Maurice Roëves has something of the malevolent Sean Connery about him, perhaps tempered with a touch of veteran footballer Ian St John. And like those two, he is proud to consider himself a Scotsman, albeit one who was accidentally born in Sunderland. 

One of his early accomplishments was taking on the role of Stephen Dedalus in Joseph Strick's film version of 'Ulysses'. Surrounded by prodigious Irish acting talent and thrown into the midst of Joyce's complex writing, he pulls off quite a coup. The film was considered an artistic success, with no attempt made to disguise the actors' wardrobe and Dublin locations of 1966, but showing a determination to stick to the word and spirit of the 1904-set novel. Milo O'Shea's star turn as Leopold Bloom, and the unflinching commitment to the original's earthy language (including the first screen use of the word 'fuck') and extended sexual themes were what made the headlines in the end.             

In the film version of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (1967) with
veteran Irish actor David Kelly

Other feature film appearances include a lot of war movies: 'Oh! What A Lovely War' (1969), 'When Eight Bells Toll' (1971), 'Young Winston' (1972), 'The Eagle Has Landed' (1976), 'Escape To Victory' (1981), 'Who Dares Wins' (1982), an exception to the war theme was  Roman Polanski's ill-fated 'A Day At The Beach' (1970).  

In the silly world cup/war movie 'Escape To Victory' (1981)  

While all this film work was coming in during the '70s and '80s, Roëves also found himself in demand for television, appearing in 'Jason King', 'The Sweeney', 'Doomwatch', 'Family At War', 'Warship', 'Target', 'Danger UXB', 'The Chinese Detective' and the final Peter Davison 'Doctor Who' story 'The Caves Of Androzani'. He was also a regular storyteller on 'Jackanory' during its heyday between 1971 and 1979.

As a revolutionary in an episode of 'Jason King'
with the unmistakable Peter Wyngarde   

In '70s crime-boss mode in an episode of 'The Sweeney'

    

It seems that around this time his acting talents and televisual good looks were attracting the attention of producers across the Atlantic and parts started to be offered in US shows, such as 'Magnum PI', 'Hunter', 'Remington Steele', long-running US soap opera 'Days Of Our Lives', Civil War drama 'North & South', and later in the '80s adding 'Cheers', 'Jake & The Fatman' and 'Murder She Wrote' to the mix.

Bringing down the St Patrick's Day vibe at the bar in 'Cheers'
with his grim repertoire of rebel songs and massacre ballads    

Meanwhile, back in the UK things were also going along nicely, with roles in steady fare like 'Lytton's Diary', 'Bergerac', 'Rumpole Of The Bailey', and starring in the STV drama 'Bookie'. Possibly the highlight of this period was the densely written, but engaging John Byrne comedy drama 'Tutti Frutti' with Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, and Richard Wilson. 

Channelling some Gene Vincent into the TV drama 
'Tutti Frutti', perhaps via Alvin Stardust

Roëves plays the ageing rocker Vincent Diver with a mix of brooding aggression and sadness that contributes greatly to a memorable slice of '80s TV, particularly as lead man Coltrane gives the impression of punching a little above his weight, theatrically speaking.     

As prison warden Miller in 'Judge Dredd' (1995)

 Since the '90s, Maurice Roëves has straddled the film and TV worlds, working in Hollywood and the UK. Television work includes 'Baywatch' and 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (making him a member of the exclusive club of actors to have been in 'Star Trek' and 'Doctor Who'), alongside some stuff a lot closer to home. UK shows include 'Rab C Nesbitt', 'The New Statesman', 'A Touch Of Frost', 'Waking The Dead', and the BBC's prestigious 'Vanity Fair', as well as some bread-and-butter work on 'EastEnders', 'The Bill', 'Casualty' and 'Skins'. 

Colonel Munro parleys for terms of surrender in 'Last Of The Mohicans' (1992)

Movie work stretches from his impressive portrayal of redcoat Colonel Munro in 'The Last Of The Mohicans' (1992), to 'The Big Man' (1992), 'Judge Dredd' (1995), 'The Acid House' (1998), 'Beautiful Creatures' (2000), 'Hallam Foe' (2007), Welsh horror 'The Dark' (2005), 'The Damned United' (2009), 'Brighton Rock' (2010) and 'Macbeth' (2015).

All in all, quite an impressive career for a distinctive and familiar face yet one to which too few of us could put a name. I hope this small salute can redress that a little.         

Maurice Roeves-imdb


Post script, regarding pronunciation. I found this in an interview online. 

MR: No, it's Row-eaves. There's two dots above the "e", indicates the beginning of the second word. The two dots are called a dialysis* ... The name goes back to Prussian times. It's a Prussian name, I guess. It's like Noël.

* He means diaeresis.

Geoffrey Chater

Geoffrey Chater: 

† March 23 1921 – October 16 2021*

The very image of the establishment, he has played ministers, lawyers, bankers and doctors since the early 1950s. His film credits include impressive entries such as 'Gandhi', 'If', 'Barry Lyndon', and 'O Lucky Man', as well as unlikely oddments like Reg Varney's drag-act monstrosity 'The Best Pair of Legs in The Business'. His appearances on British TV include semi-regular roles in 'Callan', 'Devenish' and 'Mapp & Lucia', plus endless parts in everything from 'Jason King', Steptoe & Son' and 'Some Mothers Do Ave Em' to 'Brideshead Revisited', 'Harry Enfield' and 'Dad's Army'.

 

Edit: October 19, 2021. Sad to hear that the redoubtable Geoffrey Chater has passed away at the great age of 100. An excellent innings.  

Geoffrey Chater - imdb profile

Christopher Benjamin

Christopher Benjamin: 

† Dec 27 1934 – Jan 10 2025

Delighted to find that this instantly recognisable actor is still going strong with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was the link between 'Danger Man' and 'The Prisoner' playing the same character, Potter, and was a natural for 'The Avengers', 'The Saint' and 'Jason King' playing pompous, officious, charming and effete characters with equal brio and verve. Mix in an impressive high-brow and low-brow CV ranging from 'Rumpole' and 'Poldark' to 'When The Boat Comes In' and 'Dick Turpin' and you have a one-man history of British television. A stalwart.

In the opening episode of 'The Prisoner'

As Marmalade Atkins' much put-upon headmaster

He portrayed the memorable Henry Jago in the classic 'Doctor Who' story, 'The Talons Of Weng Chiang' in 1977, teaming up with the late Trevor Baxter's Professor Litefoot so successfully that the pair became spin-off characters 'Jago & Litefoot' with their own canon of adventures.  

In the 1966 'Avengers' episode 'How To Succeed... At Murder'

As Victorian actor-manager Henry Gordon Jago, a character so popular
with 'Dr Who' fans that he gained his own adventures: 'Jago & Litefoot'  

Christopher Benjamin - imdb profile