Alan Dobie

Alan Dobie:

Alan Dobie seems a rather dour, astringent sort of actor, but perhaps that's because I find it a little difficult to separate him from the character of Inspector Cribb, as seen in the '80s Victorian detective series of that name. His career on the big screen has been one interesting oddities, with early roles including 'Captured' (1959), originally an army training film about resisting interrogation that has come to be seen as a classic POW drama, and the Brit-noir 'Seven Keys' (1961) in which he plays an ex-con unravelling a mystery while seeking hidden loot.    

In 'Captured' (1959), a military training film that remained
unseen by the general public until 2004

He also appears in the popular Disney adventure serial, later released as a feature film, 'Dr Syn, Alias The Scarecrow' (1963) opposite Patrick McGoohan as the eponymous smuggler, and he's in the curiously seedy Kenneth More drama, 'The Comedy Man' (1964).

In the Walt Disney adventure serial 'Dr Syn' (1963)

For much of the '60s and '70s, he became a stalwart of the television play, appearing in various strands such as 'The Wednesday Play', 'BBC Sunday-Night Play', 'Theatre 625', and 'Play For Today'. He also in some heavy drama serials like 'Resurrection',  'The Plane Makers', 'War and Peace' and 'Hard Times', before getting the starring role in 'Cribb', itself a spin-off from an original play. Other highlights of the '80s include the post-'Secret Army' series 'Kessler', the highbrow, but rather fleshy, drama-documentary about the life of Ingres, 'Artists and Models', and the tour-de-force portrayal of Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman in the medieval religious debate of 'The Disputation'.           

As Prince Bolkonsky in the 1972 BBC epic 'War and Peace' 

As befits such an accomplished actor, he's more often been seen on the stage and is a regular of the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic Theatre in London and the Theatre Royal, Bath.

Alan Dobie - imdb

Clifford Rose

Clifford Rose:

† Oct 24 1929 – Nov 6 2021

Neat and precise, in a sinister, ruthless sort of way, Clifford Rose will forever be associated with the role of Kessler of the Gestapo in the '70s TV drama 'Secret Army', now difficult to watch after years of gormless lampooning in 'Allo Allo'. So compelling was the character, however, that there was also a spin-off, 'Kessler' which saw him as a Nazi war-criminal businessman in South America, being hunted down by former members of the Resistance.

In 'Marat/Sade' (1967)

Before Kessler, he played a number of TV roles including Dr Snell in 'Callan' and as the ambitious journalist Quintus Slide in 'The Pallisers', as well as appearing in 'Softly Softly', 'Warship', 'Van der Valk', 'Follyfoot', 'Doctor Who' and the star-studded series of Lord Peter Wimsey stories from 1972, 'The Unpleasantness at the Ballona Club'.        

Consulting EDNA the computer in 'Callan'.
(Plus chain-smoking Peter Sallis in white coat.)

In the Tom Baker-era 'Doctor Who' story, 'Warrior's Gate'

Post-Kessler, he was seen in a steady stream of decent mid-table stuff including 'Inspector Morse', 'Minder', 'Oxford Blue', 'G.B.H' and 'Foyles War'.

His cinema credits are an interesting mix, running from 'Marat/Sade' (1967) and 'Work is a Four Letter Word' (1968), to the movie version of 'Callan' (1974), and recent stuff like 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' (2011) and the Glenn Close Thatcher pic 'The Iron Lady' (2011).  

Clifford Rose - imdb