Arthur White

 

Arthur White: 

The elder brother of national treasure David Jason, Arthur has kept the family name and had his own long career in acting, albeit in a far less celebrated way than his little brother. His earliest forays into acting were while he was still in his teens, in a couple of budget post-war comedies 'Let's Have A Murder' (1950) with Jimmy Jewel, and 'It's A Grand Life' (1953) with Diana Dors and music hall veteran Harry Randle. He's also very briefly in 'The War Lover' (1962) a Yanks in England WWII potboiler with Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner, and the influential kitchen sink drama 'The L-Shaped Room' (1962). 
  
      

'The War Lover' (1962)  

Another news vendor role, this time in
'The Prisoner' episode 'It's Your Funeral'

Television roles take over from film in the '60s, when he appears in popular franchises such as 'The Plane Makers', 'Redcap', 'Emergency Ward 10' and 'No Hiding Place', as well as the Rediffusion sci-fi series 'Object Z' and 'Object Z Returns'. There's an episode of 'The Prisoner' with him in it, but he doesn't appear in any of the other big cult TV favourites, at least until a 'Space:1999' episode ten years later.       

Replacing Hugh Paddick in the second series
of the kids TV show 'Pardon My Genie'

The '70s saw his young brother rise to stardom, but Arthur's own star stayed relatively low in the entertainment firmament. He can be spotted in a fair bit of comedy; 'For The Love Of Ada', You're Only Young Once', 'Hark At Barker', 'The Squirrels', 'Bless This House' etc, and his younger sibling's own sitcom vehicle, 'A Sharp Intake Of Breath'.  

With the late Bernard Kay in an
episode of 'The Professionals'

Drama roles in the '70s and '80s would include a sprinkling across the likes of 'The Duchess Of Duke Street', 'The Professionals', 'Warship', 'Secret Army', the nuclear thriller 'The Brack Report' and the freaky BBC costume drama 'The Cleopatras'.  

With George Costigan in the opening scenes of the 
misfiring Miriam Carlin sitcom 'So Haunt Me'

The latter half of his 60-year career is a roll-call of the middle-brow entertainment of those decades, though, unusually, not dipping into the soaps. It's almost impossible for a character actor to avoid the multi-episode machines: the likes of 'Casualty', 'Holby City', The Bill', and the unending flow of 'Doctors'. Better things might include the 'Ruth Rendell Mysteries', 'Wycliffe' and 'The Darling Buds Of May' with little bruv. And of course, his best known role in recent years has probably been as PC Trigg, playing opposite David Jason again, as DI Frost's uniformed confidant and sounding board.

He must have been an inspiration to the young fella and I'm glad they've shared an obvious love of the business, so here's a salute to a big brother.  

Arthur White-imdb

Ellis Jones

Ellis Jones:

Here's a slightly elusive one. As an energetic and distinctively beaky young actor, Ellis pops up in a swathe of TV in the early '70s. These days he's a respected senior drama coach and creative bigwig at RADA, although he has continued to make sporadic appearances on our screens over the years.



In an episode of the BBC naval drama 'Warship'

With the late Ken Jones in an episode of Eric Chappell's
office sitcom, 'The Squirrels', from 1975

I particularly enjoyed his turn as the office ingénue in 'The Squirrels', an unfairly overlooked minor classic from the pen of 'Rising Damp' creator Eric Chappell. He also shows up in 'Warship', 'Z-Cars' and 'Doctor Who' (he is, in fact, the first person to appear in 'Doctor Who' in colour, in the opening Pertwee-era story, 'Spearhead from Space' in 1969) and a number of Shakespearean roles including the Fool in the Thames TV production of 'King Lear' with Patrick Magee, much shown in school English classes. 

In 'Spearhead from Space', the first Jon Pertwee story of 'Doctor Who'

In the 'Cadfael' mystery, 'A Morbid Taste For Bones'

So perhaps it's ironic that he's probably best remembered by many for playing the hapless Hal Adden (geddit) in 'Pardon My Genie' with Hugh Paddick as the crabby and obtuse spirit of the lamp, rather than for helping the acting careers of Tom Hiddleston, Ben Whishaw, Eve Best, Sally Hawkins, Gemma Arterton and Matthew Macfadyen, to name but a few.     

Ellis Jones-imdb