Robert Lee

Robert Lee:

† 1913 – Dec 1 1986*

A versatile veteran East Asian British character actor. I'd guess he is of Hong Kong Chinese descent, but he has been cast by British studios as Japanese and Korean almost as often. In any case, he is probably only second to the ubiquitous Burt Kwouk in cornering 'oriental' roles on British screens.

His early film work involves a few uncredited roles and non-speaking parts in budget adventure and soho detective movies, with titles like 'Outcast Of The Islands' (1951), 'The Desparate Woman' (1954), 'The World Of Suzie Wong' (1960), 'Visa To Canton' (1961), and 'The Sinister Man' (1961).

In the 1963 'Avengers' story, 'The Golden Fleece'

In the 1978 TV series 'Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense'

The burgeoning world of television in the early '60s offered a steady stream of work, in primetime favourites ranging from 'The Avengers', 'Danger Man' and Dixon Of Dock Green' to comedy like 'The Arthur Askey Show' and 'Hugh & I' with Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd.

      

In a science fiction-y episode of the weird detective
gameshow 'Whodunnit' hosted by Jon Pertwee

As the '70s rolled into the '80s, Mr Lee made his big leap into the nation's consciousness with his role as Japanese businessman Mr Nagazumi in the problematic but popular sitcom 'Mind Your Language'. Other work that came his way included 'The Bill', 'Reilly Ace Of Spies' and predictable appearances in 'Tenko' and 'The Chinese Detective'. There were also various movie bit-parts such as Harry Grout's tailor in 'Porridge' (1979), the Chinese Ambassador in 'Half Moon Street' with Michael Caine and Sigourney Weaver, and Mr Banzai in Lindsay Anderson's scattergun 'Britannia Hospital' (1982). 

Portraying Japanese Admiral Togo in 'Reilly Ace Of Spies'

I don't know when he was born, but he must be getting on a bit now, having made his uncredited film debut in 1944, and his last recorded appearance is from 2010.

Whatever he's doing now, he deserves this small bow of honour. 

* The news of Robert Lee's death had not found its way to the imdb or the larger internet when I added this post in 2015. In general, my intention with this blog is to salute living, British, actors whose faces are more familiar than their names. Although Mr Lee didn't perhaps qualify on either count, I would like to leave the entry here to acknowledge his contribution to UK film and television.     

Robert Lee-imdb

Nicholas McArdle

Nicholas McArdle:

As a regularly recurring sight on the TV screens of the UK during the '70s-'90s, Nicholas McArdle's trademark drooping moustache and bald pate are so much more familiar than his name. His perennially middle-aged image has been lent to roles as politicians, council functionaries and dignitaries, accountants, army officers and a vast swathe of policemen of every rank from cloddish constable to chief inspector. See, for example, various coppers in 'Z-Cars', 'Crown Court', 'The Sweeney', 'The Professionals', 'Taggart' and 'Softly, Softly Task Force'.        

In 'The Sweeney' episode 'Hearts and Minds'

In the last series of  'It Aint Half Hot Mum'

It hasn't all been flashing lights and blue serge drama though. He is an accomplished comedy actor, with sitcom appearances in the likes of 'Happy Ever After' and 'Terry & June', 'To The Manor Born', 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum', 'No Place Like Home', 'Are You Being Served?', 'Butterflies', 'Time Of My Life' and 'Citizen Smith' - although he was actually playing a policemen in the last three of those. He also crops up in various comedians' light entertainment shows: see 'Kelly Monteith', 'The Mike Reid Show', 'Marty Amok', and 'The Howerd Confessions'. 

'Porridge' (1979) giving Mr McKay a hard time in the movie version

In the cinema, his name has appeared in the lower credits for movies such as 'Porridge' (1979), 'Dance With A Stranger' (1985), 'Sir Henry At Rawlinson End' (1980), and the sex comedy 'Can You Keep It Up For A Week?' (1975) - not as saucy as it sounds, it's about an accident-prone young chap trying to keep a job for seven days so that he can get married. Valerie Leon and Richard O'Sullivan also feature.     

 

'Can You Keep It Up For A Week?' (1975)

Fans of cult TV may recall seeing him in the 1978 'Doctor Who' adventure 'The Stones Of Blood'. He is also in the anthology chiller series 'The Supernatural', the sci fi drama 'The Flipside Of Dominick Hyde' and both 'The Goodies' and its forgotten 1968 forerunner 'Broaden Your Mind'. 

Does a lot of voiceover work these days. Check out the commercial sound clips at this site for a hint of his range.  


Nicholas McArdle-imdb

Patricia Brake

Patricia Brake:

† Jun 25 1942 – May 28 2022

A British perennial with that winning mix of dolly-bird prettiness and an ear for comic dialogue, Patricia Brake might be familiar from the sitcom classic 'Porridge' as Fletcher's daughter Ingrid. She made an impression in one episode for her bra-less visit to Slade Prison, and later when she proves that she is wearing a bra by lifting her top up. She also appeared in the spin-off series 'Going Straight', but despite Barker and Beckinsale's best efforts the magic was noticeably absent.

 

In the forgotten US TV comedy 'The Ugliest Girl in Town'

As a sweet young British actress, she had been cast in the strange 1968 ABC sitcom, 'The Ugliest Girl in Town', the American network's attempt to tap into the swinging London phenomenon with Peter Kastner in drag following a London model over the pond. I don't think it was ever shown in the UK and it has come high in some 'worst TV shows of all time' lists, none of which is the fault of Patricia Brake who is glamorous and fun in it.

 

 

As Ingrid in 'Going Straight' with Ronnie Barker

 Very busy throughout the '60s and '70s, she appeared in dramas ranging from 'Lorna Doone' and 'Nicholas Nickleby' to the now lost David Hemmings serial 'Home Tonight' and 'No Hiding Place'. On the comedy front, she's in some you don't hear much about these days like 'Second Time Around' and 'Forget Me Not', as well as the more memorable; 'A Sharp Intake of Breath', 'Life Begins at Forty', the 1979 reboot of 'The Glums' and the aforementioned 'Porridge' and 'Going Straight'. I'm also intrigued by the sound of 'Mann's Best Friends' from 1985, with an impressive cast that features Fulton McKay, Bernard Bresslaw and Liz Smith, but I can't find anything much out about it.      



As Eth in the 1979 TV revival of the '50s favourite 'The Glums'.

Ian Lavender plays her ever-gormless beloved, Ron 

As the '80s progressed, she moved toward soap opera and potboiler dramas with roles in 'Emmerdale', 'EastEnders' and 'Coronation Street' (as Mike Baldwin's old flame/sister-in-law), also getting one of the main parts in the BBC's shortlived 'Eldorado'. After that, there's the predictable round of 'Midsomer Murders', 'Casualty', 'Holby City', 'Doctors' and 'The Bill', but also 'The Bounder'.

In a 2005 episode of 'Coronation Street' with Johnny Briggs

Movie roles include the oddball Peter Sellers piece 'The Optimists of Nine Elms' (1973) and the wrinkly romance 'Love/Loss' (2010). In  'My Lover My Son' (1970), she played the girlfriend of an unusually timid Dennis Waterman (she seems more comfortable with her fully nude scenes than Dennis does in his y-fronts), who is trying to escape the cloying influence of his mother, played by Romy Schneider. 

 

    

Dennis Waterman needs a bit of encouragement

for a change in 'My Lover My Son' (1970)

Patricia Brake-imdb

Daniel Peacock

Daniel Peacock:

An actor often associated with the energetic, twitchy delivery much in vogue in the youth theatre of the '80s, Daniel Peacock has played brash, belligerent and brainless characters, mostly in the worlds of comedy and children's TV. Early film appearances in 'Quadrophenia' (1979), 'Porridge' (1979) and 'Gandhi' (1982) were followed by a rich seam of films springing from the alternative comedy scene through the '80s, including: 'Party Party' (1983), 'The Supergrass' (1985), 'Eat The Rich' (1987), 'Whoops Apocalypse' (1988), and the misjudged alt-com shipwreck, 'Carry On Columbus' (1992).  

As angry young inmate Rudge, in the film version of 'Porridge' (1979) 

In 'Party Party' (1983), which he also co-wrote

On TV, he balanced a close relationship with the Comic Strip crowd with a steady stream of parts in more mainstream comedy. He was in 'The Young Ones' and some of the most memorable 'Comic Strip Presents…' episodes, notably the spoof 'Famous Five' trilogy 'Five Go Mad In Dorset', 'Five Go Mad on Mescalin' and the recent reunion 'Five Go Mad in Rehab', in which he reprised his Toby Thurlow role. He was also in 'Strike', 'The Beat Generation', and 'A Fistful of Travellers Cheques'. 

In the British thriller 'A Landscape of Lies (2011)

Meanwhile, he cropped up in the likes of 'Only Fools and Horses', 'Birds of a Feather', 'The Kenny Everett Television Programme', 'One Foot in the Grave' and the very weak and silly sketch show 'Assaulted Nuts' with Tim Brooke Taylor and Cleo Roccos. He wrote and appeared in 'Men of the World', a strangely old-fashioned sitcom set in a travel agency, which starred John Simm and David Threllfall. There has also been some light drama, ranging from 'C.A.T.S Eyes', 'Casualty' and 'The Bill' to 'Shine On Harvey Moon', 'Boon' and 'Doctor Who'.

The return of Toby Thurlow in 'Five Go Mad in Rehab' 

Children's television, both as an actor and a writer, takes up a good bit of his CV and runs from traditionally jolly fun like 'SuperGran' and 'Mr Majeika' to a string of more zany and irreverent kids' series which reflect his old Comic Strip connections, such as 'Teenage Health Freak', 'Billie, Girl of the Future' and 'Demolition Dad'. 

Not a high point. 'I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle' (1990)

An oddity is the ultra low-budget comedy horror 'I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle' (1990) which was apparently produced and shot by the cast of 'Boon' (Neil Morrissey, Michael Elphick, etc) during gaps in shooting and using many of the same locations. Peacock makes a pretty revolting appearance as a demonic talking turd.     

Son of Trevor Peacock.

Daniel Peacock-imdb

Christopher Godwin

Christopher Godwin:

The pinched and narrow features of this very familiar character actor seem to have often found themselves used as a shorthand for petty bureaucrats, jobsworths and sniffy middle-class executives, but a glance at his track record shows some surprising highlights. 

Perhaps fans of TV comedy will be most conscious of his presence, as he turns up in a lot of forgotten '80s schedule-fillers: 'The Other 'Arf' with Lorraine Chase, 'South of the Border', 'Roger Doesn't Live Here Any More' and 'Nice Work' with Edward Woodward. He was in 'Holding the Fort', the sitcom with Peter Davison and Patricia Hodge as a role-reversal army couple with live-in slob, Fitz, played by Matthew Kelly. There was a starring role in the unfunny 'Astronauts', written by Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden in 1981. More interesting was the satirical north/south series 'Snakes and Ladders' from 1989. A Marks and Gran creation with Celia Imrie and John Gordon Sinclair.    

Only here for the beer. With Mr McKay in
the film version of 'Porridge' (1979)

On the drama front, see him in: 'Z Cars', 'Softly Softly', 'Thomas & Sarah' and the sun-drenched 1987 TV adaptation of  'My Family and Other Animals', as well as 'The Bill' and the Daniel Radcliffe drama 'A Young Doctor's Notebook'. 

Film work includes: 'Porridge' (1979), 'A Handful of Dust' (1988) and the infamous Handmade Films debacle 'Bullshot' (1983).     
 

In 'A Handful of Dust' (1988)

 

Christopher Godwin-imdb

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell:

Spare a thought for British character actor Colin Farrell, now condemned to be referred to as Colin Farrell (II) in deference to the Irish-born Hollywood 'throb of the same name - who presumably never tried to join Equity.

Our chap is the affable, boyish, slightly sneaky-looking Colin Farrell who showed up in some decent TV in the '70s and '80s; Alan Plater's 'Trinity Tales', 'Tales of the Unexpected', 'Sorry!', 'Blakes 7' and 'Hadleigh'. He was also a regular as the dirty-minded Ernie Hadfield in the undertaker comedy 'In Loving Memory' with Thora Hird, but perhaps his most memorable role was as the universally despised 'orrible Norris in 'Porridge'.

Full BBC costume department glory in 'Blakes 7'

In the inevitable 'Midsomer Murders'

He had a decent role as Harry Smith in the film version of  'Oh! What a Lovely War' (1969),but other movie appearances are pretty much all bit-parts: including fighting rubber dinosaurs with Doug* McClure in 'The Land that Time Forgot' (1975), 'A Bridge Too Far' (1977), and 'Gandhi' (1982).

I notice that in recent years he has been obliged to take billing as 'Col' Farrell, which seems a shame as almost everybody in the UK had laughed heartily at him digging up the pitch at Elland Road two years before the 'other' Colin Farrell was even born. Still, that's showbusiness.
   

About to sign up in 'Oh! What a Lovely War' (1969)

Clerk of the Court in 'Gandhi' (1982)

*[edit: not 'Simpsons' character Troy McClure, as I originally wrote...] 

Colin Farrell (II) - imdb

Tony Aitken

Tony Aitken:

With its permanently nervous, pinched expression, the face of actor Tony Aitken has been a small pale dot in the television firmament for some 40 years. Appearing in dozens of roles, almost always as a comically unassuming clerk, curate or scoutmaster, he is another of those semi-familiar TV fixtures. Early '70s appearances include: 'Porridge', 'Z-Cars', 'Love Thy Neighbour', and naturally, 'The Sweeney'. He gained a little more visibility by the early '80s, featuring as Norman Straightman in the hit and miss sketch show 'End of Part One' and in the not-classic 1977 TV remake of the classic film 'London Belongs to Me' (1948). He was also Fred the Postman in the TVS Saturday morning titting-about show 'No.73' where he longed in vain for the embraces of Ethel, as played by Sandi Toksvig. He was also seen as a lawyer in 'Coronation Street' during 2011's convoluted Fiz and John Fishwick machinations, and as a real-ale obsessed potential manager for the Queen Vic in 'EastEnders'.  

Tony Aitken as Fred the Postman in 'No.73' 

Despite all that, the thing you probably do know him from is playing the lute while being booted around by Rowan Atkinson in the closing credits of 'Black Adder II'. I always found the minstrel's appearance confusingly similar to Baldrick's, but that's probably just me.
         

Tony Aitken - imdb

Peter Vaughan

Peter Vaughan:
† Apr 4 1923 – Dec 6 2016

A big man, and something of a giant in the realm of British TV comedy and drama. Emanating an aura of cunning and dead-eyed menace, he is part of the collective consciousness as 'genial' Harry Grout, the Mr Big of Slade Prison in the classic sitcom 'Porridge', forever asking Ronnie Barker's wily, but good-natured Fletcher to run him some little errand. When not in prison blues, he was also Cheryl's dad in 'Citizen Smith' and one of the Fox clan in the tough 1980 drama series 'Fox'.

His acting career stretches back to the mid-'50s and traces a line through most of the cult TV output of the following decades: 'The Saint', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'Man In A Suitcase', 'The Avengers', 'The Strange Report', and 'The Protectors'. He also lent his innate gravitas and looming presence to some lavish and heavyweight dramas, such as playing Bill Sikes in an early '60s 'Oliver Twist';  the BBC's 1967 'Great Expectations' (playing Jaggers - the late Ronald Lacey played Orlick); a memorable Long John Silver in 'Treasure Island', and the ruthlessly unprincipled Horace Dorrington in 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'. Coming up to date, he is to be seen in stuff ranging from 'Our Friends in The North' to 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and 'Game of Thrones'.

(pictured above in 'The Avengers' episode 'My Wildest Dream'; and in 'The Gold Robbers' with a teenaged Sally Thomsett)

'Eyewitness' (1970) 

In the cinema, notable titles include: 'Village of the Damned' (1960), 'Make Mine Mink' (1960), 'The Punch and Judy Man' (1963), 'Fanatic' - aka 'Die, Die My Darling' (1965), the Boulting brothers comedy 'Rotten to the Core' (1965), 'Straw Dogs' (1971), Ken Russell's 'Savage Messiah' (1972), and Terry Gilliam's 'Time Bandits' (1981) and 'Brazil' (1985).

†Edit: Sad to hear today that the wonderful Peter Vaughan has died. Tue 6th Dec 2016.

Peter Vaughan - imdb profile

Derek Deadman

Derek Deadman: 

† May 1940 – November 21 2014

A former window-cleaner who has made a decent career out of playing dimwits, to the point that he hardly needs to act at all. Which is a good thing, as his acting seems to consist mostly of scratching his head and doing huge double-takes. See his definitive turn as Ringo in the excruciating 'Never The Twain', and spots in 'Benny Hill' (as a sort of junior Bob Todd), 'Porridge', 'George & Mildred', 'Get Some In' and hundreds of bit-part hospital porters, cabbies, butchers, and petty crooks, as well as Stor the Sontaran in the 1978 'Doctor Who' story 'The Invasion of Time'.

'Get busy with the fizzy!' Sodastream advert circa 1980 

In Michael Winner's star-studded but so dreary
British-set version of "The Big Sleep' (1978)  

He was in 'Brazil' (1985), 'Bullshot' (1983), 'Time Bandits' (1981) and a 'Harry Potter' (Philosopher's Stone, 2001), doing more of the same, and fulfilling a constant need within British cinema. For which we salute him.

Update Mar 2015: Sorry to hear that Derek Deadman passed away in Nov 2014.

Derek Deadman - imdb profile

Ken Jones

Ken Jones:

† Feb 20 1930– Feb 13 2014

A very familiar face from 'Porridge' where he played the sneaky but dim Scouser, Ives, and from the low-budget but well-written office sitcom 'Squirrels'. He's been in everything from 'Gumshoe' to 'Germinal', 'Serpico' to 'Jesus of Nazareth', specialising in nervy and downtrodden characters, for which he has a unique genius.

Ken Jones - imdb profile