Liz Crowther

Liz Crowther:

Daughter of the late TV personality and presenter Leslie Crowther - but not the one that married Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy - Liz Crowther is an actress, albeit one who has generally concentrated on the stage. She has been a member of the RSC and involved with several theatre projects over the years, but has still found time to appear in a number of TV series.

In 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', a 1967 production
over ten episodes, almost all of which are now lost.

As a child she appeared as Lucy in the 1967 ITV production of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' and the completely lost 'Queen Street Gang', but after studying drama in London and Paris she embarked on a career focused on the stage. She has nevertheless been seen in a number of very popular shows, including some longer stints as a main character. For example, she was Annie Hart, the matriarch in Channel 5's attempt to take on the soap opera market, although her character was written out in a reboot by notorious soap hatchet-man Brian Park.   

In the 1983 BBC production of 'Mansfield Park', playing Julia Bertram

As Sergeant Jane Kendall in 'The Bill'

She was also a regular in 'The Bill', 'London's Burning', 'Growing Pains', 'Doctors' and 'Shoestring', as well as making many other one-off drama appearances in the likes of 'Miss Marple', 'Lewis', 'The Cost Of Loving', 'A Year In Provence', 'Bergerac', 'Holby City' and  'EastEnders'.   

As annoying English neighbour Jill, in 'French Fields'

In a comedy vein, you'll see her in 'The Comic Strip presents: Funseekers', 'French Fields', and the flop supermarket sitcom 'Tripper's Day' with Leonard Rossiter, which became the even floppier 'Slinger's Day' with Bruce Forsyth after Rossiter's death.  

'Growing Pains' with Ray Brooks

Definitely a familiar face, perhaps all the more so for the faint family resemblance to her late father, and a talented actor who deserves to be better recognised. 

Liz Crowther-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

Gay Soper

Gay Soper:

Multi-talented actress and singer Gay Soper is a doyenne of the musical theatre, but has a few interesting points of contact with British TV and film. Her stage career includes the original London production of 'Godspell' with David Essex, Julie Covington, Marti Webb and Jeremy Irons, and playing Mme Thenardier in 'Les Miserables' on the West End.

As Janice, the short-sighted barmaid in 'Bless This House'

Eee, it's 'The Flumps'. Oh Pootle, you are silly.

On TV, she can be seen in the later series of 'Romany Jones', when the writers brought in a posh neighbour couple in place of the late James Beck. Played by Gay Soper and Jonathan Cecil, they provided the comic contrast to rough-and-ready Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts, with city clerk Cecil bringing in a measly £22 a week and Mullard on five times as much as a manual labourer with a few scams on the side.

Jonathan Cecil seems less keen on leaving his mother's house
for the romantic caravan lifestyle, in 'Romany Jones'.

She also appears in several sitcoms: 'Bless This House', 'Never The Twain', and she co-starred in 'Rude Health' as the wife of put-upon GP John Wells. But perhaps her most lasting claim to television fame came with her narration and singing for the tiny tot series 'The Flumps', about a family of fuzzy Yorkshire gonks living in a desolate moorland cottage.

With John Wells in Channel 4's 'Rude Health'

Movie-wise, there's not too much to report, although she does get to do a striptease for Dickie Attenborough and get spanked by Bob Todd in 'The Ups and Downs of a Handyman' (1976) which starred her then-husband, Barry Stokes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither it, nor the X-rated 'Love is a Splendid Illusion' (1970), gets a mention on her website.  

Gay Soper-imdb