Barry Stanton

Barry Stanton:

A classical actor who knows his way around his 'King Lear' and his 'Hamlet' (he plays Claudius in the bizarre Quentin Crisp 1976 version), but also an archetypal 1970s 'big bloke', often playing a plain clothes copper who's a bit handy in a scrap, or the sort of hefty hard-nut who gets up slowly in a pub to show his size, before getting an unlikely duffing-up from a leading man. Barry Stanton appears in a fair bit of TV drama from the late-'60s on, such as 'The Saint', 'Z Cars', 'The Baron', 'Manhunt', 'Survivors',  'The Protectors', 'The Sweeney', 'Minder', and 'The Professionals'. He also turns up in the sadly-lost supernatural drama serial 'Witch Hunt' from 1967, high on many TV collector's list of BBC holy grails.   

As Noma in the 'Doctor Who' story 'The Twin Dilemma'

As Jim Hacker's press officer in 'Yes, Prime Minister'

In more recent years, he has been given less generic TV roles, such as his turns as a Jacondan alien in the first Colin Baker story for Doctor Who', 1984's 'The Twin Dilemma', and as Tory press officer Malcolm Warren in 'Yes, Prime Minister'. There was also the Shakespeare play cycle 'The Wars of the Roses' televised in 1990. 

   

As Claudius in the adventurous 'Hamlet' (1976) which featured Helen
Mirren as both Gertrude and Ophelia, and Quentin Crisp as Polonius 

'Demons Of The Mind (1972)

Film roles are also more varied: aside from 'Sweeney 2' (1978), there was Hammer horror 'Demons Of The Mind' (1972), 'Leon the Pig Farmer' (1993) and 'Robin Hood' (1991) - not the Kevin Costner 'Prince of Thieves' one from that year, another one starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. He's in the Jackie Chan kung-fu in Victorian England romp, Shanghai Knights (2003), and portrays the playwright/MP Sheridan in 'The Madness of King George' (1994).

As the Lord Chancellor in, 'Shanghai Knights' (2003)

A rare leading role came in the Roy Clarke sitcom 'Mann's Best Friends' in which he appeared with the likes of Fulton McKay, Patricia Brake, and Bernard Bresslaw. Sadly, it seems to have disappeared without a trace. He's also the splendidly over-acting postman who delivers the vampire Alexei Sayle in the 'Young Ones' episode 'Nasty'. 

As miserly boss Mr Grayson in 'Tucker's Luck' 

Barry Stanton-imdb

Zara Nutley

Zara Nutley:

† Aug 19 1924 – Oct 9 2016

It's unfortunate in a way that this actress is best known for two of British televisions least lamented '70s sitcoms. She played the imperious and disparaging Miss Courtney in 'Mind Your Language', and the curious figure of Aunt Joan in 'Never The Twain'. Other roles include the Widow Attacliffe in an episode of 'Last of the Summer Wine', and one-offs in 'Grange Hill', 'Lovejoy', 'Terry & June' and 'Metal Mickey'.

The highly unflattering depiction of Zara Nutley from the opening
titles of the noticeably unreconstructed sitcom 'Mind Your Language'.

Hints of something better include roles in 'Within These Walls', 'Tales of the Unexpected', Victoria Wood's television shows - VW almost always has a good eye for actors - and an early part in Jack Rosenthal's 'Spaghetti Two Step' when it was televised by Yorkshire TV in 1977.

She certainly deserves a salute.      

Zara Nutley-imdb

Robert Putt



Robert Putt:

Very distinctive moon-faced character actor who flits occasionally across our screens, having progressed from non-speaking extra and minor roles. He's racked up an impressive list of TV programmes from 'The Sweeney' and 'The Professionals' to 'The Monocled Mutineer', 'Martin Chuzzlewit' and 'Our Friends In The North'. He's also blown bubbles at The Rutles in 'All You Need Is Cash' and chased a nun around Holby General with his flies undone.    



In an episode of 'The Professionals' 

Some other memorable appearances include playing East End killer Mad Danny Durbridge opposite Steve Pemberton in the oddball detective show 'Whitechapel' and the bloke who keeps a cricket ball down his pants - to hold his hernia in check - in 'Doc Martin'.   

In 'Ruby In The Smoke'

Inadvertently striking the exact mid point between John Bluthal and
David Lodge, in the Enid Blyton children's series 'Castle of Adventure'

The big screen has beckoned for roles in Mike Leigh's 'Naked' (1993) and 'Vera Drake' (2004), as well as 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1984), 'A Fish Called Wanda' (1988), and such varied fare as the movie of 'Porridge' (1979), 'Hawk The Slayer' (1980), 'Mike Bassett: England Manager' (2001) and our old favourite 'Confessions of a Driving Instructor' (1976). A classic all-rounder.   

Reading Imelda Staunton her rights in 'Vera Drake' (2004)

Robert Putt-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

John Cairney

John Cairney:

† Feb 16 1930 – Sep 7 2023

Dark, broodingly handsome Scots actor, largely associated with his memorable portrayals of the poet Robert Burns. His lasting association with Burns began in 1965 with Tom Wright's solo play "There Was A Man" at the Traverse, Edinburgh, and at the Arts Theatre, London. From Burns, he moved on to other solo pieces on William McGonagall, Robert Service and Robert Louis Stevenson.

In the full Rabbie Burns get-up.

Though his movie career began in the mid '50s, it appears that his TV heyday was probably the mid '60s to late '70s, after which he moved to New Zealand. His many television parts include other literary figures, like Branwell Bronte and Edgar Allan Poe, and other famous Scots, like Robert the Bruce. He has featured in programmes as varied as 'Dr. Finlay's Casebook', 'Secret Agent', 'The Avengers', 'Man In A Suitcase', 'Jackanory', 'The Persuaders', 'Elizabeth R', and 'Taggart'. He'd probably be better known if the BBC hadn't wiped his starring role in the 1966 Scottish drama series 'This Man Craig' in which he played an idealistic teacher. (Incidentally, his son in the programme was played by the young Brian Pettifer, saluted here earlier.) 

With Glenda Jackson in the acclaimed 1971 BBC series 'Elizabeth R'

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In 'Jason & The Argonauts' (1963), second from right, just
over Laurence Naismith's shoulder

Feature film appearances include 'Lucky Jim' (1957), the Titanic story 'A Night To Remember' (1958), 'Victim' (1961), 'Jason & The Argonauts' (1963), Cleopatra' (1963), and the Sherlock Holmes meets the Ripper movie 'Study In Terror' (1965).

In the low-budget British sci-fi adventure 'Spaceflight IC-1' (1965)

He made some TV movies in New Zealand during the '80s and '90s as well as writing a number of books on Burns and other great Scottish figures Robert L Stephenson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  

John Cairney-imdb

Zienia Merton

Zienia Merton:

† Dec 11 1945 – Sep 14 2018

With her elegant gamine good looks and sophisticated demeanour, Anglo/French/Burmese actress Zienia Merton was cast in a number of 'vaguely exotic' roles in her early days, including the 'Marco Polo' story strand from the William Hartnell-era Doctor Who (now sadly wiped), a Kashmiri girl in 'Tales from Rudyard Kipling', and as the middle-eastern Zeba Hameed in an episode of the 'Strange Report'. On the big screen, she turns up as an Indian priestess in 'Help!' (1965 ), and as Maoist Mata Hari, Ting Ling, in the Gregory Peck spy romp, 'The Most Dangerous Man in the World', aka 'The Chairman' (1969).

    

In 'The Most Dangerous Man in the World' (1969) 

Dennis Potter's (very racy for the time) 'Casanova' in 1971 saw her playing Cristina to a world-weary Frank Finlay's eponymous libertine. Although the screenplay was intended to highlight the sadness, religious guilt and regrets behind his great romantic reputation (it is Dennis Potter, after all), most people, Mary Whitehouse included, tended to remark on the indulgent use of nudity (did I mention Dennis Potter?).      

In 'Casanova', the BBC's most talked-about drama of 1971

However, it was the Gerry Anderson sci-fi drama 'Space: 1999' which ran for two seasons of 48 episodes and gave her international exposure. Playing sensitive officer Sandra Benes, she featured in most of the show's heavy-handed plots, as the Andersons attempted to prove that it wasn't a children's show. Personal melodramas and cod-mystic astro-psychedelia vied for prominence, as the kids waited patiently for some explosions and spaceships. 

Since her Moonbase days, she has been in an interesting mix of mundane and fantasy fare, from 'EastEnders', 'Coronation Street', 'Casualty' and 'The Bill', to 'Hammer House of Mystery & Suspense', 'Dinotopia', 'Wizards vs Aliens' and 'The Sarah Jane Mysteries', which ties in nicely with her early adventures in 'Doctor Who'.       

Zienia Merton officiating at the wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (the late Elizabeth Sladen),
until the Doctor (in this case Tennant) arrives to stop her marrying Nigel Havers      

Zienia Merton-imdb

Benjamin Whitrow

Benjamin Whitrow:

† Feb 17 1937 – Sep 28 2017*

A very well respected character actor, probably best known for his portrayal of the peaceable Mr Bennett in the much admired 1995 BBC version of 'Pride & Prejudice', though he has had a quite slow-building TV career. After serving in the Army, he secured a few roles through the '60s before finding his feet in the popular period dramas of the early '70s, such as 'The Pallisers', 'The Bronte's of Haworth', and 'Clayhanger'.

Losing his patience with his cheeky mod employees in 'Quadrophenia' (1979)     

His officer experience made him highly convincing in roles requiring gravitas and authority, either in actual military dramas like 'Wings' and 'Danger UXB', or as a string of headmasters, politicians and politicians. He played Amundsen in 'Shackleton', Superintendent Braithwaite in 'The Sweeney' and aristocratic socialist Paddy O'Rourke in 'The New Statesman' as well as one-offs in the likes of 'Minder', 'Boon', 'Bergerac', 'Perfect Scoundrels' and 'Rumpole'.  

In 'The New Statesman' with the late Rik Mayall

He has done a fair number of classic dramas and serials, from 'A Man For All Seasons' to 'The Merchant of Venice', and after the mega-success of the Colin Firth-powered 'Pride & Prejudice', there were others in the same vein, including Squire Allworthy in 'The History of Tom Jones'. And lots more primetime drama and comedy throught the '90s and '00s, like 'Jonathan Creek', 'Monarch of the Glen', 'New Tricks', 'Doc Martin' and recently, 'Toast of London'.

As Julie Walters's accountant and client in 'Personal Services' (1987)

In the cinema, you can see him as Jimmy's boss in 'Quadrophenia' (1979), in the John Cleese vehicle 'Clockwise' (1986), and in 'Personal Services' (1987), Louis Malle's 'Damage' (1992), and the Val Kilmer movie of 'The Saint' (1997). He also voices Mr Fowler in the hit Ardman animation 'Chicken Run' (2000). 

*(Edit: Oct 2, 2017. Very sad to hear that Benjamin Whitrow has died. One of those actors who seems like he would be the ideal next-door neighbour. Which I mean as no faint praise.)   

Benjamin Whitrow-imdb