David Cann

David Cann: 

Distinctive actor, with a combination of tough-guy and strangely elfin looks - thanks perhaps to his expressively pointy eyebrows - yet equally adaptable to everyday everyman roles. He first caught my attention from cropping up in a lot of modern comedy of the oddball sort, (being one of Chris Morris's development team for the radio show 'Blue Jam' and his later TV output), and also popular with the likes of Kevin Eldon and Reece Shearsmith. 

A typical role in a 'Brass Eye' interview sequence 

Trained at RADA in the mid 70s, his early television jobs saw him tackling some extra and bit-parts in low budget sci-fi faves, such as 'Tomorrow People', 'Sapphire & Steel' and 'Blakes 7', though seemingly never 'Doctor Who'.     

I think this is our chap... An early role as the 'chaircreature'
of a galactic committee in 'The Tomorrow People', played
in a rather jolly Python-esque falsetto.  

Uncredited role in 'Blakes 7' (on right).  

He proved extremely versatile, with small roles gradually giving way to better things in an ever-widening range of genres. He was in 'Shine On Harvey Moon', had a prolonged stint on a later series of 'Grange Hill' as Mr Bentley, and appeared as several characters on both sides of the law in 'The Bill'. He was also in 'EastEnders', 'Bad Girls', 'Silent Witness' and 'Doctors', as well as an episode of 'Killing Eve'.

In the 1981 TV reboot of 'Callan'

Vintage menace in an episode of 'Campion'

But it's in comedy that he's been most visible and memorable, with appearances in Chris Morris's 'Brass Eye' and 'Jam', 'Black Books', 'Saxondale', 'It's Kevin', 'Psychoville', 'Benidorm' and most recently, 'Sex Education'.

More 'Brass Eye'. This time as an astronaut. 

Films have been a mixture of comedies: 'Dog Eat Dog' (2001), 'Run Fatboy Run' (2007), 'Attack The Block' (2011), and more serious fare '1984' (1984), Chromophobia (2005), Les Miserables (2012) and 'Dead Eyes' (2007).

Mostly pretty interesting stuff. One of those actors that it's almost reassuring to see appear, giving the impression of being in good hands. I salute you.      

David Cann-imdb

Jeannette Charles

Jeannette Charles: 
† October 15 1927 – June 2 2024

The ultimate type-cast actress may be Jeannette Charles, who for several decades has been film and TV's default lookalike for the Queen. Does she really look like her? I'm not too sure, there might be something of the Princess Annes about her long upper lip, but to me she's nothing much like the real item. Her own face has become so familiar, though, that she is virtually a national institution herself - the official stunt queen. 

 

'Q6' with Spike Milligan

Though not really an actress as such - she's rarely given any lines - apparently she was involved in theatre as a young woman, but rarely cast because of her 'uncanny likeness' to the royal princess, and later the young queen, in an age of greater deference. The similarity was again remarked by her local paper in Essex in the early '70s, and with the coming of the irreverent era of post-Python comedy, she's been constantly in demand, usually as a simple sight-gag, and has been seen in a number of productions of wildly variable quality. 

With German comedy legend Loriot, aka Vicco von Bulows in 1974

Spike Milligan's establishment-baiting silliness made great use of her in series including 'Q6', 'Q7' and 'There's A lot Of It About', and she's seen in contemporary comedies such as 'Rutland Weekend Television', 'The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash', and later 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' and 'Never The Twain'. In an episode of 'Mind Your Language' with a little twist, she plays a woman who is mistaken for the queen. Kids 'TV was also a regular earner, with appearances on 'The Sooty Show', 'On Safari', 'Ratman' and the like.       

I wonder whose idea this was? Queen looking less than thrilled. 

On the cinema screen, after a few low-budget '70s porn/sex comedies (non-sexy roles obviously, but the Germans, it seems, love a throwaway royal joke), including 'Leos Leiden, aka 'Born Erect' (1976), 'Secrets Of A Superstud' (1976), and 'Queen Kong' (1977), she pops up in 'National Lampoon's European Vacation' (1985), 'The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad' (1988),  'Austin Powers In Goldmember' (2002). I have no idea what part she plays in the bizarre sounding Israeli topless prank comedy 'Nipagesh Bachof' (1987) but it's there on her CV. 
            

With Leslie Neilsen in the 'The Naked Gun' (1988) 

Born in 1927 (a year later than the real deal), she is now in her nineties and in retirement in her native Essex. Hopefully she will receive her telegram at the appropriate juncture - I wonder if any additional comment will follow the centennial good wishes?  

Edit: June 2024 - Sadly, Jeannette Charles did not quite make it to 100, but did a good job of matching Her Majesty, who also died aged 96.

Jeannette Charles-imdb

Patrick Murray

Patrick Murray:

† Dec 17 1956 – 29 September 2025

London-born actor, probably most instantly recognisable as Mickey Pearce, Rodney's comedy foil in 'Only Fools And Horses', permanently frozen as a chirpy two-tone wideboy, already something of an anachronism by the time he appeared in 1983.

Patrick Murray had previously been seen in the gritty Borstal drama 'Scum' (1979) and before that, the low-budget 'Moon Over The Alley' (1976) a sort-of musical that dealt fairly unflinchingly with racism in '70s Notting Hill, and 'The Class Of Miss McMichael' (1977) which saw a rigid Oliver Reed and progressive Glenda Jackson clashing in the staff room of a rough-house London school.      

In the interesting social conscience musical 'Moon Over The Alley' (1975)

  At the tail-end of the '70s there was a flush of tougher social dramas with 'natural' actors and Patrick Murray was able to find a series of roles in these, but his 'authentic' London characterisations were tempered by his slight build and less-than-menacing demeanour which led to a series of comedy parts, including the perennial chancer of the Nag's Head.  

            

As Dougan in the powerful and influential 'Scum' (1979)

While a semi-regular gig in 'Only Fools And Horses' that ran across 20 years, from 1983 till 2003, other roles filled out the actor's schedule. TV comedies included 'The Upper Hand', 'Shelley', Hale & Pace's 'The Management', and the strangely memorable Robert Gillespie vehicle, 'Keep It In The Family. 

With Glenda Jackson in 'The Class Of Miss McMichael' (1977)

As a lift boy in the feeble 'Curse Of The Pink Panther' (1983)

On the drama side, he shows up in smallish roles in 'Bergerac', 'Lovejoy', Roy Clarke's short-lived 'Pulaski', 'House Of Elliott' and of course 'The Bill'. I'm slightly surprised to see that he never appeared in 'The Sweeney' or 'Minder', which I would have thought were nailed-on certainties. One interesting oddity is 'Big Jim & The Figaro Club' a one-off nostalgic drama about a student who returns to his village for summer work on a building site, it later became a series, but without Murray.     

Playing Enid Blyton's idea of a villain in 'Five On Kirrin Island Again' 

Most recently, he has been starring in his own series - originally to be called 'Brain Damage', but which is now being touted under the name 'Conditions' - a light-hearted (I think) drama about retrieving some escaped mental patients. As far as I can tell, it has yet to be picked up by a network, although a number of episodes have been made - with Denis Waterman joining the cast at some point.    

Still wearing the Mickey Pearce pork-pie hat for the fans 

Feature film jobs since the '70s have been rather thin on the ground, but he can be spotted briefly in 'The Curse Of The Pink Panther' (1983) a poor effort made after Peter Sellers died, and has a rather grisly moment in the Hazel O'Connnor pop potboiler 'Breaking Glass' (1980) as the kid killed during a skinhead riot under the Westway.  He has apparently spent some time abroad and worked extensively as a limo driver in North Kent near where I live. More recently, I'm pleased to see that has returned to acting. He appears in 'Vikingdom' (2013) a cartoony 3D-CGI fantasy movie, although he's not easy to recognise under the world's biggest eyebrows. Here's the trailer.       

Something a bit different. As the wise man Alcuin in the
Norse hokum 'Vikingdom' (2013)

Patrick Murray-imdb

Spencer Banks

Spencer Banks:  

Very much in demand in his youth during the '70s, when he took the role of Simon in the mind-expanding young-person's drama 'Timeslip', Spencer Banks also appeared in the folk-horror 'Penda's Fen', a 'Play For Today' from 1974 which now rubs shoulders with 'The Wicker Man' (1973) and 'Children Of The Stones' as a classic of the genre. With his shock of red hair and expressive, sometimes awkward, features and manner, he was a natural for the role of the loner or outsider. 

In the witness box in an episode of 'Crown Court' 

With Spud, played by Mike Grady, in 'Tightrope'

Beyond these, he can also be seen in good quality fare from throughout that decade including 'Tightrope', 'Lord Peter Wimsey' with Ian Carmichael, 'Village Hall', 'Churchill's People', Dennis Potter's 'Pennies from Heaven', 'The Georgian House' and 'Minder'. In addition, he had a short spell in the popular (with older ladies) teatime soap opera 'Crossroads' which was probably a biggish deal at the time. 

In yet another children's time-travel mystery
serial, this time HTV's 'The Georgian House'

By the early '80s and beyond, pickings seem to have got a little slimmer, though he pops up as a copper in 'Shine On Harvey Moon'. There are a few decade-apart roles including 'Doctors' on TV and the straight to DVD 'Amityville Playhouse' (2015). Whether he was just too much a face of the '70s, or his moment simply passed, it seems he retired from seriously pursuing an acting career. Nowadays he is a much sought-after guest at cult TV conventions, but I can't help but hope that some interesting part is still in his future timeline.

Bonus content:
For a full-on '70s time capsule, I point you to this splendidly mundane oddity:
'Living At Thamesmead' (1974)
      

Spencer Banks-imdb

Nickolas Grace

Nickolas Grace

Dark haired (now distinguished grey) and rheumy-eyed, with a hint of sophisticated malfeasance and 'mwah-ha-ha', Nickolas Grace has played wonderful mixture of mainly villainous and disreputable characters over the years. He's possibly most familiar for his masterful turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 'Robin of Sherwood' or as the impossibly louche Anthony Blanche in 'Brideshead Revisited'. 
   

'Brideshead Revisited'

As the Sheriff of Nottingham in 'Robin of Sherwood'

There has been a strong thread of comedy shows down the years. These range from the rather mundane to the quite strange, eg: 'The Fenn Street Gang', 'Birds Of A Feather', 'Alas Smith & Jones', the peculiar medical-themed sketch revue 'The Pink Medicine Show', the wilfully bizarre 'Inside Victor Lewis Smith' and the successful sitcoms 'My Family' and 'Absolutely Fabulous'.       

In the comedy short 'The Hardest Part' (2010) with Jeremy Child

But drama has always been to the fore, with roles in quality costume stuff such as the Pre-Raphaelite shenanigans of 'The Love School', 'Napoleon & Josephine' (as Nelson), 'Morte D'Arthur', 'Decline and Fall', 'The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes', 'Casanova', 'Merlin' and a bravura title turn in 'Lorca, Death Of A Poet' which he acted in English with a Spanish cast and production company and was later re-dubbed.

In the exceptional BBC drama 'Killing Eve'

Crime, political intrigue and action shows have included 'The Survivors', 'The Final Cut', 'The Chief', 'The Professionals', a smattering of 'Marple', 'Alleyn', 'Midsomer Murders'-type mid-evening mysteries, and light dramas of the 'Lovejoy', 'Minder' and 'Bergerac' ilk. He also pops up in the cult Gerry Anderson flop 'Space Precinct' and the critically acclaimed 'Killing Eve'. He's a respected stage actor and director, but what seems to come over on the screen is an almost irresistible sense of enjoyment and relish for every role, however meaty or slight. A craftsman.           

Nickolas Grace-imdb

Maureen Sweeney

Maureen Sweeney:

Getting her first camera appearance in 'Holiday On The Buses' (1973) as another of those easy-going dollybirds unfathomably drawn to brilliantined bus driver Stan, Maureen Sweeney went on to establish a solid career lasting well into the 2000s.  

'Holiday On The Buses' (1973)

A string of tough, sassy roles followed, mostly playing villains' wives, barmaids, and blue collar mums in various London-set dramas and comedies. She had a regular stint in the caravan comedy 'Romany Jones' with Arthur Mullard and the irreplaceable Queenie Watts, and later appeared in women's prison melodrama 'Within These Walls' and matronly mobster series 'She's Out'.      

In an episode of 'Dempsey & Makepeace' from 1985 

Perhaps surprisingly, she only pops up once in 'The Sweeney', but can be spotted in programmes as varied as 'The Dick Emery Show', 'Crossroads', 'The Duchess Of Duke Street', 'Only Fools And Horses', Rik Mayall's short-lived comedy 'Believe Nothing', and the teen TV drama 'Running Scared'.    

In the 1986 kids' TV drama 'Running Scared' 

And the Clive Owen mini series 'The Echo' from the BBC in 1998 

Later appearances see her move into the familiar TV territory of 'The Bill' and 'Casualty' with her last role to date seemingly being in 2006. 

Maureen Sweeney-imdb

Alan Ford

Alan Ford:

You know him. Intense, real-deal, London-born actor who has virtually created his own sub-type of the gimlet-eyed cockney villain: hard, trim, mod-stylish, a ruthless but rational enforcer or fixer. A slightly different proposition from the affable yet psychopath mob boss (typified by Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Johnny Shannon, etc), you can watch him in action in some tough East End crime movies beginning with 'The Squeeze' (1977) and encompassing the classic 'The Long Good Friday' (1980) and the latter-day set of 'Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels' (1998) and 'Snatch' (2000) – running through to 'Jack Falls' (2011) and the less than satisfactory reboot of 'The Sweeney' (2012).

 

Rare image from the 1975 schools TV series 'Viewpoint',
radical and sophisticated media studies for the time.   

In the interesting London-set Stacey Keach vehicle
'The Squeeze (1977).  

On TV, as you might expect, there's a lot of London hardcase actioners and cop shows, sometimes on the side of law and order but more often than not as a villain of some sort. He's in 'Minder' ('90s variety) and 'Strangers', as well as a selection of lesser fare: 'Bergerac', 'Chinese Detective' etc,  - and he's racked up an impressive eight different characters in episodes of 'The Bill' stretching from 1985 to 2006...     

With DI Bulman (Don Henderson) in the excellent
ITV cop series 'Strangers' 

Less expected are the roles in a range of comedies. He was in the later series of 'Romany Jones' after the death of James Beck, playing (fell-off-the-back-of-a) lorry driver, Ken. He also appeared in 'Birds Of A Feather', 'Keep It In The Family' and 'The New Statesman', before a memorable turn as a boxing promoter in 'Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge' led to 'The Armando Iannucci Shows' and Matt Berry projects 'Snuff Box' and 'Toast Of London'.   

         

Despite the robes, delivering the full-on Alan Ford London
geezer treatment. A regular in Matt Berry's 'Snuff Box'.
   

All good stuff, and I notice he's also providing voice performances alongside the remarkable David Graham as one of Parker's dodgy mates, Light-fingered Fred, in the latest version of 'Thunderbirds Are Go'.  

Alan Ford-imdb