Terrence Hardiman

Terrence Hardiman: 
† April 6 1937 - May 8 2023

Steely-eyed, cadaverous, Christopher Lee type. He was memorable looming out of TV screens as Abbot Radulfus in 'Cadfael', and has appeared in 'The Demon Headmaster', 'Poirot' and 'Secret Army'. Rather less fearsomely, he took the classic comic role of Mr Pooter in the 1979 television version of 'Diary of a Nobody', with Sheila Steafel as his long-suffering wife. He was also in the 2010 'Doctor Who' episode 'The Beast Below', the one with the horrible Smilers.

In fact, there seems to be hardly a TV genre that he hasn't conquered. Drama: in 'Colditz', 'When The Boat Comes In', 'Prime Suspect 3', and 'Hannay'. Comedy: in 'Home to Roost', 'Surgical Spirit' and the Dickens pastiche 'The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff'. And a fair bit of kids' TV: 'Chucklevision', 'The Worst Witch', and 'Magic Grandad'.

In an episode of 'Colditz'

'No more questions, m'lud.' In a 1975 episode of 'Crown Court'

I don't remember 'Skorpion', a well-received BBC terrorist thriller series from 1983 that he starred in, but which seems to have been consigned to the corporation's deeper basements. A pity, as it sounds pretty good.

As Abbot Radulfus in 'Cadfael'

In full 'Dr No' mode as 'The Demon Headmaster'

He crops up in a few feature films; 'Pope Joan' (1972), 'Running Scared' (1972), and as Ramsay MacDonald in 'Gandhi' (1980) and Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor thriller 'God's Outlaw' (1986).


Terrence Hardiman - imdb

Christopher Beeny

Christopher Beeny: 

† July 7 1941 – January 3 2020

A chirpy and genial middle-aged pixie of an actor, who was a schoolboy star as Lennie Grove in the prototype soap opera of the '50s, 'The Grove Family'. To viewers of a more recent generation, he's familiar as Billy Henshaw, Thora Hird's long-suffering nephew in the undertaker sitcom, 'In Loving Memory' (see also Colin Farrell). Or perhaps as Edward the footman in 'Upstairs Downstairs' getting perpetual reprimands from Gordon Jackson's dour butler, Mr Hudson. 

Other TV roles incude 'The Rag Trade', 'Miss Jones and Son' (with Paula Wilcox), as well as 'Minder', 'The Sweeney' and 'Dixon of Dock Green'. He also had a regular part as Morton in the late 2000s dregs of 'Last of the Summer Wine', but in the Burt Kwouk/ Brian Murphy/ Russ Abbott era, long after the departure of his old colleague Thora. 

'Miss Jones and Son'

'The Little Kidnappers' (1953)

He hasn't done much on the big screen: a few child parts in the early '50s, 'The Long Memory' (1953), 'The Little Kidnappers' (1953), and 'Child's Play' (1955), but not much as an adult: an uncredited turn in 'Doctor in Distress' (1963) and a Children's Film Foundation romp 'Pop Pirates' (1984) which also features Roger Daltrey!    

Christopher Beeny - imdb

Barbara Murray

Barbara Murray:

† Sep 27 1929 – May 20 2014

Sultry, heavy-lidded, but frightfully British actress who appeared in a few popular films in the '50s and '60s, but never quite attained full-blown stardom. She's in the Ealing classics 'Passport to Pimlico' (1948) and 'Meet Mr Lucifer (1953), both with Stanley Holloway, she was James Robertson Justice's unlikely love interest in 'Doctor in Distress' (1963), and she's in the portmanteau horror 'Tales From The Crypt' (1972). 

As the Brit B-movie studios closed and TV took over in the '60s, she won parts in kitsch favourites like 'Danger Man', 'The Saint', 'Department S' and 'Jason King', but was more at home in period melodramas and serious TV plays. Big successes were the modern political intriguer 'The Power Game' and the Anthony Trollope adaptation 'The Pallisers', in which Murray played major roles. But she was also able to play comedy, as in the Frankie Howerd entendre-fest 'Up Pompeii' (1971).    

In 'The Power Game'

In 'The Pallisers'

By the later '70s she was an occasional sighting on British screens, with a rather mixed bag including 'Doctor Who' (Peter Davison era story, 'The Black Orchid'), 'Robin's Nest', and the rarely-recalled 1987-89 serial 'The Bretts' - a sort of 'Upstairs Downstairs' of theatre folk set in the '20s. 

Barbara Murray - imdb

Peter Greene

Peter Greene: 

† October 28 1945 - March 19 2009

Here's a difficult one. I'm assuming with fingers crossed that Mr Greene is still with us, but I haven't been able to verify it. Things are confused by the fact that there is another Peter Greene in the movies (the American one who played bad guy Zed in 'Pulp Fiction'). 
The one I'm saluting here is the lanky red-headed chap you've seen playing the clueless chaplain of St Swithin's Hospital in ITV's 'Doctor in Charge', or perhaps as Grace Brothers' resident boffin, demonstrating a dummy that drops its own trousers in 'Are You Being Served?'.  

Chrissie's pipe-smoking boyfriend in 'Man About the House'

He appeared in two episodes of 'The Young Ones': as a teacher in a 'Grange Hill' spoof scene with Ben Elton; and as the vicar in Rik's favourite sitcom 'Oh Crikey!'

As the man from the BBC in the 'Dad's Army' skit from
'A Christmas Night With The Stars' in 1972 

The trail goes cold with this sketchy imdb snippet from 2002: 'Works for an independent research company, but still does corporate work and directs local shows.' 

Peter Greene (II) - imdb

Postscript and apologia:

In my initial post, I inexcusably gave him the credit for one of British cinema's finest 'Fwooooaarr!'s as Henry the clumsy ambulance driver in 'Carry On Doctor' (1967). Click here.  This is of course the late Peter Gilmore. I'm indebted to r lewis for the correction.

*Further postscript:

Sorry to hear, via the contribution in comments below, that Peter Greene passed away in 2009  

Tony Millan

Tony Millan: 

Unforgettable as the morose, harassed and over-fertile Tucker in 'Citizen Smith', but once he'd lost the Zapata moustache, he also filled nervy character roles in comfy comedies like 'One Foot In The Grave', 'Birds of a Feather', 'Lame Ducks', 'Last of the Summer Wine' and the stillborn Brian Murphy driving-instructor sitcom 'L For Lester'. 

As a gorilla-gram in 'As Time Goes By'

He's also a writer, penning Chris Barrie sitcoms 'The Brittas Empire' and 'Prince Among Men'. He also wrote the decidedly oddball post-apocalyptic sitcom 'Not With A Bang', featuring Ronald Pickup, Stephen Rea and Josie Lawrence. Despite the impressive cast, LWT pulled the plug after seven episodes of nervous laughter.  

With Richard Wilson in 'One Foot in the Grave'

Tony Millan - imdb

Kervork Malikyan

Kervork Malikyan:

I'm stretching the definition of British a little here, but this versatile Armenian-born actor has been London-based since coming to study drama in England in the late '60s, and his face is certainly most familiar to British TV audiences. He played Greek student Max in 'Mind Your Language' wearing a succession of generously open-necked shirts, and has popped up in a bewildering array of assumed ethnicities and roles, equally at home with sinister, silly, sympathetic sleazy or sophisticated characterisations.   

 

Kazim chases Indy around the seedy side of Venice in
'Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade' (1989)  

Much in demand for the movies, he played Roger Moore's manservant Luigi in 'The Man Who Haunted Himself' (1970) and, more significantly, the memorable Kazim in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989). Other big movies that you might spot him in include: 'Midnight Express' (1978), 'Pascali's Island' (1988), the remake of 'Flight of The Phoenix' (2004), and the Liam Neeson thriller 'Taken 2' (2012).
        
 

In 'The Man Who Haunted Himself' (1970)

As Max in 'Mind Your Language'

Menawhile, British TV viewers became accustomed to his presence in the likes of 'Doctor Who' (in the Troughton-era Cyberman story 'The Wheel in Space'), 'The Saint', The Avengers', 'Jason King', 'The Professionals', 'Minder', 'Auf Wiedersehn Pet' and 'Silent Witness'. 

'The Bill' and 'Casualty' are presumably more or less a formality if you have an agent who can pick up a phone.

Still going strong at 70 and lending a hand to the Turkish film industry after 50 years away in England. Hokay.   

Kervork Malikyan - imdb
 

Nick Stringer

Nick Stringer:

Bullet headed, droopy-tached actor who is often cast as stubborn and belligerent working class characters. He's regularly seen on British TV playing trade-unionists, landlords, coppers, doormen, van drivers and cabbies. Lots of detective and cop shows, as you might expect, including 'The Sweeney', 'Target', 'The Gentle Touch', 'Shoestring', 'The Professionals', 'Bergerac', etc.   

In 'Only Fools and Horses' with David Jason

He's also done a lot of comedy, ranging from the mediocre: 'Bread', 'Rosie', 'Open All Hours', 'Birds of a Feather', to the moderately interesting: 'The New Statesman', 'Murder Most Horrid' and 'This is David Lander'.   

As Alan B'Stard's parliamentary rival Bob Crippen in 'The New Statesman'

Movie appearances include: 'The Long Good Friday' (1980), 'Clockwise' (1986), 'Personal Services' (1987), Roman Polanski's 'Oliver Twist' (2005), and the ill-advised Dylan Thomas romancer 'The Edge of Love' (2008).


Nick Stringer - imdb