Henry Davies

Character & Episode: Police Sergeant in Car in Vendetta for a Dead Man

Henry Davies was a minor supporting actor who registered about thirty screen appearances during his career. He made his television debut in the first half of the 1950s. Among his early works were Eye for an Eye, the first episode of Alfred Shaughnessy's drama serial A Place of Execution (transmitted live by BBC Television on 26th September 1953) and Dallas Bower's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (22nd May 1955), also for the BBC. Henry's most notable appearances include playing Skinner in two episodes of the BBC comedy Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (1955), as William, Prince of Orange, in The Black Tulip (a 1956 BBC period drama serial), a carpenter in the film comedy Raising the Wind (1961), which was a Carry On film in all but name, featuring many of the series regulars and was produced by Peter Rogers, who produced all the Carry On films. His later screen appearances included Softly Softly (1968) and The Power Game and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), both made in 1969.

Noel Davis

Character & Episode: Pawnbroker's Clerk in All Work and No Pay
Born: 01/03/1927, Liverpool, England (as Edgar Joseph Davis)
Died: 24/11/2002, London, England

As well as being a reliable supporting actor, Noel Davis was also a casting director. After school at Liverpool, he joined the Merchant Navy but, persuaded by his mother to pursue on a career on the stage, he made his way to London, where he changed his first name to Noel (after Nöel Coward) and began to find work as a character actor, specialising in effete roles. He had made his radio and television debuts by 1951. Among his early television roles were appearances in BBC dramas such as The Taming of the Shrew (live performances on 20th and 24th April 1952), Captain Brasshound's Conversion (live performance on 24th March 1953) and The Brown Man's Servant (live performance on 3rd August 1953) and others. Further appearances included The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and Treasure Island (both in 1957), The Plane Makers (1964) and as Percy Poopdeck in the Rediffusion children's adventure series Orlando, alongside Sam Kydd in the lead role in 1967. Noel would eventually notch up in excess of one hundred screen appearances. As a casting director, he worked on such productions as Revolution (1985), Without a Clue (1988) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Sadly, he died in 2002 of emphysema, aged 75.

Ivor Dean

Character & Episodes: Inspector Large in
Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying, When the Spirit Moves You,
Money to Burn, When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things
and Could You Recognise the Man Again?
Born: 21/12/1917, Edmonton, Middlesex, England (as Ivor Donald Dean)
Died: 10/08/1974, Truro, Cornwall

Deceptively small and slightly plump, Ivor Dean was an imposing presence in many films and television shows. In addition to his acting career, he was also a playwright, who wrote works for the stage and television. He also adapted other writer's works for television. He studied for the stage from mid-1930s in all fields, including dramatic art, music, scenic art, lighting and décor. He commenced his professional stage career in 1939, but soon went into the Army, spending the following six years in the service during the Second World War. During the conflict, Ivor dreamed of starting a repertory company, and finally met most of the cast who would work with him while stationed in France.

He did not make his screen debut until the mid-1950s. His early television work included appearances in The Mulberry Accelerator (live performance on 16th April 1955), The New Executive, the fourth instalment of Sunday Night Theatre: The Makepeace Story (live performance on 16th November 1955) and Theatre Royal: The Death Trap (live performance on 4th December 1955). His first film credit was in Cloak Without Dagger (1956). However, due to his lugubrious demeanour, he was often cast as world-weary police officers or butlers, and indeed it is for the role of Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal in the 1960s series The Saint, opposite Roger Moore, that he is best remembered. To all intents and purposes, the role that Ivor played in five episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) – Inspector Large – was Teal reprised, the only significant difference being the name, not that this was met with complaint, for he brought great colour to both series.

From his debut until his early death from heart failure in 1974, Ivor became a familiar face, mainly on television, in numerous well-known series and registered more than one hundred appearances. Other contributions included Taxi!, Coronation Street, The Avengers, Doctor at Large and Both Ends Meet. Ivor was also a memorable Long John Silver in a French/German television adaptation of Treasure Island in 1966. He contributed to a follow-up script with Saint producer Robert S. Baker, but it never materialised before his death. However, Baker continued to develop the project and it was finally made as the 10-part serial Return to Treasure Island in 1986. It was scripted by John Goldsmith and the part of Long John Silver was played by Brian Blessed. Other notable films include horror Theatre of Death and the comedy The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins.

In his personal life, Ivor was married to the British actress Patricia Wordley (1929-2019), with whom he had three daughters. Patricia worked under the stage name Patricia Hamilton, which has unfortunately led to her career and credits (and marriage!) often being erroneously attributed in the Internet Age to the Canadian actress of the same name (1937-).

Roy Desmond

Character & Episode: Kevin O'Malley in Money to Burn

Primarily an actor and dancer working in musical theatre and variety, Roy Desmond's appearances as an actor on television were few, with approximately a dozen of credited appearances stretching for a decade from the mid-Sixties. Even Roy’s role in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) did not turn out too well for him as his voice was dubbed by the well-known Irish actor T.P. McKenna. The reason for this substitution remains unclear, though it could possibly be due to his Welsh nationality. 

Roy’s first known screen appearance as an actor was in Camino Real an entry in ITVs Play of The Week strand in 1964. Generally, most of his appearances were minor roles such as a police sergeant in Public Eye (1969) or a businessman in the BBC adaptation of A Christmas Carol (1977), his last credit in a career which barely registered a dozen television appearances. He had also worked on the stage, being a member of the Players Theatre, London in the late 1950s. He was also among the cast of the London Palladium's 1957 revue We're Having a Ball, which was headlined by singer Max Bygraves. He also appeared as an uncredited dancer in both Hammer's The Witches (1966) and Polanski's Macbeth (1971), suggesting a proficiency in that field. His one credited film role as 'The Mask' came in Anthony Newley's controversial Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969).

Desmond's highest profile role appears to have been his one in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) – sadly it did not lead to a more substantial acting career - though it is clear that his true talents were as a singer and dancer.

Arnold Diamond

Character & Episode: First Poker Player in The Trouble with Women
Born: 18/04/1915, West Ham, Essex, England
Died: 18/03/1992, Bournemouth, Dorset, England

Arnold Diamond began his professional career as a librarian, acting in the evenings in local amateur productions. In 1934, he joined RADA, graduating in 1936. He was injured and captured during the war in Italy and, as a Prisoner of War, started writing and directing plays for the prisoners he was with.

Soon after the war, Arnold started working in various repertory companies throughout the country, and later spent some time with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. At the same time, he began to pick up screen roles, one of the earliest of which was The Man Who Was Thursday (live performances on 13th and 15th July 1947) for BBC Television. By the end of his career he had notched up well over two hundred screen appearances in films and television. Through never a household name, he contributed to numerous well-known films and programmes, often in suave roles. His film roles included The Revenge Of Frankenstein (1958), two Carry On films (...Sergeant and ...Constable), The Italian Job (1969) and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). He also featured in a prominent role in the Children's Film Foundation chapter serial Masters of Venus (1962) as a benevolent Venusian.

He was often used in ITC film series such as Danger Man (The Galloping Major, 1964), The Baron (The Seven Eyes of Night and Farewell to Yesterday, 1967), Department S (The Man Who Got a New Face, 1969) and of course Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). He also featured several times as Colonel Latignant in The Saint series (1963-1966). His other television roles included The Two Ronnies (various roles, 1973 and 1975), Dad's Army (1975) and three consecutive 1982 episodes of the Midlands soap opera Crossroads. One of his last roles was as a semi-regular in In Sickness and In Health (1985-1989) playing Mr Rabinsky. His final screen appearance came in 1992 in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. Shortly after he had completed work on this production, he and his wife Renee went to the seaside resort of Bournemouth for a few days' relaxation. Tragically, Arnold was hit by a car and was hospitalised. He never regained consciousness and died a week later on 18th March 1992.

Basil Dignam

Character & Episode: Hepple in When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
Born: 24/10/1905, Ecclesall Bierlow, South Yorkshire, England (as Basil Martin Dignam)
Died: 31/01/1979, Westminster, London, England

Basil Dignam was born in 1905, the son of mercantile clerk Edmund Grattan Dignam (1873-1952) and Mary Agnes Sheen (1871-1942). He began his professional life in his native Sheffield as a bank worker, before emigrating to Canada on the SS Minnedosa, arriving in Quebec on 12th May 1928. In Canada, he made his living working as a lumberjack and cattle drover. He first acted with amateurs in Montreal, and later became a member of the Montreal Repertory Company, participating in such stage productions as Bruno Frank's Twelve Thousand and Hamlet. He returned to England aboard the SS Athenia, docking in Liverpool on 8th December 1933 and continued his career as a stage actor. Basil’s first known screen appearance was in 1938 as 'Bill' in the BBC Television play Wren of St. Paul's (performed live on 4th and 9th April 1938), in which William Devlin played the architect Christopher Wren. Basil's younger brother, Mark Dignam (1909-89), was also an actor, coincidentally appearing in this same production as Dean Sancroft. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Basil joined the Royal Artillery in the ranks and rose to be a Lieutenant Colonel.

During the course of his career, Basil made more than two hundred screen appearances, often appearing as figures of authority, playing police officers, army generals or peers of the realm. His roles include an appearance in the Carry On series, in Carry On Sergeant as the third specialist, in 1958. Later that year, he had an uncredited role in I Only Arsked, a comedy film spun-off from the TV sitcom The Army Game, starring future Carry On star Bernard Bresslaw. He was the Minister for Labour in one of the classic British comedies, I’m All Right Jack (1959) alongside Peter Sellers, and a prison governor in Heaven’s Above in 1963.

On television, Basil was involved in the greater majority of ITC productions, his most high profile role being as the semi-regular character Commissioner Scott-Marle in Gideon's Way. In addition to that and his role in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Basil also appeared in episodes of Sword of Freedom and O.S.S. (both 1957), The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1958), The Adventures of Robin Hood (in 1958 and 1960), The Four Just Men and H.G. Wells' Invisible Man (both 1959), Interpol Calling (1960), Sir Francis Drake (1962), The Saint (1963 and 1964), Espionage (1964), The Prisoner (as The Supervisor in Checkmate, 1967), Man in a Suitcase (1967 and 1968), The Champions (1968), Department S and Strange Report (both 1969), UFO (1970), Jason King and The Persuaders! (both 1971) and The Protectors (1973). Beyond ITC, he also featured in Adam Adamant Lives! (Face in a Mirror, 1967), appeared in both The Avengers (Trojan Horse, 1964) and The New Avengers (the sublime Cat Amongst the Pigeons, 1976), and was a regular in the coal mining drama The Stars Look Down, based on the novel by A. J. Cronin, in 1975. His last screen appearance was in October 1978 in the afternoon courtroom drama Crown Court.

In his private life, Basil was married in 1940 to actress Mona Washbourne (1903-88), who was also a successful character player, often portraying well-built ladies with strong personalities. Basil and Mona had no children, their marriage enduring until Basil's death in 1979 at the age of 73.

Carol Dilworth

Character & Episode: Girl (Vicar's Neice) in For the Girl Who Has Everything
Born: 01/12/1947, Harrow, Middlesex, England (as Carol Hilda Dilworth)

Carol Dilworth is an actress with roles confined mainly to the Sixties. As a child, she attended Roxeth Manor School and was keen to become an actress. Aged 9 in 1957 she won a holiday camp fancy dress and talent competition, in which she had mimicked screen starlet Diana Dors. This was, however, not her first brush with showbusiness, as she had been performing in charity shows from the age of four, appearing at Wembley Town Hall, at local cinemas and in various shows for the British Legion. Her repertoire was fairly extensive: she did tap dancing, ballet dancing, singing and also performed hair-raising stunts on the parallel bars. She had also appeared with her elder sister Pat in an act entitled The Dilworth Sisters, and went solo when Pat eventually lost interest in the stage. Things, however, could have been quite different as during the 1950s the Dilworth family applied to emigrate to New Zealand. After a considerable time in which their application was delayed by the authorities, they eventually decided to stay at home!

Carol seems to have made her screen debut as a child in 1960, appearing in The Patchwork Quilt an ITV Play of the Week. The following year she played a teenage girl in Cliff Richard's film The Young Ones. Later in 1962 she co-starred in the three-part Associated-Rediffusion serial Mr Toby's Christmas, playing Sarah alongside Andrew Sachs (the eponymous Mr Toby), later to find fame as Manuel, the inept but lovable Spanish waiter, in Fawlty Towers. In 1969 Carol appeared in the horror film The Haunted House of Horror and two years later made her last known television appearance in the series Budgie, which starred Adam Faith and Iain Cuthbertson.

Carol was a 'Golden Girl' hostess on The Golden Shot between 1967 and 1969, appearing with the game show's first two hosts, Jackie Rae and Bob Monkhouse. She made a one-off return in 1974, at a time when the programme was hosted by comedian Charlie Williams. In 2015 Carol contributed to the UKTV Gold documentary series Bob Monkhouse: Million Joke Man. In 1972, she also performed hostess duties on Sale of the Century, another high rating game show which was presented each week by Nicholas Parsons.

In her personal life, Carol married Len Hawkes (1945- ), a bassist and singer with pop group The Tremeloes, in 1969. The couple, who remain together today, had two children, Chesney (born 1971) and Keely (b. 1974). Chesney Hawkes had a successful solo career and is perhaps best remembered for his 1991 single The One And Only, which topped the UK charts in 1991. Keely was also a successful singer in the alternative rock band Transister and is currently a songwriter based in Los Angeles.

Eric Dodson

Character & Episode: Vicar in For the Girl Who Has Everything
Born: 01/12/1920, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England (as Eric Norman Dodson)
Died: 13/01/2000, Gloucestershire, England

Working in theatre until war broke out, Eric Dodson joined the Royal Air Force in 1941. Following training in Canada he served in the RAF Coastal Command, flew bombers and was a liaison officer in Yugoslavia. After the war he went back into repertory theatre, initially in Edinburgh. He made his screen debut on television shortly after transmissions resumed following the Second World War. He would remain busy making over one hundred film and television appearances until ill health forced him to retire in the mid-Nineties.

His film appearances include The Dock Brief (1962), Danger by My Side (1962), Strictly for the Birds (1964), Battle of Britain (1969), The Mirror Crack'd (1980), and television movies The Masks of Death (1984) and Jekyll and Hyde (1990). His numerous television credits include playing Jack Pomeroy in Series 3 to 5 of Rumpole of the Bailey. He also appeared in two first-year episodes of The Avengers, the second of which saw him playing One-Fifteen, one of John Steed's bosses. He could also be seen in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum as a Brigadier, the Doctor Who story The Visitation, in Porridge as Banyard and in many other roles.

In his personal life, Eric married actress Pearl Dadswell (1915-1963) in 1952; they remained together until her death and had one son, Michael, born in 1955. Eric later married actress Rosaline Haddon (1926-2011) in 1970, and they remained together until his death in early 2000.

James Donnelly

Character & Episode: Detective in My Late, Lamented Friend and Partner
Born: 06/04/1930, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England (as James Heenan Donnelly)
Died: 02/08/1992, Hackney, London, England

James Donnelly was a Birkenhead-born actor who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and made occasional film and television appearances over a period of more than thirty year period starting in the late 1950s. An early recurring role was as Johnson in the ATV children's thriller serial Formula for Danger (1960). Other appearances include The Avengers, The Champions and more recently Taggart, which starred Mark McManus. His last known screen appearance was in 1992 when he appeared as a police superintendent in the BBC Scotland mini-series drama Look At It This Way.

In his private life, whilst in Dublin playing the lead role in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, he had a brief fling with Irish journalist Terry Keane (1939-2008), who gave birth to their daughter Jane in 1962. The baby was born and put up for adoption in Britain and mother and daughter were eventually reunited in 1981.

Rosemary Donnelly

Character & Episode: Diana in When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
Born: 16/11/1941, Plymouth, Devon, England (as Rosemary Dolores Donnelly)
Died: 21/03/2020, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Blonde and blessed with striking good looks, Rosemary Donnelly was in demand for roles in British television for a short time in the 1960s. Her father, Lieut. Commander J. Donnelly, was a gunnery officer on the carrier Eagle, and served at the Londonderry naval base in 1951. Rosemary studied at St. George's School in Hong Kong, which was a new school at the time, opened in 1955. Afterwards, she worked as secretary in Northern Ireland and soon became model. She won the Miss Belfast title and was runner-up for the Miss Ireland title in 1960.

Her first feature film credit came in 1966 for the science fiction-horror film The Projected Man, in which she had a small role. Most of her subsequent roles were in small-screen productions including four appearances in ITC series - in addition to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), she also featured in two episodes of The Saint (though the first of these, in 1965, was unusual in that she only appeared in a still photograph seen on screen!), a Department S and a UFO. Her most notable role was arguably in They Keep Killing Steed, a 1968 episode of The Avengers, in which she played Miranda.

After filming Computer Affair, her episode of UFO, Rosemary spent a year studying at The Actors Studio in New York, USA, before moving to Toronto, Canada, where she settled, working for many years at the Factory Theatre and, from the 1980s, as a sales representative at Bosley Real Estate Ltd. In 1973, she married Ken Gass, who had just founded Factory Theatre, having met each other at The Actors Studio. They had two children in the late Seventies, filmmaker Ed Gass-Donnelly and Miranda Gass-Donnelly, a lawyer. Though Ken and Rosemary divorced in the late Eighties, they remained close friends to the end. She passed away on 21st March 2020 after a sudden, short illness.

David Downer

Character & Episode: Hinch in When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
Born: London, England

David Downer is an English actor who has mainly made his name in Australia, his adopted country. He left England for Australia in 1962 and continued his education there until 1964. He studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), graduating in 1967, winning the Showcast Award and making his professional stage debut at The Old Tote Theatre in The Imaginary Invalid later that same year. His television debut came in the Crawfords Productions crime drama Homicide in Australia in 1968.

He made his appearance in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) during a short return to Britain from 1968, the purpose of which was to establish himself as an actor. He returned to Australia in 1973, and has made the majority of his screen appearances in that country. David remains a busy actor and is probably best known for his two stints in the long-running Australian soap opera Home and Away (1996-97, playing Arthur Briggs, and 2008-09, playing Ross Buxton).

On film, David has made contributions to Mad Max 2 (1981), which starred Mel Gibson, The Killing of Angel Street (1981) and The Settlement (1984). Also in Australia, he has appeared in a number of popular television shows such as The Box (45 episodes of the soap set in a fictional TV channel, as Brad Miller, 1974), A Country Practice (three different roles in 1983, 1986 and 1991), All Saints (2002-03), Farscape (2003), and most recently as Michael Heston in Wentworth Prison (2019), a revival of the classic Aussie soap Prisoner (or Prisoner Cell Block H as it is known in the United Kingdom).

In his private life, he married the British actress Elaine Donnelly (1948- ) in 1970. The couple later divorced.

William Dysart

Character & Episode: Police Inspector in Vendetta for a Dead Man
Born: 26/11/1929, Glasgow, Scotland (as William Deacon McColl Dysart)
Died: 10/2002, London, England

William Dysart was a supporting actor who worked in television and film mainly the Sixties to the late Seventies. His career could have taken a different path as in 1949 he turned down the lead role of Michael Reynolds in the film Blue Lagoon, the lead eventually going to Donald Houston and the lead female role was played by Jean Simmons.

William would only notch up just over thirty film and television appearances in a long career which began - at least in television terms - with a short stint in the ITV medical soap opera Emergency Ward 10 as David MacLean between May and July 1962. His career highlight was arguably his role as Alec Campbell in the third and final series of the popular Seventies science fiction drama series Survivors. Other notable television appearances included The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1963 and 1964), Doctor Who (The Highlanders with Patrick Troughton in 1966 and The Ambassadors of Death with Jon Pertwee in 1970), Z Cars (1967) and Strange Report (1969), a much-underrated ITC film series which featured Anthony Quayle and Anneke Wills. On film, he made minor contributions to The Deadly Affair (1967), Submarine X1 (1968) and The Last Shot You Hear (1969).

William used to live off the fashionable Kings Road in Chelsea, London, and had a lifelong love of poetry.