Clifford Earl

Character & Episode: 1st Detective in You Can Always Find a Fall Guy
Born: 29/08/1933, Romney Marsh, New Romney, England (as Kenneth Clifford Earl)
Died: 30/07/2015, Aylesford, Kent, England

A reliable supporting actor, mainly on television and often in minor roles, Clifford Earl made his television debut in the second half of the 1950s, having previously entered feature films in 1950. He began his acting career under his birth name Kenneth Earl, though had changed it by 1959 to Clifford Earl, most likely to avoid confusion with the variety performer Kenneth Earle. As Kenneth Earl he appeared in programmes such as the 1958 BBC Dickens adaptation Our Mutual Friend, with his earliest known credit being in Our Miss Pemberton in January 1957, also for the BBC. His feature film credits included The Two-Headed Spy (1958), Gorgo (1961) and Scream and Scream Again (1970).

Clifford's career was at its height in the Sixties when he featured in a number of notable series such as The Saint, The Avengers, Doctor Who and was a cast regular in the children's adventure series Orlando in which he played Sgt Prothero. After appearing in an episode of Jason King in 1972 the frequency of his appearances slowed considerably. He later became a newsreader and continuity announcer in-vision for Southern Television in the 1970s and in voice-over for TVS in the 1980s. His last known television appearance was as a cast regular playing Bruce Jenkins in the series The Upper Hand in 1990.

What is not so well known about Clifford is that he founded the Porton Down Veterans Support Group in 1999, in order to represent more than 500 servicemen and pressure the government to compensate their members, who had been subjected to illegal chemical and biological testing whilst serving in the Army. Clifford himself was subjected to the Sarin nerve agent whilst on National Service at Porton Down on 4th May 1953. He had been told that the test was simply designed to find a cure for the common cold and he, like others, had volunteered to take part as a result. Two days later, Ronald Maddison, a fellow serviceman died within 45 minutes of having the same dose of Sarin applied to his skin. Years later, many veterans were still suffering side effects and ill health as a result of these tests, and many died early as a consequence of them. In 2008, Clifford's campaigning won £3 million in compensation for the thousands of servicemen who had been unwittingly subjected to these life-threatening tests. Clifford considered himself lucky, despite his health issues resulting from the tests - spondylosis, liver cists, prostate and skin cancer, a heart murmur and depression - and told the BBC in 2004 that, "At least I'm alive and I have had three score years and ten. Poor old Ronald Maddison got only 45 minutes."

In his personal life, Clifford was married three times: first to Jacqueline D. Hill in 1954, with whom he fathered a daughter, Corinne. Jacqueline predeceased Clifford, as did his second wife, the dancer Valerie Verdon, who died in April 1975 at just 35. His third marriage was to Beth, and the couple had a son, Christian, and a daughter, Victoria.

Meredith Edwards

Character & Episode: Hodder in It's Supposed to be Thicker Than Water
Born: 10/06/1917, Rhosllannerchrugog, Denbighshire, Wales
(as Gwilym Meredith Edwards)
Died: 08/02/1999, Denbighshire, Wales

The son of a collier, Meredith Edwards started work as a laboratory assistant at the Courtfields factory in Flint. In 1938 he turned to acting and joined the Welsh National Theatre Company, then later the Liverpool Playhouse. He was a conscientious objector in the Second World War, serving in the Non-Combatant Corps, before being seconded to the National Fire Service in Liverpool and London. His film debut was in A Run for Your Money (1949). After making this film, Meredith was offered a contract to go to Hollywood but turned this down - arguably a very brave decision. Staying in Britain he became a solid supporting character actor, building up over one hundred film and television appearances. His last appearance was in the crime drama A Mind to Kill in 1997. Other notable film appearances include The Blue Lamp (1950), The Magnet (1950), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Cruel Sea (1953), The Great Game (1953), Dunkirk (1958) and Tiger Bay (1959).

In his personal life, he married actress Daisy Clark in 1942 and the couple had three children. His son Ioan became an actor and Meredith's two grandchildren Ifan and Rhys are also actors.

Peter J. Elliott

Character & Episode: Wilks in When the Spirit Moves You
Born: 14/06/1930, England (as Peter John Henry Elliott)
Died: 12/2016

On first look, Peter J. Elliott's screen credits seem perhaps a little limited - only about thirty identified supporting roles during a thirty-year career - but there is considerably more to learn. Amongst his television credits are minor roles in The Avengers (1967-68), The Champions (1968) and Department S (1969), and his earliest roles were as a stunt performer. He had been convinced to double for Diana Rigg in The Avengers by director Ray Austin (who would later direct him in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)) for a fight on a seven-metre high diving board which he then had to dive from – and before long he had moved successfully into character parts.

In the early 1970s, Peter emigrated to South Africa, where he worked mainly as an actor, appearing on stage, television and in films. He featured in minor roles in the films Those Naughty Angels (1974), Snake Dancer (1976) and Zulu Dawn (1979). One of his notable South African television credits was in The Good Old Gold Rush Days, a programme that paid tribute to Victorian Music Hall. His later screen work included appearances in the television series Sweating Bullets (1993) and Where Angels Tread (1994) and the film The Making of the Mahatma.

What is less well known about Peter is that prior to his move into acting, he was successful in another branch of the entertainment industry - singing. Among his hit records were Your Hand, Your Heart, Your Love and The End, and he was dubbed the Swimming Singer... as even earlier he had been an Olympic high diver, and had competed in the 1948 Olympic Games.

In his private life, Peter married a model. Their daughter Laura went into music, first as a DJ, then as a music artiste in her own right, as DJ Lora. Peter himself wrote a number of successful film scores, two of which won awards at Cannes Film Festivals.

Clifford Evans

Character & Episode: Sir Oliver Norenton in When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
Born: 17/02/1912, Senghenydd, Caerphilly, Wales (as Clifford George Evans)
Died: 09/06/1985, Welshpool, Wales

Clifford Evans was a well-respected actor who often played authority figures. Welsh born Clifford was educated at Llanelli County School and, from a young age, wanted to be an actor. He would later train at RADA as a result of being awarded scholarships. In common with most actors of his generation, his early medium was the theatre and during the summer of 1934 he appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open-Air Theatre in London. The following year he made his feature film debut in The River House Mystery. His television debut followed in 1937 when Esme Church's Vaudeville Theatre production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, in which Clifford featured, was televised by the BBC. He was beginning to establish a good screen, theatre and radio reputation when war broke out in 1939.

During the war, Clifford was a conscientious objector and served in the Non-Combatant Corps. He found time to star in some wartime films including The Foreman Went to France in 1942. After the conflict had ended, Clifford returned to the theatre, while also accepting occasional screen and radio roles. In 1951, he was appointed Director of Productions by Cardiff City Council for the Festival of Britain and in 1957 founded the St David’s Theatre Trust which established a National Theatre for Wales.

Clifford's film and television career really began to take off in the early Fifties. In 1953 he was cast in his first starring role in Stryker of the Yard, a series of short crime thrillers made by British Lion which were later re-cut for the American NBC network in 1957 and regularly screened from 1961 on ITV channels in the United Kingdom. He was also notably called on to play character parts on a semi-regular basis between 1953 and 1956 in the British-made American television series Rheingold Theatre (screened on British television between 1955 and 1960 as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents). Clifford was also in demand for television plays, appearing regularly in anthologies like London Playhouse (1955), TV Playhouse (1956), Sunday Night Theatre (3 episodes, 1959) and Armchair Theatre (6 episodes between 1960 and 1965), which at the time were among the most prestigious programmes on British TV.

Between 1965 and 1969, he played a major role in the popular TV boardroom drama The Power Game, playing building tycoon-cum-politician Caswell Bligh. He is also notable for having been one of an exclusive group of actors to appear as a Number Two in the Sixties cult TV series The Prisoner (in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, 1967). He also featured in three episodes of The Avengers (Dial a Deadly Number in 1965, Death's Door in 1967 and Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40 in 1968), and played two roles in The Survivors, a 1968 episode of the cult series The Champions, which featured Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and William Gaunt. Clifford later played Sir Iain Dalzell in the BBC drama series Codename, which reunited him with Alexandra Bastedo and also featured Anthony Valentine. He also appeared in several films, among them notable roles for the legendary Hammer Films Productions playing Alfredo Carledo in The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and the inebriated vampire-hunter, Professor Zimmer, in The Kiss of the Vampire (1963). In the Seventies, his appearances became less frequent, though he did feature in the low-watermark ITC series The Adventurer alongside the well-past-his-prime American actor Gene Barry. Fortunately, career highlights were still to follow, including an appearance in the BBC2 play in Dylan: The Life and Death of a Poet as David John Thomas, the father of the celebrated Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. Clifford was also the regular presenter between December 1981 and April 1983 of Sing to the Lord, a religious programme made by HTV which toured Welsh churches and showcased the talents of their choirs.

In his private life, Clifford was married to actress Hermione Hannen, who died in 1983. Clifford himself passed away two years later in 1985 aged 73.

Tenniel Evans

Character & Episode: James Howe in Who Killed Cock Robin?
Born: 17/05/1926, Nairobi, Kenya (as Walter Tenniel Evans)
Died: 10/06/2009, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England

Tenniel Evans was a well-regarded character actor who started his adult career attending the British Army officer training centre at Sandhurst (1945-46). He decided he did not want an army life and left. He then went to the University of St Andrews and studied German and Economics. After graduating he spent three years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1949-51), after which he started acting in theatre; in between acting jobs he was a private teacher. His theatre experiences would lead Tenniel to figure in a number of shows in the West End. His television debut did not come until the late 1950s. Among his first appearances were such works as Elizabeth Dawson's The Ostrich (an ITV ITV Television Playhouse), the Armchair Mystery Theatre entry The Man with a Feather in his Hat, and The Kite, an edition of Somerset Maugham Hour. From the early Sixties he was a cast regular in the popular radio comedy The Navy Lark playing a character called Taffy Goldstein. It was thanks to Tenniel that Jon Pertwee, a fellow 'crewman' in this radio series, was persuaded to audition for the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who.

Tenniel's screen appearances were largely limited to guest appearances in a number of notable television series including The Saint, The Avengers, Doctor Who and Crown Court. He was often cast as doctors, policemen or men in authority. In 1985 he was ordained as a non-stipendiary minister of the Church of England and he retired from stage acting, although he continued to perform in TV programmes until shortly before his death. Later television credits include Inspector Morse, Lovejoy, September Song, Peak Practice, The Bill, Pie in the Sky, Heartbeat, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Casualty and Dalziel and Pascoe. His final screen appearance was in an episode of the romantic comedy series William and Mary in 2004.

In his personal life he was married to actress Evangeline Banks from 1953 until his death; the couple had two children, who both went into the show business: Matthew Evans (b. 1955), who became a TV director, and Serena Evans (b. 1959), who became an actor. Tenniel was a distant relative of novelist George Eliot and illustrator John Tenniel (he was given Tenniel's surname as his middle name at birth). Tenniel died of emphysema in 2009 after a long battle.