Chris Gannon

Character & Episode: Salesman in But What a Sweet Little Room
Born: 08/08/1931, Ireland (as Christopher Gannon)
Died: 19/04/1983, Kensington, London, England

Chris Gannon was an effective supporting actor, active on screen in the main from the early Sixties to the very early Eighties. He trained at the Abbey School of Acting in Dublin in the second half of the 1940s, but most of his professional career was spent in England. He was mainly engaged for television work. He appeared in a number of popular series, including Doctor in the House, The Liver Birds, The Fenn Street Gang and Dad's Army. One of his best remembered roles was as the ill-fated stage manager Casey in the Doctor Who classic The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977). Illness caused his early retirement in 1981 and his last credited screen appearance was in Armchair Thriller, playing a publican in The Chelsea Murders. He died in 1983 at the age of just 51.

John Garvin

Character & Episode: Tully in When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?

John Garvin was a supporting actor whose career spanned five decades from the 1940s to the 1980s. He seems to have made his television debut at a time when he was working as a stage actor with the Glyndebourne Children's Theatre, which staged a production of Androcles and the Lion at the second Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer of 1948. They reperformed this play for BBC Television, with the programme airing on 10th October 1948, during time set aside for young viewers. Fellow Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) actor James Belchamber also appeared in this production.

John also made notable contributions to Adam Adamant Lives! (1967), Doctor Who (as Carney in Fury from the Deep, 1968) and Dixon of Dock Green, for which he played four different roles between 1966 and 1969. He was also a performer and sometimes storyteller on BBC radio. His last credited screen appearance was in the BBC serial The Citadel (1983) which starred Ben Cross in the lead role.

Sue Gerrard

Character & Episode: Susan Kirstner in Murder Ain't What It Used to Be!
Born: 1942, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England

Born in Northampton, Sue Gerrard, settled in Kensington, London, where she worked as a model. She commenced her television career in the mid-1960s, appearing in various programmes, most of which were dedicated to music – one of which was The Music of Lennon & McCartney for Granada Television in 1965. She also appeared in many commercials, but in 1968 decided to expand her television work and go for character roles as an actress. In addition to her part in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), her television appearances included Rogues’ Gallery in 1968, two episodes of Department S (The Perfect Operation and The Mysterious Man in the Flying Machine) the following year, and in the science-fiction series UFO in 1970. Sue also made the transition to the big screen, filming during 1969 for the British comedy film Some Will, Some Won't (released in 1970). Her last screen credits were in two episodes of The Adventurer in 1972, which featured American actor Gene Barry. Sue's subsequent path remains unclear.

Alan Gifford

Character & Episode: Paul Kirstner in Murder Ain't What It Used to be
Born: 11/03/1911, Taunton, Massachusetts, USA (as John Edward Lennox)
Died: 20/03/1989, Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland

The son of a Scot who emigrated to the USA, Alan Gifford was a character actor who made many appearances in stage, radio, films and television. He trained and started as an actor in Massachusetts. He also ran his own music band, but earned his living in the catering business. He then lived in Europe for many years, working as a screen make-up man, establishing a cosmetics business. When the Second World War came, he served with US Army, and was sent on a secret mission to Scotland’s wartime flying-boat base at Stranraer. He was accompanied by a fellow catering expert to prepare the way for the US forces that Roosevelt was about to despatch to Europe. Soon, he went into the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), and remained with them for the remainder of the conflict.

Alan arrived in Australia in 1947 to establish a branch of his cosmetics business. Subsequently he acted there in radio productions and at various theatres, meeting with success as the Sheriff an Australian stage production of Oklahoma, from 1949 to 1950. He made his professional stage debut in Britain in 1951, as the American colonel in The Love of Four Colonels at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End. He went on to act in further British theatrical productions as well as ones on the other side of Atlantic.

His film debut was in The Kangaroo Kid (1950), an Anglo-Australian Western, which starred Jock Mahoney. Then, he figured in uncredited roles in British films of early 1950s, such as No Highway (1951), The Magic Box (1951) and It Started in Paradise (1953). His first film credit came in Lilacs in the Spring (1954) and he would grow to become a well-known and versatile supporting screen actor in the following years. In 1957 he featured in the notable films Time Lock and A King in New York, both shot in the United Kingdom. His role as an air raid warden in The Mouse That Roared (1959), which starred Peter Sellers and Jean Seberg, was one of many screen roles which witnessed Alan being cast as an authority figure. He also made small screen appearances in America in the late 1950s in series such as Perry Mason and Gunsmoke.

In the early 1960s he appeared in such British television series as Danger Man, Interpol Calling and International Detective. He made contributions to The Saint, and was also a regular cast member of the BBC drama serial The Monsters, the cast of which also included Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) actors Clifford Earl, Stuart Hoyle and Philip Madoc. In 1964, he appeared in an episode of the well-remembered American science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits (The Duplicate Man). By the end of the year he was back in the United Kingdom, where he contributed to television and film productions including Danger Man (The Affair at Castelevara), his only Carry On film, Carry On Cowboy, sharing his scenes with Jim Dale and Margaret Nolan, and also the BBC situation comedy Steptoe and Son (Pilgrim's Progress) - all screened in 1965.

During the late Sixties, Alan was seen in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and contributed to The Champions (1968) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), both for ITC. In 1971, he played Senator Gordon Whitney, a recurring character in the American daytime soap opera The Edge of Night. Later, between 1978 and 1980, he had a similar engagement on the British soap Crossroads, in which he appeared as Lloyd Munro. In the following decade he could be seen in the television series Tales of the Unexpected and Nancy Astor, and the films Ragtime (1981) and Who Dares Wins (1982). His last credited screen appearance was in Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984), in which he played a character called John Fairfax in the episode The Sweet Scent of Death.

In his personal life, Alan was married on more than one occasion and was a father. One of his wives was the beautician, Lilla Beatrix Gifford, whom he married first soon after they met at a forces’ party in Sussex during the war years. It was at that time that he dropped his Scottish surname and adopted her family name of Gifford as his stage surname. The marriage ended in divorce but the couple would remarry in 1969 and, six years prior to his death, they settled finally in a home in Scotland.

John Glyn-Jones

Character & Episode: The Chemist in Money to Burn
Born: 28/08/1909, London, England
Died: 21/01/1997, Casablanca, Morocco

A busy character actor, John Glyn-Jones' screen career began just before the Second World War. He was born in London, the son of a Member of Parliament, William Glyn-Jones (1869-1927), and was educated at Bishop’s Stortford College; he later attended Oxford University. It was whilst at Oxford that John joined the local repertory company. As well as going into acting, John would also later produce and direct plays.

His career was interrupted by the war but afterwards John resumed his theatre career and, from 1948 until the mid-Seventies, would chalk up more than a hundred film and television appearances, though many were small supporting roles. Notable film roles included ones in The Adventures of Hal 5 for the Children's Film Foundation (1958), Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) and I'm All Right Jack (1959) which featured Peter Sellers in the lead role.

On television he made contributions to many well known series of the time, most notably The Avengers, The Persuaders!, The Saint and Danger Man. Later, John could be seen at times in regular soaps or dramas – these included Middlemarch (1968), The Pallisers (1974) and Emmerdale Farm (1972-73).

John retired in his mid-sixties and would live to the age of 87, passing away in Morocco.

Michael Goldie

Character & Episode: Gimbal in Who Shot Cock Robin?
Born: 26/02/1932, Edmonton, London, England (as Michael John Goldie)
Died: 17/06/2013, France

Michael Goldie was a reliable supporting actor with well over eighty film and television credits to his name. Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Michael commenced his screen career in the first half of the 1960s, his first television works comprising appearances in such series as Love Story, Z Cars, The Avengers and The Sentimental Agent. He appeared in the film comedy Doctor in Distress during the same year.

Michael figured in numerous television serials including Coronation Street, Doctor Who (in the serials The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Wheel in Space), Wycliffe, Inspector Morse, The Bill and Z Cars. His film credits include Where the Bullets Fly (1966), The Body Stealers (1969), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), The Pied Piper (1972), Lady Jane (1986) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), all of which were minor, supporting roles. His last credit came in 1996 when he played a fisherman in an episode of Wycliffe.

Michael Goodliffe

Character & Episode: Arthur de Crecy in But What a Sweet Little Room
Born: 01/10/1914, Bebington, Cheshire, England (as Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe)
Died: 20/03/1976, Wimbledon, London, England

Born in Cheshire, a parson's son, Michael Goodliffe was educated at St Edmund's School in Canterbury, Kent. He later went to Keble College, Oxford. From here he then entered repertory theatre in Liverpool before moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon. The war interrupted his career and he joined the British Army. He would later be promoted to Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He received a leg wound at Dunkirk during the evacuation and was captured by German forces. He was actually listed as killed in action and his obituary was published in a number of newspapers. However, Michael spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Germany. Whilst held captive, Michael produced, wrote and acted in a number of theatrical productions.

After the war, he resumed his acting career and made his first television appearance in Saint Joan (1946). Michael soon graduated to film and became a regular in a number of features, most notably in the Fifties in such productions as The Wooden Horse, Sea Devils, The Battle of the River Plate and Up The Creek. He was noted for playing doctors, lawyers and army officers. Michael soon became a recognisable and dependable character actor. He remained busy during the Sixties and appeared in many well-known television series such as The Saint, Z Cars and The Avengers. In common with fellow Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) actors Ronald Radd and William Squire, Michael was notable for having portrayed Hunter, the code-named chief of The Section in Callan. He also appeared in such films as Sink The Bismarck!, 633 Squadron and Von Ryan's Express.

As the Seventies approached, Michael focused more on television and is well remembered for his role as Jack Barraclough in the successful Granada Television series Sam which starred Mark McManus. Sadly, Michael suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life and during one such breakdown in 1976, he tragically committed suicide by leaping from a hospital fire escape, while being treated as a patient at the Atkinson Morley Hospital.

In his private life, Michael was married to Canadian-born Dorothy Margaret Tyndale (1919-1991) from November 1945 until his death. They had three sons, Nicholas (born 1948), Jonathan (b. 1950) and Roger (b. 1954).

Howard Goorney

Character & Episode: First Ghost in The Trouble with Women
Born: 11/05/1921, Cheetham, Manchester, England (as Howard Jacob Goorney)
Died: 29/03/2007, Bath, Somerset, England

Born into a Jewish family in Cheetham, Manchester, the son of a textile agent, Howard Goorney was educated at the local high school. He started his professional career in an accountant's office in Altrincham. After a visit to the theatre he decided to dedicate his life's work to acting. The following year he applied to join Joan Littlewood's theatre company and was accepted; he would become one of her stalwart actors for many years.

His early work was almost exclusively for the theatre until he broke through into television on a regular basis in the 1960s, though he had made his television debut earlier than that. His earliest known credit came in 1952 in the BBC's Portrait of Peter Perowne, in which he portrayed Kleinitz. He would eventually appear in more than one hundred television and films, with his final role coming in 2004 in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. He figured in several ITC series, including Danger Man (Are You Going to Be More Permanent?, 1965), The Saint (A Double in Diamonds, 1967), Man in a Suitcase (The Boston Square, 1968) and The Adventurer (Deadlock, 1972). Other notable appearances included The Avengers (1961, 1963), Z Cars (Family Feud, 1962, which was recovered in 2016), Under the Same Sun (between 1978 and 1980) and The Borgias (1981).

In his personal life, Howard was married in 1957 to the actress Stella Riley. The couple had two children, a son, Matthew and a daughter, Alice, and remained together until Howard's death in 2007.

Romo Gorrara

Character & Episode: Reg in Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying? and stunt double
Born: 24/04/1932, Holborn, London, England (as Romo Livio Gorrara)
Died: 04/12/1997, Camden, London, England

Romo Gorrara was a well-known stuntman who had a number of minor roles in films and television programmes. He worked as a stunt performer on such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), two Police Academy films (1986 and 1987) and Batman (1989). His roles generally meant playing heavies in the background, or performing stunt work or doubling for credited actors.

In later years, Romo acted as stunt co-ordinator on many productions, including Charles Crichton's comedy classic A Fish Called Wanda (1988). On television he contributed to such series as Z Cars, The Saint, The Prisoner and many episodes of The Avengers (between 1966 and 1969), though he was usually uncredited. He doubled Sean Connery as James Bond in a fight sequence in You Only Live Twice (1967) and thirty years later he was still performing stunts in the Bond movies, featuring in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) as Elliot Carver's henchman. He passed away shortly after working on this film.

Michael Gothard

Character & Episode: Perrin in When the Spirit Moves You
Born: 24/06/1939, London, England (as Michael Alan Gothard)
Died: 02/12/1992, Hampstead, London, England

Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939. As a small child, he lived in both Wales and London. After leaving Haverstock School, he travelled in France for several months before returning home. He went through various jobs, including being a building labourer and a trainee reporter. He even had a brief spell as a clothes model.

He joined the New Arts Theatre as a scenery mover. At some time, while a student at the London School of Film Technique, he became part of an experimental movie - Australian  director Don Levy cast Michael in his challenging film, Herostratus (1967, filmed 1964/65), which concerned a young man (Gothard) who was driven to commit suicide in public by throwing himself from a tall building. Tragically, both men would later commit suicide themselves. 

After landing the lead role in Levy's film, he was encouraged to take up the profession. He attended evening classes at an actors' workshop whilst holding down a day job. He was involved in some of the first 'lunchtime theatre' productions of the 1960s, in venues ranging from pub cellars to top floor spaces off St Martin's Lane.

Upon the 1967 release of Herostratus, Michael received much critical acclaim, but disappointingly little by way of major work followed in its wake. Consequently, he appeared in both Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Department S in second-string roles, the demands of which were really beneath his ability. His first television roles had come earlier, in 1966, when he had featured in Out of the Unknown's The Machine Stops and a Thirty Minute Theatre play - The Excavation. He then acquired a female following after taking a role as the villainous Mordaunt in the BBC's adaptation of Twenty Years After (Further Adventures of the Musketeers).

Michael had a stand-out role in Ken Russell's controversial 1971 horror film, The Devils, as a fanatic witch-hunter and exorcist who defiles Vanessa Redgrave and tortures Oliver Reed. His performance as a young disillusioned hippie in Barbet Schroeder's La Vallée (1972) contrasted with the rest of his career. He also played a fictionalised version of the 17th century assassin John Felton in Richard Lester's 1973 film of The Three Musketeers and its 1974 sequel, The Four Musketeers.

Michael had a regular role as Kai opposite Oliver Tobias' King Arthur in the ITV Arthur of the Britons series during the early 1970s. He also appeared as the menacing, non-speaking Belgian villain Loque in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only in 1981. His later appearances included supporting roles in Tobe Hooper's 1985 science-fiction horror extravaganza Lifeforce, and as George Lusk in the 1988 TV movie Jack the Ripper, which starred Michael Caine and Lewis Collins.

Michael continued to work in television and film, but the depression which he had suffered from for most of his life became more of an issue. Unfortunately, it was during a bout of melancholia that he committed suicide by hanging on 2nd December 1992. He was living in Hampstead at the time of his death and, despite a string of girlfriends, had remained unmarried. His final role was in David Wickes' 1992 television movie of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which he played alongside Patrick Bergin and Randy Quaid. He was an actor of great versatility, who possessed the intangible ability to draw the camera to him, and his legacy is an impressive one.

An excellent resource about Michael Gothard can be found here: Michael Gothard Archive

Michael Graham

Character & Episode: Anaesthetist in You Can Always Find a Fall Guy

Born: 24/09/1935

A supporting actor who made occasional screen appearances, Michael Graham - a Londoner - had commenced his acting career on the South African stage in 1953. At this point he was going by the name Leonard Graham, although it is unclear whether this was a stage name or his birth name. During this time, he courted controversy in the apartheid regime by performing on stage before an audience of black people, and was arrested (according to a retrospective 1961 report in the British newspaper The Daily Herald). English shipping records show Leonard Graham, an actor with a British Passport, arriving in Southampton from Durban, South Africa, on 11th April 1958.

After arriving in England, in order to continue a career in acting he was required to change his name as there was already an actor in the actor's union Equity with the name Leonard Grahame. To avoid confusion Equity insisted that no two actors working in the United Kingdom did so under identical or phonetically similar names - and therefore when Leonard Graham joined the Derby Repertory Company in 1958, he had magically transformed himself into Michael Graham. He remained with Derby Rep for a couple of years, while also making his first steps into a British screen career.

His career in British television started with an appearance in ITV's Play Of The Week (The Liberty Man, transmitted on 1st October 1958). In 1960 he appeared in Josetta, an episode of Danger Man, playing a character called Ruez. In 1963 he played PC Haywood in three episodes of Z Cars, and later that year had an uncredited role in Carry On Cabby being referred to as "male kisser". Michael mostly appeared in small roles on television in such programmes as Dr Finlay's Casebook, Thursday Theatre (The Young Elizabeth), The Champions (A Case of Lemmings), The Saint (The Convenient Monster and The Persistent Patriots) and Return of the Saint (Dragonseed). After this he made only a few further screen appearances, making his last credited appearance in The Three Gables, the opening episode of The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes in 1994.

Danny Green

Character & Episode: Lord Surrey in Just for the Record
Born: 25/05/1903, London, England
Died: c. 1973

Danny Green, an actor who was often cast as heavies and villains, ran away from home seeking adventure and at 15 went to America, where he spent several years. He sold novelties there, threshed corn on the Canadian prairies, shouted in auction rooms and sailed between New York and Panama as a steward. He began to learn acting in an American stock company and when he returned to his native Britain, he almost immediately commenced his stage career. He featured in many plays over the years and was cast at the behest of Mae West in what he regarded as his first sympathetic role in the stage production Diamond Lil in the late 1940s. Among his other theatrical works were roles in West End productions such as Kiss Me, Kate in 1951, Guys and Dolls in 1953 and Do Re Mi in 1961.

Danny seems to have appeared in a small number of silent films whilst in America. His British screen debut came in the film The Crooked Billet (1929). The role he is best remembered for is as the slow-witted ex-boxer ‘One Round’ Lawson in the Ealing Films classic The Ladykillers (1955), the comedy classic which featured Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom and a tubby Peter Sellers in an early film role.

Despite delivering a memorable performance in this film and remaining busy throughout the remainder of his career, Danny rarely received decent roles to match his talent – many were of the non-speaking variety or minor supporting roles. Notable post-Ladykillers film roles included The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Fast Lady (1962) and The Old Dark House (1963), the one-off collaboration between the masters of British and American horror films of the period, Hammer Films and William Castle.

Danny also contributed to many television series, most of which are now long forgotten, lost, or both. The better remembered series that he figured in include detective series Murder Bag (1958), Dial 999 (1958), Maigret (1963), No Hiding Place (two episodes, 1963) and The Man in Room 17 (1966). He was also no stranger to comedy, appearing in situation comedies and sketch shows that starred the likes of Bernard Bresslaw, Tommy Cooper, Dickie Henderson, Arthur Lowe, Alfred Marks and Harry Worth. Danny made more than one hundred film and television appearances during a long career.

Earl Green

Character & Episode: Ramon Crackan in It's Supposed to be Thicker Than Water

Earl Green was a bit-part actor who worked only occasionally in television and feature films and amassed more than twenty screen credits in his career. On the big screen, he featured in films such as The Moonraker and I Only Arsked! (both in 1958), while on television he appeared in series including Z Cars (1962), Ghost Squad (1963) and The Saint (1966). His later television works included The Regiment (1972), Six Days of Justice (1973) and Churchill's People in 1975. He also participated in the theatre work during his career.

Keith Grenville

Character & Episode: PC Russell in The Trouble with Women

Born: 1936, Middesex, England (as John Keith Bonugli)

Keith Grenville's screen career began in his native England. Among his first television roles was a run of three appearances as a croupier at the turn of 1965-66 in the hospital drama series Emergency Ward 10. Other highlights include the situation comedy George and the Dragon with Sid James and Peggy Mount, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's UFO and the well-remembered children's time travel adventure series Timeslip.

In late 1970 he was invited to play Leontes in The Winter's Tale at the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa, and this led to work with the Natal Performing Arts Council. He then returned to the United Kingdom, but a joint invitation from NAPAC and Maynardville drew him back to South Africa, where he settled in Cape Town. There, he acted and directed at The Space Theatre in the 1970s, has been a Consultant Director at the Baxter Theatre and worked for the Cape Performing Arts Board, the Natal Performing Arts Council and the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal for many years. He also made a number of film and television appearances in South Africa. Keith received numerous awards over the years, including the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award as Best Leading Actor (1978) and Best Director (1999) and a Vita awards for his direction of Gulls (1987). His voice was heard frequently in radio and television commercials, audio-visual presentations and sound-tracks and he has received several awards as a voice artiste. He retired from acting in the early 2000s and continued his successful career as a compére and tour guide in Egypt. He has also lectured in Egyptology.

Michael Griffiths

Character & Episodes: Inspector Nelson in
That's How Murder Snowballs and A Disturbing Case
Born: Cardiff, Wales (possibly as John Michael Griffiths)

Michael Griffiths made the first of his two appearances as Inspector Nelson in That's How Murder Snowballs (the other being in A Disturbing Case). The character, less acerbic than Ivor Dean's Inspector Large, still displays a contempt for Randall's methods, but once on board with the private detective's investigation, he is a supportive foil. Griffiths was again directed by Paul Dickson shortly after filming That's How Murder Snowballs in the Department S episode The Bones of Byrom Blain - he would play another policeman, Superintendent Collins.

Michael's original interest was in music rather than drama, and during his National Service with the Royal Air Force acted as Deputy Bandmaster for the RAF Police Band. On returning to civilian life in the early 1950s, Michael won a major scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, subsequently deciding to make the theatre his career. His first professional engagement was with the Mermaid Theatre on the Royal Exchange in 1953. Subsequently, he played a season at the Bristol Old Vic, where his roles included Mercutio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He also appeared at the Mermaid Theatre in their modern dress production of Henry V, in which he played the Dauphin, and in Galileo as the Pope.

His earliest known screen credit was in 1958, in the serialisation of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Notable appearances followed, including roles in No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green, Softly Softly and its follow up Softly Softly: Task Force (1971), and The Professionals (1980). In recent years, Michael has become a sought after voice artiste and is also a highly skilled trombone player. He was married from 1961 until 1985 to the actress Annette Crosbie, most famous for her role alongside Richard Wilson in the BBC situation comedy One Foot in the Grave. The couple have two children, Owen who is a sound engineer, and actress Selina Griffiths (1969-), who plays Pauline in the comedy series Benidorm. To date, his last screen appearance was in the film short First Press in 2011.

Michael Gwynn

Character & Episodes: Hyde Watson in The Man from Nowhere
Born: 30/11/1916, Bath, Somerset, England (as Michael Denys Gwynn)

Died: 29/01/1976, London, England

Michael Gwynn was a tall (6ft 4ins), craggy-faced character actor who made more than one hundred film and television appearances in his career. Growing up, Michael went to Mayfield College in Sussex, and later studied at the London School of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1938, at which point he began appearing in theatre. During the war he served in the King’s African Rifles. He appears to have made his TV debut at the age of 35 as Sandy Arbuthnot in The Three Hostages (1952), a BBC serialisation of John Buchan's fourth Hannay novel, with Patrick Barr starring in the lead role of Richard Hannay. The six-part serial was performed and transmitted live and was not recorded for posterity.

For the rest of his career, Michael mixed theatre with radio, TV and film roles. His most notable film roles include playing Bernard in science-fiction classic Village of the Damned (1960, based on John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos) with George Sanders in the lead role. Michael also gave a good performance in the Ray Harryhausen classic Jason and the Argonauts in 1963, playing the priest Hermes. He also appeared in several Hammer films, including the controversial and bloodthirsty war film The Camp on Blood Island (1958) and Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960), a rare straight drama film for the studio. Michael also appeared in one of Hammer's very best horror movies, The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), in which he played a tragic experimental subject who turns into a cannibalistic killer. He was later to return to Hammer to appear in the much less well-regarded Scars of Dracula (1970), in which he portrayed an ill-fated village priest determined to battle Count Dracula.

Perhaps the most famous role that Michael is remembered for was in A Touch of Class, the first episode of the highly-acclaimed BBC comedy Fawlty Towers (1975), as the conman 'Lord' Melbury. Gwynn's character preys on, robs and humiliates the hotelier Basil Fawlty, who is keen to ingratiate himself and his hotel with the aristocracy. Of course, Melbury is not what he seems and is eventually captured by the police.

Michael was a busy stage actor and also appeared in several adaptations of plays on the Caedmon Records label. Among them were Cyrano de Bergerac, in which he played Le Bret, and Julius Caesar, in which he played Casca. Both productions starred Ralph Richardson in the title roles.

Michael was married in 1940 and remained so until his death in 1976, which was the result of an unexpected heart attack.