John Walker

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

John Walker was a supporting actor who occasionally appeared on screen. His most high profile role was arguably that of Private West in the BBC science-fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958-59). Other television appearances followed in The Big Pull, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Adam Adamant Lives! and in the comedy series George and the Dragon which starred Sid James, Peggy Mount and John Le Mesurier. John's role as the mechanic in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is his last known screen credit.

Gary Watson

Character & Episode: Donald Seaton in The Smile Behind the Veil
Born: 13/06/1930, Shifnal, Shropshire, England (as Garrowby Cawthorne Watson)

Well educated, Gary Watson graduated from Cambridge University in the Fifties and taught English at Westminster City School. He was very popular with the pupils and, besides acting, directed some memorable school plays such as Treasure Island, which starred a young Ken Phillips as Doctor Trelawny. Gary made his television debut in an Associated-Rediffusion Play of the Week called The Last Enemy (transmitted live on 10th October 1956).

Gary spent the next several years learning his trade, almost entirely on radio and the stage. In 1957, he made his West End debut at the Phoenix Theatre in Camino Real, directed by Peter Hall with whom he had worked whilst at Cambridge. It was in 1961 that Gary began to make his first regular steps into television in such series as The Avengers. Later, he played Aramis in the BBC serial adaptation of The Three Musketeers (1966-67). The cast also included Brian Blessed and Jeremy Brett. Gary also made contributions to The Baron, The Saint and Doctor Who during this period of his career. In 1970, he starred in the Thames Television adaptation of Macbeth playing Macduff. In 1972 and 1973 he appeared alongside Anthony Hopkins in the sprawling BBC serialisation of Tolstoy's War and Peace. His final screen appearance would come in 1988, in Hannay.

Gary was also much employed as a reader and narrator in radio productions throughout his career, worked on British Transport Films, featured in dozens of commercials in the 1980s and 1990s, with his appearances in advertisements for Lloyds Bank and Nescafe coffee being well remembered.

In his personal life, he was married to Elsje Jacobsson (1940- ).

Kenneth Watson

Character & Episode: Police Sergeant in Just for the Record
Born: 16/11/1931, Lonon, England (as Kenneth Murray Watson)
Died: 21/07/1998, London, England

Kenneth Watson found his métier when his English master persuaded him to join the school's Shakespeare society. Subsequently, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and, following his graduation in 1953, began his professional career by working in repertory theatres.

In his acting career, Kenneth made well over one hundred and fifty screen appearances. In some productions, including Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), he was credited as Ken Watson, though for most of his career he worked as Kenneth Watson. He contributed to several notable programmes, starting with the BBC children's adventure serial Kidnapped in 1956. The production was in fact a remake of an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel which had previously been made by the BBC in 1952. In 1960, Kenneth was a regular cast member in two ATV Sunday afternoon serials which are now largely forgotten: Formula for Danger and Mill of Secrets. Other, more well-known, series that he would regularly contribute to included Emergency Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, Crown Court, Emmerdale and Coronation Street. He also guested in series such as Doctor Who (The Wheel in Space, 1968), Timeslip (The Wrong End of Time, 1970), The Protectors (The Bodyguards, 1972) and The New Avengers (K is for Kill, 1977). His last regular screen role was as Brian Blair in the Scottish Television soap opera Take the High Road.

Kenneth's big screen work was limited to a small number of productions, not all of which were credited roles. He was, however, credited for his work on the second Doctor Who spin-off film, Daleks' - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), playing Craddock, a Dalek slave, and Sky Pirates (1977), for the Children's Film Foundation, in which he appeared as a police sergeant.

In his personal life, Kenneth was married to Joan Foxall. The couple had two children, Jamie and Katy. Sadly, Kenneth died of pancreatic cancer in 1998 aged 67.

David Webb

Character & Episode: Police Sergeant in Who Killed Cock Robin?
Born: 06/03/1931, Luton, Bedfordshire, England (as David Alec Webb)
Died: 30/06/2012, Clapham, London, England

Once a familiar screen face, David Webb was a busy actor, chalking up more than one hundred film and television credits during his career. He attended Luton Grammar School, where he acted in school plays and rose to become Head Boy before he left in 1950. Soon after, he served his National Service as an instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps, and returned to civilian life in 1952. In the same year, he went to study at RADA, from which he graduated in 1954, though in later years he expressed regret at having attended a drama school: "The sad thing is," he told The Hull Times in 1971, "I had already been given the opportunity to go into rep straight away, but I said, 'Oh, no I have got to get some training.' But when a director asks you what you've been doing, what good is a diploma, really?" His first professional acting job was with the York Repertory Company and this led to him later joining other such companies, including ones in Scarborough, Richmond and Bromley.

Gradually, he came to notice and began to be cast in supporting roles on television by the 1950s, and featured as Private Wilson in Yesterday's Enemy, a hard-hitting and well-received 1958 BBC play concerning British war crimes in Burma during the Second World War, which was remade for the cinema by Hammer Films a year later. David contributed to many well-known series including The Avengers (The Springers, 1961), Coronation Street, Doctor Who (Colony in Space, 1971), The New Avengers (Faces, 1976) and Tales of the Unexpected.

David also became an ardent opponent of censorship: in 1976 he helped found the National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Act (NCROPA) and would for the rest of his life campaign in support of this cause. In 1983 he stood against the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at her seat in Finchley in the General Election. His work led him to make many television and radio appearances regarding phone-ins and debates. He often contributed articles to magazines and periodicals and was at one time a member of the governing Council of the British Actors' Equity Association. His hobbies included painting and classical organ music. David died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer.

Timothy West

Character & Episode: Sam Grimes in Vendetta for a Dead Man
Born: 20/10/1934, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (as Timothy Lancaster West)

Timothy West has for more than sixty years been an acclaimed and versatile British character actor who had made well over one hundred screen appearances in addition to his long and successful career in the theatre. He was born into an acting family – his father Harry Lockwood West (1905-89) was a well-known actor who worked as Lockwood West for many years – and was educated at The John Lyon School, a boys' independent school in Harrow on the Hill, London, and Bristol Grammar School in Bristol, where he was a classmate of Julian Glover and Dave Prowse, who have both appeared in Star Wars films, and at the Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster).

After completing National Service in 1954, Timothy took a job as an office furniture salesman in Holborn, London. Then, until 1956, he was a quality control engineer in the new recorded tapes department at EMI in Hayes, Middlesex. He had by then joined several amateur dramatic societies. Timothy’s professional stage career started as an assistant stage manager and actor at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and he followed this with several seasons in repertory theatre. He acted at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1959 and was with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965 at Stratford, where he appeared in Love's Labour's Lost, The Jew of Malta, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors and Timon of Athens. He was also cast in Peter Hall's outstanding production of The Government Inspector at the Aldwych Theatre with Paul Scofield, and Eric Porter.

Having spent years as a familiar face who never quite became a household name, his big chance came with the major television series, Edward the Seventh (1975), in which he played the title role and his real-life sons, Samuel and Joseph, played the King's children. Other major roles have included parts in the feature films Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), Masada (1981) and Cry Freedom (1987).

In a lighter vein, Timothy starred as patriarch Bradley Hardacre in Granada TV's satirical Northern super-soap Brass throughout three seasons (1983–1990), and made a memorable appearance as the manic and aptly-named Professor Furie in A Very Peculiar Practice in 1986. From 2001-2003, he played the grumpy and frequently volatile Andrew in the BBC drama series Bedtime, with Sheila Hancock playing his long-suffering wife, Alice. At Christmas 2007, he joined the cast of sitcom Not Going Out as recurring character Geoffrey Adams, the father of two central characters. He has since reprised this role in further two episodes.

Timothy has also been a prolific performer in radio productions and was for some time a member of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company. His voice is also familiar to those who have listened to the many audiobooks that he has recorded over the years. However, his work in the performing arts and beyond has not been limited to acting. He was artistic director of the Forum Theatre, Billingham, in 1973, and co-artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre from 1980–81, was president of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and is president of the Society for Theatre Research, a supporter of the charity Cancer Research UK, and is also an Ambassador of SOS Children's Villages, an international orphan charity providing homes and mothers for orphaned and abandoned children. He currently supports the charity's annual World Orphan Week campaign which takes place each year in February.

In his personal life, Timothy was first married to actress Jacqueline Boyer from 1956 to 1961 and they had a daughter, Juliet. He married again in 1963 to Prunella Scales (1932-), an actress who will always be remembered for her role as Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the classic comedy written by John Cleese and Connie Booth. Timothy and Prunella have each been awarded a CBE – Timothy's being awarded in 1984 and Prunella's in 1992. Their son, Samuel West (1966-), is also a successful actor, and the couple also have another son, Joseph, and a daughter, Juliet. When in her 70s, Prunella was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and the couple have been very much in the public eye during her illness, fronting a popular Channel 4 television show about their love of canal boat excursions, Great Canal Journeys (2014-2019). Both Timothy and Prunella are keen narrowboaters and both spoke frankly about her dementia during the series, which has been praised by Alzheimer’s Research UK. He has also written several books, including his autobiography, A Moment Towards the End of the Play (Nick Hern Books, 2001).

Bill Westley, Sr.

Character & Episode: Police Driver in A Sentimental Journey and The Man from Nowhere

Bill Westley Sr., the uncle of assistant director Bill Westley (1939-), worked as an extra in film and television and never received an on-screen credit for his work. He often played policemen and was called upon many times to appear in ITC productions. His most prolific period working as an extra was between 1963 and 1967 when Bill made a large number of background appearances in The Saint and Gideon's Way.

Philip Weston

Character & Episode: Constable Johnson in Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?

Besides his role in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), it is known that Philip Weston also appeared in Doctor Who (two separate characters in The Sea Devils, 1972), Doctor in Charge (2 episodes, also 1972) and Get Some In! (as a RAF Regiment member in the episode commonly known as 'Field Exercise', 1976). He almost certainly appeared as an extra in other productions, but these have yet to be identified.

Les White

Character & Episode: Hales in A Disturbing Case
Born: 1934, Surrey, England (as Leslie Philip David White)
Died: 20/07/2009, Hove, East Sussex, England

Les White had been a boxer, a paratrooper and a steeplejack before becoming involved in professional stunt work. To prepare himself for the rigours of his new profession he embarked on a training programme which included fencing, diving, gymnastics, pro-wrestling and archery classes. As a stuntman he worked on major feature films such as Where Eagles Dare (1968), Superman III (1983) and Batman (1989). He also performed stunts in James Bond films including The Living Daylights (1987), on which he stunt doubled for actor Joe Don Baker.

Les very nearly lost his life on the morning of 13th June 1966, when he was driving in London's West End and had a serious car crash. After being cut from the tangled wreckage he was rushed to St. George's Hospital where his chances of survival were judged to be two to one against. Defeating the odds, not only was Les out of hospital within a week, but two days after his discharge he was also performing stunt work on a new film!

Outside of his stunt work, Les appeared on screen as an extra and an actor. On the big screen he was seen in films such as Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) for Hammer Films, The Deadly Affair (1967) and the Sherlock Holmes spoof Without a Clue (1988). He also featured as a horse rider in Carry On Cowboy (1965). On television, he made contributions to series such as H.G. Wells' Invisible Man (1959), The Baron (1967), The Avengers (1968), The Saint (1969) and Space: 1999 (1977). His last credit as an actor came in 1991 when he played a pirate in episode of the television series Zorro.

In his personal life, he was married to Jean Carreras and had a daughter, Natalie.

Frank Windsor

Character & Episode: John Sorrensen in My Late, Lamented Friend and Partner
Born: 12/07/1928, Walsall, England (as Frank Windsor Higgins)
Died: 30/09/2020, London, England

Born and bred in Walsall, Frank Windsor attended the local Queen Mary's Grammar School. After military service with the RAF, he trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He left in 1952 to assist fellow students and a number of friends from Oxford and Cambridge in the formation of The Oxford and Cambridge Players (which was soon renamed The Elizabethan Theatre Company), which was set up with the idea of taking William Shakespeare's works on tour to small towns and villages in Britain where the Bard's plays were rarely seen. In addition to these places and Oxford and Cambridge, the company also notably appeared in Cheltenham and at the Edinburgh Festival. During the following two years, Frank played in numerous stage productions with the Players before joining the Manchester Library Theatre and then the Oxford Playhouse, both in the mid-1950s. In 1957 he joined the BBC Drama Repertory Company.

Frank began his career on radio soon after the Second World War and made his television debut in 1953 in a televised Elizabethan Theatre Company stage production of Shakespeare's King Henry V. His first in-studio television play followed two years later, when he played The Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria in The Masque of Kings, written by Maxwell Anderson, and broadcast live by the BBC on Sunday 19th June 1955.

His most famous role was as John Watt in Z Cars from 1962 to 1965, and thereafter its spin-off Softly, Softly (later Softly, Softly Task Force) from 1966 to 1976. He returned to the parent series Z Cars for its final episode in 1978. He was the subject of the biographical TV series This Is Your Life in 1975. He has also had regular roles in the BBC drama Casualty, the ITV drama Peak Practice and he played Major Charlie Grace in EastEnders (1992). He featured in two 1980s Doctor Who stories - The King's Demons and Ghost Light. In his personal life, he married Mary Corbett (1931-), a dancer. They had two children, Amanda (born in 1961) and David (1968-1997, who tragically died in car crash). Frank died at his home in London in September 2020 at the grand old age of 92.

Fred Wood

Character & Episode: Second Man at Séance in The Trouble with Women
Born: 26/10/1921, Rotherhithe, London, England (as Frederick Thomas Wood)

Died: 25/01/2003, Lewisham, London, England

Fred Wood was a minor supporting actor who started his career just before the Second World War and appeared in a huge number of film and television productions, mainly as a walk-on extra. His film appearances notably include From Russia With Love (1963, as a gipsy), Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), Oliver! (1968), Dad's Army (1971) and Star Wars (1977, as a 'local ugly' in the cantina).  On television, he made cameos in such series as Danger Man, The Saint, The Baron and The Sweeney. Fred worked at many of the major British film studios such as Bray, Denham, Ealing, Elstree and Pinewood, and with several legendary directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and George Lucas.

In his personal life, Fred was married. His wife Joan also appeared in films and TV as an extra, sometimes appearing in scenes with her husband, and the couple had two children, son Michael and daughter Sandra. In film and TV industry, Fred was better known as Fred Woods, even though he was credited as Fred Wood in the television series Gone to Seed. His colleagues nicknamed him "The Face".

Betty Woolfe

Character & Episode: Martha in But What a Sweet Little Room
Born: 02/11/1901, Lambeth, London, England (as Bertha Helen Sparks)
Died: 08/02/1982, Denville Hall, Northwood, London, England

Londoner Betty Woolfe turned to screen acting late in life, seemingly not making her debut until the early 1950s. Consequently, most of the characters that she played were of the late middle-age and elderly variety, usually in supporting roles. She was also for a time manageress of the old Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Her main credits were in series such as Weavers Green, Crossroads and Jumbo Spencer. She did not marry until she was 58 in 1960, and sadly her new husband Francis Woolfe, who acted under stage name Frank Woolfe, passed away just two years later. In common with her But What a Sweet Little Room colleagues Frances Bennett and Doris Hare, she died at the actors' residential care home, Denville Hall.

Katya Wyeth

Character & Episode: Miss Budapest in Just for the Record
Born: 01/01/1948, Rochford, Essex, England (as Catherine S. Wyeth)

Born the daughter of an English solicitor, Rex Wyeth (1914-1978), and German mother who was a ballerina, Katya Wyeth would later claim to a journalist that there was also Polish and Russian blood in her family line. She received her education in Essex, England and Hamburg, West Germany. Inspired by her mother, Katya’s first stage engagement was as a dancer at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. However, when her height (5' 9") proved to be a problem, she instead turned to modelling, and then started to concentrate on acting. She spent several years in repertory theatre, playing with the National Youth Theatre, and later featured in productions including Dear Charles (in the late 1960s) and Rebelais at London’s Round House (in 1971). She also worked for a time as an assistant stage manager and understudy and acted in a German film and on German television.

Katya's British screen career properly commenced in the late 1960s, although she had been seen on BBC Television in 1964 in a play televised from the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon, a modern-dress adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. At this time, she was working as Katherina Wyeth. By the late 1960s, she was being credited as Kathja Wyeth, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) marked one of the last times that she was credited in this way. She settled on Katya Wyeth later in 1969 and employed this stage name for the rest of her acting career. On television, she made contributions to series such as The Avengers (1969), Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969), The Goodies (1970 and 1971), The Sweeney (1976) and Space: 1999 (1977). She was also hostess of the game show The Sky's the Limit (from 1971 to 1972), which was presented by Hughie Green.

Katya’s feature film contributions include the horror films Hands of the Ripper (1971), Twins of Evil (1971), which featured Peter Cushing and the Collinson twins, and Burke and Hare (1972). Her role in Stanley Kubrick's legendary A Clockwork Orange (1971) witnessed her rollicking with Alex (Malcolm MacDowell) in the 'Ascot fantasy' sequence that closes the film. As the 1970s progressed and the British Film Industry fell into a decline, many projects on offer to British-based actors were lowest-common-denominator exploitation films, and Katya was featured in two of them, the sex-comedies Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974) and I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1976). Her last screen credit was in the film No. 1 of the Secret Service (1977), a tepid James Bond spoof which was directed by Lindsay Shonteff and inexplicably led to two sequel films.

In her personal life, Katya was married to actor Michael Bangerter (1936-2016) from 1971 until his death. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter.