My favourite seventies male sitcom stars and drama actors / TV and film

Growing up, I have really enjoyed discovering so many older actors and actresses who have existed way before my time and some of them are sadly no longer with us. Ones who have starred in British sitcoms and comedies to TV drama series and so on. I love particularly actors from the seventies, I watch so many old TV shows from the seventies such as Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Doctor in the house, Doctor at large and Doctor in charge, Bless this house, Please Sir, Step toe and son, Citizen Smith, Mind your language, Rising damp, porridge and so many more. This is just one for male actors and sitcom stars but I will be doing a separate post for all my favourite actresses from the seventies at some point, because there are so many actresses and female stars from the seventies that I also really love.

One actor I would like to start off with is Robert Powell. If you don’t know who he is, basically he was an actor who rose to fame in the seventies but he’s also quite famous and he did so much stuff throughout the years. I discovered him through Thriller which is a seventies anthology horror TV series that I am obsessed with. He was in two episodes, he was in Lady Killer and Death To Sister Mary. Lady Killer is one of my absolute favourite episodes of the entire series, I love it so much. When you find out what this guy is up to, what his plan is, it’s a fantastic bit of television. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but there’s this scene where his old mate turns up and he wants some of the money after Robert’s character finds out his wife is rich and he’s just being an absolute parasite. There’s the scene where they’re in the living room, he finds the glass lid on his bottle of scotch and he puts it in this sock and his friend makes a very absurd joke and they start laughing. Robert’s character turns psycho and he wacks him one with his sock and he kills him and even after he kills him, he still carries on laughing. Then his wife is reading in bed upstairs wondering why she could only hear his voice and not the other guy. It’s so terrifying and creepy but I love it, lord knows how many times I’ve re winded that part, I must have crashed my TV because of it, I don’t know, I just love that so much, it always gives me goosebumps that scene. He was incredible in that scene, it’s a master class in acting, it shows you what this man is capable of. A great episode of Thriller, one of the best, I always go back to it.

Death To Sister Mary is also really amazing. In Death to Sister Mary, it was about this girl she’s an actress who plays a nun in this serial and she’s been stalked by this mad psychotic fan and the cast and the team who are all involved in the making of the show all end up in near fatal accidents all because of this one man, I love that one so much, I was hooked from beginning to end. You also get to see a very young Derek Fowlds who I know from Yes Minister which is another show I really love. He plays Bernard, I loved Bernard, I love his explanations. Those two are some of my favourites along with loads of other favourite episodes of the show. Very creepy and spine tingling but very enjoyable and exciting, one of my favourite TV shows, I class them as short horror films, they’re brilliant. Me and my family, we put one on every single night, we love this programme.

I just love Robert Powell, there’s just something about him that I love so much, I really don’t know why, one of the reasons being he’s such a terrific actor, he’s so versatile in his roles, he’s so cute and handsome, I fan girl over him every single day even though he’s older now but still, he’s so handsome. I love seeing him act, he’s so enchanting and I love his work. He was also in a TV series called The Detectives that came out in the nineties which is another brilliant show. So I discovered him mostly through Thriller but he’s also in some really great films too, like The 39 steps which he’s in that I really really love, it’s one of my favourite films. Not the Alfred Hitchcock one but the other version that came out in the late seventies. It’s actually quite funny because they did quite a few versions of this film but this one was just my absolute favourite. Everything about that film I love and he was amazing in that. It’s just an innocent man on the run kind of film and I love it so much, I just fell in love with it when I watched it for the first time and I’m thinking of going back and re watching it at some point. Another great film he was in was The Four Feathers which came out the same year and it’s a remake of the fifties classic. I haven’t seen the original but I really loved this version. I might check out the original some time in the future. He was amazing in that, it’s a great war film and he made me cry in it, so yeah, it was fantastic.

The film is about this guy who’s in the regiment. Ever since he was young, he had an overbearing father who’s also in the regiment and he was persistent that he did it too. A few years on from now, he’s planning to retire from the regiment because he just got engaged to this woman and he wants to retire just so they could be together. When he gets sent these telegrams ordering him to go to Egypt to fight in the war, he rejects and he burns the telegrams in the fire. When he is found out, he gets sent these white feathers which in those days was a symbol of cowardice just because he wanted to retire and he went out to Egypt to redeem himself. I don’t say anymore then that because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but it is an amazing film. It’s stuck with me for a while now. Robert Powell is amazing in that film.

He’s also in Asylum, which came out in 1972 and it’s a port monto horror film, kind of like the hammer house of horror films. I loved it so much and I remember me and my dad sat down one Halloween night and we watched it together and it was so good.

Robert Powell is just amazing, I love him so much. I love discovering stuff that he’s in. I definitely recommend you check him out if you love classic TV and film from the seventies.

Another actor I love from the seventies is Robin Nedwell He’s starred in a couple of sitcoms and comedies from the seventies. I know him from the doctor series, mostly Doctor in the house and Doctor in charge, but he was also in the Up chat line and the up chat connection, The Shillingbury Tales which I also really loved. Great programmes but I would love to start off with Doctor in the house. Mostly how I discovered him and since then I really loved him and the characters he portrayed on the telly.

Doctor in the house was a British sitcom, comedy series that came out in the late sixties, to the early seventies about a bunch of medical students and it just follows the messing around, chasing girls and doing a bunch of wacky stuff whilst training to become doctors. It’s so politically incorrect and it’s very nudge, nudge, wink wink humour and most of it wouldn’t go down well today but it is an amazing TV show, it’s so funny, I love all the doctors and I love the scenarios and situations they find themselves in. It’s absolutely hilarious and when I discovered this show, I was obsessed with it and it just instantly became one of my favourite shows. My dad used to love this when he was about my age even younger and now I love it so it’s kind of like a pass it on to the new generation kind of thing.

It’s like my favourite show, I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of favourite TV shows as well as films and it’s definitely up there on my list of favourites. Ever since I watched this show, I’ve just loved him and he was one of my favourite characters in the show.

I just really love him, there is something about him, the way he just eases into a role he was portraying on screen and it felt so natural. I love the doctor shows, I had a little crush on him when he was in Dr in the house, I just loved him so much he was so funny in that show, Dr in  charge, he was amazing in that too. His character Dr Duncan Waring was a real force of nature. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know what I mean. Barry Evans who played Michael Upton was calm, refined and then when he left to go and star in Mind Your Language, along came Duncan and he was more like a bull in a China shop kind of character but it worked and he will always be iconic .

He’s always been one of my favourite sitcom stars of the seventies, discovering him through Dr in the house, Doctor in Charge and then seeing him in the Shillingbury tales later on which is another brilliant series, that only ran on for six episodes. I love his work. Unfortunately he passed away quite young and he died of a heart attack in his doctor’s surgery which is so upsetting to me because he was known for playing the role of a doctor in the doctor shows and it’s a waste of talent. But he was incredible and he’ll always be remembered as a brilliant comedic actor in the history of classic British television. There’s him and pretty much any one of the doctors on the show, I love them all. Barry Evans, who’s sadly no longer with us, George Layton, Geoffrey Davies, all of them are amazing and they made the show so enjoyable and fun to watch and they gave us some hilarious and iconic moments and quotes and I’ll continue to watch the shows and cherish them forever. It’ll always be one of my favourites and I’m proud of it. There’s an episode of Give Us A Clue that he was on, I’ll put the link down below. And there’s also a funny clip from The Doctor In Charge series too that I’ll put below so you can watch both. I’m sorry if the quality is really bad, it was the only one I could find.

Another actor I love is Richard O Sullivan. He’s starred in loads of British sitcoms and comedy films like Man About The House, Robin’s Nest, Dr at large and Dr in Charge and loads more.

He was in a few films, mostly old films from the fifties and the sixties, such as Every day’s a holiday which I mentioned in my Joe Meek post, he was in this other old film called Spare the rod which is a film set in this school where this teacher, played by Max Bygraves comes to this school and he’s got different methods of discipline but the school system has other ways. Another great film, one of my favourites. Richard played one of the students and yeah he was great in it. Another film he was in that I love is No time for tears which is a film that came out in the fifties. It follows the lives of the doctors and nurses working in a busy children’s hospital and I loved that film so much, he was one of the little kids on the ward. Great movie and it was very touching, just a very lovely film that I discovered on, talking pictures. He was also in Carry on Teacher which is another one of my favourite Carry on, films, so funny. I recommend all four of these films if you like Richard O Sullivan’s work.

I just love him. Man about the house is a great TV show, it was a very brave idea back in the early seventies because people weren’t so used to seeing a man share a flat with two women. You also had people like Mary White house critiquing everything left right and centre. But it was a success and I’m so glad it was because it’s brilliant. Highly enjoyable classic TV, I still go back and watch a few episodes, great classic comedy from a bygone era, very seventies. He was also in the spin off series Robin’s Nest with Tessa Whyatt which I also really love. It’s great comfort TV, very cosy and I used to watch this a lot with my mum and dad when there’s nothing on and we still do from time to time. Absolutely brilliant. I recommend you to check him out, his work is incredible and he was so chilled out as an actor, his on screen presence was amazing. It’s so sad seeing all these actors and stars getting old because we loved them so much when they were young. You know, back in the day, people got far because they were talented, not like now, where people are successful because of how they look. All these stars and icons were famous and successful for a reason, that being because they’re actually talented and good at what they do. I just love seeing them at work, it’s wonderful to see. He was also on an episode of This Is Your Life that I really enjoyed watching because you get to see his personality and his charm, he seems like such a lovely person. I’ll put a link below

 

 

Another actor I love is Richard Beckinsale. Richard Beckinsale was a young actor in the seventies who was known for starring in TV shows like Porridge which I love, I’m an avid fan of Porridge, I love this show and for other shows like Rising Damp, The Lovers and the follow up to Porridge which is called Going Straight. These four shows I absolutely love. The golden age of British comedy for sure, absolute gems. He was just an incredible and a massive talent, it’s such a shame he died so young and it was so sudden and such a shock to the nation. No one deserves to die that young, it’s too young, thirty’s too young. He had so much more to give and I can’t help but wonder what he would be up to, what projects he would be working on if he was still around today. A great loss to us all, it’s so sad. He was a massive talent and he had a beautiful smile and a heart of gold and he’ll always be remembered in British television history, he was a star. Rising Damp, Porridge are just the best, you can’t get any better than that. Absolute comedy geniuses at work. Playing the role of Lenny Godber alongside Ronnie Barker, two absolute legends and they were a dynamic duo put together and their comedy just bounced off of each other. Both are sadly no longer with us, the same with Richard and the legendary Leonard Rossiter, both are sadly no longer with us but they’ll always be remembered and celebrated through watching and enjoying these masterpieces of television. So please, to show some love, go and check out Richard’s work, you won’t be disappointed. He also appeared on This Is Your Life in the seventies, the show where they invite famous actors and stars onto the show and they get people who were close to them to talk about them and stories from growing up, it is amazing. I’ll put the link down below if anyone’s interested.

 

Moving on, another actor I love is Christopher Beeny. Christopher Beeny was known for starring in quite a few programmes but I mostly know him from the TV series Upstairs Downstairs. He played the very cheeky butler Edward. Loved Edward, he was just a very cheeky chap, he was such a character and he made every scene funny in his own unique way. I discovered Christopher through Upstairs Downstairs and it’s encouraged me to check out some of his other work. A very brilliant actor, he was one of my favourite characters in the show and it was hilarious to see his interactions with all the servants and house maids. Incredible series, one of my favourites and I got my family into it. My dad used to hate it when he was younger, the minute it came on, he used to go ” Turn that shit off” but I finally managed to convince him to sit and watch it with me and now he can’t seem to shut up about it. I guess this is just a great example of how your tastes in certain things change when you get older. We have to watch it all at least once a year. The same with my big brother, he usually hates stuff like this, it’s not really his cup of tea but now he watches it was every single night and he can’t wait for the next episode to come on. We’ve decided to go back to the very beginning and watch it all over again starting from the very first episode at some point. Brilliant TV series and I’ve never stopped being obsessed with it. Everyone in the show is just so incredible and they’ve given us some beloved characters we all know and love and some fantastic telly. Because that’s what it is, fantastic telly and it’s inspired me to carry on with my writing. So please, if you’ve not seen it, go and watch it, because it’s amazing and to be honest, this is coming from a girl who’s not a fan of period dramas, I usually don’t like them but this, I love and I really enjoyed it. Terrific writing, great acting, amazing stories and they all just felt one big family and it’s like you’re growing up with them, just amazing. So, that’s Upstairs Downstairs.

 

Another favourite actor is John Alderton. He was known for starring in loads of TV programmes and other things such as Please Sir, Tales of the unexpected, No honestly, Upstairs Downstairs, The up chat line, Forever Green and so on. The Up chat line and the up chat connection are both fantastic and I’ve re, watched both of them over and over again. So good, it kind of gives me Billy Liar vibes which is another one of my favourite films from the sixties. The Up chat connection is good also even though John’s not in it, Robin Ned well takes on the role instead and it’s still really good. Both deserve a watch nonetheless if you like classic British telly. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone and I want you guys to figure it out for yourselves, but yeah, brilliant stuff.

He was also in two episodes of Tales of the unexpected, another show I love right next to Thriller. Every night would not be complete without an episode of Tales of the unexpected. I would watch an episode of this show every night before going to bed, absolutely brilliant TV series and there’s so many episodes to choose from, I’ve already seen almost all of them, I would read the short synopsis and watch it, so much fun and my mum would sit and watch it with me as well. That and Thriller are two of my favourite anthology series, I also really love these other ones like Shadows and Shadows of fear. They are all amazing and I love the little stories for every episode and you just didn’t know what you were going to see next. I love a good mystery.

He’s also in No honestly which he did with the amazing Pauline Collins and they’ve actually been happily married for a few years. They were in Upstairs Downstairs together. He’s also in Please sir. I love please sir, one of my absolute favourite TV shows, he plays the teacher and it’s just hilarious to see him slowly being driven mad by all the students. They all look older than him, I think they were all in their mid twenties during the making of the show. Brilliant show, I love the film too. Me and my dad watched it on my 17th birthday as a birthday treat and I was just obsessed with it, it reminded me just how much I loved the show, it just felt like you were going on a school trip with a bunch of your friends from school. So much fun, Please Sir is an absolute classic. I got my dad to find me the whole series and he put them on my laptop and I watched them all in like two or three weeks, I loved it so much and I was also watching a bunch of other TV shows at the same time one after the other. Doctor in the house, Citizen Smith, Mind Your language, The cuckoo waltz, Home to roost. I loved all these shows and I have to go back and start watching them all over again. John Alderton has starred in so many things in the seventies, he was one of the busiest actors at the time. I love him though, he was great. So please, check him out, you won’t be disappointed  if you love classic British telly from the seventies.

Another actor I really like is Barry Foster. Now, he’s not really a comedy actor nor is he a sitcom star in any way, he’s more of a serious drama actor. He was in a TV detective drama series called Van Der Walk which I have never seen but I know him from a film called Frenzy. Frenzy is one of my favourite thriller, horror films from the seventies. One of my favourite Alfred Hitch cock films next to Psycho, Shadow of a doubt and Strangers on a train. Barry plays the role of this geezer who goes around strangling women but his friend gets mistaken for the strangler and it just goes down hill from there, a total living nightmare. An amazing film that my dad introduced to me one night. It had me hooked from the first few minutes right until the very end of the film. Great film, it’s so British and Barry Foster was so horrifying in it, he took that role and made it his own. A fantastic performance. It’s also filmed in Covent Garden and we go down there sometimes, so knowing it’s filmed down there is just so crazy to me. They used real locations and not a green screen which I love. If you love seventies politically incorrect horror films, watch Frenzy, it’s fantastic and I feel like it’s never talked about that much, it needs more recognition, it’s an amazing film. One of my favourite thriller horror films right next to Fright which also came out in the early seventies, two great films. He was also in The Family Way which is another film I love from the sixties. Still plays a jerk but at least he’s not a homicidal maniac who strangles women. So, please check them out, they’re great.

The next actor I really like is Robin Stewart. He was an actor in the seventies, he starred in a few things here and there. I know him from a TV show called Bless this house. Bless This House is a great show, it’s one of my favourite old TV shows from that time period. He played their son Mike who was a hippy, basically. Bless this house was such a funny show, featuring some big names such as Sid James and Diana Coup land. I really love this show so much. I remember when I first discovered this show and I became obsessed with it, I really loved it. It’s this show about this family and it’s just really funny. The schemes their son and daughter get themselves involved in. It’s just so much fun, I’m always entertained watching them on screen. I also really loved the film version they made, it was amazing. I really liked how Robin portrayed the role of Mike, he was really funny in the show and he had some great moments that I just think about and laugh at from time to time. Another classic show. It’s up there with all my other favourite TV shows. It doesn’t have to be just old TV shows just TV shows in general. I totally recommend any of you to give this show a watch if you like old stuff like this because I promise you that you’ll love this show.

Another actor I really like is Jim Dale. Jim Dale was known for starring in the Carry on films. Not really seventies related but I just wanted to mention him on here. A fantastic comedic actor, I love him so much. I loved watching him in Carry on Doctor and Carry on again doctor, he was amazing and he’s so cute, I couldn’t keep my eyes off him, a legendary actor. It’s through the Carry on films that I discovered him. He’s in a couple more Carry on, films as well but these two are my favourites and I had so much fun watching them, they’re up there on my list of favourite films for sure. I love the carry on films, they make me so happy, I have to watch one in the morning when I wake up, they’re so good and so wonderful. My favourites would have to be Carry on doctor, Carry on again doctor, Carry on teacher, carry girls, carry on camping, carry on screaming, carry on abroad and so many more. Yeah, great films and a great source of entertainment, I love the actors involved and I’m growing to appreciate them, especially Jim Dale. I just love him. If you’re a fan of the carry on films too, I’m sure you’ll agree with me. There’s this quote in the first carry on doctor film that I love so much, it goes , so Kenneth Williams says” I was once a weak man” then matron goes ” Well, once a week’s enough for any man” I just love that quote so much, it’s so witty and genius and I’m going to use it from now on.

Another actor I like is James Bolam. He’s starred in a few things but I know him from a show called The likely lads which he starred in with another actor called Rodney Bewes. Yeah, great TV show and it’s follow up Whatever happened to the likely lads? was also amazing, two great programmes, I love them. I also know him from a programme called Grandpa in my pocket which is a show I used to watch when I was little. Great young actor, I totally recommend you check him out.

The last actor I wanted to talk about today is Michael Caine. Michael is a famous, iconic actor and he’s starred in loads of films over the years. Two of my absolute favourite films he’s starred in are The Italian job and Get Carter. Two fantastic films. He delivers every performance and every role he plays. An absolute legend. A proper East End legend. I haven’t seen that many of his films but one day I’m going to watch some of them to see what other stuff he’s done. But he’s a great actor. The Italian Job was a great film, the quote ” You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” is iconic and me and my dad are big fans of this film, we love it and we use this quote so many times. A terrific film as well as Get Carter, a fantastic East End gangster film and it’s up there with all my other favourite films. So please if you don’t know him already, go and check him out because you’ll see a legend at work.

That’s all I have time for for you guys today. I’m sure there are loads of other actors from that time that I’m not thinking of or I just simply don’t have time to talk about them but I hope you all enjoyed reading this post. I will be doing a post on my favourite actresses and female icons of the seventies so stay tuned for that. Bye for now, love you guys, stay safe and have a lovely day wherever you are.

More work to come on Big Blog Theory