Acting

Feb 09 2023

Appearing in The Professionals

By admin Acting, Little Jump, Television

Not many actors have my huge advantage of being professionally nondescript – which is why I was able to appear in TWO episodes of The Professionals. Admittedly, with a beard and wiped-out pre-title, but an achievement all the same. Happened…

Nov 18 2022

Love0

Ooh-La-La! French Farce on UK TV

By admin Acting, Little Jump, Sitcom

The difference between French farce and English farce is that in English farce the naughty behaviour is implied – and milked for all it’s worth… but then turns out to be a misunderstanding: which keeps up the hypocritical, self-serving fiction…

Oct 17 2022

Love0

Making Dickie Happy, part one

By admin Acting, Little Jump, Stage

The celebs were never there together but, Jeremy Kingston, one-time critic of Punch, in a flash of inspiration, wrote Making Dickie Happy, supposing they had all met, in a sparkling comedy of manners about love, sex, ambition, literature and class. …

Oct 17 2022

Love0

A Consumer Guide to Religions

By admin Acting, Little Jump

Shock and horror. This was one of the ground-breaking, society-changing, pieces of writing for which the BBC’s That Was the Week That Was became notorious. The establishment of the time couldn’t stomach it. Suggested by Ned Sherrin and written by…

Oct 03 2022

Love0

The Hungarian Count, part eleven

By admin Acting, Stage

Tucked in among my books, I found a publisher's copy of Twelve Hundred Hostages. There was some blurb… In execution, the play might just about stand up as a time-warped addition to the Tales From the Arabian Nights. It echoes…

Sep 05 2022

Love0

The Hungarian Count, part ten

By admin Acting, Stage

There was more correspondence with agents in New York, the UK and France about rights and percentages. Until, finally, Nicholas got his version of our translation-from-the-French and began a meticulously detailed revising of his own script – the French version…

About my new book

I’ve spent 70 years as an actor, writer and director, and Are You Going to do That Little Jump? The Adventure Continues is stuffed full of backstage stories: about the sitcoms I was in – Keep It in the Family, Porridge, Rising Damp, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Reggie Perrin, and dozens more; about my forays into live theatre – from irksome rep, to risky Fringe, to the spine-tingling RSC and treacherous, seductive Broadway. And it’s right up to date with recent movies – Lost in London and Peterloo.

BOOK PAGE

Appearing in The Professionals

Ooh-La-La! French Farce on UK TV

Making Dickie Happy, part one

A Consumer Guide to Religions

The Hungarian Count, part eleven

The Hungarian Count, part ten

Opinion

Video Entertainment

Stories

People

Welcome to Aladdin’s cave

About my new book