Leonard played the role of Leo Borowitz

Part of the series 'The Nightwatchman's Stories'. Co-starred Leslie Dwyer, Esma Cannon

Leonard played the role of Joe Stocks

Leonard played the role of Fenny

Notes: Berkely Mather was co-writer of the screenplay for the James Bond film Dr. No.

A womaniser is hired to make love to a rich industrialist's wife, but it all ends in ironic tragedy.

Leonard played the role of Gerard Moustier, the cynical friend of the womaniser, played by Anthony Bate.

Notes: This was part of a BBC series of plays called 'Studio 4'. The tapes no longer exist. Also known as 'The Farquhar Connection'.

Leonard played the role of Harry.

A long-running and very popular series about a Merseyside police force and their never-ending battle against crime. The show also let us into the lives of the 'bobbies', and thus became a rare insight into the lives of ordinary working-class families. The series starred Brian Blessed, Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor. The Z Cars of the title were Ford Zephyrs.

Leonard played the sharp, cynical, fast-talking and intimidating Detective Inspector Bamber in eight episodes.

Notes:
The show also starred Joseph Brady as PC Jock Weir. He was later to star with Leonard again as Reggie Perrin's filthy, sweaty, unintelligible chef Kenny McBlane in The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin in 1978.
Saun Sutton later directed Leonard in his very last performance for TV, The Life And Death Of King John, in 1984.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"...Like everyone who worked with him, I was immediately aware of his devotion to his performance, and his great skill in building it...They soon noticed how good he was in 'sneaky' parts, and D.I. Bamber became a very sneaky fellow indeed...He was very different in real life - a straightforward, no-nonsense man who knew his craft, and expected others to do the same." - Saun Sutton.

Links:
 View the title sequence

Middle-aged Yorkshire miner Robert Bailey (Rossiter) realises there must be more to life and sets out to find it. His attempts to better himself result in him being treated as a madman. His stresses and frustration build up until, eventually, he suffers a breakdown.

Leonard played the lead role of Robert Bailey.

Notes: This was Leonard's first starring role on television, but it only came about because the original choice fell ill, and the part had to be quickly re-cast. The tapes no longer exist.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"...I recall the time when those of us recording television plays regarded him as a 'straight' actor, capable of giving extremely good performances in dramatic roles...We regarded him so highly that it was felt he would bring something exciting to the part - and he did..." - Cecil Clarke

Walk In Fear
6th May 1963
Written by John Wilkie
Produced by Patrick Dromgoole
Broadcast by BBC, part of the 'Suspense' TV series

Office clerk Alan Treece (Rossiter) is acquitted of a murder, but the victim's family and colleagues still believe him to be guilty. He finally cracks under the strain of running from them every day.

Leonard played the lead role of Alan Treece.

The farm girl of the title finds love, and then loses it. For consolation, she turns to a sullen farmer (Rossiter)

Leonard played Emile Vallin, a farmer.

Notes: Part of a series of plays by Guy de Mauppasant.
 

A careless murderer (Rossiter) contemplates his crime.

Leonard played the lead role of William Acton

Starred Tony Tanner, Sally Smith, Dilys Laye and Duncan MacRae.

Leonard played the role of Sammy Love

Steed (Patrick MacNee) bids to buy a plot of land near a national defence radar station. During a New Year's Eve fancy dress party on a train, on which other prospective buyers are aboard, the train is halted at an abandoned station and murders commence. Fellow party-goers are played by John Junkin, Alexander Davion, Richard Leech, Anneke Wills and Anthea Windham.

Leonard played the role of Robin Hood (in the credits). His character is businessman Billy Cavendish.
Watch a clip or buy the DVD

Links:
 The Avengers Forever

A pious Welshman (Rossiter) offers the two scrap dealers a ton of lead at a knock-down price. Harold jumps at the chance, although his father Albert is more wary. And with good reason, as it transpires the lead has come off their own roof.

Leonard played the seller of the lead, Welsh Hughie.
Watch a clip or buy the DVD

Notes: This was the first of Leonard's two appearances in this classic BBC comedy. He later appeared in the episode The Desperate Hours in April 1972. This episode was later re-recorded for radio broadcast.
This episode, when repeated on Thursday October 15th 1964, was broadcast later than scheduled. Steptoe & Son was enjoying viewing figures of 10m+ at the time, and as it was General Election day, the episode was thought to be too strong a reason for the voting public to stop in rather than go to the polls, so it was delayed until after the polls had closed.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"Leonard was a great audience. There is nothing more endearing to a comedy writer than an actor who laughs with great relish at the first read-through." - Ray Galton & Alan Simpson
"He wished he could have worked more with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the writers of Steptoe and Son, and Hancock. You can almost envisage Leonard in a Hancock-type role." - Mark Lewisohn, author RadioTimes Guide To TV Comedy.

Links:
 Internet Movie Database
Albert & Harold

Part of th 'Play of the Week' strand. Co-starred Annette Crosbie, William Lucas, Richard Leech

Leonard played the role of Patrick

Leonard played the role of Daudet

Notes: Joe McGrath was to direct Leonard again in The Losers in 1978, and in the Rising Damp movie in 1980.
Broadcast as part of the 'Festival' series of plays. Only a small extract remains on tape.

A long-time bachelor Sergeant (Rossiter) falls in love with a NAAFI girl (Avril Elgar).

Leonard played the role of  Sergeant 'Tubby' Watson.

Notes: This was a play in ATV's Love Story series. The tapes no longer exist.

A topical, satirical sketch show in the vein of the classic That Was The Week That Was, broadcast from 13th November 1964 to 11th April 1965

Leonard played various roles in a number of sketches in the first series.

A play set in an Army detention centre, highlighting the prejudices and stresses of the Army. Co-starred Douglas Livingstone, Bill Owen and Bryan Marshall.

Leonard played the role of Sgt. Golto, a tough, senior prison officer who had a particular hatred for conscientious objectors.

Notes: This play was never broadcast. This was rumoured to be because it showed the Army in a bad light and, at the time, the Army were actively advertising on Rediffusion's channel.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"Len had a very good ability to switch on and off very quickly...Somewhere on a spool of tape there's a wonderful and very different performance of Len's that has never been seen." - Douglas Livingstone (pictured).

A television adaptaton of Waterhouse and Hall's successful stage play about a family attending a wedding and, six months later, a funeral. CO-starred Trevor Bannister, Angela Crowe, Bert Palmer.

Leonard played the role of Frank Broadbent.

Notes: Waterhouse and Hall also wrote the screenplay for Leonard's films A Kind Of Loving and Billy Liar
Broadcast as part of the 'Thursday Theatre' series of plays. The tapes no longer exist.
 

One of six 50-minute stories of a rural Yorkshire policeman on his beat.

Leonard played the role of Wilkie in this episode.

Notes: The lead role of Cluff was played by Leslie Sands, who starred with Leonard again in 1978 as Thruxton Appleby, one of Reggie Perrin's guests at his community in the third series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

A play abot two lonely people (Rossiter and Angela Crowe, pictured) who cannot meet without bickering and arguing.

Leonard played the role of The Man - a dull, colourless person who longs for friendship but is incapable of it.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"He brought an eccentricity to the role - the sort of eccentricity you find in ordinary people - and did it so well that he didn't seem to be acting at all." - Rhys Adrian

Critical Review:
"...What the play certainly did  provide was the opportunity for some brilliant acting by Leonard Rossiter as the man whose embarrassment was transferred from him to us with painful accuracy." - Gerald Lamer, The Guardian.

A series of sketches, songs, stand-up routines and live discussion, featuring such luminaries as John Bird, John Fortune, Bill Oddie, Dennis Norden and Alan Bennett. It ran to 24 episodes.

Leonard played various characters in episodes on October 16th and 30th 1965. In the latter episode, Leonard played Groucho Marx in a sketch about Groucho's papers going to the Library Of Congress (Bill Oddie played Chico and David Battley played Harpo). Also in this episode, Leonard played the 'Grand Wizard of the East Midlands branch of the Ku Klux Klan'.

Notes: On November 13th 1965, BBC-3 became the first programme to use the F-word on British television, during an interview with theatre critic Kenneth Tynan. Despite a 10.30pm slot, it still caused a huge outrage at the time.

Links:
 Internet Movie Database
 

Redcap (episode: Epitaph For A Sweat)
31st October 1965
Written by Richard Harris
Directed by Peter Graham Scott
Produced by John Bryce

A crime drama series starring Diana Rigg and John Thaw (pictured, pre-The Sweeney and Inspector Morse) as Royal Military Police officer Sgt. John Mann, working in the Special Investigations Branch.

Leonard played the role of Sergeant Rolfe

Notes: This episode also featured John Horsley, 12 years before he played Reggie Perrin's Doc Morrissey. It also starred Ian McShane and future Blue Peter presenter John Noakes.

Watch a clip or Buy the DVD

Links:
 Internet Movie Database

Mr. Fowlds
Monday 15th November 1965
Written by John Bowen
Directed by Vivian Matalon
Produced by Cecil Clarke
Broadcast by ATV

A man (Rossiter) visits a young lad (David Cook, pictured) in prison in an effort to help him back onto the straight and narrow, but ends up in prison himself after blackmailing and robbing the supermarket where he works. He uses the alter ego 'Mr. Fowlds'.

Leonard played the Mr. Fowlds of the title.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"It was a part tailor-made for Len, inasmuch as he could bring to such a fantasising and fantastic character an absolute conviction and truthfulness of playing...Later, his comedy technique was always based on consistency and conviction." - John Bowen

Dr. Knock
2nd January 1966, BBC2, 7.25pm
Written by Jules Romains, transl. by Harley Granville Barker
Directed by Herbert Wise
Produced by Cedric Messina
Broadcast by BBC

Part of the 'Theatre 625' strand

A TV adaptation of the classic French play by Jules Romains, this was a tale of mass hypochondria as a Doctor (Rossiter) uses pseudo-medical knowledge to persuade a whole community that they are suffering from all sorts of illnesses. The Radio Times from the week of its broadcast writes: "The hero, Dr. Knock (Rossiter), is nothing less than a medical revolutionary, and he has a remarkable effect on his patients. When he comes to take over the rather unprofitable country practice of Dr. Parpalaid (John Le Mesurier, pictured), he looks just like another, albeit slightly mysterious, doctor. But he holds the shattering belief that every patient has a right to illness; that no one, not a single human being, is totally healthy. In no time at all Dr. Knock has an epidemic of hypochondria on his very willing hands; his number of patients doubles, then quadruples as the abnormally healthy rustics discover the delights of medical jargon, complex treatments, learned prognoses and the immense - and so far unrealised - possibilities for interesting disease in their own bodies." It co-starred Mavis Villiers, Jimmy Gardner, James Grout, Robert Gillespie, Pat Nye and Dilys Watling.

Notes: All copies of this performance were thought lost until September 2010 when a researcher in the Washington DC Library of Congress found it amongst many other plays which had been broadcast by PBS in the USA. The tapes are now with the BFI in London. News story.

Leonard played the role of Dr. Knock.

Critical Review:
"He expounded Dr. Knock's  theories of medicine in a voice as bland and soothing as glycerine and honey, and made his diagnoses with superb self-confidence." - Sylvia Clayton, Daily Telegraph.
"Leonard Rossiter... creates a magnetic portrait of the scheming quack." - Radio Times.
Links:
 Internet Movie Database

Semi-Detached
Sunday 1st May 1966
Written by David Turner
Directed by Gilchrist Calder
Produced by Cedric Messina
Broadcast by BBC

One of Leonard's great theatre performances brought to television, Semi-Detached has a special section on this web site.

A series of plays about an assassin for hire.

Leonard played the assassin, Norman Lynch

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"He was a joy to work with...he kept the whole unit laughing with his off-the-set jokes and pranks...As an actor he was utterly meticulous. He planned out every minute detail of his performance...that was Len's style of work - making his acting look ad lib and impromptu whereas he had put in a tremendous amount of care and effort and intellectuality." - Gerald Blake.

A group of scientists decide to fool the government into thinking that a collection of strange eggs found at the scene of various disasters are actually of extra-terrestrial origin. One of the BBC's 'Play Of The Month' series, it also starred Keith Barron, Michael Culver and Burt Kwouk, who later appeared with Leonard in The Pink Panther Strikes Again.

Leonard played the role of the Prime Minister.

Links:
 Internet Movie Database
 

Adaptation of the short story by Roald Dahl in which a wealthy stockbroker (Rossiter) wagers with an annoying dinner companion (Donald Pleasance, pictured) that he could never guess the precise origin of a bottle of his wine. He reluctantly agrees to offer his daughter's hand in marriage as a prize. The man does place the French vineyard from which the wine came, but is revealed to have cheated.

Leonard played the wealthy stockbroker Mike Schofield.

Notes: Shown as part of the 'Thirty Minute Theatre' series of plays. The tapes no longer exist.

Links:
 Roald Dahl web site

A BBC2 crime drama series following the work of a team of Customs & Excise men. It starred Ewan Solon and James Grant.
The tapes no longer exist.

Leonard played a character called Ormerod in this episode.

A play about race relations in Bristol. Filmed in a documentary- style, with characters talking straight-to-camera, it is often regarded as one of the key television productions of the 1960s.

Leonard played Mr. Marcus, a white liberal crank, promoting racial harmony by 'becoming' a Sikh and a Muslim.

Critical Review:
"Leonard Rossiter, in the role of the black-faced coon who becomes a Sikh only to find that integration is not just a matter of sentiment and vague benevolence, gave a briliantly-sustained performance." - Stuart Hood, The Spectator.

Notes: Broadcast as part of 'The Wednesday Play' series of dramas.

Leonard played the role of 'Man'.

An entertainment about why people go to the theatre in England today as seen through the eyes of people in the acting profession. Also featured were Judi Dench, James Grout, Alan Dobie, Ken Dodd, Leo McKern and Frank Hauser.

Leonard was an interviewee

An adaptation of a story from the author of The Darling Buds Of May

Leonard played the role of Fred Tomlinson

A late-night Saturday variety show on BBC1 combining a satirical review of the week's news with comedy, poetry by Roger McGough and music by The Scaffold. Miriam Margolyes and Richard Neville were also regulars.

Leonard took part in some of the show's sketches, playing various parts.

A struggling ventriloquist (Rossiter) suspects his wife of infidelity and seeks solace in his dummy. The dummy becomes the voice of his subconscious and persuades him to murder his wife.

Leonard played Andrew, the ventriloquist.

Notes: Broadcast as part of the 'Thirty Minute Theatre' series of dramas. The tapes no longer exist.

An Irishman, Owen Brian (Rossiter), returns to his homeland with his new girlfriend and insists on showing her the view from a hilltop near Dublin. He is taken ill, and while his girlfriend goes to fetch the car, the man strikes up a conversation with an artist who is sketching the view.

Leonard played the lead role of Owen Brian.

Notes: Adapted from one of three one-act plays by Irish writer Hugh Leonard, collectively titled Pizzazz, comprising A View From The Obelisk, Roman Fever and Pizzazz. Broadcast as part of the 'Half Hour Story' series of plays.

Links:
 Hugh Leonard biography

A true story of bigotry and intolerance in 17th Century France. The famous philosopher and author Voltaire (Rossiter) tries to clear the name of a tradesman, Jean Calas,  who was wrongfully accused of murder and tortured to death, largely because he was a Protestant.

Leonard played the lead role of Voltaire.

Critical Review:
"A most persuasive little sketch of Voltaire whose physical features (this is one of Mr. Rossiter's special gifts) he somehow managed to capture." - T. C. Worsley, Financial Times
"Leonard Rossiter as Voltaire demonstrated how it is possible to express the spirit of the man through minute observation of physical mannerism." - George Melly, The Observer.

Notes: Broadcast as part of the 'Theatre 625' series of plays. Although made in colour, only black & white tapes exist.
 

A science fiction play. Set in an England of the future where the population either make TV programmes or do nothing but watch them, a family volunteer to be shipped off to a remote island and be filmed 24 hours a day. It also starred Suzanne Neve, Brian Cox and 'Basil Brush' man Derek Fowlds.

Leonard played Co-ordinator Ugo Priest, the chief of the television station.
Watch it in full or buy the DVD

Notes: Broadcast in the BBC2 series Theatre 625. Made in colour but tapes only exist in black and white.

Links:
 Internet Movie Database

Crime thriller based on John Bingham's novel. In London, a traitor is selling information. In Moscow, a Yorkshire cloth salesman is approached by the KGB, who believe he has more to sell than cloth. Starring Brian Blessed and Peter Dyneley (pictured).

Leonard played a Russian Secret Police officer who defects.

Notes: Leonard had previously starred with Brian Blessed in Z Cars.
 

A number of candidates are interviewed for a management job. One man, known as 'X', amazes the panel with a seemingly revolutionary strategy, but is later revealed to be a mad man. A play produced from the winner of a competition held by The Observer newspaper and ATV.* Co-starred Anne Cunningham, Michael Lees and Jeremy Longhurst
* Thanks to the playwright's daughter for this information).

Leonard played the role of 'X'.

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Text (c) Paul Fisher
Pictures (c) their respective owners.