Leonard Rossiter

Television Performances: 1970s

A complete guide to the television performances of Leonard Rossiter in the 1970s.
All dates are original broadcast/Leonard's first appearance dates.

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A junk dealer, Mr. Jeffs (Rossiter) has to act as an intermediary when a woman, Mrs. Hammond, (played by Isabel Dean, pictured) sells him a table and her husband buys it for his mistress. The woman then tries to buy it back. A relationship grows between the wife and the junk dealer, but he mistakes kindness for friendship. Co-starred Ronald Hines, Moira Redmond.

Leonard played the role of the junk dealer, Mr. Jeffs.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"...He captured every nuance and was in fact one of the most brilliant actors I have ever had the good fortune to work with. I liked him as a person enormously. My mind is filled with affection and admiration." - William Trevor.
"What struck me was his honesty. This quality seemed uppermost in his work and life. No compromise...He was a brilliant actor." - Isabel Dean.

Critical Review:
"As a creeping, egregious and pathetic junk dealer who dreams of love and companionship which he can never achieve, he gave a performance of rare and tremendous power." - Jessie Palmer, The Scotsman.

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

The story of an ex-Sergeant Major (Rossiter) who has homosexual feelings for a man at work, feelings that turn to murder when he finds the man in bed with his lodger, Sally.

Leonard played the lead role of Harry, the ex-military man.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"The ex-Sergeant Major offered Leonard one of his finest roles...Just as impressive was the amount of stress he could convey in a small scene on his own..." - Robert Tanitch.

Critical Review:
"Leonard Rossiter's Harry was an extraordinarily vivid piece of work which caught the devious, twisted mind, the violence behind the apparent ineffectualness with horrifying realism." - Jessie Palmer, The Scotsman.

Notes: Broadcast as part of the 'Sunday Night Theatre' series of plays. Made in colour, but tapes only exist in black & white.

A crime drama about a professional safe-blower (Rossiter) and his apprentice (Corin Redgrave). Eddie a safe cracker, is just released from jail. He has no money and his wife has kicked him out of the house. He hears of a job and teams up with a sorted gang. Co-starred George Woodbridge and Daphne Heard.

Leonard played Eddy Dobbs, the master safe-blower.

Notes: Thick As Thieves won the 1972 Royal Television Society's award for Best Regional Production. Leonard later starred in another Baker and Martin creation, Machinegunner, in 1976

Critical Reviews:
"Leonard Rossiter played Eddy as a hands-in-pocket, marrow-cold little ne'er-do-well, whose every word was a cross between a snivel and a snarl. This was his best performance." - Leonard Buckley, The Times.
"Rossiter's shifty, insecure, peg-toothed grin, was, like the locale, absolutely specific and therefore universal." - Philip Purser, Sunday Telegraph.

Monday 3rd April 1972
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
Produced by John Howard-Davies
Broadcast by BBC

Two prisoners (Rossiter and J. G. Devlin, playing Frank Arthur Ferris)) escape from Wormwood Scrubs and hole themselves up in the Steptoe's home. They soon discover the Steptoes' lack of food, heat and money, and decide they were better off 'inside'.

Leonard played the role of John Spooner, one of the escaped prisoners.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"I particularly remember the second one where we did a pastiche of The Desperate Hours, based on the Edward March/Humphrey Bogart film from years ago, where Bogart played an escaped convict. We took the title and had these two convicts burst into the Steptoe's house. It was like watching two stags at bay. They brought the best out of each other. Harry [H. Corbett] suddenly realised he was faced with a formidable actor, and Leonard realised that Harry was 'pulling all the stops out', and the scenes between each other were absolutely riveting." - Alan Simpson, co-author.

Notes: John Howard Davies went on to produce Leonard again in the pilot episode of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
Leonard's outstanding performance in this episode was seen by budding playwright Eric Chappell. He became convinced he had found his 'leading man' for his first play The Banana Box. The character was Rooksby, later to transfer to TV as Rigsby in Rising Damp.

-  Watch video clips _

Links:
Albert & Harold
Internet Movie Database
Merchandise

A woman lies about her age in order to marry her second husband, thereby making her son by her first marriage to be fourteen instead of his real nineteen years. Her first husband (Rossiter) returns from India and the truth outs itself, despite her attempts to conceal it.

Leonard played the role of Colonel Lukyn.

Notes: The play also starred Ken Jones and Michael Horden (pictured). Broadcast as part of the 'Play of the Week' series of dramas. The tapes no longer exist.

Critical Reviews:
"Leonard Rossiter took to the part of a military gent like a duck to green pease." - Leonard Buckley, The Times.
"Leonard Rossiter treated us all to the odd physical jerks, mouthings and gesticulations that made the second half of his Arturo Ui unforgettable." - Michael Frostick, Stage & Television Today.

Links:
 The Magistrate
 Pinero biography

The exploits of a coach party on a day out to the Scottish Highlands. Co-starred Joan Hickson, Margery Mason, Gabrielle Day.

Leonard played Mickey Grant, the obligatory life-and-soul of the coach party, chatting up the women and annoying the men.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"There was always, in his best moments, a corner of desperation - not just comic desperation but genuine desperation. He brought a tragic dimension to comedy. He was unique. There was no-one like him at all." - John Gorrie.
"When I started writing, Len was always at the top of my 'if-only-I-could-get-him-in-a-play-of- mine' list. I loved the colour he brought to every part he played; he seemed to me to manage something very difficult and very rare - to bring the size and excitement of a theatre performance to the television screen, while always remaining totally believable...A superb performance - funny, bitter and moving, a combination Len could manage uniquely well." - Douglas Livingstone.

Critical Review:
"Leonard Rossiter is a past master at bringing this sort of horrifying character to life. He is the epitome of all the holiday bores one has ever met, and it is his particular genius that, in spite of the seeming grotesqueness of the character, he never over-plays it into caricature." - Jessie Palmer, The Scotsman.

A Victorian costume drama in which an Army Sergeant (Rossiter) courts a rich woman while secretly being in love with her fifteen-year old daughter. Co-starred Margaret Courtenay and Beth Porter.

Leonard played the role of Sergeant Tax

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"He was a task-master. Rehearsals were never easy...but I loved working with him and learned a lot from him. He had an eye for detail..." - Margaret Courtenay (on the left in the picture).

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

A blind white supremacist (Rossiter) forces his opinions on others that a white transvestite (Richard Beckinsale) is really black, and decides to make him a scapegoat to British prejudice and ignorance. The blind man, however, suffers his own deep-seated horror that he himself might be black.

Leonard played the lead role of the Blind Man.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"He had those gifts of talent coupled with consummate craft skills that enable an artist to seize and hold the rapt attention of an audience...He had a unique, quite extraordinary vocal and physical presence; his body language was really outstanding." - Johnny Speight.

Notes: With Leonard in the photograph are Bob Hoskins, John Nightingale, Lewis Fiander and Richard Beckinsale, prior to his long-term coupling with Leonard in Rising Damp.
 

The first episode in a series about a solicitor, the Honourable Grenville Carnforth, working in the Lake District of Northern England. He defends a gypsy's right to be a gypsy, but as the gypsy (Rossiter) struggles to avoid a night in a police cell, it accidentally results in the death of a policeman. The gypsy then commits suicide rather than going to prison. Co-starred David Daker, Michael Elwyn and Cyril Varley.

Leonard played the gypsy, Aaros Boswell.
 

Leonard played the role of Lewis in the episode 'Mutzen Ab!'

A photographer (Rossiter) at an out-of-season holiday resort sets his eyes on making a successful model out of a local girl who works in a fish-filleting shed. Co-starred T P McKenna, Barbara Courtenay and Maggi Burton.

Leonard played the photographer, Pygmalion 'Smithy' Smith.

Notes: This was part of the Comedy Playhouse season of short sitcom pilots - one other in this series starred John Cleese as an updated Sherlock Holmes! Writer Roy Clarke's earlier contribution to this series (on January 4th, 1973) was called Last Of The Summer Wine, which was subsequently made into a series and is now the longest-running sitcom of all time. Comedy Playhouse gave rise to many classic British sitcoms, including Open All Hours, Last Of The Summer Wine and Steptoe and Son. Although Pygmalion Smith never made it to a series, writer Roy Clarke used a very similar storyline in his 1984 sitcom The Magnificent Evans, which starred Ronnie Barker as amateur photographer Plantagenet Evans.
 
 

Widely-regarded as one of the finest sitcoms in the history of television, Rising Damp has its own web site.

In this long-running light entertainment show, a celebrity guest is surprised by the show's presenter (at this time Eamonn Andrews) and is taken away to a studio where family and friends gather to celebrate the person's life.

Leonard was the surprised guest on this week's show.

A documentary about the great British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, based on his unpublished diaries and letters. Part of the BBC's long-running Horizon science documentary series.

Leonard played the part of Brunel in re-enactments and also narrated the documentary.
 

Husband Of The Year
2nd May 1975
Written by Brad Ashton
Directed by David Millard
Produced by Vernon Lawrence
Broadcast by Yorkshire TV

Details unknown. Cast included Marjorie Proops, Pete Murray, Leslie Randall and Leonard's wife Gillian Raine.

A 'Play For Today' about an unappealing boy (Nicholas Watson, pictured, with Geraldine Newman) and his nagging father (Rossiter). The boy has a superb singing voice but is about to lose it at the onset of puberty. Co-starred Gerald James, John Ringham and Jeanette Hill.

Leonard played the role of the domineering father.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"Leonard Rossiter's power and range as an actor invested the part of the father with not only a sort of meanness of spirit and an obsession with discipline but also with a kind of dark despair." - Moira Armstrong.
"I was especially pleased and grateful when I knew that he had undertaken the part. When I thanked him for what I thought was a marvellous performance, he did not (as I'd rather expected) incline his head and receive thanks as his obvious due. Instead, he sat and talked with keen interest of the way he had gone about 'finding' this man, studying the speech patterns, developing the movements and gestures. Despite the bleakness of the character, he still found opportunities to demonstrate his comic talents when not in character...during a bleak little scene...a retake was called for and, instantly, brilliantly, precisely, he ran the scene through backwards as one might run a film in reverse...There was an explosion of delighted laughter and applause, and immediately he was back to the mood of the scene - cold, meagre, unrelating. The contrast was stunning." - John Challen.

Widely-regarded as one of the finest sitcoms in the history of television, Rising Damp has its own own web site.

A 'machinegunner' (West Country slang for a debt-collector), turns amateur sleuth but finds himself in hot water with local criminals when hired by Felicity Ingram (Nina Baden Semper, pictured far right) to unearth a race-implicated scheme for building developments.

Leonard played the lead role of the 'machinegunner', Cyril Dugdale.

Notes: Also starring were Kate O'Mara, Colin Welland, Tim Preece (later to star with Leonard in The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin) and Gay Rose (who starred with Leonard in Series Two of Rising Damp).
This was an award-winning drama and was released on video by VideoGems in 1985 (catalogue no. R1329).

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"He was a tetchy perfectionist, impatient of laziness and circumstances in which he could not do his best work...He was also generous, very generous, and sharply aware of the strains on those around him." - Patrick Dromgoole

Critical Review:
"Few actors can be so superbly unsavoury, seedy, conniving and prurient as Leonard Rossiter." - Stewart Lane, Morning Star.

Links:
   Internet Movie Database

Another of Leonard's legacies to television, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin has its own own web site.

Leonard was a guest presenter at the annual awards ceremony.

Leonard played the role of a traffic warden in his first ever television commercial.
 

An annoying know-it-all (Rossiter) insists the man he has just seen on television is the actor Burt Reynolds. He even goes so far as to ring the actor himself, just to prove a point.

Leonard played the part of the know-it-all, Leonard.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"It was based on a friend of mine. Had to be right in everything. I came home one night and he was there and he said I'm glad you're home. Now, when I say to you 'Look at the television, I want you to look and tell me who I'm pointing to.' So I said Ok. Then he went 'OK, look now. Who is it?' And I hadn't got a clue, so he said 'It's Burt Reynolds'. And I said 'It's not Burt Reynolds! It's nothing like him!' And this went on all night. Then he phones up the Daily Telegraph, because they were supposed to know everything." - Ray Galton, co-author.

Notes: This was broadcast as part of the Galton and Simpson Playhouse series of comedy shorts.
Co-starring with Leonard was his real-life wife Gillian Raine (pictured), plus Patricia Hayes and Roy Barraclough.

- Watch video clip -
 

Widely-regarded as one of the finest sitcoms in the history of television, Rising Damp has its own own web site.

Another of Leonard's legacies to television, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin has its own own web site.

Leonard was a guest as the profile show celebrated the life and career of Richard Beckinsale, joined by wife Judy Loe, daughter Kate Beckinsale, and colleagues Don Warrington, Fulton McKay and Paula Wilcox

The hugely-popular Cinzano commercials with Joan Collins have their own special page on this web site.

Widely-regarded as one of the finest sitcoms in the history of television, Rising Damp has its own own web site.

A dramatisation, in the 'Play of the Week' series, of the colourful life of controversial and outspoken author and journalist Frank Harris. It co-starred Susan Penhaligon.

Leonard played the lead role of Frank Harris.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"...He blustered, he cajoled, he buttonholed, he fawned, he raged, he leered, he revelled in the life he created as Frank Harris. His work was almost incredibly fast, neat and inventive, and yet he always seemed to have oodles of time to get it all in...Looking for comparisons one tends to go outside acting, towards boxers, bullfighters, the batting of Viv Richards. And the element of controlled aggression in this comparison is not fortuitous...he made a symphony out of this simple refrain ["Legs! Legs!"], sounding it as everything from a joyous Basil Brush squawk to an infinitely poignant dirge for lost virility..." - Andrew Davies.
"I remember Leonard as a rather shy person who had nervous energy blasting out of his eyes. When he started acting, this energy seemed to be harnessed and I thought the result was brilliant. I was terribly impressed by him and his overriding concern for perfection. He also made me laugh a lot. I enjoyed making Fearless Frank very much." - Susan Penhaligon

Notes: There were plans for Leonard to star in a West End theatre production of this programme, but when it finally happened, it was Bill Stewart in the lead role. See the external web site below for more information.

Links:
 Frank Harris web site

A celebration of the song writing talent of E. Y. Harburg. The show was hosted by Ned Sherrin, pictured.

Leonard played Groucho Marx, singing "Lydia, The Tattooed Lady".

Notes: This song was originally performed by Groucho Marx in 'At The Circus', 1939.

Beechams Silvikrin
1978
Produced by CLM Productions

Corporate film. The updating of the Silvikrin range of shampoos and hairsprays are discussed and illustrated for a corporate product launch for the 1980's in a spoof of `The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'. Includes 3 commercials at end of film. Co-starred John Barron ans Wendy Richard.

Leonard played a Reggie Perrin-type character.
 

A wrestlers' manager (Rossiter) realises there is money to be made by rigging his client's bouts and, on the principle of 'all the world loves a loser', sets out to make sure his client Nigel, known as 'The Butcher' (Alfred Molina, pictured, in his first TV role) keeps on losing. Nigel, however, is too dim-witted to notice.

Leonard played the manager, Sydney Foskett.

Notes: This series was panned by the critics like no other Leonard Rossiter performance. It came hot on the heels of the brilliant Rigsby and Reggie Perrin and was inevitably, and perhaps unfairly, compared to them both. Despite the top writing skills of Alan Coren, it was probably the situation - and not the comedy - that let it down badly. Only episodes 1 to 5 exist on tape, none of which are of a transmissable quality.

Critical Reviews:
- "Here were the country's leading wit and one of the best comic actors and they combined to bore us to death." - Stanley Reynolds, The Times.
- "Leonard Rossiter, who never gives a bad performance, comes very near to doing so in this lamentable series; in spite of the fact that he is working like a Trojan, he cannot disguise the poverty of the script nor can he enhance his reputation." - Bernard Davies, Broadcast.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
- "I was completely in awe of Leonard Rossiter. For me he was like one of the comic Gods. Just a brilliant actor. I was starstruck. He was very nice to me, very considerate. A hard taskmaster. A tough guy to work with, but I loved him because he treated me the same. He didn’t make allowances. He didn’t give me the benefit of the doubt. He wasn’t patronising. I was as green as a cabbage. And I remember being shocked by him. We were in a rehearsal and I was trying something, and he suddenly went, ‘that’s not funny’. He was quite brusque. I didn’t say anything, but I wanted to say ‘what do you mean it’s not funny? We don’t know if it’s funny or not. We haven’t done it in front of an audience.’ I quickly went on the defensive, and then I realised, the second time I tried it - much to his disdain - that he was right. His instinct was spot on. So I did myself a favour and decided to trust it rather than fight it. Rather than letting my ego get in the way, I thought, ‘I’ll listen to what he says’. I watched him like a hawk. And I learned so much: about timing, the way you can change a joke just by the slightest shift of emphasis. The slightest shift in the weight from one syllable to another. The way the coming together of energy and language and voice explodes. All those things come together to make a great comic moment." - Alfred Molina.

Links:
 Internet Movie Database; TV Comedy Index

Morecambe & Wise were undoubtedly the greatest comedy double act of all time, combining hilarious sketches with comedy song routines. In this special edition for Christmas, Leonard joined the duo dressed as The Andrews Sisters in a rousing rendition of the Army song "The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company-B". Other guests included Jenny Hanley, Frank Finlay, Anna Dawson and Jean Hunt.

Leonard's Role Remembered:
"It was one of the very rare times that Eric and Ernie had actually been outgunned. They soon realised that when Leonard was going at full stretch, it was best to just stand back and wait." - James Grout, producer.
"He told me that Eric and Ernie had invited him onto the show, but he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do. I was working with Eric and Ernie on a couple of commercials at the time, so I said 'If there's three of you, why don't you do The Andrews Sisters?'." "They transcend the mime. I mean, anybody can mime, but they transcend it. It's one of the few times when I'm watching Morecambe & Wise that I'm not watching Eric. I watch Leonard." - Joe McGrath, director Rising Damp movie.

Leonard played one of the three Andrews Sisters in a song routine.  -  Watch video clip  -

Links: Morecambe & Wise Homepage

Another of Leonard's legacies to television, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin has its own pages on this web site.

The popular Daily Mirror newspaper cartoon strip The Perishers, about a family of children and their clever dog, were brought to life for this tea-time animation series.

Leonard was the voice of Boot, the family's oh-so-clever Old English Sheepdog.

Links:
Little Gems - Classic Kids TV - Includes theme tune featuring the voice of Leonard as Boot.

TV commercial - TV sets featuring Prestel - a computer information and ordering service - are used and demonstrated within the plot of a private eye spoof.

Leonard played Harry Lemon

Hambro Life
1979

Training film - Hambro Life Assurance Company training film, promoting Hambro's training schemes and the sales staff selection process. Executive director Donald Pell discusses Hambro's training philosophy and the training programmes available for sales associates. Gives a fictional example of how an untrained sales operative might deal with customers and mishandle various policies.

A familiar face from the world of television would sit in a comfortable chair and narrate a story straight-to-camera, in the children's television slot of BBC1. The series ran from 1965 to 1995.

Sometime during the 1970s Leonard narrated a story (possibly more) for this programme. Story details and broadcast dates are unknown at present.

Text (c) Paul Fisher 2004
Pictures (c) their respective owners.