Trevor Bannister

**Trevor Gordon Bannister** (14 August 1934 – 14 April 2011) was an English actor best known for having played the womanising junior salesman Mr Lucas in the sitcom *Are You Being Served?* from 1972 to 1979, for playing Heavy Breathing in the sitcom *The Dustbinmen* from 1969 to 1970 and for his role as Toby Mulberry-Smith in the long-running sitcom *Last of the Summer Wine*, from 2003 until it ended its run in 2010.

## Early life

Bannister was born in the village of Durrington in Wiltshire in 1934, the youngest of three children. His father was a tobacconist and newsagent. After two years' National Service before going to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

## Career

Bannister made his London West End debut in 1960 as Arthur Crabtree in Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre, opposite Albert Finney.

After making his film debut in Reach for the Sky (1956), Bannister's screen appearances were almost exclusively on television. He starred as Peter Barry in the children's sci-fi series Object Z (1965) and Object Z Returns (1966), before his breakthrough role as the titular spiv in The War of Darkie Pilbeam (1968), the popular trilogy about a 1940s black marketeer. He subsequently appeared in TV shows including The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint and Z-Cars.From 1969 to 1970 he appeared as "Heavy Breathing" in Jack Rosenthal's sitcom, *The Dustbinmen*. Shortly afterwards, he was asked to play babe magnet Mr. Lucas in a *Comedy Playhouse* pilot called *Are You Being Served?* and took the part in the series. His role oftern saw him chase after Miss Brahms (Wendy Richard), a typical dolly bird. He left the role in 1980, as filming for the show clashed with a lengthy tour for a play.

After Are You Being Served?, Bannister played the ladykiller and burglar-alarm dealer Peter Pitt, who joins a group run by Brian Wilde's retired army major and Neighbourhood Watch founder, in the sitcom Wyatt's Watchdogs (1988). He also took three roles in Coronation Street, appearing first as Harry Lester (1967), then as Ritchie Levitt (1972) and finally as Mike Baldwin's solicitor (2006).

## Later career

In 1994, he had a role as a kitchen shop assistant in *Keeping Up Appearances.*

Throughout his career, Bannister was a regular pantomime dame on stage, taking 34 roles in 35 years, and always supplying his own wigs, moulded to his head.

From 2001, he made occasional guest appearances in Roy Clarke's sitcom Last of the Summer Wine as the golfclub captain Toby, becoming a regular for the final two series (2009-10).

## Death

Bannister died on 14 April 2011, at the age of 76, after a heart attack at his allotment in Thames Ditton, Surrey. *Are You Being Served?* and *Last of the Summer Wine* co-star Frank Thornton said that the last event Bannister attended was Thornton's 90th birthday on 15 January 2011, three months before Bannister died.

He was survived by his second wife, Pam, all of his sons and his brother John.

## Personal life

Bannister's first marriage was to actress Kathleen Cravos in 1959. They had three sons together – Jeremy, Simon and Timothy, and .later divorced. He married Pamela Carson in 1982 and lived with her in Surrey until the time of his death.

## Filmography

*Alternate article: Trevor Bannister Pictorial Filmography*