PLEASE SIR! | A TELEVISION HEAVEN REVIEW PLEASE SIR! / THE FENN STREET GANG (1968) Possibly inspired by the 1967 Sidney Potier movie, 'To Sir, With Love' -'Please Sir!' starred former Emergency Ward 10 actor John Alderton as newly qualified teacher Bernard Hedges (specialising in History and English), as he tried to tame the most unruly class at Fenn Street School; 5C. On his first day at school Bernard crossed swords with caretaker Norman Potter (Deryck Guyler), a former Desert Rat with delusions of grandeur, although with some credibility as he was the right hand man of incompetent headmaster, Maurice Cromwell (Noel Howlett), who in turn was the subject of infatuation by formidable deputy head Doris Ewell (Joan Sanderson). This trio virtually ran the school much to the resignation of the rest of the disillusioned staff and the last thing they wanted to disturb the balance was a young schoolmaster fresh out of teachers training college and full of bright ideals about modern teaching.

In order to curb Bernard's naïve enthusiasm it was conspired between the trio to give him a class of 'no-hopers', namely 5C. In their last year at school the pupils of this class were an uneducable bunch of delinquents who were simply biding their time until the final bell sounded on the last day of term. This of course did not involve participating in any school activities such as lessons. However, through a series of (comical) events Bernard managed to win over not only the staff but also the class of pupils (who nicknamed him 'Privet' Hedges) that contained 'hard case' Patrick Duffy (Peter Cleall), the tough talking but wimpish Frankie (Hank) Abbott (David Barry), slow witted Dennis Dunstable (Peter Denyer), flirtatious Sharon (Penny Spencer in the first two season's, Carol Hawkins thereafter), and Maureen (Liz Gebhart), who had a crush on her teacher. Support on the teacher front came from Richard Davies who gave a first class performance as the down to earth no-nonsense Welsh science teacher, Mr Price, and the aging Eric Chitty as Mr Smith, a teacher that was clearly beyond retirement age at the series outset.

In fact most of the actors who played the students were already in their twenties when Please Sir! began in 1968 and two years later (at the end of the longest last year in school history) the pupils were clearly showing their age. The series made stars of several actors although oddly none of the students found lasting television fame. LWT Head of Light Entertainment, Frank Muir, cast Alderton as Bernard Hedges after he had spotted him as a teacher in the opening episode of Never A Cross Word. After leaving Fenn Street School the actor went on to several successful series such as Upstairs, Downstairs, it's spin-off series Thomas and Sarah, the LWT sitcom No-Honestly and a series of Wodehouse plays (Wodehouse Playhouse) for BBC (all of which Alderton co-starred alongside his wife, Pauline Collins), and the BBC sitcom My Wife Next Door with Hannah Gordon. Joan Sanderson won television immortality as Mrs Richards, the hotel guest with hearing problems in Fawlty Towers and after Please Sir!

had finished she teamed up again with Deryck Guyler (who was originally cast as Fenn Street's headmaster) on a BBC radio show (also penned by the same writers), You're Only Young Once. A 1971 feature movie was released in which Bernard meets and begins to date Penny Wheeler (Jill Kerman), and this was carried on in subsequent TV series of Please Sir! and its predecessor, The Fenn Street Gang (which in turn spawned Bowler), which briefly followed the fortunes of the pupils after they left school. The series was the creation of former school chums and a new-to-television comedy writing team of John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, who went on to write Get Some In!; Ever Decreasing Circles; As Time Goes By and the enormously successful The Good Life. Actor David Barry has fond memories of working on the show and told Television Heaven that he thought the writing was always of the highest quality. "(They) wrote some wonderful comedy dialogue," he said, not least of all his favourite line from the Please Sir! movie: "Mrs Abbott has just put her 'little soldier' on the coach for summer camp. She bumps into Norman Potter.

Tearfully she says, 'They had to do away with my fallopians when I gave birth to Frankie.' To which Potter replies: 'Kept jumping on the pram, did they?' " The format of Please Sir! travelled to the US as Welcome Back Kotter, which launched the career of one John Travolta, however the US producers of that particular series never acknowledged its British predecessor. After the original class of pupils left at the end of series three a new intake of students was brought in but failed to impress the viewing audience, and with Bernard taking a year out of school to do a course in Sociology (Alderton having had enough of the role), the sparkle that had made Please Sir! such a huge hit (the first major sitcom success for LWT) was lost. The final episode aired on 13th February 1972 in which Miss Ewell (now mellowed and a much more likeable character) married Bernard's replacement, Mr Sibley. The original cast were sent out into the big wide world to make their own way in life. Having previously avoided much school work it was now time to knuckle down and face the realities of life (albeit in a sitcom setting).

In The Fenn Street Gang some of the characters fared better than others over the ensuing three series. Duffy became a painter and decorator and continued his relationship with Sharon (they had got together in season three of Please Sir!). They were engaged by the end of series two and married in season three. Maureen, who originally wanted to be a nun decided instead to become a nurse and wide-boy Peter Craven went to work for local racketeer Bowler-played by George Baker (The subsequent spin-off was made sans Craven due to the fact that it was actually a prequel and not a sequel to both Please Sir! and Fenn Street). Frank Abbott continued to live out his Walter Mitty-like existence as an incompetent, clumsy, trainee private detective whilst still being mollycoddled by his doting mother, and although in the early episodes the 'gang' kept in touch with each other, later in the series storylines tended to focus on each individual on a rotating basis. Review: : Laurence Marcus April 2006 for Television Heaven Please Sir! (Series) - TV Tropes Please Sir! You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share WMG Please Sir!

is a London Weekend Television situation comedy created by writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and featuring the actors John Alderton, Deryck Guyler, Joan Sanderson, Noel Howlett, Erik Chitty, Richard Davies, David Barry, Peter Cleall and Malcolm McFee. The series ran for 55 episodes between 1968 and 1972. The programme was set in the fictional Fenn Street school, and starred John Alderton as Bernard Hedges, a young teacher fresh out of training college. The supporting cast included Deryck Guyler, Joan Sanderson and Richard Davies. The students of class 5C were played by Malcolm McFee (as Peter Craven), Peter Cleall (as Eric Duffy), Peter Denyer (as Dennis Dunstable), David Barry (as Frankie Abbott), Penny Spencer (as Sharon Eversleigh; played by Carol Hawkins in later episodes and in the movie), and Liz Gebhardt (as Maureen Bullock). Several well-known character actors and actresses formed the supporting cast, including Barbara Mitchell as Frankie Abbott's mother, and Ann Lancaster as Mrs. Rhubarb in a 1968 episode.

A spin-off series, The Fenn Street Gang, followed the adventures of a group of former pupils in the adult world after leaving their schooldays behind them. It ran for 47 episodes between 1971 and 1973. Bowler (1973) was a spin-off from the spin-off - following the The Fenn Street Gang crime boss Stanley Bowler played by George Baker; there were 13 episodes. Like many situation comedies of this era, a film version was released in 1971 which, unlike most films based on sitcoms of that era, was actually rather good. This was set in an outdoor pursuit centre, but starred most of the TV cast. Please, Sir! contains examples of: Adults Are Useless : While not always in effect, there was sometimes this feel with the teachers for certain cases. Justified in that it is often repeated that teachers can only do so much without parental permission, and are iin a very dangerous situation if they appear too close to their students. Asleep in Class : More likely to happen with the oldest member of staff, Smithy. Big Man on Campus : Eric Duffy in the first three series, albeit it in an entirely British way.

Book Dumb : Many of 5C however... Brilliant, but Lazy : ... They also gave off the feel of this trope at times. British Education System : Fenn Street School is a great example of the old Secondary Moderns. One episode in the later series deals with the prospect of the school eventually becoming part of a comprehensive. British Brevity : Surprisingly averted: the show had 4 seasons, making up 55 episodes, and a film before it was finished. Class Trip : To London Zoo in one episode. The movie also features one to an outdoor pursuit centre. Class Reunion : An episode in series 4 brought back the original 5C students on the basis of an Old Fennians Day. They hadn't changed much. Cool Teacher : Bernard "Privet" Hedges, at least when he wasn't trying so hard. Series 4 has David Ffitchet-Brown, who is a much more straight-forward example of this trope. Corporal Punishment : Mentioned as being banned at Fenn Street. Food Fight : In the movie. High School Sweethearts : Eric and Sharon.

Eventually got married in the last series of the spin-off Hot Teacher : The student teacher in series one. In show, Hedges has this with the female students and it's also implied David Ffitchet-Brown seems this way to the students as well. Inner City School : Fenn Street is one of these. Though, granted, they were a lot more common at the time. The Movie : Like many of the shows from the '70's, Please, Sir! had its own movie. New Transfer Student : Played with. The transfer student, Panalal, only stays for an episode. Sadist Teacher : Gregory Dix in the fourth series, one of the 'replacement' teachers. The gym master, ex-commando from the Korean War, holder of the DSO, terrories both the students and the teachers and Potter. He's particularly notable for breaking the 'no caning' rule in place at Fenn Street. Really, it's just a pity the kid was Eric Duffy's little brother. School Is for Losers : Implied to be the attitude of many of the students.

They still turn up though School Newspaper News Hound : Not entirely a straight trope, but in series 4 there is an episoe with an alternative paper set up to rival the official one put out by the teachers. The students involved are certainly examples of this. Pity they were only in for one episode School of Hard Knocks : Though it's not actually encouraged, the teachers are very aware that this is the type of school Feen Street is. Or at least, the students seem to think of it this way. Stern Teacher : Miss Doris Ewell. Deputy Headmistress, described in-show by a student as: "fair, but hard as nails, and clever with it." Hedges also has shades of this as well at times. Stock British Characters : For the majority of the show, came in the form of the offscreen wife of Mr. Potter, the Fenn Street School caretaker. Teacher/Student Romance : Maureen's long standing crush on Hedges. Never really goes anywhere, but pretty much everyone assumes a relationship is in place during the series 1 episode Maureen Loves Sir.

Two-Teacher School : Four actual teacher (three when Hedges leaves], an ineffectual Headmaster, and Potter, king of the Lavs. Writing Lines : The most common form of detention. :: Indexes :: "Please Sir!" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb trailers and videos full cast and crew trivia official sites memorable quotes Overview 17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Learning To Laugh from Coventry, England 17 August 2002 Normally the words "ITV sit-com" are enough to strike fear into viewers. However in the past ITV did produce some good comedies and this is one of them. It is not a great one but it was very entertaining and deserves more recognition. It is one of very few sit-coms to have been set in a school. Like all sit-coms though, the situation isn't that important - the humour comes from the characters and their relationships, although the school setting provides a nice variation from the usual domestic comedies. It follows the travails of a group of extremely mature-looking fifth-formers and their hard-pressed teachers.

The pupils are a motley bunch: the dominant Eric Duffy; tarty Sharon; slow-witted but endearing Dennis; cocky Peter Craven; god-fearing Maureen who has a crush on the teacher; and fantasist Frankie Abbott. They are the nucleus of the "class from Hell" 5C - most of whom silently sit in the background. However they all have hearts of gold and their behaviour is surprisingly good - certainly comparing well to what many real students and teachers experience. They are lovable rogues. All work well from a comic viewpoint with the exception, I feel, of Dennis where the humour seems to rest almost entirely on his stupidity. All the actors are clearly well beyond school age, and could easily have been playing teachers! Much of the success of the series lies with the staff characters. John Alderton played the central character of Bernard Hedges, teacher of 5C. While apparently mild-mannered, he actually has few problems managing his class and has a good relationship with them. However his indecisiveness and determination to stick up for his pupils often leads him into humorous scrapes. He has often fractious relationships with the Head Mr.

Cromwell (Noel Howlett) and Deputy Doris Ewell (Joan Sanderson). These are tremendous characters and splendidly played. The Head is quite out-of-touch, a misguided liberal, pretentious but capable of engaging in quite juvenile behaviour. Miss Yuell is a haughty disciplinarian whose harsh exterior only relents in the presence of the Head, with whom she is infatuated. Joan Sanderson often played such roles, and always to perfection. Price (Richard Davies) is another superb figure - a cynical, sarcastic professional Welshman with little affection for teaching but great affection for beer. Again a great acting performance. Finally there is the doddering, ancient Mr. Smith, devoted to his wife and again capable of some very juvenile behaviour, usually in his conflicts with the Head. The interplay between all these is very funny. However for many viewers the favourite staff member was Mr. Potter, the caretaker (Deryck Guyler). Potter was an ex-soldier, obsessed with the war, with ideas above his station. He as constantly at odds with everyone in the school except the Head. He received his deserved come-uppance regularly in the series.

Obviously the show is of its time, and not just in the fashions such as the remarkably short skirts. Some of the humour might be seen as very innocent in today's more cynical age. The language used was quite strong for its time, but still acceptable to a family audience. It would seem very tame by today's standards. There are some occasions when the show borders on the politically incorrect. However the show stands up much better than many others from that period and the 1970s. For example in one episode an Indian student joins the class. Typically for the time he is played by a white actor and wears stereotypical Indian dress. However he is shown to be intelligent, polite and articulate, with committed parents. His classmates avoid the prejudice of their parents. Liberal ideas generally are given a sympathetic airing, particularly by Hedges. They are though less effectively expressed by the bumbling Head. "I would rather resign than be forceful," is one example. The show avoided becoming a one-joke, innuendo-laden affair unlike many others. The humour chiefly comes from defective people, defective relationships and defective situations, as most comedy does. The show still lives on, in video format and also on satellite channels.

It is well-worth checking out, whether you remember it originally or, like me, are of a younger but curious generation. I feel you will be pleasantly surprised, and satisfactorily entertained. Was the above review useful to you? 12 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Caution! Series 3 & 4 from Lancashire, England 22 March 2003 My positive comments above only refer to the first two series. Having now seen episodes from the final two series, I'm afraid to say that they are hugely disappointing. This is largely down to cast- changes, particularly among the pupils but also the teachers. The new characters are unimpressive, with the exception of the aggressive PE teacher Mr. Dix, played by Glynn Edwards, who shows some style. Maybe the writers were also running short of ideas by this stage, with many of the stories and scenarios becoming stale and silly. There are still occasional flashes of form, but the impression has to be that the show should have quit with its stock high after the first two fine series. These are still worth checking-out. Was the above review useful to you?

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: "I Was A Desert Rat, You Know!" 20 April 2007 *** This review may contain spoilers *** The 1967 film 'To Sir With Love' starred Sidney Poitier as an American teacher attempting to educate unruly children in a rough East End London school. It may be coincidental, but the following year 'Please Sir!' appeared on I.T.V. John Esmonde and Bob Larbey originally took the idea to the B.B.C., but as the character of 'Dennis Dunstable' was educationally subnormal, they turned it down. The writers then approached the fledgling 'London Weekend Television'. Head of comedy Frank Muir also expressed reservations, but trusted the writers when they claimed Dennis would not be used as a figure of fun. Indeed he was not. Anyone trying to belittle Dennis would have to contend with the class' No.1 hard man - 'Eric Duffy'. John Alderton was cast as the idealistic schoolteacher 'Bernard Hedges' ( known as 'Privet' by his class ). Long before 'Basil Fawlty', Hedges had "Right!" as a catchphrase.

The actor's best known television role up to that point was 'Dr.Richard Boone' in the A.T.V. soap 'Emergency Ward 10'. Deryck Guyler was originally supposed to play 'Mr.Cromwell' the dithering headmaster, but on finding it hard to cast the role of 'Potter' the caretaker, producer Mark Stuart suggested that Guyler be given the role. It worked out for the best; the pompous, war-obsessed 'Potter', forever grovelling in Cromwell's presence, proved to be one of the show's most popular characters. One fair criticism was that the actors playing the pupils looked too old. Peter Cleall, a.k.a. 'Duffy' was five years younger than Alderton! One should remember that there were strict Equity rules regarding the use of child actors at that time and besides, you could say the same about the cast of the film 'Grease'! The first episode opened with Hedges' first day at Fenn St. School. He finds the teachers incompetent and the children, particularly Class 5C, out of control.

It sounds like the premise of a hard-hitting social drama, but Esmonde and Larbey were able to mine a rich vein of comedy. As well as Dunstable and Duffy, the pupils included flash Peter Craven, sexy Sharon Eversleigh, overwrought Maureen Bullock, and ( my favourite ) Frankie Abbott, a would-be hard case who turns into a mummy's boy when threatened ( the inspiration for 'Ralph Tanner' in Esmonde and Larbey's later sitcom 'The Other One', possibly? ). 'Mr.Cromwell' presided over a crack teaching force consisting of cynical Welshman 'Mr.Price', frosty 'Miss Ewell' ( she and the headmaster had a thing going in the first two series ), and the long overdue for retirement 'Mr.Smith'. Hedges commanded respect from 5C, and he in turn often got them out of trouble. In a funny sort of way, he became a father figure. This was most apparent in the episode 'Situations Vacant', when he stood up to Dennis' drunken, violent father ( the excellent Peter Bayliss ).

'Please Sir' was a big hit for I.T.V., ( unsurprisingly, its biggest fans were children ) alongside other L.W.T. shows such as 'On The Buses' and 'Doctor In The House'. The first series boasted forty minute long episodes, in common with other L.W.T. sitcoms of the time, but subsequent seasons adopted the standard twenty-five minute length. In 1971, the inevitable feature film spin-off appeared - one of the better ones, it has to be said. After three seasons, Hedges married the lovely Penny ( Jill Kerman ) and resigned from Fenn St. School. In his place came 'David Ffitchett-Brown' played by the late Richard Warwick, an altogether trendier ( and less likable ) character. The pupils changed too, for the worse. The dim-witted 'Gobber Gibbons' ( Charles Bolton ) made 'Abbott' seem like Professor Stephen Hawking. The ratings plummeted and the show was cancelled. However, the old Fenn Street gang made a welcome reappearance in one of the last episodes ( 'Old Fennians Day' ). Eventually, they got their own show, which ran to three seasons.

'Please Sir' was of its time, when school milk was free, pupils could not rely on parents to drive them to and from school, and the cane frequently used to punish bad behaviour. It should be seen not as a social document, however, but a comedy show and a good one at that. Was the above review useful to you? 3 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Better Than Average School Comedy from United States 25 November 2010 For the first three seasons, this show was very good. It is the story of an idealistic teacher played by John Alderton who becomes the teacher for the unruly students of class 5C. The students (some of whom looked older than their school ages) aren't bad kids, but they are from a working class background, kind of a rough upbringing. They are naturally not trusting of authority, and Alderton does a good job as the teacher that they actually, if not love, at least respect. There are other characters, like Norman (Deryck Guyler), who is the comic foil most often, the somewhat doddering Headmaster (Mr.

Howlett) and the tough as nails Doris (Joan Sanderson), but the show is best when it revolves around 5C. After three seasons the kids of 5C were no longer in the series, neither was Alderton. The show went on for another season, but the momentum was lost. Not a laugh riot, it is better than most school comedies. Its more realistic than Welcome Back Kotter, which I like mostly for nostalgic reasons. I recommend this, you don't have to be British to like it. The movie of "Please Sir" is also recommended, it is fun. Was the above review useful to you? 2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: School Days 11 July 2010 *** This review may contain spoilers *** How today's teachers must look back at programmes like this and lament the passing of innocence and discipline. This series introduced a young John Alderton as Fresh-faced Mr Hedges taking on the tyrants of class 5C. A motley working-class crew of young and not-so-young actors and actresses replicated an adolescent version of the 'Bash Street Kids' at some deprived inner-city school. It was a sitcom version of 'To Sir, With Love'.

Extremely popular in its time. There were great performances from a number of TV familiars, not least of which was old stalwart Derek Guyler, as the cantankerous janitor. Later series declined as a consequence of actor changes. The format had probably run its course anyway. The early series are the best, and still worth a watch for the sake of nostalgia. You couldn't make a sitcom out of inner-city school-life today. Its routine of violence, foul-language, and feral indiscipline is now just a terrifying tragedy. Was the above review useful to you? Terrific, at least initially from United Kingdom 29 July 2016 As an exemplar of ensemble sitcom Please,Sir! would be very hard to beat. The first two series certainly contained both scripts and performances that would put much else to shame.Anyone who has been through the English state school system in the last 50 years would recognise most of the character types and this realism certainly added to the charm.

John Alderton was well cast as the young idealist but arguably overshadowed by the simply peerless Joan Sanderson as frosty deputy head Miss Ewell and the great Derek Guyler as the war obsessed caretaker,and every school that I ever attended had a miserable physics teacher , pens in breast pocket, who openly hated teaching as presented here by Richard Price. The pupils were an almost equally solid troupe- although quite visibly 10 years too old for the roles - and over all it just worked superbly well. Sadly , like most sitcoms, it outstayed it's welcome and by the final series was almost unrecognisable with a changed cast and weaker, sometimes repeating, scripts but for the first two series this was as good as it got and even stands up well to nostalgic viewing nearly fifty years later. Great stuff Was the above review useful to you? Please Sir! - British Comedy Television Please Sir! Series Four Please Sir! An astounding success for ITV on its original transmission, Please, Sir! featured John Alderton as Bernard Hedges, a newly-qualified teacher thrown in at the deep end when he is assigned to sort out the unruly class 5C at Fenn Street Secondary Modern School.

Ably helped by his fellow teachers Doris Ewell and Mr. Price, he has to combat the wiles of school caretaker Norman Potter and the full might of Class 5C! Number of Series: 4 Episodes: 55 Transmitted: 1968 - 1972 First Episode: 11th November 1968 Last Episode: 12th February 1972 Synopsis Taken From DVD Cover ©2006 Network Film Images ©1968 London Weekend Television Limited BFI Screenonline: Larbey, Bob (1934-) and Esmonde, John (1937-2008) Biography and Bob Larbey began writing comedy material together as a means of escape from the dull routine of their office jobs. Four years of effort and rejection ensued, but by 1965 a number of their jokes and sketches began to appear on BBC radio shows. With a foot in the door, television work soon followed. Their first televised work, Room at the Bottom (BBC, tx.

14/06/1966), was featured in the long-running series Comedy Playhouse (BBC, 1961-74). Featuring a team of maintenance men working in an office block, it was considered at the time to be promising enough to warrant a full series. This duly emerged the following year, but it failed to live up to expectations and never progressed beyond a run of seven episodes. Their next series, however, established them as a television writing partnership of note. Starring John Alderton as timid teacher Bernard Hedges, nominally in charge of the unruly and raucous Class 5C, Please, Sir! (ITV, 1968-72) proved enormously popular with viewers. It became one of ITV's most watched sitcoms of the period, spawning the inevitably weak feature film spin-off (d. Mark Stuart, 1971) and two television sequels, The Fenn Street Gang and Felicity Kendal played suburban couple Tom and Barbara Good, who leave the rat race in an attempt to become self-sufficient. Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith played their neighbours and best friends, Jerry and Margo Leadbetter.

The very gentleness of the humour in combination with its pronounced middle-class setting made it an unwarranted target for vilification in some quarters. However, the quality of the scripts and the faultless performances of the four leads have helped the series to remain relatively fresh while other contemporary comedy series characterised by a supposedly more cutting edge humour have dated badly. Having built up a rapport with Briers Richard Davies obituary | Television & radio | The Guardian Television & radio Richard Davies obituary Welsh actor who starred in film, TV and stage productions ranging from Please Sir! to Under Milk Wood Richard Davies as Mr Price in the sitcom Please Sir!, which ran from 1968 to 1972.

Photograph: ITV/Rex Thursday 15 October 2015 13.14 EDT Last modified on Wednesday 21 October 2015 17.00 EDT Share on Messenger Close As the philosophical science teacher Mr Price, notable for his sarcastic wit, in the television sitcom Please Sir!, Richard Davies, who has died aged 89, was the perfect foil to the programme’s star, John Alderton, who played the idealistic, newly qualified Bernard Hedges, in charge of the unruly Class 5C. “I pity you,” Price would tell him. Bob Larbey and John Esmonde ’s creation, set in Fenn Street secondary modern school and watched by up to 20 million viewers, ran from 1968 to 1972 and featured memorable, well-drawn characters in both the classroom and staffroom. Other teachers seen alongside Price were the incompetent head, Mr Cromwell (Noel Howlett), tyrannical assistant head, Miss Ewell (Joan Sanderson), and the doddering Mr Smith (Erik Chitty).

Davies also appeared in the 1971 film spin-off and, in the same year, in the sitcom’s sequel, The Fenn Street Gang, which followed pupils’ fortunes on leaving the school. Earlier, he played another Welshman in the much lauded 1964 film Zulu . As Private 593 Jones, he told a Swiss-born Natal Mounted Guard soldier: “This is a Welsh regiment, man – though there are some foreigners from England in it, mind. I am Jones from Bwlchgwyn.” Pinterest Richard Davies, left, with Joan Sanderson and Erik Chitty in Please Sir! Photograph: ITV/Rex Davies was at the height of his career during a period when Welsh actors were frequently typecast in “Taffy” roles and, as in Please Sir!, he was often heard to say “boyo”. However, his comedy and dramatic skills meant he was able to break out of the stereotype at times and enjoyed a long, prolific career. He was born in Dowlais, Mid Glamorgan, the son of William Davies, a railway guard, and his wife, Esther (nee Coles).

After attending school in Merthyr Tydfil, where he started acting, Davies went to work as a miner. He then briefly acted in Colwyn Bay, before joining the military police during the second world war, when he was seconded to the Combined Services Entertainment Unit. On demob, he joined the Pilgrim Players travelling theatre company, taking his professional name from the character he played in his first radio play, Dicky Bach Dwl in Night Birds. Repertory work followed across the country and Davies made his London West End debut in Little Lambs Eat Ivy (Ambassadors theatre, 1947-48). Later, he spent a season (1951-52) with the Old Vic company, touring Europe and South Africa, and he was back in the West End for Carrington VC (Westminster theatre, 1953). Following his screen debut, for the BBC in the Welsh-set Cliff Gordon play Choir Practice (1949), he played a police driver in the Ealing Studios film The Lavender Hill Mob (1951).

He was soon in demand for character roles on television, playing five different parts in the police drama No Hiding Place (1964-67). After Please Sir!, Davies became a regular in sitcoms. He played Taffy Evans, the Welshman reunited with his former English, Scottish and Irish shipmates, in Rule Britannia! (1975), and Clive, on the working men’s club committee, in Oh No It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1976-77). In Bottle Boys (1984-85), he played Stan Evans, the boss of Robin Askwith’s milkman. He played Grimble, one of the eccentric inventor’s creations, in the first series (1973) of the children’s programme Robert’s Robots, and appeared in Coronation Street as Idris Hopkins (1974-75), who worked at a foundry while his wife, Vera ( Kathy Staff ), and mother, Megan (Jessie Evans), ran the corner shop.

In one of Fawlty Towers ’s most famous episodes, The Kipper and the Corpse (1979), Davies was Mr White, who with his wife wants access to the room where another guest has died. He played Max Johnson in the Welsh soap opera Taff Acre (1981) and a Welsh holiday camp manager in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen. Showing his versatility, Davies impersonated the trade union leader Clive Jenkins in a spoof of Question Time for Not the Nine O’Clock News, and played the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Whoops Apocalypse (1982). In the 1972 film of Under Milk Wood, which starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor , he played Mr Pritchard alongside his second wife, the actor Jill Britton, whom he had married in 1955. The play was his favourite and he took the same role in a West End production of it at the Mayfair theatre in 1978. In 1996 he played Father Hopkins in the drama serial And the Beat Goes On, about Liverpool in the 1960s.

Davies is survived by Jill and their children, Glen and Nerissa, and by a son, Colin, from his first marriage, to Beryl Armstrong, which ended in divorce. • Richard Davies (Dennis Wilfred Davies), actor, born 25 January 1926; died 8 October 2015 Bob Larbey - obituary - Telegraph Obituaries Bob Larbey - obituary Bob Larbey was a scriptwriter who mined the comic potential of suburbia in The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles Bob Larbey (right) with his writing partner John Esmonde 5:46PM BST 04 Apr 2014 Bob Larbey, who has died aged 79, co-wrote with his professional partner John Esmonde some of Britain’s most popular television sitcoms, most memorably The Good Life (1975-78). Amiable and easy-going, Larbey was at school with Esmonde in south London just after the war. The pair sought escape from their humdrum jobs by spending their evenings and weekends writing comedy scripts.

By the early 1960s they had enjoyed modest success with sketches for radio programmes such as I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again and, for television, The Dick Emery Show. Bob Larbey Their first major television breakthrough, however, came in 1968 with Please, Sir!, a series for ITV set in a tough south London secondary modern school; it would generate a feature film and a television sequel, The Fenn Street Gang. Frank Muir, then head of entertainment at LWT, cast John Alderton as the idealistic young teacher Bernard “Privet” Hedges who struggled to keep the unruly pupils of Class 5C in order. Related Articles John Sullivan 24 Apr 2011 As Larbey celebrated his 40th birthday, he and Esmonde devised their most popular and successful series, The Good Life.

In the first episode, screened in 1975, Tom Good, a draughtsman for a plastics company (played by Richard Briers), himself turned 40, seizing this occasion to drop out of the rat-race by jacking in his job in favour of suburban self-sufficiency with his wife Barbara (Felicity Kendal). Rather than give up their comfortable, semi-detached home in Surbiton, the Goods turned their garden into a smallholding, with pigs, a goat, chickens and assorted fruit and vegetables. Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal in The Good Life Although the couple’s lifestyle baffled and often appalled their social-climbing neighbours, Margo (Penelope Keith) and Jerry Leadbetter (Paul Eddington), the foursome always remained friends, and it was this rapprochement that commended the series to the middle classes, at whom it was poking fun.

(Larbey himself confessed that he was too impractical to embrace self-sufficiency, but its general philosophy appealed to him.) While The Good Life was attracting some 15 million viewers a week on the BBC, Larbey and Esmonde were enjoying further success on ITV with their RAF sitcom Get Some In! (1975-78). Starring Robert Lindsay in his first important television role, and featuring Tony Selby as the drill instructor barking orders at 1950s National Service “erks”, the series drew on the writers’ own experiences (Larbey had been in the Army, and Esmonde in the RAF). After The Good Life, Larbey and Esmonde wrote three further series for Richard Briers, starting with The Other One (1977-79), in which the central character could not have been more different. Perhaps because Briers was cast as a compulsive and unscrupulous liar, the show failed to generate any of the affection viewers had felt for the wholesome Goods, and it was cancelled after only two series.

Larbey struck out on his own with A Fine Romance (1981-84), starring Judi Dench in her first television sitcom, alongside her real-life husband, Michael Williams. “From first to last,” one critic noted, “Bob Larbey’s scripts were well-written, providing not only laughs but also an underlying intelligence.” He rejoined Esmonde to create another popular and long-running vehicle for Richard Briers in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984-89), in which the star returned to suburbia as Martin Bryce, an anally-retentive fusspot and do-gooder, with Penelope Wilton as his long-suffering wife, Ann. Penelope Wilton, Richard Briers and Peter Egan in Ever Decreasing Circles In Larbey and Esmonde’s last series together, Down To Earth (1995), Briers played Tony Fairfax, an expatriate struggling to adapt after returning to Britain from South America; but once again viewers did not warm to his character, and it ran for just seven episodes.

The youngest son of a carpenter, Robert Edward John Larbey was born on June 24 1934 in Lambeth, south London, and educated at the Henry Thornton School in Clapham, where he was captain of tennis and became friends with John Esmonde, two years his junior. On leaving school Larbey took a job in an insurance office in Soho, then did National Service with the Army, stationed in Germany with the Education Corps. When he and Esmonde started writing sketches, working together at nights and weekends, they submitted a few to the BBC, which eventually accepted one for a programme starring the comedian Cyril Fletcher, earning them a joint fee of two guineas. Having saved money from their day jobs, they gave themselves three months to make a go of writing full-time. Their first radio sitcom was Spare a Copper (1965-66), featuring the Carry On film star Kenneth Connor as a bungling policeman.

The pair followed this with two further radio series, You’re Only Old Once (1969), with Clive Dunn as a spry pensioner, and Just Perfick (1969-71), adapted from the Larkin family stories of HE Bates. Meanwhile, Larbey and Esmonde had established a toehold in television, starting with sketches for The Dick Emery Show in 1963. Their first full-scale television sitcom, Room At The Bottom (1967), for the BBC, was about a gang of factory maintenance men . It made little impact, but the following year the success of Please, Sir! (1968-72) propelled them into the front rank of television comedy writers. Turned down by the BBC, the show was snapped up by ITV, attracting a weekly audience of 20 million viewers . As their careers prospered, the pair worked business hours in an office in the centre of Dorking, midway between their respective homes, often acting out scenes together and noting down spontaneous bursts of dialogue. Distractions were confined to occasional glances at televised cricket.

In the 1980s they created Brush Strokes (1986-91), in which Karl Howman starred as a womanising painter and decorator, with Gary Waldhorn as his boss. They wrote a second sitcom for Howman called Mulberry (1992-93), in which he played the manservant of a cantankerous old spinster Miss Farnaby (Geraldine McEwan). Although in The Good Life Larbey helped to make Surbiton synonymous with suburbia, he never visited the town he made famous. “To be honest, we were just looking for something that sounded like suburbia in big capital letters,” he explained. “We just picked it at random.” The series was actually filmed in Northwood, north London. In 2004, 30 years after its original screening, The Good Life was ranked ninth in a BBC poll of viewers’ favourite sitcoms. Bob Larbey married Patricia (Trish) Marshall, a script-reader for LWT, who predeceased him in 2006. Their son survives him. John Esmonde died in 2008.

Bob Larbey, born June 24 1934, died March 31 2014 This week on The Deadline, Harry de Quetteville, Christopher Howse and Bernadette McNulty discuss Kate O'Mara and her impact on Dynasty. Plus we talk to DJ Graeme Park about Frankie Knuckles and the rise and rise of House music. And following the death of Philippe Boiry, French Pretender to the "throne" of the South American "kingdom" of Araucania and Patagonia, James, Prince Royal of Sealand, talks micronations. Sealand, in case you didn't know, is a former naval structure about half the size of a football field moored seven miles off the coast of Ipswich. But it has its own coinage, passports and laws. Tune in to find out more...

Question: John Alderton played teacher Bernard Hedges in which UK television series?
Answer: Please Sir!