TOP OF HIS CLASS (REMEMBERING GEOFFREY PALMER)

 

Geoffrey Palmer's screen persona was that of the droll, often gruff Englishman.

Mostly known for his work on sitcoms, Palmer rarely cracked a smile as his characters often poked fun at the pomposity of those in authority.

He had an unerring gift for comedy which led to him working with the likes of Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Billy Connolly, Steve Martin and John Cleese who he collaborated with on a number of projects.

But his career also saw him work with some of Britain's more experimental film and television directors including Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson, John Mackenzie and Peter Greenaway.

Born in London in 1927, Palmer had a background in the military - serving as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines for two years under national service between 1946 and 1948.

Palmer trained as an accountant but was lured into acting by a love of the theatre and a girlfriend who persuaded him to take up amateur drama.

Bitten by the acting bug, he decided to pursue it as a career and landed s job as an assistant stage manager at Croydon's Grand Theatre.

This paved the way for him acting onstage and he served his time honing his skills in touring repetory theatre.

Roles in television soon followed and he soon found himself rubbing shoulders with William Hartnell, Alfie Bass, Bernard Bresslaw and Bill Fraser in various episodes of the ITV sitcom 'The Army Game,' playing a range of characters. 

More television roles followed, with Palmer appearing in episodes of hit shows like ITV's 'The Avengers,' 'The Saint,' 'Gideon's Way' and 'The Baron'.

There was an acclaimed performance alongside Ralph Richardson in a production of John Osborne's 'West of Suez' at the Royal Court and he also joined the National Theatre, enjoying huge success in a Laurence Olivier directed producton of J B Priestly's 'Eden End'.

Palmer appeared on the big screen in a supporting role as a military policeman.in Cliff Owen's acclaimed 1962 Suez Crisis heist movie 'A Prize of Arms' with Stanley Baker, Patrick Magee, Helmut Schmid, Tom Bell, Fulton Mackay and Rodney Bewes.

Other films followed, with appearances in Norman Harrison's 1963 crime drama 'Incident at Midnight' with William Sylvester, Robert Tronson's 'Ring of Spies' and an uncredited role in Melville Shaveldon's big budget, star studded Arab-Israeli War drama 'Cast A Giant Shadow' with Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Angie Dickinson, Topol, Gordon Jackson, Michael Hirdern and briefly, Michael Douglas.

Palmer continued to graft away with roles on TV, memorably appearing as a property agent in Ken Loach's controversial, game changing 1966 drama 'Cathy Come Home' for the BBC's 'Wednesday Play'.

He played a doctor in Lindsay Anderson's 1973 satire 'Oh Lucky Man!' with Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Arthur Lowe, Helen Mirren, Graham Crowden and Dandy Nichols.

There were appearances too in hit TV shows like the BBC's science fiction series 'Doctor Who' and the prisoner of war drama 'Colditz'.

However it was his performance as Jimmy Anderson, the clueless and unhinged brother in law in the hit BBC1 sitcom 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' with Leonard Rossiter that really registered with audiences.

It paved the way for a much loved role as the world weary dentist Ben Parkinson in Carla Kane's hugely popular domestic sitcom 'Butterflies' with Wendy Craig, in which her character teetered on the brink of an affair.

Palmer's performance as an emotionally stunted middle class father unaware of his wife's mid life crisis and unable to understand his carefree teenage sons, played by Andrew Hall and Nicholas Lyndhurst, struck a chord with viewers.

The BBC1 show ran for four series between 1783 and 1973 and its popularity was such that there was a brief reunion in 2000 in a sketch written for the BBC's annual telethon 'Children In Need'.

From that point, Palmer was rarely off British TV screens.

There were memorable appearances in ITV's hit detective show 'The Sweeney', in 'The Professionals' and as a frustrated doctor in a classic episode of the great John Cleese and Connie Booth BBC sitcom 'Fawlty Towers' in which a guest at the hotel dies.

In 1980, he turned up as a headmaster in an episode of 'The Goodies'.

There was an appearance that year in Tony Luraschi's controversial Northern Ireland Troubles movie 'The Outsider' with Craig Wasson, Sterling Hayden and Niall O'Brien.

He was the Foreign Secretary in ITV's six part small screen version of the political satire 'Whoops Apocalypse' in 1982 with Barry Morse, John Cleese, Peter Jones, John Barron and Rik Mayall.

In 1983, Palmer popped up as the British Ambassador in John Mackenzie's big screen adaptation of Graham Greene's South American tale 'The Honorary Consul' with Michael Caine, Richard Gere, Elpidia Carrillo and Bob Hoskins.

Palmer sort of reprised his Reginald Perrin role in the Channel 4 sitcom 'Fairly Secret Army' in which his barmy ex-Army major tries to train his own paramilitary group formed to rescue Britain from trade union militancy.

Co-starring Michael Robbins, Liz Fraser and Ray Winstone and initially script edited by John Cleese, it ran for two series.

Peter Greenaway directed him in a supporting role in the acclaimed 1985 arthouse film 'A Zed and Two Noughts' with Andrea Ferreol, Brian and Eric Deacon, Frances Barber and Joss Ackland.

In 1986, he joined Michael Cashman, Barbara Flynn, Anna Massey and Peter Vaughan in a BBC adaptation of Alan Aykbourn's hit Festive farce 'Season's Greetings'.

There was another stint in an ITV sitcom satirising the newspaper industry 'Hot Metal' with Robert Hardy, Richard Wilson and John Gordon Sinclair, in which he played the editor of the country's most boring newspaper, The Crucible whose new proprietor decides to turn it into a tabloid.

Palmer was perfectly cast in 1986 as a headmaster in Christopher Morgan's Michael Frayn scripted slapstick comedy 'Clockwise' with John Cleese, Penelope Wilton, Sharon Maiden, Alison Steadman and Stephen Moore.

The film was a success in Britain and led to Cleese making the internationally successful, Oscar winning comedy 'A Fish Called Wanda' two years later with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin and Tom Georgeson in which Palmer had a minor role as a judge.

There was an appearance as a SAAB salesman in Robert Ellis Miller's largely unnoticed 1988 comedy movie 'Hawks' with Timothy Dalton and Janet McTeer.

Palmer turned up in 1988 in BBC2's four-part Dennis Potter miniseries 'Christabel' about an Englishwoman married to a German lawyer during World War II with Elizabeth Hurley, Stephen Dillane and Sam Kelly.

A year later, he memorably spoofed Field Marshal Douglas Haig in 'Blackadder Goes Forth,' sweeping model soldiers off a table with a dustpan and brush.

There were appearances in episodes of ITV's 'Inspector Morse' with John Thaw and BBC1's 'Bergerac' before he landed his other much loved sitcom role, the former soldier Lionel Hardcastle in the romantic sitcom 'As Time Goes By' with Judi Dench.

Created by Bob Larbey, the story of two lovers rekindling a relationship which fell apart by accident 35 years previously was a huge success with audiences not just in Britain but in the US where it ran on PBS stations and also around the world.

There were nine series, with the show coming to an end in 2002 - although a two part reunion was screened in 2005.

In 1994, Palmer returned to the cinema with a performance as a pompous doctor in Nicholas Hytner's critically and commercially successful big screen version of Alan Bennett's hit play 'The Madness of King George' with Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Amanda Donohoe and Rupert Everett.

Palmer took on the role of the narrator in the CITV animated 'Mister Men and Little Miss' series, following in the footsteps of Arthur Lowe.

In 1997, Palmer was again brilliantly cast as Queen Victoria's disapproving chief secretary Henry Ponsonby in John Madden's well received drama 'Mrs Brown' with Judi Dench, Billy Connolly and Anthony Sher.

He turned up that year as an Admiral in Roger Spottiswoode's 007 thriller 'Tomorrow Never Dies' with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, Judi Dench, Teri Hatcher, Jonathan Pryce and Michelle Yeoh.

The following year, he played The White King in a Channel 4 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' with Kate Beckinsale, Ian Holm, Sian Philips, Steve Coogan and Ian Richardson.

There was a small role in 1999 as a British peer in Andy Tennant's drama 'Anna and the King' - a hit reworking of 'The King and I' with Jodie Foster, Chow Yun Fat and Bai Ling.

Palmer landed another role as a doctor in Steve Barron's 2000 Dublin comedy movie 'Rat' with Pete Postletwaite, Imelda Staunton, Niall Tobin, Frank Kelly, Kerry Condon and David Wilmot. 

In 2001, Palmer played Marcus Brigstocke's retired father in the shortlived sitcom 'The Savages' which ran for one series on BBC1.

He appeared in 2002 as a peer in an episode of the BBC2 public relations sitcom 'Absolute Power' with Stephen Fry and John Bird. 

Palmer also had a small role in P J Hogan's lush 2003 big screen adaptation of 'Peter Pan' with Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lynn Redgrave, Saffron Burrows, Olivia Williams and Richard Briers.

In 2004, the actor was the recipient of an OBE in the New Year's Honours.

He lent his voice as the narrator of the popular BBC2 series 'Grumpy Old Men' which featured interviews with celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson, Rick Wakeman, John Humphrys, John Peel, Bob Geldof, Des Lynam and Rick Stein about the aspects of life that most irritate them.

Palmer joined Bill Nighy, Geraldine James, Laura Fraser and Anna Massey in a BBC1 Andrew Davies' miniseries adaptation of Anthony Trollope's 'He Knew He Was Right'.

He portrayed the British legal figure Lord Scarman in the final episode of the first series of BBC1's hit time travelling detective series 'Ashes to Ashes' with Keeley Hawes and Philip Glenister which aired in 2008.

In the 2008 BBC4 Margaret Thatcher biopic 'The Long Walk To Finchley' with Andrea Riseborough and Rory Kinnear, Palmer depicted the veteran Tory MP for the constituency Sir John Crowden who she replaced and who took an instant dislike to her, trying unsuccessfully to block her rise.

Palmer took a brief break from portraying British establishment figures to play Commissioner Joubert opposite Steve Martin's bungling Inspector Clouseau in Harald Zwart's 2009 'Pink Panther 2' with John Cleese, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Jeremy Irons, Johnny Hallyday and Lily Tomlin.

There was an unlikely collaboration in 2011 with Madonna who directed him in 'WE,' her take on the Edward and Mrs Simpson story with Andrea Riseborough, James d'Arcy, Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, James Fox and Richard Coyle, in which he played the Conservative politician Stanley Baldwin.

On the small screen, he would appear in shows like 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' on ITV, the CBeebies show 'Grandpa In My Pocket' with James Bolam and in the BBC2 Church of England sitcom 'Rev' with Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman and Simon McBurney.

He was the Lord Chief Justice in Richard Eyre's version of Shakespeare's 'Henry IV, Part II,' under the BBC's 'The Hollow Crown' banner, with Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Simon Russell Beale, Julie Walters, Maxine Peake, Iain Glen, David Bamber and Paul Ritter.

In 2014, Palmer played a head geographer in Paul King's smash hit movie of 'Paddington' with Ben Wishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi and Nicole Kidman.

But away from the cameras, Palmer guarded his privacy and did very little to court publicity - popping up in 2011 to lend his support to the campaign against the British Government's HS2 high speed rail plans.

He always said his policy was never to turn down a role and he continued to work in his final year, playing the former Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher in John Hay's Roald Dahl biopic 'An Unquiet Life' with Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes and Sam Heughan.

Palmer was adored by those who worked with him but also by the legions of fans who particularly enjoyed his sitcom work over the years.

Few actors portrayed the repressed upper middle class English male as well as him.

He was quite simply one of the best English comedy actors to ever grace our screens.

(Geoffrey Palmer passed away at the age of 93 on November 5, 2020)