The acting world mourned yesterday the news that one of its most loved and much respected actors, Richard Briers, died on Sunday at the age of 79.
He was known to millions of television viewers for programmes such as the 1970s smash hit The Good Life, Ever Decreasing Circles and Monarch of the Glen and for his incredible roles in films that he was cast in by his friend Sir Kenneth Branagh such as Hamlet, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and the superb 1994 version of Frankenstein in which he starred with Robert De Niro as well as Sir Kenneth Branagh. Richard Briers had been battling a lung condition for many years, however true to the consummate professional he was he had carried on working up to the point he died.
The son of Joseph Benjamin Briers and Morna Phyllis (née Richardson), Richard Briers, like many of his generation did National Service in the R.A.F. After the “hard grind” of working as filing clerk in The Strand, London, he endured the time doing his two years for his country and relieved his time by taking part in amateur dramatics and was further encouraged by his second cousin, the renowned actor Terry Thomas, to take it further.
After finishing R.A.D.A. he made his professional debut at the Playhouse Theatre in Liverpool where he would go on to meet his wife Ann Davies who remained married to untill his death.
It will no doubt his work on television that he will be best remembered for, especially in the British classic comedy The Good Life in which he starred with Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. The show which ran for four series and two Christmas specials saw Mr. Briers play Tom Good, a man who upon reaching his 40th birthday decides to quit his comfortable but dull job and start life as self-sufficient man. Although the programme was built as vehicle for Richard Briers, who had already had hits with programmes such as Brothers-In-Law and Marriage Lines with Prunella Scales, it is testament to the man’s worth that the programme made stars and household names out of all four of the main cast.
Actress Penelope Keith, who played Margot Leadbetter in The Good Life, said of her co-star, “You will hear a lot of people saying a lot of marvellous things about Richard, and let me assure you, they are all true. He was a gentleman, he was a wonderful actor, very, very generous and one of the charming things about Richard was he was so self-depricating.”
Richard Briers said in 2012, “I actually didn’t think the series was going to be successful when I first read the script,” he said last year. “I worried that it was all a bit mundane and middle class. But the moment that my character, Tom Good, leaves his job as a draughtsman for a company that makes plastic toys for cereal packets and attempts to live off the land in Surbiton, he becomes much more interesting.”
It was a genius of a situation that was made for television, it’s easy going humour hid a simple truth of being unhappy in what you do and then deciding that something has to change to feel part of life again. Richard Briers charm, headstrong attitude and boyish grin made the idea of self- sufficiency respectable and is one of the very few programmes, alongside Dad’s Army, that gets millions of viewers whenever it is repeated on mainstream terrestrial television.
Richard Briers also became much loved by children for his voice characterisation of Enid Blyton’s Noddy and the hugely popular Rhubarb and Custard as well as providing the voice of rabbit Fiver in the animated classic Watership Down.
Too have one successful television comedy under your belt is rare, to then take part in another shows the ability of the actor to greater heights. In 1984, Mr. Briers starred in the popular situation comedy Ever Decreasing Circles with Peter Egan and Penelope Wilton. The show, which ran for three seasons saw Richard Briers play a middle-aged man, Martin Bryce, whose obsessive behaviour and settled life is threatened by the arrival of Peter Egan as his next door neighbour and whose eyes are set upon Brier’s wife, Wilton, and her affections.
In perhaps the most compelling role on television, he was cast against type in the Inspector Morse series as a cunning, conniving and immoral Master of Lonsdale College in the episode Death is now My Neighbour from 1997. It was a part that alongside his portrayal as the chief villain in the Doctor Who production of Paradise Towers and in his film career with Sir Kenneth Brannagh, showed that he was not just a master of comedy but also a wonderful and talented serious actor who could stand head and shoulders with the best of British acting. Sir Kenneth Brannagh said, “He was a national treasure, a great actor and a wonderful man. He was greatly loved and he will be deeply missed.”
With his many films for Sir Kenneth Branagh under his belt, including a particularly sensational performance as Polonius in Hamlet and a much underrated performance as Bardolph in Henry V, it was to television he returned as he once more hit the heights in The Monarch of the Glen written by Julian Fellows.
An actor of incredible repute, an inspiration to any person considering making the stage, television, radio or film their passion and one of the finest actors of his generation, Richard Briers will be greatly missed by those who saw this man’s work.
Richard David Briers O.B.E., C.B.E. born 14th January 1934 in Raynes Park, South-East London. Died 17th February 2013, aged 79. Richard Briers leaves a widow Ann and two children.
Ian D. Hall