Catching up, as I always do each Christmas, on the film ‘Oliver,’ I still, despite seeing it so many times, marvel at its quality, from the songs, to the costumes to the casting. It’s always good to see the work of Harry Secombe and Peggy Mount for example, shining in a top-drawer supporting cast, and then there is Leonard Rossiter, as the funeral director Mr Sowerby, well before he came to national prominence in the TV roles of  Rupert Rigsby in the seminal comedy Rising Damp or later as Reginal Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

‘It occurred to me, he’d make a delightful coffin follower. That expression of melancholy. I don’t mean a regular coffin follower to attend grown up people, no, no, no. For children’s funerals…

He was born in the October of 1926 in Wavertree, Liverpool , above the barber shop owned by his father John. A bright child, his schooling was somewhat disrupted by World War Two, firstly by being evacuated for 18 months, and then by losing his father in the Liverpool blitz in 1941, whilst he served as a volunteer ambulance man.

As a result , Leonard didn’t take up a place at Liverpool University that had been offered. Instead, he completed his national service.

‘I was in just before the end of the Japanese war. The war in Germany was over, clearly why I went to Germany at that time…to teach soldiers, most of whom had missed schooling during the war, to read and write. It was weird really. I was immediately made a sergeant. Well, you had to have some sort of rank because as a private in the classroom, teaching old soldiers their A, B, C, you’d soon have been given the brush off. I spent most of the time writing their letters home, you know ‘Dear Mum…’
Upon being demobbed, he got his head down and worked for six years as an insurance clerk . Then, attending a local Amateur Dramatic performance one night, which included his then girlfriend in the cast, he mocked some of the performances.
Challenged to see if he could do any better, he accepted and appeared in Flare Path by Terence Rattigan. Enjoying the experience, he then gave up his job and joined the Preston repertory theatre in 1953 aged 27.

‘Really, it was only to see more of the girl. Then I got more interested in the stage than I did in the girl.’

Good at it, he found he was in demand and very busy, appearing in 75 roles in just over 18 months.

‘There was no time to discuss the finer points of interpretation. You studied the part, you did it and then you studied the next part. I developed a frightening capacity for learning lines. The plays became like Elastoplast, which you just stuck on and then tore off. It was the perfect preparation for rehearsing situation comedy on television at the rate of one episode a week.’

He worked at the very reputable Bristol Old Vic from 1959 to 61, concentrating on stage work, though he turned up in some early 60s seminal films such as Billy Liar and A Kind of Loving

Curious system of bookkeeping you seem to have adopted

‘I think I sensed fairly early on that I was not physically or facially built in the way that would ever fit even remotely into heroic or what used to be called juvenile parts. I always played character parts – right from the start.’

Early TV roles included, Z Cars, The Avengers and Steptoe and Son, first in 1964 and later again in 1972, in  the episode The Desperate Hours.

Back on stage, he then won rave reviews for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler as a gangster turned dictator, in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht. It’s West End debut in July 1969 at the Saville Theatre is still talked about in the theatrical circles. As a result, he won three awards for his performance.

‘Prize giving in acting is very pleasant and it’s nice to win, but it’s all a bit ridiculous. How can you compare two actors’ performances in quite different plays? I’m not saying prizes shouldn’t exist, because I’ve had a few myself, but they’re not to be taken seriously.’

Other film roles include Smyslov in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey , Captain John Quin in Barry Lyndon and as Quinlan in The Pink Panther Strikes Again in 1976. The TV series Rising Damp began in 1974, with Rossiter reprising the role of Rigsby from the stage version, which was called The Banana Box with Wilfred Brambell in the then named Rooksby role, as the landlord was then called. The TV show starred Frances de la Tour as Miss Jones, Richard Beckinsale as Alan and Don Warrington as Philip.

‘D’you know, the only woman I really fancied in those days was Greer Garson. Used to see all of her films. Her and Walter Pidgeon. My God, they don’t make films like that anymore, mate. Yes, always wanted to marry a woman like that.

Was your wife like Greer Garson?

No…more like Walter Pidgeon…’

‘I never wanted to do a series. Normally you make up your mind on the basis of the script for the first episode. By the time you get to the third, the standard has gone down, and by the time you get to the fifth, you wish you’d never done it. People ask me regularly if I have based the character on a particular landlord. Happily, I only knew landladies – and very nice they were, too!’

What about a waltz then!

He then took the lead role of Reginald Perrin  in the series written by David Nobbs in 1976. The story concerns the middle-aged  Reggie Perrin, who embarks on bizarre behaviour, caused by the mundanity and pointless nature of his job.

Twenty-two minutes late, fed up by train delays, came by bike. Slow puncture at Peckham.

Later TV work dried up a touch, but he appeared in the short film ‘Le Petomane’ playing the part of Joseph Pujol, who earned a living as a flatulist or to put it another way, a professional farter. The script was provided by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, of Steptoe and Son fame.

His fondly remembered TV adverts for the drinks company Cinzano, in which he starred with Joan Collins, have become firm favourites in subsequent  years

‘Oh can’t you just smell those Italian wines, suffused with herbs and spices from four continents.

Getting your head down sweetie? Jolly good idea!“

“It doesn’t require a great deal of acting brightness or intelligence. And the rewards are inordinately high for going through the motions.*

He appeared in the film version of Rising Damp in 1980 and the film Britannia Hospital directed by Lindsay Anderson in 1982.

He was married twice. First to actress Josephine Tewson, divorcing in 1961, and then actress Gillian Raine, with whom he had a daughter Camilla.

Away from acting, he was a fan of Everton FC, a wine connoisseur and a keen squash player.

Leonard Rossiter died of a congenital disease of the heart muscle whilst performing in a stage version of Loot in 1984 aged 57.

I’ll leave the final words to him – 

‘Television. An advanced technical method of stopping people making their own entertainment.’

 

The Mumper of SE5

Read The Mumper’s other weekly musings on ‘The Speakeasy’ blog page

 

 

 

 

ART GALLERY CLOTHING

NEW Knitwear available now

 

 

JOIN US

Sign up to our newsletter and receive an exclusive promo code, latest news & Art Gallery Clothing offers.