Richard Briers

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Richard David Briers, (14 January 1934 to 17 February 2013), was an English actor.

His fifty-year career included television, stage, film, and radio. As George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961-66), he came to fame as George Starling (1961–76), but it wasn't until he played Roobarb and Nelly (1974–77) that he became a household name.

He appeared in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and he played Martin in Monarch of the Glen (2000–05).

He appeared in Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006), which was written by Kenneth Branagh as director.

Early life

Briers was born in Raynes Park, Surrey, the son of Joseph Benjamin Briers and his second wife Morna Phyllis, daughter of Frederick Richardson. He was the first cousin of actor Terry-Thomas (Terry-Thomas was his father's cousin). He spent his childhood in Raynes Park, England, in the building behind the now demolished Rialto cinema, and later in Guildford. Joseph Briers, the son of a Middlesex tenant farmer's, was a gregarious and popular man who performed at a variety of professions, as well as an outstanding amateur musician who attended classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Morna Briers, a concert pianist and a music educator, and a member of Equity who aspired for a showbusiness career after being involved in her youth. Joseph Briers had arranged Morna to sit in for his regular pianist's appearance at a concert, but by this time, their first marriage had failed and six months later, they were in love. Despite not being wealthy or having lived in slightly reduced circumstances in India before returning to England and learning at Wimbledon, the family occasionally received funds from a wealthy relative and Briers' maternal grandparents for his education.

Briers attended Rokeby School in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, and after failing the entrance exam for King's College School, the Ridgeway School in Wimbledon, which was unaffordably.

Personal life

When Ann Davies was employed as a stage manager, they had appeared on television and in films from the mid-1950s. He borrowed £5 from his mother, bought an engagement ring, and they were married within six months. They had two children, one of whom, Lucy, is also an actress; Kate (or Katie) has worked in stage direction and is a primary school teacher.

Before being cast in The Good Life, Briers and his buddy Paul Eddington shared a similar sense of humour, and they knew each other. Briers accepted a part in David Storey's play Home in 1994, deciding to film all of the interviews to allow Eddington time for his treatment. Briers read both from Cymbeline and Wodehouse at Eddington's memorial service, and on BBC Radio 4, he later read chapters from Eddington's autobiography.

Memories of a Cad, an affectionate comedy drama starring Terry Terry and Briers, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014. Terry-Thomas, who suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years, is delighted by the trip to Ibiza by the much younger Briers, who he recognizes from television and who has his first cousin whom was not removed once more. Briers celebrate his longtime actor's career, recalling that the film star has long departed. In 2016, it was re-broadcast.

Briers became President of Parkinson's United Kingdom as a result of Terry-Thomas' Parkinson's illness. He also helped with the launch of a Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association campaign. Briers was also a non-medical patron of the TOFS (Tranography-Oesophageal Fistula Support) charity, which helps children and families of children born in inability to swallow.

Although on holiday, Briers confessed that they loved being acknowledged, adding, "I'm gregarious by nature, so I love talking to people." It really cheers me up."

In 1988, Briers became a keen tourer of Britain's historic churches, and he visited over one hundred churches for his book, English Country Churches, which was published in 1988. He served in the Royal Air Force as a supporter for the RAF Bomber Command's national memorial.

Briers were appointed OBE in 1989 and CBE in 2003.

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Early career

For a short time, he was a clerical job with a London cable company, but then he dropped to evening classes to study electrical engineering, but soon enough, he became a filing clerk.

He served in the RAF for two years as a filing clerk at RAF Northwood, where he met future George and Mildred actor Brian Murphy. Murphy introduced Briers, who had been interested in acting since the age of 14, to the Dramatic Society at the Borough Polytechnic Institute, now London South Bank University, where he appeared in several productions.

He left the Royal Air Forces and enrolled in RADA, which he attended from 1954 to 1956. Later credited academy director John Fernald with nurturing his talent after being placed in a class with Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney. He earned a scholarship with the Liverpool Repertory Company and then moved to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry for six months after graduating from RADA with a silver medal. He made his West End debut in Lionel Hale's production of Gilt and Gingerbread in 1959.

Television career

Briers appeared in Marriage Lines (1961–66), with Prunella Scales playing his wife. Briers appeared in Brothers in Law (from Henry Cecil's book) as callow barrister Roger Thursby in 1962, a distinction that existed between the pilot and the series itself. He was portrayed in this role by adaptors Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who had not seen him in the West End.

Jim's other appearances included The Seven Faces of Jim (1961) with Jimmy Edwards, Dixon of Dock Green (1962), a No.l Coward's Hay Fever (1968) and the storyteller in several episodes of Jackanory (1969). He appeared in Ben Travers Farce's "Rookery Nook" on the BBC in 1970. He appeared in many Shakespearean performances, including Twelfth Night, in the 1980s.

In May 1972 and March 1994, Briers appeared on This Is Your Life on two occasions.

Briers was cast in The Good Life (1975–78), playing Tom Good, a draughtsman who decides, on his 40th birthday, to give up his career and try his hand at self-sufficiency with the help of his wife Barbara, played by Felicity Kendal. The producers requested that Brian Eddington, a fellow council member of Equity, play Jerry in the role of Jerry. The last episode of Queen Elizabeth II was a hugely popular series. Penelope Keith, the co-star of Penelope Keith's The Good Life, appeared in Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests in 1977. Ralph appeared in 13 episodes of The Other One (1977–79) with Michael Gambon.

Briers appeared in several television shows during the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Kent, Mr Kent (1982), a rare flop that also starred Hannah Gordon, the lead role of Martin Bryce in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and If You See God, Tell Him (1993). Albert Dobson appeared in All in Good Faith (1985), Tales of the Unexpected (1990) and the first episode of Mr. Bean (1990) as Mr. Sprout. He appeared in 1987 as the principal villain in the Doctor Who serial Paradise Towers, a feat that was described by Radio Times writer Patrick Mulkern as "career poor" in Briers. In 1995, he played Tony Fairfax in the BBC comedy Down to Earth. He played the evil master of Lonsdale College, Sir Clixby Bream, in Inspector Morse's "Death is Now My Neighbour."

Hector MacDonald, the country's longest-serving father, appeared in series 1, 2, 3, and 7.

Later career

Since 1990, he appeared in Lovejoy, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders' "Death's Shadow" as Stephen Wentworth, Doctors, New Tricks, Kingdom, and If You See God, Tell Him. Richard Briers appeared in the first three Monarch of the Glen series from 2000 to 2002 (and as a guest in series 7 in 2005), a role that saw him return to the limelight. He made "Sonnet 55" on the 2002 compilation album When Love Speaks, which features well-known actors and musicians performing Shakespeare's sonnets and play excerpts. He appeared alongside Kevin Whately in Dad, a BBC Wales film that was released in 2005 looking at elder abuse issues. In 2006, he appeared in an episode of Extras, and in Kenneth Branagh's 2006 Shakespeare revival, As You Like It. In the 2008 Torchwood film "A Day in the Death," he made a cameo appearance as a dying recluse. Wilson appeared in Agatha Christie's Marple in 2009 "Why didn't they ask Evans?" Wilson asks.

Briers appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on December 17, 2000. "Di quella pira" by Giuseppe Verdi, "I Feel A Song Leaving" by Al Jolson, and "On the Sunny Side of the Street" by Louis Armstrong were among his musical choices. George Frideric Handel's favorite work was the Organ Concerto in F major "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale."

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