I love the part of Hector as it takes me back to playing eccentric parts. He is a funny character, which is fine by me as I've been playing for laughs for decades now! It's lovely to get a laugh; it's the best thing in the world!

An enormously successful series the last episode in 1978 was performed in front of the Queen. In 1995 he played the character Tony Fairfax in the BBC comedy Down to Earth. In the Inspector Morse episode 'Death is Now My Neighbour' he played the evil master of Lonsdale College Sir Clixby Bream.

From the late 1980s with Kenneth Branagh as director he performed Shakespearean roles.