I reluctantly left the series because a) my age. I'm 68 tomorrow and time is very precious for me to spend time at home with my family and especially with the grandchildren. They're aged 7 and 5. After three years I became homesick for my home.

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.