Judging from the mountains of mail we’ve been receiving since the first issue of LOOK-IN we thought you would like to know a little more about your favourite television personalities. We’ve selected sixteen top stars, so read on and learn some interesting facts about them.
Susan Stranks • Susan Stranks is the all-action girl in Magpie. Susan, twenty-seven, went to St. Martin’s School of Art, London, spent a year studying ballet, and has been an actress for over ten years. She is married to Robin Ray, and her father-in-law is well-known comedian, Ted Ray. One of her early television appearances was in Emergency — Ward 10.
Chris Kelly • It isn’t surprising that thirty-year-old quizmaster Chris Kelly seems to know all the answers in television programmes like Sixth Form Challenge, Junior Criss Cross Quiz and Anything You Can Do. For Cheshire-born Chris was once a schoolmaster in Sussex, teaching French and Spanish. Chris entered television eight years ago as an announcer.
Peter Denyer • Playing the dim, duncey Dennis Dunstable in Please Sir! is hardly typecasting for actor Peter Denyer. In fact, he has many academic qualifications. He’s got nine O-levels, three A-levels and once studied at Manchester University! Peter is twenty-four-years old, born in Erith, Kent, and says his main hobby is writing. He’s single and likes all kinds of sport.
Joe Brown • Joe Brown once worked selling shellfish from a barrow and as a fireman for British Railways. He started playing skiffle and has been a star since he first appeared on television in 1959. Joe is an excellent guitarist, and fives at Chigwell, Essex. His wife Vicki is often seen on television, too, as a member of The Breakaways, the girl backing group.
Wendy Padbury • Five feet tall, and, baby-faced, twenty-three-year-old Wendy first found acting fame in the fifteen months she played Dr. Who’s assistant, Zoe, although her first television part was in ITV’s serial Crossroads. She’s also played ten-year-old Alice (in Wonderland), and now she is the lively tomboy Sue Craig in the new series of Freewheelers.
Penny Spencer • As Sharon in Please Sir!, Penny Spencer became Britain’s best-known schoolgirl. But actually she’s twenty-two, married, and has appeared in many television programmes like Dixon Of Dock Green, Crossroads, and Mrs. Thursday. Penny’s own schooldays were unlike the chaotic goings-on at Fenn Street. She went to Coombe Girls School in Surrey.
Tony Bastable • A regular contributor to Look-in, Tony Bastable, twenty-six, has actually been a schoolmaster, and a newspaper reporter, before breaking into television with Southern Television’s Three Go Round. Has since worked on young people’s magazine programme Action and in Junior Sportsweek. He is married to a former publicity girl, Jane Buchan and lives in Bayswater.
Adrian Wright • Twenty-three-year-old Adrian Wright, plays Mike Hobbs, young assistant in the Freewheelers series. Adrian always wanted to be an actor and so he went straight from school into the theatre — moving scenery in the West End! He has appeared in ITV’s Frontier and Judge Dee, likes beachcombing and sailing, plays the flute and prefers opera to pop.
Bobby Bennett • Born in North Wales, Bobby Bennett first became nationally known through Opportunity Knocks — and actually auditioned for Hughie Green when he was fourteen. Song and dance man, comic, impressionist, Bobby now hosts Junior Showtime, and dashes around the country for nightclub engagements. Bobby is married, lives at Collingham Bridge, Yorkshire, and has a baby daughter, Sarah.
Roger Foss • Roger Foss (twenty-two) who plays Tinker, Cockney assistant in Sexton Blake, made up his mind to go on stage when he appeared in his school’s end of term production. “I never got the chance to act,” he said. “I was always cast as the dead body!” From the East End of London, Roger also sings and has made a record called ‘Happy Song’.
David Barry • Born in 1943, David played the weak-kneed ‘toughie’ Frankie Abbot, in Please Sir! David, who ran his own theatre company in Dublin when he was eighteen, has toured Europe with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wasn’t a very good pupil at school. “I was always in detention because I laughed at the teachers,” he said.
Leslie Crowther • Comical Leslie Crowther has a very unusual hobby — he collects Victorian pot lids! He is married with a family of four girls and a boy. He began broadcasting in children’s radio programmes while he was still at school. He’s appeared in many, many television shows, including Crackerjack, The Black and White Minstrel Show, The Saturday Crowd and his own Leslie Crowther Show.
Pete Brady • Formerly a disc jockey, Pete Brady is a member of the Magpie television team. Born in Montreal, Canada, Pete first came to Britain in 1962 when he was picked to represent the West Indies in the world water ski-ing championships! He worked in radio, in Jamaica, and has also worked for Radio Luxembourg and Radio London. He enjoys motor racing and horse riding.
Freddie Garrlty • Freddie started work as a milkman and for seven years played pop around working men’s clubs. He and his group, The Dreamers, had big record hits in 1963, such as ‘If You Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody’, ‘I’m Telling You Now’ and ‘You Were Made For Me’. Freddie is a big children’s favourite in his show, Little Big Time. He plays soccer and turns out regularly for the Show Biz XI.
Peter Cleall • That lovable rebel Eric Duffy in Please Sir! Peter Cleall attended prep, and public schools in the Brighton area, before going to drama school, into repertory and a season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. An excellent crosscountry runner, Peter plays squash and is a capable guitarist. He’s married and his wife Christine is a model.
Liz Gebhardt • Liz Gebhardt, the love-sick Maureen Bullock in Please Sir!, is married to actor Ian Talbot and has been one of Britain’s busiest young actresses since leaving the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was one of the popular radio characters in ‘The Dales’ for a year, and has appeared in Z-Cars. She appears as Rodney Bewes’ new girl friend in ‘Dear Mother, Love Albert’.
You Say
3 responses to this article
Paul Mason wrote29 July 2017 at 5:59 am
Of this list Tony Bastable, Liz Gebhardt,Leslie Crowther and Freddie Garrity are no longer with us. Joe Brown does 60s shows but all the others are either retired or no longer doing TV. Freddie and the Dreamers were the first pop group to appear on Blue Peter, and the group featured in Little Big Time from Yorkshire TV in their early days.
Paul Mason wrote1 August 2017 at 11:38 pm
Sadly I have to add Peter Denyer to the list of deceased from this item.
Paul Mason wrote1 August 2017 at 11:42 pm
Also I have to add Adrian Wright to this sad list. All the rest are still alive as of August 2017.
You Say
3 responses to this article
Paul Mason wrote 29 July 2017 at 5:59 am
Of this list Tony Bastable, Liz Gebhardt,Leslie Crowther and Freddie Garrity are no longer with us.
Joe Brown does 60s shows but all the others are either retired or no longer doing TV. Freddie and the Dreamers were the first pop group to appear on Blue Peter, and the group featured in Little Big Time from Yorkshire TV in their early days.
Paul Mason wrote 1 August 2017 at 11:38 pm
Sadly I have to add Peter Denyer to the list of deceased from this item.
Paul Mason wrote 1 August 2017 at 11:42 pm
Also I have to add Adrian Wright to this sad list. All the rest are still alive as of August 2017.
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