Gavin Richards
Encyclopedia
Gavin Richards is a British
actor
, writer and director. His father is music critic Denby Richards, emeritus editor of Britain's oldest classical music magazine, Musical Opinion
.
From 1987-89, he portrayed Captain Alberto Bertorelli
in the BBC
sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
.
, Richards worked as an actor, director and writer in theatre, television and film for over forty years. He is most familiar for his portrayal of Terry Raymond
in the BBC
TV series EastEnders
, appearing in over 300 episodes. He is also remembered as Captain Alberto Bertorelli
in the TV comedy hit 'Allo 'Allo!
in which he appears in over thirty episodes. His television credits also include roles in Coronation Street
, Hi-de-Hi!
(where he had a minor role in series 4/5 and 7 in the BBC series, as general manager Harold Fox, aka The Smiling Viper), The Bill
, Lovejoy
, Minder
, Inspector Morse
, A Touch of Frost, Between the Lines and Pie In The Sky. He co starred with Robert Powell
in Hannay, with Leigh Lawson
in Kinsey
, Michael Kitchen
in The Reporters
and with Rowan Atkinson
in Full Throttle. He also starred in the series Annie's Bare, Driving Ambition, Hardwicke House
, Mike & Angelo and many other programmes. He has appeared in films, amongst others, with Robin Williams
in Being Human, with Oliver Reed
and Glenda Jackson
in Michael Apted
's Triple Echo, and in the New Zealand
film Savage Play.
As a director and actor in the theatre, Richards is famous for translating the work of Dario Fo
into the English language
in his own West End hit production of Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
(Wyndham's Theatre
, 1980) for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. He also directed and starred in the production for Channel 4
TV in the UK. Gavin played Face in Griff Rhys Jones
’s production of The Alchemist
at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and toured in the lead role in Jack Shepard’s Comic Cuts. He worked as a guest artist on the BBC
/SPP TV co production of Kidnapped
, and the TVNZ production of The Lost Children
, both shot entirely in New Zealand
. Gavin has performed at the London Palladium
in the stage production of Allo 'Allo, which also toured New Zealand and Australia
.
Richards’ theatre career in began with five years working as a leading actor in repertory in Leicester
, Manchester
, Bolton
, Liverpool
and Bristol
. He directed Shane Connaughton
's first play, Jenny at the Roundhouse
, London, in 1969. In the 1970s he performed throughout Europe
and Scandinavia
with Ken Campbell
’s Roadshow, before becoming a founder member of the 7:84 Theatre Company and Artistic Director of the Belt & Braces Theatre Company, touring Britain for over twelve years in political rock musicals. Belt & Braces also produced Brecht's
Mother Courage
. As well as his own work, Richards' collaborations with writers John Arden
, Margaretta D'Arcy, Adrian Mitchell
, Trevor Griffiths
and John McGrath
were seen regularly at the Edinburgh Festival
and transferred to London on several occasions.
In the early 1990s, together with his New Zealand-born wife Tamara Henry, Richards presented Richard Sparks's comedy The Crimson Lizard in New Zealand, with himself, Annie Whittle and Lloyd Scott, at the Court Theatre, Christchurch
and the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. The production was then remounted in the UK
at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
, Leeds
.
Richards and Henry then went on to form their own theatre company, Theatre South, which toured a New Zealand version of The Drawer Boy
, by Michael Healey, to audiences at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin, the Court Theatre in Christchurch, Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North
and at Downstage in Wellington
. The production also played in Blenheim
, Invercargill
, Whangarei
, Tauranga
and Hamilton
. Theatre South is the only professional theatre company in Malrborough, where he once resided. Past productions include a schools’ workshop production, The Hole In The Sky, and Tittle Tattle 1 & 2 by 'Emmerdale' TV script writer Lesley Clare O’Neill (December 2005 and October ‘06).
Theatre South also produced War Child, written and directed by Richards. Dedicated to War Child Australia
, part of the international relief and development agency working for the rehabilitation of child soldiers, the show featured a cast of 9 to 18 year olds from Marlborough, plus a full professional crew, and was received enthusiastically by audiences over its eight day run, winning a local community award.
Richards has also appeared as Patrick in Tony McCaffrey’s (A Different Light Company) production of The Night Season by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, at the University Theatre, Christchurch
and as Claudius in both Hamlet
and Rosencranz & Guildenstern for the Court Theatre, Christchurch, in April 2006. In 2007 he appeared as Creon in Tolis Papazoglou’s production of Antigone
, at Studio 77 in Wellington
.
He resides in Blenheim, New Zealand
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, writer and director. His father is music critic Denby Richards, emeritus editor of Britain's oldest classical music magazine, Musical Opinion
Musical Opinion
Musical Opinion, often abbreviated to MO, is a European classical music journal edited and produced in the UK. It is currently among the oldest such journals to be still publishing in the UK, having been continuously in publication since 1877....
.
From 1987-89, he portrayed Captain Alberto Bertorelli
Captain Alberto Bertorelli
Captain Alberto Bertorelli is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992. He was played by Gavin Richards at first, later being replaced by Roger Kitter for season 7 .-Character overview:Bertorelli was, as a result of Nazi Germany's alliance with Italy and...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
.
Acting career
Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre SchoolBristol Old Vic Theatre School
The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, opened by Laurence Olivier in 1946, is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an organisation securing the highest standards of training in the performing arts, and is an associate school of the Faculty of Creative Arts of the University of the...
, Richards worked as an actor, director and writer in theatre, television and film for over forty years. He is most familiar for his portrayal of Terry Raymond
Terry Raymond
Terrence Gordon "Terry" Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gavin Richards. Terry was initially introduced briefly in 1996 as the drunken father of Tiffany and Simon Raymond...
in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV series EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, appearing in over 300 episodes. He is also remembered as Captain Alberto Bertorelli
Captain Alberto Bertorelli
Captain Alberto Bertorelli is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992. He was played by Gavin Richards at first, later being replaced by Roger Kitter for season 7 .-Character overview:Bertorelli was, as a result of Nazi Germany's alliance with Italy and...
in the TV comedy hit 'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
in which he appears in over thirty episodes. His television credits also include roles in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, Hi-de-Hi!
Hi-de-Hi!
Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom that aired on the BBC from 1980-1988. It was set in a holiday camp during the 1950s and 1960s and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had written Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The title was the phrase used to greet the campers and in early episodes...
(where he had a minor role in series 4/5 and 7 in the BBC series, as general manager Harold Fox, aka The Smiling Viper), The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
, Lovejoy
Lovejoy
Lovejoy is a TV series about the adventures of Lovejoy, a British antiques dealer and faker based in East Anglia, a less than scrupulous yet likeable rogue. The episodes were based on a series of picaresque novels by John Grant...
, Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
, A Touch of Frost, Between the Lines and Pie In The Sky. He co starred with Robert Powell
Robert Powell
Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...
in Hannay, with Leigh Lawson
Leigh Lawson
Leigh Lawson is a film and stage actor, director, and writer.-Career:Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Lawson has acted in film and television since the early 1970s, directed plays in the West End and on Broadway...
in Kinsey
Kinsey
-People:*Alfred Kinsey, entomologist and sexologist**the Kinsey Reports, a pair of books on sexuality by Alfred Kinsey**the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation, invented by Alfred Kinsey, or person's orientation as measured on that scale, as in "Kinsey 6"...
, Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War.-Early life:...
in The Reporters
The Reporters
The Reporters was a newsmagazine show aired by FOX Television in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.The Reporters was much in the style of the syndicated show A Current Affair, except that there was no regular "host" role...
and with Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
in Full Throttle. He also starred in the series Annie's Bare, Driving Ambition, Hardwicke House
Hardwicke House
Hardwicke House was a 1987 seven-episode sitcom produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. It was so negatively received that only the first two episodes were transmitted.-Plot and episode titles :...
, Mike & Angelo and many other programmes. He has appeared in films, amongst others, with Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
in Being Human, with Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
and Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
in Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
's Triple Echo, and in the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
film Savage Play.
As a director and actor in the theatre, Richards is famous for translating the work of Dario Fo
Dario Fo
Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
into the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in his own West End hit production of Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Accidental Death of an Anarchist is perhaps the best-known play by the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.- About the play :...
(Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
, 1980) for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. He also directed and starred in the production for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
TV in the UK. Gavin played Face in Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
’s production of The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and toured in the lead role in Jack Shepard’s Comic Cuts. He worked as a guest artist on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
/SPP TV co production of Kidnapped
Kidnapped (2005 mini series)
Kidnapped is a two-part BBC television adaptation of the 1893 novel of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson. The show is directed by Brendan Maher and stars James Anthony Pearson as Davie Balfour and Iain Glen as Alan Breck....
, and the TVNZ production of The Lost Children
The Lost Children
The Lost Children is a New Zealand drama series set in 1867. It follows four children, three of whom were shipwrecked and landed on the coast off New Plymouth, New Zealand, siblings Ethan and Amy, who were travelling with their mother, Charlotte, from England to Canterbury; Meg, a young thief and...
, both shot entirely in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Gavin has performed at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
in the stage production of Allo 'Allo, which also toured New Zealand and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Richards’ theatre career in began with five years working as a leading actor in repertory in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. He directed Shane Connaughton
Shane Connaughton
Shane Connaughton is an Irish writer and actor, probably best known as co-writer of the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for My Left Foot. He also co-wrote the screenplays for the Academy Award-winning 1980 short film The Dollar Bottom and 1992 film The Playboys, as well as other screenplays and...
's first play, Jenny at the Roundhouse
The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England, which has been converted into a performing arts and concert venue. It was originally built in 1847 as a roundhouse , a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was only used for railway...
, London, in 1969. In the 1970s he performed throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
with Ken Campbell
Ken Campbell
Ken Campbell was an English writer, actor, director and comedian.Ken Campbell may also refer to:* Ken Campbell , Canadian evangelist* Ken Campbell , former Scotland international goalkeeper...
’s Roadshow, before becoming a founder member of the 7:84 Theatre Company and Artistic Director of the Belt & Braces Theatre Company, touring Britain for over twelve years in political rock musicals. Belt & Braces also produced Brecht's
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
Mother Courage
Mother Courage and Her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin...
. As well as his own work, Richards' collaborations with writers John Arden
John Arden
John Arden is an award-winning English playwright from Barnsley . His works tend to expose social issues of personal concern. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature....
, Margaretta D'Arcy, Adrian Mitchell
Adrian Mitchell
Adrian Mitchell FRSL was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British anti-authoritarian Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's anti-Bomb movement...
, Trevor Griffiths
Trevor Griffiths
Trevor Griffiths is an English dramatist.Raised as a Roman Catholic, he attended Saint Bede's College, before being accepted into Manchester University in 1952 to read English...
and John McGrath
John McGrath
John Peter McGrath, , was a Liverpudlian-Irish playwright and theatre theorist who grew up in Wales and notably took up the cause of Scottish independence in his plays...
were seen regularly at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
and transferred to London on several occasions.
In the early 1990s, together with his New Zealand-born wife Tamara Henry, Richards presented Richard Sparks's comedy The Crimson Lizard in New Zealand, with himself, Annie Whittle and Lloyd Scott, at the Court Theatre, Christchurch
Court Theatre (New Zealand)
The Court Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1971 and located in the Christchurch Arts Centre from 1976 until the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and is currently developing a new site from which to resume activities before the end...
and the Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. The production was then remounted in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
.
Richards and Henry then went on to form their own theatre company, Theatre South, which toured a New Zealand version of The Drawer Boy
The Drawer Boy
The Drawer Boy is a play by Michael Healey. It is a two-act play set in 1972 on a farm near Clinton, Ontario. There are only three characters: the farm's two owners, Morgan and Angus, and Miles Potter, a young actor from Toronto doing research for a collectively created theatre piece about...
, by Michael Healey, to audiences at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin, the Court Theatre in Christchurch, Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North
Palmerston North
Palmerston North is the main city of the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is an inland city with a population of and is the country's seventh largest city and eighth largest urban area. Palmerston North is located in the eastern Manawatu Plains near the north bank...
and at Downstage in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
. The production also played in Blenheim
Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim is the most populous town in the region of Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the regional council. It has a population of The area which surrounds the town is well known as a centre of New Zealand's wine industry...
, Invercargill
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
, Whangarei
Whangarei
Whangarei, pronounced , is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. Although commonly classified as a city, it is officially part of the Whangarei District, administered by the Whangarei District Council a local body created in 1989 to administer both the...
, Tauranga
Tauranga
Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...
and Hamilton
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...
. Theatre South is the only professional theatre company in Malrborough, where he once resided. Past productions include a schools’ workshop production, The Hole In The Sky, and Tittle Tattle 1 & 2 by 'Emmerdale' TV script writer Lesley Clare O’Neill (December 2005 and October ‘06).
Theatre South also produced War Child, written and directed by Richards. Dedicated to War Child Australia
War Child (charity)
War Child is a non-governmental organisation founded in the UK 1993, which focuses on providing assistance to children in areas of conflict and post-conflict. They use their film and entertainment background to raise money for aid agencies operating in former Yugoslavia...
, part of the international relief and development agency working for the rehabilitation of child soldiers, the show featured a cast of 9 to 18 year olds from Marlborough, plus a full professional crew, and was received enthusiastically by audiences over its eight day run, winning a local community award.
Richards has also appeared as Patrick in Tony McCaffrey’s (A Different Light Company) production of The Night Season by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, at the University Theatre, Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
and as Claudius in both Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and Rosencranz & Guildenstern for the Court Theatre, Christchurch, in April 2006. In 2007 he appeared as Creon in Tolis Papazoglou’s production of Antigone
Antigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...
, at Studio 77 in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
.
He resides in Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim, New Zealand
Blenheim is the most populous town in the region of Marlborough, in the north east of the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the regional council. It has a population of The area which surrounds the town is well known as a centre of New Zealand's wine industry...
.
Television
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 to 1986 | Hi-de-Hi! Hi-de-Hi! Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom that aired on the BBC from 1980-1988. It was set in a holiday camp during the 1950s and 1960s and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had written Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The title was the phrase used to greet the campers and in early episodes... |
Harold Fox |
| 1987 to 1989 | 'Allo 'Allo! 'Allo 'Allo! 'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6... |
Captain Alberto Bertorelli Captain Alberto Bertorelli Captain Alberto Bertorelli is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Allo 'Allo!, which ran from 1982 to 1992. He was played by Gavin Richards at first, later being replaced by Roger Kitter for season 7 .-Character overview:Bertorelli was, as a result of Nazi Germany's alliance with Italy and... |
| 1996 to 2002 | EastEnders EastEnders EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End... |
Terry Raymond Terry Raymond Terrence Gordon "Terry" Raymond is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Gavin Richards. Terry was initially introduced briefly in 1996 as the drunken father of Tiffany and Simon Raymond... |