Sam Kelly
Encyclopedia
Sam Kelly is an English
actor
who has appeared in television, radio and theatre.
as Captain Hans Geering
leaving after series three, On the Up
as Dennis Waterman
's chauffeur and We'll Think of Something
as Les Brooks. From 1995 to 2003, he played Barbara's husband Ted in the British sitcom
series Barbara
.
He also appeared in the Doctor Who
audio dramas "The Holy Terror
" and "Return to the Web Planet
" by Big Finish Productions
. He played Bernard in Holding On (1997) and Carl Langbehn
in the five-part television drama Christabel (1988). He appeared in Midsomer Murders
: Down Among the Dead Men as Jack Fothergill and as the eccentric impoverished ghost writer, Majors, in the Inspector Morse
episode "Second Time Around".
In the 1990s he co-starred in the comedy television series Haggard
and in the miniseries Martin Chuzzlewit
. He also performed in H.M.S. Pinafore
with the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in 2002. In 1998, Kelly appeared in an episode of the first series of Cold Feet
, playing Algernon Gifford.
In radio he played the part of Carter Brandon in the BBC
's Radio4 series of the continuing adventures of Uncle Mort and Carter Brandon in Uncle Mort's South Country and Uncle Mort's Celtic Fringe. These were written by Peter Tinniswood
.
In 2004, he appeared in EastEnders
playing Stan Porter, and he also appeared in the comedy series Black Books
as the father of Manny. In 2006 he appeared as the villain Guy Carse in New Tricks.
Kelly starred in Jean-Paul Sartre
's play Kean alongside Antony Sher
at the Theatre Royal, Bath
, and in the West End
in May 2007. In December 2007, a car struck and injured Kelly in the West End. The role he was to have played in the Doctor Who
episode "Midnight
," filmed that month, was played instead by David Troughton
.
In 2008, he guest starred in the Sapphire and Steel audio drama Remember Me.
In November 2008, he starred in the title role of Christopher Reason's radio dramatisation of Jaroslav Hašek
's The Good Soldier Švejk
, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
.
Kelly recently starred as The Wizard in the London production of the musical, Wicked
. He replaced Desmond Barrit
on May 11, 2009, and played his final performance on March 27, 2010. He was succeeded by Clive Carter
.
He has worked with director Mike Leigh
on several occasions, including Grown-Ups
(1980), Topsy-Turvy
(1999), All or Nothing (2002) and currently (September 2011) on stage at the National Theatre
in Grief.
Sam Kelly's latest role is as the ARP warden in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
.
's movie for the 2012 Olympics, "A Running Jump". He opened at the National Theatre on 21st September, 2011, in Mike Leigh's play, "Grief", starring with Lesley Manville
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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...
who has appeared in television, radio and theatre.
Career
He has had roles in British sitcoms such as Porridge as Bunny Warren, '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...
as Captain Hans Geering
Captain Hans Geering
Captain Hans Geering is a fictional character from the British sitcom series Allo 'Allo!. He was played by actor Sam Kelly.- First episode :Hans is Colonel Kurt Von Strohm's assistant and usually comes with him to the café...
leaving after series three, On the Up
On the Up
On the Up was a British situation comedy written by Bob Larbey. It ran for three series, from 1990 to 1992.-Plot summary:Tony Carpenter is a self-made millionaire who turned his South London minicab firm into a successful chauffeur-driven car service...
as Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman
Dennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
's chauffeur and We'll Think of Something
We'll Think of Something
We'll Think of Something is a British sitcom that aired on ITV in 1986. Starring Sam Kelly, it was written by Geoff Rowley, who had also written episodes of Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart...
as Les Brooks. From 1995 to 2003, he played Barbara's husband Ted in the British sitcom
British sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...
series Barbara
Barbara (TV series)
Barbara is a British sitcom starring Gwen Taylor in the title role. A pilot aired in 1995, and three series then aired from 1999 to 2003. It was made by Central Television, and filmed at their Lenton Lane studios in Nottingham in front of a live studio audience...
.
He also appeared in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
audio dramas "The Holy Terror
The Holy Terror
The Holy Terror is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
" and "Return to the Web Planet
Return to the Web Planet
Return to the Web Planet is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
" by Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
. He played Bernard in Holding On (1997) and Carl Langbehn
Carl Langbehn
Carl Langbehn was a German lawyer and member of the resistance to Nazism.He was born in Padang, Sumatra. During the Weimar Republic he was a members of the German People's Party. In 1933 he joined the Nazi Party, but during the 1930s he began to grow increasingly critical of the regime...
in the five-part television drama Christabel (1988). He appeared in Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
: Down Among the Dead Men as Jack Fothergill and as the eccentric impoverished ghost writer, Majors, in the 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....
episode "Second Time Around".
In the 1990s he co-starred in the comedy television series Haggard
Haggard (TV series)
Haggard a 1990—1992 British comedy television series. "Haggard" is about the exploits of Squire Haggard, the Squire's 21-year-old son Roderick, and their servant Grunge...
and in the miniseries Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit (TV series)
Martin Chuzzlewit was a 1994 TV mini series produced by the BBC. It is based on the novel by Charles Dickens, with a screenplay by David Lodge. The music was composed by Geoffrey Burgon...
. He also performed in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
with the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in 2002. In 1998, Kelly appeared in an episode of the first series of Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
, playing Algernon Gifford.
In radio he played the part of Carter Brandon 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...
's Radio4 series of the continuing adventures of Uncle Mort and Carter Brandon in Uncle Mort's South Country and Uncle Mort's Celtic Fringe. These were written by Peter Tinniswood
Peter Tinniswood
Peter Tinniswood was an English radio and TV comedy scriptwriter, and author of a series of popular cricketing novels...
.
In 2004, he appeared in 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...
playing Stan Porter, and he also appeared in the comedy series Black Books
Black Books
Black Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
as the father of Manny. In 2006 he appeared as the villain Guy Carse in New Tricks.
Kelly starred in Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
's play Kean alongside Antony Sher
Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
at the Theatre Royal, Bath
Theatre Royal, Bath
The Theatre Royal in Bath, England, is over 200 years old. It is one of the more important theatres in the United Kingdom outside London, with capacity for an audience of around 900....
, and in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in May 2007. In December 2007, a car struck and injured Kelly in the West End. The role he was to have played in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode "Midnight
Midnight (Doctor Who)
"Midnight" is the tenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 14 June 2008. The episode placed much more emphasis on the role of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor than in the rest of the fourth series, with the...
," filmed that month, was played instead by David Troughton
David Troughton
David Troughton is an English actor, best known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage.- Biography :David Troughton was born in Hampstead, North London. He comes from a theatrical family: he is the son of Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton, elder brother of Michael Troughton, and father...
.
In 2008, he guest starred in the Sapphire and Steel audio drama Remember Me.
In November 2008, he starred in the title role of Christopher Reason's radio dramatisation of Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
's The Good Soldier Švejk
The Good Soldier Švejk
The Good Soldier Švejk , also spelled Schweik or Schwejk, is the abbreviated title of a unfinished satirical/dark comedy novel by Jaroslav Hašek. It was illustrated by Josef Lada and George Grosz after Hašek's death...
, broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Kelly recently starred as The Wizard in the London production of the musical, Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
. He replaced Desmond Barrit
Desmond Barrit
Desmond Barrit is a Laurence Olivier Award winning, British actor, best known for his stage work.-Biography:Barrit was born on 19 October 1944 in Morriston, Swansea, Wales....
on May 11, 2009, and played his final performance on March 27, 2010. He was succeeded by Clive Carter
Clive Carter
Clive Carter is a British actor and singer.Carter studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His West End theatre credits include Someone Like You with Petula Clark, A Man for All Seasons with Martin Shaw, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Brendan Fraser and Ned Beatty, We Will Rock You, I...
.
He has worked with director Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
on several occasions, including Grown-Ups
Grown-Ups
Grown-Ups is a 1980 British BBC television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Brenda Blethyn, Janine Duvitski, Lindsay Duncan and Sam Kelly...
(1980), Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 musical drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and stars Allan Corduner as Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert...
(1999), All or Nothing (2002) and currently (September 2011) on stage at the National Theatre
National Theatre
National Theatre may refer to: -in Africa:*Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya*National Theatre in Accra, Ghana-in Asia:*National Theater and Concert Hall, Republic of China in Taipei, Taiwan*National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo, Japan...
in Grief.
Sam Kelly's latest role is as the ARP warden in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang is a 2010 family film. It is a sequel to the 2005 film Nanny McPhee. It was adapted by Emma Thompson from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books...
.
2010 onwards
On 23 July 2010, Kelly starred as Martin in the sitcom My Family and he starred in the Heartbeat episode "Deadlier Than the Male". He also starred in "When We Are Married" at London's Garrick Theatre and in Mike LeighMike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
's movie for the 2012 Olympics, "A Running Jump". He opened at the National Theatre on 21st September, 2011, in Mike Leigh's play, "Grief", starring with Lesley Manville
Lesley Manville
Lesley Manville is an award-winning English actress.-Early life:Born in Brighton, Manville was raised in Hove, East Sussex, one of three daughters of a taxicab driver. Training as a soprano singer from age 8, she twice became under-18 champion of Sussex...
.