Tuesday 6 June 2017

Peter Sallis: an affectionate remembrance

I shall always remember the first time I saw Peter Sallis on screen. It was in a BBC TV whodunit serial named "The Widow of Bath" based on her own novel by Margot Bennett. Sallis played Cady, a not wholly admirable character, but like most of his parts, someone one took to ones heart. Amazingly, he had made his TV début twelve years earlier and acting was not even his first career. After that, the family made a habit of "Cady-spotting" as Sallis popped up frequently on TV, generally in small character parts, but also as the put-upon Gerald Swinney in "How to Get Rid of Your Wife". He was blessed with a face that hardly seemed to change over the years, but also the ability to achieve instant sympathy. One cannot imagine his crowning achievements, Clegg and Wallace, played by any other man.

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