Remembering Timothy West

Following the death of Timothy West at the age of 90, Cinema Paradiso remembers a fine actor who took a pride in his versatility.

In his 2001 memoir, A Moment Towards the End of the Play, Timothy West recalled composer Richard Strauss's self-deprecating summation, 'I may not be a first-rank composer but I think I may be a first-rate composer of the second rank.' It was a typically clear-sighted insight by an actor who had been committed throughout his career to provincial theatre, as he was fully aware that not everyone could travel to the West End to see the greats strut the stage.

Despite his ability to play authority figures, West was also careful to avoid typecasting. As he told one interviewer, 'People always say "You play gravitas." I hope I don't. I don't like anything that puts me in a pigeonhole - people don't live in pigeonholes on the whole.' That said, he did once confide, 'I do love playing awful people.'

Very much a man of the theatre, West always made the most of his film and television roles. Never a major star, he was always recognisable and respected, as he fulfilled his ambition to be 'a truly ensemble strolling player'.

Following in the Family Tradition

Timothy Lancaster West was born on 30 October 1934 in Bradford, where his actor father, Lockwood West, was appearing at the Palace Theatre. Mother Olive Carleton-Crowe was also on the stage and the couple met on tour in 1927. As West recalled, 'My mother stopped acting regularly when my sister was born five years after me. But my father seemed very much involved in all sorts of things.'

Born in Birkenhead, Lockwood West was a fourth cousin of Margaret Lockwood, who became the biggest star in British cinema after her smouldering displays in such Gainsborough bodice rippers as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), which were both directed by Leslie Arliss. West had started to act at the age of 23 after having worked in the offices of Doncaster Collieries and Timothy and Patricia frequently had to change schools as their father sought work. He would eventually establish himself as a durable character actor and Cinema Paradiso users can see him in action in Henry Cass's Last Holiday (1950), Stanley Donen's Bedazzled (1967), Alan Gibson's The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), Peter Yates's The Dresser (1983), and Alan Bridges's The Shooting Party (1985). There are many more to choose from, so use the Searchline to make some discoveries of your own!

Eventually, the family settled in Bristol, where Timothy attended the local grammar's prep school alongside Julian Glover and Dave Prowse. However, he was expelled shortly before the Wests relocated again to South Ruislip. Having studied at the John Lyon School in Harrow, West took his A-levels at Regent Street Polytechnic, which is now part of the University of Westminster. Although he took an interest in acting at school, he was discouraged by his parents. As West explained, 'My mother's father was an actor too, so it was in the blood, but they thought it was very precarious.' He later told The Yorkshire Post, 'It wasn't sold to me as a noble profession.'

Nevertheless, West became involved with the Regent Street drama group. Moreover, he met and married art student Jacqueline Boyer, with whom he a daughter, Juliet, before they divorced in 1961. In order to support his family, West became a furniture salesman. However, he found a more amenable calling as a quality control engineer at EMI. A stint in the box office at the Frinton repertory theatre led to West taking minor roles and he was so often caught learning lines when he was supposed to be working that his boss at the record label told him it was time for him to go off and pursue his passion.

First Impressions

Encouraged by critic Harold Hobson, West made his professional stage debut as a farmer in Summertime at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956. As a student assistant stage manager, he earned £1/10s a week and learned how to do everything from making the tea and selling tickets to helping with the scenery and taking walk-on parts. Following rep stints in Salisbury, Hull, Northampton, Worthing, and Newquay, West finally reached the West End in 1959, as Talky in the boarding-school farce, Caught Napping, at the Piccadilly Theatre. He first appeared on television when the play was shown by the BBC on Theatre Night.

The same year, West wrote and produced a short audio play entitled This Gun That I Have in My Right Hand Is Loaded, which spoofed radio snafus with purple prose and botched sound cues. Three years later, he would become a member of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company and appeared in over 500 broadcasts throughout his career.

Also in 1962, West joined Peter Hall's newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company and played Ginger in David Rudkin's landmark study of social violence, Afore Night Come. The following year, he married Prunella Scales, whom he had met in 1961 while rehearsing a TV play, She Died Young. They had bonded over the morning crossword and went to the pictures to see Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in Stanley Donen's The Grass Is Greener (1960). When the transmission was cancelled because of strike by BBC electricians, they agreed to keep in touch after West was not recast when the 'really awful television play' was revived. Such were their busy schedules, however, that they didn't get to spend a whole day together until they found themselves in rival shows in Oxford, where a river trip started a lifelong love of messing about in boats.

Meanwhile, West was establishing himself as a multifaceted stage actor. Having teamed with Edith Evans and Kenneth Williams in Robert Bolt's Gentle Jack (1963), he joined the cast of Peter Brook's landmark experimental production, Marat/Sade (1964), which was filmed, without West, three years later. In 1965, he spent his sole season at Stratford taking small parts in such Shakespeare classics as Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, and Timon of Athens. The latter was directed by John Schlesinger, who had just guided Julie Christie through her Oscar-winning performance in Darling (1965).

Treading the Boards

Founded in Cambridge in 1961, the Prospect Theatre Company acquired a reputation under Toby Robinson and Richard Cottrell for imaginative productions. Having played Prospero in The Tempest (1966), West teamed up with Ian McKellen to essay Bolingbroke to his Richard II and Mortimer to his Edward II in a 1969 pairing that debuted at the Edinburgh Festival before touring Europe. A London booking led to the plays being shown on the BBC, which did much to raise the profile of each actor.

Two years later, the 36 year-old West took the title role in King Lear, which played at the Edinburgh and Venice festivals before touring Australia and reopening the Theatre Royal in Bristol. He would play Lear again in 1991, 2003, and 2016, while also supporting Ian Holm as the Duke of Gloucester in a 1998 Richard Eyre interpretation that was filmed for the BBC.

During the 1970s, Prospect became a second home for West, stealing both parts of Henry IV as Falstaff in 1972. However, he was keen to run his own company and took over The Forum in Billingham in 1973. He also managed The Gardner Arts Centre in Brighton, where he headlined Macbeth (1975). Invited back to the RSC later in the year, West reunited with Glenda Jackson to deliver a memorably nasty Judge Brack in Trevor Nunn's take on Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, which was filmed for posterity.

In 1977, West played Claudius to Derek Jacobi's prince in Hamlet before being made artistic director of Prospect in 1980. Now based at the Old Vic in Bristol, the troupe enjoyed success with Arthur Wing Pinero's Trelawny of the 'Wells' and The Merchant of Venice, in which West played Shylock However, a collaboration with Peter O'Toole on Macbeth turned out to be a disaster. Away from the stage for 15 years, O'Toole demanded complete control of the production, which the Daily Mail described as 'not so much downright bad as heroically ludicrous'. Ironically, the savage reviews drew curiosity seekers and the run sold out. But Prospect was disbanded shortly afterwards after losing its state grant.

Ever resourceful, West bounced back with acclaimed performances as conductor Sir Thomas Beecham in Caryl Brahms's play Beecham (1980) and as Josef Stalin trying to bully Igor Prokofiev and Dimitri Shostakovitch into writing more Communist-friendly music in David Pownall's Master Class (1984). In between times, West took himself Down Under to be directed by his wife in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1982). West and Scales also teamed up for Richard Eyre's version of J.B. Priestley's Now We Are Maried, Mel Smith's take on Bamber Gascoigne's Big in Brazil (both 1985), and Howard Davies's adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (1991). But, while they would go on to write So You Want to Be an Actor? together in 2005, the pair were determined not to become the new Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray, several of whose outings are available to rent from Cinema Paradiso, including Henry Cass's The Glass Mountain (1949), Lawrence Huntington's The Franchise Affair (1951), and George More O'Ferrall's Angels One Five (1952).

Featuring

West made an unusual big screen debut by playing Matrevis in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, the play enacted in Sidney Lumet's The Deadly Affair (1966), which had been adapted from John le Carré's first novel, Call For the Dead. This uncredited bit was followed by the more substantial role of Superintendent Dakin in Roy Boulting's Twisted Nerve (1968), which sees Hywell Bennett pretend to have an intellectual disability in order to pursue his obsession with Hayley Mills.

Le Carré came calling again the following year in the form of Frank Pierson's The Looking Glass War (1969), in which West took the part of Taylor, the MI6 agent who is left for dead at the side of the road after taking possession of a roll of film showing Soviet missiles in East Germany. He lasted a little longer in Franklin J. Schaffner's Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), as court physician Dr Botkin, who finds his authority with the Tsarina (Janet Suzman) in treating her haemophiliac son, Alexis (Roderic Noble), being challenged by Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker).

West took on two very different roles in 1973. In Ennio De Concini's Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), he played Professor Karl Gebhardt, the evil physician behind the medical atrocities performed at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, who would be hanged as a war criminal in 1948. However, in Fred Zinnemann's adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal (1973), he was cast as Commissioner Berthier, who appoints his deputy, Claude Lebel (Michel Lonsdale), to lead the hunt for the hitman (Edward Fox) who has been hired to assassinate President Charles De Gaulle.

West returned to France to cameo as the convent chaplain in Roy Boulting's Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974), which sees bordello owner Madame Grenier (Lila Kedrova) conduct a guerilla war against the occupying Nazis, with the aid of a British officer, who is one of six characters played by Peter Sellers, who also narrates. Having reprised his stage role in Hedda Gabler (1975), West had to wait two years for another film opportunity, although he proved to be very witty in Tony Richardson's Joseph Andrews (1977), as Mr Tow-wowse, the innkeeper who cheats on his wife (Wendy Craig) while begrudgingly extending his hospitality to Joseph (Peter Firth) after he is set upon by robbers. While not as successful as Richardson's Best Picture-winning Tom Jones (1963), this is still a highly enjoyable adaptation of Henry Fielding's picaresque novel.

Despite being directed by British stalwart Guy Green, The Devil's Advocate (1977) has been largely forgotten. Adapted by Morris West from his own novel, this account of Italy's role in the Holocaust sees West play Father Anselmo, the priest in the southern village visited by Monsignor Blaise Meredith (John Mills) to determine whether the miracles attributed to Giacomo Nerone (Leigh Lawson) qualify him for sainthood. Also missing from disc for no apparent good reason is Alister Hallum's News From Nowhere (1978), an Arts Council featurette about Pre-Raphaelite William Morris (West) taking a trip up the River Thames to discover his future home at Kelmscott Manor.

Also bafflingly unavailable is Michael Apted's Agatha (1979), which saw West play Kenward, the detective trying to locate Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) during an 11-day search following her disappearance after a row with husband Archie (Timothy Dalton) shortly after the 1926 publication of her classic whodunit, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (which featured in David Suchet's Poirot series in 2000).

Fortunately, Cinema Paradiso users can access Don Sharp's take on The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), the classic John Buchan thriller that had previously been brought to the screen by Alfred Hitchcock and Ralph Thomas in 1935 and 1959 respectively. Robert Powell succeeded Robert Donat and Kenneth More in the role of falsely accused fugitive Richard Hannay, while West took on the role of Sir Hugh Porton, who was set to meet Scudder (John Mills) to discover the intelligence he had gathered on the German agents active in London when he is murdered.

On the Box

Timothy West's first role for television was Charles Hayter in the 1960 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. It was the second of his 150 screen credits, the majority of which are not available on disc. But where else other than Cinema Paradiso can fans find his turn as a police sergeant the 1966 'You Can Keep the Medal' episode of Public Eye (1965-75) or his shift as Lowrie in the 1967 'A Snatch in Time' instalment of The Fellows (1967) ?

West's first major recurring tele-role saw him play Lennox alongside Peter Egan's ambitious crook in Big Breadwinner Hog (1969), whose eight episodes were co-directed by Michael Apted and Mike Newell. But he was back in guest mode as Sam Grimes in the 1970 'Vendetta For a Dead Man' episode of the cult hit, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) 1969-71), as Cooper in the 'Survival of the Creeps' instalment of Hine (1971), which starred Barrie Ingham as an arms salesman, and as Benny in the 'Smudger' episode of Villains (1972).

More notably, West so impressed as Samuel Johnson in Boswell's Life of Johnson (1971) and as Horatio Bottomley in The Edwardians (1972) that he was offered the title role in the ITV historical series, Edward the Seventh (1974). His father had already played the king in the 'Guest of Honour' episode of Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-75) and would do so again in the BBC series, The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). West, Jr. joked in a 1979 New York Times interview, 'When I told people I was going to play Edward VII, the first person I told said, "Oh, I don't like Shakespeare." The second said, "Who's playing Mrs Wallis Simpson?"'

Playing Bertie from the 1860s to his death in 1910, West excelled across nine episodes in capturing the Prince of Wales's charm and joie de vivre, as he sought distractions from the frustration he felt that his mother, Queen Victoria (Annette Crosbie), refused to allow him to play a part in state affairs. A few months older than her screen son, Crosbie won a BAFTA for her performance, when West wasn't even nominated. But the series made him a familiar face at a time when Britain only had three TV channels

He was less well known than Prunella Scales, however, who became a national treasure for playing Sibyl in Fawlty Towers (1975-79). But her husband did get to team with John Cleese in Meetings, Bloody Meetings (1975), one of the many management films that the ex-Python produced for the Video Arts company that he had set up with Antony Jay, who would go on to create Yes Minister (1980-84) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986-88), with Jonathan Lynn. Although they have dated somewhat, the Cleese videos have been preserved by the BFI and are long overdue on disc.

Back on television, West proved an unscrupulous Josiah Bounderby alongside Patrick Allen's Thomas Gradgrind in the ITV adaptation of Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1977). Having essayed Porfiry Petrovich, the magistrate tasked with investigating the murder of a pawnbroker by the student Raskolnikov (John Hurt) in Michael Darlow's interpretation of Fedor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, West also schemed to good effect as Cardinal Wolsey opposite John Stride in the BBC Television Shakespeare version of Henry VIII (both 1979).

However, West found a role even more to his liking in Alan Gibson's Churchill and the Generals (1979), which co-starred Eric Porter as General Sir Alan Brooke, Patrick Allen as General Sir Claude Auchinleck, and Ian Richardson as General Bernard Montgomery. Having won the John Logie Baird Award for his performance, West later reprised the role of the wartime prime minister in the Australian mini-series The Last Bastion (1984), and the Canadian-Japanese teleplay, Hiroshima (1995).

Drawn from the macabre writings of Roald Dahl, the 'Royal Jelly' episode of Tales of the Unexpected (1979-88) afforded West one of his most iconic roles, as he played beekeeper Albert Taylor, who ignores the warnings of his wife, Mabel (Susan George), and partakes of the royal jelly that he has been feeding to their infant daughter. The following year, West donned a toga to play Emperor Vespasian in The Antagonists (1981) and returned to Ancient Rome in the title role of the BBC radio dramatisation of Robert Graves's I, Claudius and Claudius the God, after Derek Jacobi had, of course, found fame in Herbert Wise's acclaimed BBC TV version, I, Claudius (1976).

In one of West's obituaries, it was stated that while he was a sensitive and intelligent actor, he 'did not always carry the guns, or possess the physical attributes, for the great dramatic roles. He was at his best in character parts, as hard-headed, down-to-earth realists in north-country comedies.' No doubt, the writer was referring to the character of Bradley Hardacre, the owner of a mine, a mill, and a munitions factory in the 1930s Lancashire town of Utterly in Brass (1983-84). Satirising everything from D.H. Lawrence to the BBC series, When the Boat Comes In (1976-81), this ITV comedy was revived by Channel Four for a third series in 1990, which saw the self-made Hardacre purchasing a London townhouse called 'Yonderley'.

Revelling in the chance to bluff and bluster as a blowhard bounder, West traded on his depiction of Josiah Bounderby, while also - as a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party - enjoying cocking a snook at Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. Clearly his performance persuaded the producers of 'Miss Marple' (1984-92) to cast him as detestable businessman Rex Fortescue in 'A Pocketful of Rye' (1985). However, he tempered pique with pathos as Professsor Furie, the head of a university health department in the 'Wives of Great Men' episode of Andrew Davies's satire, A Very Peculiar Practice (1986-88).

In what proved to be a busy year, West also took the lead in the true-life crime drama, The Good Doctor Bodkin Adams, and appeared opposite Paul McGann in Alan Bleasdale's The Monocled Mutineer (both 1986), as Brigadier General Thomson, who commanded the Great War transit camp at Étaples that prompted Percy Toplis to lead a mutiny of British and ANZAC troops in 1917. Contrast this role with West's portrayal of Times journalist William Russell reporting on conditions in the Crimean War in Florence Nightingale (1985), which saw former Charley's Angel Jaclyn Smith take the title role.

The 1980s witnessed the last hurrah of the single play on British television. West was involved in the Theatre Night (1985-90) presentations of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw (1987), John Galsworthy's Strife (1988), and David Storey's The Contractor (1989). During this run, he played Mikhail Gorbachev in the Cold War drama, Breakthrough At Reykjavik (1987), and featured as Charles Clutterbuck and Parvus in the historical miniseries, Beryl Markham: Shadow on the Sun and Lenin: The Train (both 1988), which respectively starred Stefanie Powers and Ben Kinglsey. Frustratingly, such fare has never reached disc, even though there would certainly be an audience. The same goes for Blore, M.P. (1989), a Screen One drama that pitched West into a conundrum akin to the Profumo Affair, which had been recounted the same year in Scandal by Michael Caton-Jones.

However, Cinema Paradiso members can catch West as William Faraday in two instalments of Campion (1989-90), a crime series based on the books of Margery Allingham, and as Nigel in the 'Upstagers episode of the ITV sitcom, After Henry (1988-92), which starred Prunella Scales as Sarah France, the widow sharing a house with her teenage daughter (Janine Wood) and elderly mother (Joan Sanderson). West can also be heard narrating 'Revolting Rhymes' and 'Dirty Beast' (both 1990) on Roald Dahl: Four Enchanting Stories (2005) and as Prospero in 'The Tempest', which formed part of the excellent series, Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992).

In Lynda La Plante's Framed (1992), West played DCI Jimmy McKinnes detailing DC Lawrence Jackson (David Morrissey) to track fugitive criminal Eddie Myers (Timothy Dalton) after a chance meeting in Spain. While this has been released on disc, we're yet to see sign of Smokescreen (1994), a six-part series set in the industrial north in 1907 that chronicles the rivalry between cinema owners Frank Sheringham (West) and Albert Gold (Peter Guinness). Imagine Basil Dearden's The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) landing in the era of Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon (see Electric Edwardians: The Films of Mitchel and Kenyon, 2005) and you'll get the idea.

Always a willing guest player, West cropped up as Old Doctor Adams in 'A Severe Case of Death', an episode of the Dawn French sitcom, Murder Most Horrid (1991-99), and as MI5 agent Tufty MacDuff in two shows in the Nicholas Lyndhurst vehicle, Goodnight Sweetheart (1993-2016). He also raised laughs as corrupt football club chairman Sir Bob Luckton in Andy Hamilton's Eleven Men Against Eleven (1995) and as media tycoon Lord Mellow in the TV satire, Cuts (1996), which was scripted by Malcolm Bradbury and David Nobbs. How sad that items with such pedigree often just vanish after transmission when the aficionados who join Cinema Paradiso would lap them up.

A Few More Movies

Always busy elsewhere, West didn't make a lot of films for an actor of his calibre and he didn't have a lot of luck with those he did choose. As Nigel Lawton, he helped Jack Rhodes (Burt Reynolds) plan a robbery to impress jewel thief Gillian Bromley (Lesley-Anne Down) in Don Siegel's Rough Cut (1980). He then reunited with Down as Lord Easterfied, the self-made millionaire whose manor dominates the village in Wychwood under Ashe in Claude Whatham's tele-version of Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy (1982).

Neither was particularly well reviewed, although critics were kinder to Clive Donner's tele-take on Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1982), which cast West as Mr Bumble. He was singled for praise, however, as the bigoted South African cop, Captain De Wet, in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom (1987), which starred Kevin Kline as journalist Donald Woods and Denzel Washington as anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko.

After amusing as Dr Rees tucking into flesh-flavoured chocolate in Giles Foster's Consuming Passions (1988) - which was adapted from the 1973 teleplay, Secrets, which was co-scripted by Pythons Michael Palin and Terry Jones - West was out of films for a decade. He returned as King Francis, who invites Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) to the French court in Andy Tennant's Cinderella story, Ever After (1998). The following year, he went further back in French history to play Bishop Cauchon, who has doubts about executing the Maid of Orléans (Milla Jovovich) in Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).

West donned a wig and red robes to play the judge at the parole hearing of Cruella De Vil (Glenn Close) in Kevin Lima's 102 Dalmatians (2000) before taking the minor role of Jones in John Irvin's The Fourth Angel (2001), which sees magazine editor Jeremy Irons seek revenge after losing his family in a skyjacking.

The same year saw West team with son Samuel to play the older and younger versions of Maurice, who remains friends over the decades with Iris Murdoch (Kate Winslet & Judi Dench) and John Bayley (Hugh Bonneville & Jim Broadbent) in Richard Eyre's Iris (2001). Then, it was back to France to join with Harriet Walter in running the Parisian guest house where Julie Deply works as a maid on the eve of the Great War in Frank Van Passel's Villa des Roses (2002), which was nominated for three British Independent Film Awards.

DreamWorks came calling with the invitation to voice King Dymas in Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore's animated adventure, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), which also featured the vocal talents of Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Catherine Zeta Jones. Angelina Jolie was West's next co-star, as he played Linus Roache's father, Lawrence Bauford, in Martin Campbell's aid workers thriller, Beyond Borders (2003). Six years later, West played South African president, P.W. Botha in Pete Travis's Endgame (2009), which chronicles the negotiations in a Somerset manor between intellectual and government intermediary Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt) and the African National Congress's director of information, Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Having taken a cameo as a man in a pub in Ray Cooney and John Luton's Run For Your Wife (2012), West played the bursar of St Jude's College in Gareth Jones's Delirium (2016). Completing the 'D-Trilogy' that had started with Desire and Delight, this drama starred the director as Pilger, a former student revolutionary and rock star who is invited to compose a Requiem for his alma mater's anniversary celebrations. In his final feature, West relied solely on body language, gesture, and expression as Victor in Lauren Mackenzie's We the Kings (2018), which follows the efforts of Elliot James Langridge to avenge the treatment of his foster brother.

In his later years, West helped lots of emerging directors by appearing in their shorts. Among them was Dan Turner's Night of the Broken (2022), which is set in 1965 and stars Tracy-Ann Oberman as a doctor making a harrowing discovery when she is called to a remote English care home. West had often joked that he had been too big to play Adolf Hitler, but he finally got his chance at the age of 88.

Bits of Everything

Although West often found himself in minor roles, he had the knack of selecting those that were germane to the plot. For example, in the 1997 TV version of Rebecca (1997), which starred Charles Dance as Maxim De Winter, Emilia Fox as his new bride, and Diana Rigg as Mrs Danvers, West played Dr Baker, whose revelation changes the entire complexion of the drama. But he also sought variety and went from guesting as Colonel Kindersley in the 'Our Brave Boys' episode of Bramwell (1995-98) to voicing King Hrothgar in Animated Epics: Beowulf (1998) and King Otto in 13 episodes of The Big Knights (1999-2000).

It's hard to think of a jobbing British actor worth their salt who hasn't done duty in one of the many long-running crime series on the airwaves and West did his bit as Marcus Devere in the 2000 'Judgement Day' episode of Midsomer Murders (1997-) and Dr William Collins in the 2001 'Mercy' instalment of Murder in Mind (2001-03). But not everything West did reached a large audience, although he deserved to be widely seen as Sir Christopher Ellis in John Roberts's charming one boy and his dog drama, Station Jim (2001), and as the German monk whose conscience altered the course of European history in Cassian Harrison's Martin Luther (2002).

In his memoir, West discussed the value of going on the road in the provinces. He found it 'astonishing that so many actors - younger actors, mostly, or perhaps it's their agents - say, "I don't tour." To me it's like hearing a musician saying, "I don't play in E flat." It seems cutting off a terribly useful limb of your own and also your audiences. And why would one assume that audiences would want to come 100 miles to see you? You've got to go and see them for a first time.'

In 2004, West published a collection of his letters to Prunella Scales from their touring days entitled, I'm Here, I Think, Where Are You? They had tried to avoid becoming a double act, as they felt it would spoil a play in which they were cast together because their relationship would give the audience preconceived ideas about their characters. Nevertheless, they did team up from time to time, with West playing Whig politician and diarist Thomas Creevey in Looking For Victoria (2002), Scales's docudrama about Queen Victoria. His co-star in the three series of Bedtime (2001-03), however, was Sheila Hancock, who had to endure the endless fretting and grumbling about the neighbours of her pompous, but well-meaning husband, Andrew Oldfield.

In addition to performing, West also spent a good deal of time behind the scenes, serving on the Arts Council drama panel and the board of Bristol Old Vic. He was also committed to the National Student Drama Festival and was president of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for 15 years before being succeeded by Benedict Cumberbatch in January 2018. He told The Scotsman, 'I love the variety of my career very much. And I think as actors we have a mission to show that we can do different things because there is a tendency now among the management and casting directors to categorise you, to say "oh, he's more of a classical actor, will he be able to do the accent?" Of course you can, if you're an actor you've learnt to do everything.'

One of the strings to his bow was narrating audiobooks. He took particular pride in reading unabridged versions of The Barchester Chronicles and the Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope. West also romped through seven of the books in George MacDonald Fraser's series, The Flashman Papers, and also took choice parts in some of Doctor Who's audio adventures. His efforts earned him four AudioFile Earphones Awards. Naturally, he remained in demand among radio producers and he took the recurring lead alongside Scales in Rumpole of the Bailey (2003-12). West even toured Australia with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, in which he sang the role of Sir Joseph Porter.

When pressed about career highlights, West replied, 'Asking me what my favourite roles have been is a bit like asking me if I prefer the Beethoven quartets or strawberry jam. Some parts are just tremendous fun because the audience lap it up and you feel good, and you get it right, and a lot of personal satisfaction accrues from that. But some plays you enjoy because you like the people in them, or you've had fun, or been to nice places.'

Variety continued to be the spice of West's acting life, as he crossed swords with John Hurt as Sir Robert Armstrong in 'The March of the Grey Men' episode of The Alan Clarke Diaries (2004) before taking two more excursions into TV Murderland, as Andy Maiden in the 'In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner' episode in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001-07) and as Joe Doyle in the two-part 'False Flag' storyline in Waking the Dead (2000-11). Then, having turned his hand to making escape gadgets as Bunny Warren in Colditz, he essayed Professor Ian Mears in '17 Years of Nothing', a 2005 episode of New Tricks (2003-15).

The finest achievement of his later career, however, came as bombastic baronet Sir Leicester Dedlock in 12 episodes of Bleak House (2005), the Emmy-winning Dickens adaptation that paired him with Gillian Anderson as the enigmatic Lady Dedlock. One scene stood out in West's mind, as he twice tore the flimsy dress that Anderson was wearing when Sir Leicester tried to pick up his wife had fainted. 'Gillian was very nice about it,' he wrote in his memoir. 'She was still talking to me and that's a star in my book.'

Remaining in the realm of literary classics, West amused as the Reverend Eager in the small-screen version of E.M. Forster's A Room With a View (2007). A few months later, he took a diversion into sitcoms when he created the character of Geoffrey Adams, the father of Tim (Tim Vine) and Lucy (Sally Bretton), in Lee Mack's durable sitcom, Not Going Out (2006-). After three episodes, it was decided to recast the part with Geoffrey Whitehead, leaving West free to play Donald Terry in 'Your Sudden Death Question', a 2010 case in Lewis (2005-15), and the Reverend Cottrell in 'Hallowe'en Party', which formed part of the peerless Poirot (1989-2013) series starring David Suchet.

West remained active on the stage, memorably teaming with son Samuel as Falstaff and Prince Hal in the English Touring Theatre production of Henry IV, Parts One and Two in 1997. Nine years later, they reunited at The Crucible in Sheffield for A Number, Caryl Churchill's study of a cloned father and son that proved so successful that it was revived at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London in 2010.

Following two episodes as Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010), West joined John Simm and Jim Broadbent as Dan Metzler in the BBC series, Exile (2011), which was written by BAFTA winner Danny Brocklehurst. In Titanic (2012), which was produced for the centenary of the liner's tragic sinking, West played Lord Pirrie, the boss of the Belfast shipbuilding firm, Harland & Wolff. But he was soon about to create a little bit of TV history by appearing in the country's two biggest operas.

For seven episodes in 2013, West played Eric Babbage, a wealthy pensioner who becomes engaged to Gloria Price (Sue Johnston) in Coronation Street (1960-). Within a few months, however, the 80 year-old found himself on Albert Square for 111 episodes (2014-15) of Eastenders (1985-), as Stan Carter, the former Billingsgate fishmonger and full-time curmudgeon, who is the father of Shirley (Linda Henry) and Tina (Luisa Bradshaw-White) and the ex-husband of Sylvie (Linda Marlowe), whose adopted son just happens to be the Queen Vic's landlord, Mick (Danny Dyer).

West was much feted for the sensitivity of his performance as Stan succumbs to cancer. But he wasn't away from the screen for long, as he turned up as Ted Buttershaw in Last Tango in Halifax (2012-20), a role he would play four times over the next eight years. He also appeared as

Andrew in 'Sardines', the first episode of Inside No. 9 (2014-), before featuring as Ormond Sacker in the 'Man of Sex' episode of Toast of London (2012-20) and as Lord Mansfield in 'Dirty Money', an instalment of the docudramatic series, The British (2012-14).

In addition to being a patron of the National Piers Society and a keen supporter of the Talyllyn Railway, which was the world's first preserved steam line, West was also passionate about canals. He had presented eight series of Water World (2000-08), Central TV's programme about the canals and barge folk of the Midlands. However, when Prunella Scales was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014, West agreed that they should front Channel 4's Great Canal Journeys, which allowed them to cruise the waterways of Britain on barges and narrowboats, while also exploring the issues involved with 'Pru's condition'. Over the course of 37 shows spread across 12 seasons, the pair crossed Europe, as well as travelling to India, Egypt, Argentina, and Canada, before West handed the tiller to Gyles Brandreth and Sheila Hancock in 2020.

When not afloat, he remained on dry land long enough to play Johnnie Falstaff in 'The Chimes At Midnight', the second episode of Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators (2018-). More notably, he excelled in Sally Wainright's Gentleman Jack (2019-22), as Captain Jeremy Lister, the peppery veteran of the American War of Independence, whose daughter, Anne (Suranne Jones), controls an industrial empire in 1830s Yorkshire. Adapted from Lister's voluminous diaries (in which she had used code to describe her lesbian trysts), the series came to an early end, despite glowing reviews, because HBO withdrew from its production partnership with the BBC.

Undaunted, West was delighted to be cast as Private Godfrey in Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes (2019), as his parents had met during a production of The Ghost Train, which had been written by Arnold Ridley, who had played the retired gentleman's outfitter in the original BBC series about the Home Guard (1968-77) . Cinema Paradiso users can see Arthur Askey and Richard 'Stinker' Murdoch in Walter Forde's 1941 adaptation of The Ghost Train. And do check the Searchline because lots of Ridley acting credits are available to rent, along with such scripting assignments as Walter Summers's The Warren Case (1934), Albert De Courville's Seven Sinners (1936), Anthony Pelissier's Meet Mr Lucifer (1953), which can be found on Volume 9 of the Ealing Studios Rarities Collection, and Montgomery Tully's Who Killed the Cat? (1966), which forms part of Volume 6 of the Renown Pictures Crime Collection.

After playing Milton in the 2016 Comedy Playhouse episode, 'Broken Biscuits', the 81 year-old West returned to the Bristol Old Vic for his fourth tilt at King Lear. As he told one reporter, 'There's a great reward in telling such a complex story every night. And it's always very satisfying to die at the end of a play.' However, time was even starting to catch up with this indefatigable actor. In 2023, he was cast as Charles Usher in 'The Star of the Orient', an episode of Sister Boniface Mysteries (2022-). But West only had one appearance left and it came as Artie Simkins in 'Go Out Dancing', the penultimate episode, after 25 years, of the BBC series, Doctors, which was transmitted in the week that West died on 12 November 2024 at the age of 90.

When once asked how he would like to be remembered, West replied, 'I think I'd carve "He tried to get it right" on my tombstone. I've failed in many areas - but I did try.' However, we prefer an earlier response to an enquiry about his epitaph. 'When we were in rep,' West declared, 'we did a lot of Agatha Christie thrillers and somebody would always say, "Is he?" and somebody else would say, "I'm afraid so." So I think I'd have: "Is he? I'm afraid so."'