Richard Beckinsale
Birthday: Born in 1947-07-06 in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, UK
Deathday: 1979-03-19
Richard Beckinsale was an English actor, best known for his roles as Lennie Godber in the popular BBC sitcom Porridge and Alan Moore in the British ITV sitcom Rising Damp. He is the father of actresses Samantha Beckinsale and Kate Beckinsale. He died of a congenital heart defect at the age of just thirty one in 1979
TV Credits
Going Straight
Character: Lenny Godber
Going Straight is a BBC sitcom which was a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from the fictional Slade Prison where the earlier series had been set. It sees Fletcher trying to become an honest member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. The title refers to his attempt, 'straight' being a slang term meaning being honest, in contrast to 'bent', i.e., dishonest. Also re-appearing was Richard Beckinsale as Le...
Porridge
Character: Lennie Godber
Porridge is a British situation comedy broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film also titled Porridge. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. "Doing porridge" is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. The series was followed by a 1978 sequel, Going Straight, wh...
Rising Damp
Character: Alan
Set in a seedy bedsit, the cowardly landlord Rigsby has his conceits debunked by his long suffering tenants....
Bloomers
Character:
Bloomers was a short-lived British sitcom starring Richard Beckinsale that was aired in 1979. It was in production in 1979 but only five episodes were made before Beckinsale died suddenly from a heart attack just before a planned rehearsal for the sixth and final episode of the first series. Bloomers was immediately shelved, though the five completed episodes were broadcast later in the same year....
Armchair Theatre
Character: Lewis
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968....
The Lovers
Character:
The ups-and-downs of a young courting couple's relationship....
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Character: Richard Frobisher
Adaptations of mystery stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's contemporary rivals in the genre....
Play for Today
Character: Michael Robson
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Justice
Character: Terry Watson
Justice is a British drama television series which originally aired on ITV in 39 hour-long episodes between 8 August 1971 and 16 October 1974. Margaret Lockwood stars as Harriet Peterson a female barrister in the North of England. It was made by Yorkshire Television and was based loosely on Justice Is a Woman, an episode of ITV Playhouse broadcast in 1969 in which Lockwood had previously also played a barrister. The theme music was Crown Imperial by William Walton....
Movie Credits
Porridge
Character: Lennie Godber
Times are hard for habitual guest of Her Majesty Norman Stanley Fletcher. The new prison officer, Beale, makes MacKay look soft and what's more, an escape plan is hatching from the cell of prison godfather Grouty and Fletcher wants no part of it....
The Lovers!
Character: Geoffrey Scrimshaw
Reprising the television series roles which first made them household names, Richard Beckinsale and Paula Wilcox star as Geoffrey Scrimshaw and Beryl Battersby, a hesitant, inexperienced, young couple attempting to negotiate the sexual minefield of the ‘permissive’ society. This big-screen transfer of Jack Rosenthal’s hugely likeable sitcom sees old-fashioned girl Beryl continuing to slap down the advances of her frustrated boyfriend, whose clumsy attempts to initiate ‘Percy Filth’ suggest he’s ...
Rentadick
Character: Hobbs
Armitage runs a chemical company that is on the verge of producing a gas that causes temporary disability. Clearly the military want it but it is also sought by a group of Japanese. Both Armitage and Madam Greenfly hire different people in the same detective agency to guard the gas and steal it respectively... confusion, double crosses and hilarity ensue......
Three for All
Character: Jet Bone
A pop band and their girlfriends have fun in Spain...
Comedy Classics: Porridge
Character: (archive footage)
An homage to the prison comedy series Porridge, created by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. This documentary examines how Ronnie Barker’s Fletch influenced Slade Prison’s characters. There is also a look at 1978’s Going Straight, Porridge: The Movie, the US remake On the Rocks, and the 2017 reboot starring Kevin Bishop and Ricky Grover....
Porridge: The Desperate Hours
Character: Godber
Fletcher and Godber are in trouble for brewing liquor in the lead-up to Christmas, but are caught up in a hostage situation in the Governor's office....
Porridge: No Way Out
Character: Godber
Fletcher discovers that his fellow inmates are planning to escape....
Bloody Kids
Character: Detective Ritchie (uncredited; Died before filming completed)
Contemptuous of the fallible police force (Mike has already filched a police hat from an accident scene), two 11-year-old boys - the cold, manipulative Leo, and his weaker, more impressionable friend, Mike - arrange a staged knife fight outside a football stadium with the aid of a bag of stage blood and a real blade....
Detective Waiting
Character: Lewis
A cat and mouse game develops between a big man of crime and a young detective constable. But the big man doesn't realize, that this mouse roars....
The Floater
Character: Michael Robson
A comedy about the law - seen from the inside. All formality and procedure on the surface but not quite so convincing when you see the works....
Last Summer
Character: Johnny
A 1976 play concerning an unemployed school leaver becomes involved with professional car thieves. Part of the ITV Playhouse strand....