Derek Benfield
Birthday: Born in 1926-03-11 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Deathday: 2009-03-10
Derek Benfield was an English actor and writer.
TV Credits
The Brittas Empire
Character: Mr Franklin
The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. The show ran for seven series and 53 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show. The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained its...
Remington Steele
Character: Hector Tolouse
Laura Holt, a licensed private detective, opens a detective agency but finds that potential clients refuse to hire a woman, however qualified. To solve the problem, Laura invents a fictitious male superior whom she names Remington Steele. Through a series of events that unfold in the first episode, "License to Steele," a former thief and con man, whose real name is never revealed, assumes the identity of Remington Steele. Behind the scenes, Laura remains firmly in charge....
The Gentle Touch
Character:
The Gentle Touch is a British police drama television series made by London Weekend Television for ITV which ran from 1980-1984. Commencing transmission on 11 April 1980, the series is notable for being the first British series to feature a female police detective as its leading character, ahead of the similarly themed BBC series Juliet Bravo by four months....
First of the Summer Wine
Character:
Sitcom prequel to Last of the Summer Wine set in a small Yorkshire village in 1939 as Britain becomes poised for war....
Z-Cars
Character:
Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978....
Rumpole of the Bailey
Character:
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes....
Lovejoy
Character: Don
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
Timeslip
Character:
Simon Randall and Liz Skinner discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables them to travel in time to different historical periods in alternate pasts and futures....
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Character: Robert Wainthropp
Instead of spending her golden years lying down, the indomitable Hetty Wainthropp found her calling late in life. Combining common sense, her husband, and her pocketbook, this senior sleuth takes on all the cases the police deem too minor....
The Expert
Character: Harry Murdoch
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by a...
The Brothers
Character:
The Brothers is a British television series, produced and shown by the BBC between 1972 and 1976....
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense
Character: Undertaker
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense was a short-lived anthology television series from Hammer Studios. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials. The series was a co-production by Hammer Studios with 20th Century Fox Television, and is known in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater. Unlike 1980's Hammer House of Horror, all the episodes had American ac...
Maigret
Character:
BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television....
Hadleigh
Character:
Hadleigh was a British television series made by Yorkshire Television which originally ran from 1969 to 1976. Developed by Robert Barr, it was a sequel to the writer's earlier Gazette for the same company. The theme music was composed by Alan Moorhouse and, from series 3, Tony Hatch. James Hadleigh played by Gerald Harper, was "the perfect squire, paternalistically careful of his tenantry's welfare, beloved in the village, respected in the council." A "knight in a shining white Aston Martin V8,...
The Larkins
Character: Mr. Burlington Thrush
'The Larkins' is a British television sitcom which was produced by Associated Television and aired on ITV. It aired for four series between 1958 to 1960. An additional two series aired from 1963 to 1964....
Minder
Character: Brown
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley....
The Larkins
Character: Barrister
'The Larkins' is a British television sitcom which was produced by Associated Television and aired on ITV. It aired for four series between 1958 to 1960. An additional two series aired from 1963 to 1964....
Peak Practice
Character: Fred Hargrave
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based...
Hi-de-Hi!
Character: Rose's Dad
Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom set in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, during 1959 and 1960, and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum amongst others. It aired on the BBC from 1980 to 1988. The series revolved around the lives of the camp's management and entertainers, most of them struggling actors or has-beens. The inspiration was the experience of writers Perry and Croft: after being demobilised from the army, Perry was a Redcoat at...
The Flaxton Boys
Character: Sgt. Brophy
...
Casualty
Character: Mr. Davies
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives....
Casualty
Character: Eric Hogarth
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives....
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Character: Dr. Adams
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions....
Mulberry
Character: Alf
Mulberry was a fantasy situation comedy airing on BBC One in the early 1990s. The creative team behind the programme included writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. Mulberry ran for two series: the first series of six episodes ran from 24 February to 30 March 1992 and the second series of seven episodes ran from 8 April to 25 May 1993. A third series was planned, but was cancelled before production began. As a result, Mulberry never arrived at its logical conclusion....
The Likely Lads
Character: Cloakroom attendant
The Likely Lads was a black and white British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and produced by Dick Clement. Twenty-one episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between 16 December 1964 and 23 July 1966. However, only eight of these shows have survived....
Movie Credits
Lifeforce
Character: Physician
A space shuttle mission investigating Halley's Comet brings back a malevolent race of space vampires who transform most of London's population into zombies. The only survivor of the expedition and British authorities attempt to capture a mysterious but beautiful alien woman who appears responsible....
Trust Me
Character: Man on Bus
Harry plays hoaxes on gullible tabloid journalists. But when he gets ambitious and tries to sell the faked memoirs of a contract killer to a publisher, things start to go seriously wrong....
Welcome Home
Character: Dr. Liam Moore
Dr Frank Bowers has been looking forward to returning home after a long stay in a psychiatric ward. But when he gets there, he finds that not only does no one recognize him, but another man called Frank Bowers is living in his place....
Crossplot
Character: Man In Cafe
A successful London ad-exec hires a beautiful Hungarian girl to pose for some modeling shots, little realising that she has overheard an assassination plot and is now being hunted by some dangerous killers....
The Siege of Manchester
Character: Sergeant Byrom
A German mercenary is hired to defend the small township of Manchester during the English Civil War....
Room at the Top
Character: Man in Bar (uncredited)
An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman....
The Knowledge
Character: Football Driver
Four men attempt "The Knowledge" examination to qualify as London taxi drivers....
Remembrance
Character: Vincent's Father
A group of Devonport-based Royal Navy ratings, due to sail to America for a six-month NATO exercise, go out on the town on their last night in port, hitting Plymouth's notorious Union Street district, with violent results....
Arthur's Hallowed Ground
Character: Eric
Arthur is the groundsman. He's a perfectionist who has lovingly tended the cricket pitch for 45 years. Now he is given a new assistant....
The Girl
Character: Janitor
Pat Carlsson is a 14-year-old Swedish schoolgirl who though very young is very streetwise as she offers sex, for a price, to middle-aged attorney John Berg who can not resist the young girl. What starts as an immoral sexual escape, becomes a nightmare of tragedy and deception involving blackmail, kidnapping and murder....
The Death of Glory
Character: Cyril
Prevented by health reasons from joining the Army, a man lives out his military fantasies by leading a failing marching band. His life changes when he discovers his beloved ex-Army father has a secret....
Slimming Down
Character: Grandad
Mr. Shrigley, a small businessman dealing in office equipment, believes that the recession happens to other people. Unfortunately he is wrong, and, when it catches up with him, he comes up with a plan for some unusual cutbacks....