Peter Bowles Is DEAD To Me!

He did a couple of Avengers.

Was he ever on EastEnders?

In "Blow-Up", with David Hemmings (and a bad toupée).

RIP

Guthrie Featherstone in Rumpole.

He never did Shakespeare.

With Toby Stephens and Dame Judi.

Wellington in 'Victoria': he was excellent.

RIP

[quote] Born in London in 1936, Peter Bowles began his career starring in Shakespeare plays with the Old Vic Company in 1956.

British sit coms and antiques roadshow are the only programs worth watching on PBS

This is too bad. I loved To The Manor Born.

[quote] To The Manor Born

Why was he playing a Pole of a Hungarian or whatever in that?

I am offended!

No, R10, you are not offended, you are a douche.

He was playing a Russian oligarch buying up the manor and the village as a tax dodge.

I loved him on To The Manor Born and Rumpole. RIP

'To The Manor Born' only lasted from 1979 to 1981.

He was in two of my film faves: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (with faves Alan Bates and Janet Suzman) and For the Love of Benji (Benji the dog goes to Greece).

R14 But, has been repeated over, and over, and over, especially on PBS stations.

Yes. It has been repeated over and over so that the thin, posturing comedic situations and characters become more than tiresome.

TTMB had a butler called 'Frobisher' and Dame Penelope Keith's character was spelt fForbes (sic).

How come Dame Penelope Keith got a damehood but Peter Bowles didn't?

Cause he's a guy?

[quote] A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (with faves Alan Bates and Janet Suzman)

That movie has been banned in my country— or, at least, it's never shown.

R19 Both his parents were servants for the upper class. Maybe he had a dislike for titles and honours. I find it strange he doesn't appear to have even an MBE.

R18, the butler was named Brabinger and the unmarried friend of Audrey’s was named Marjorie Frobisher.

Penelope Keith, besides being an Olivier and BAFTA winner, has done a lot of fund-raising for charities for over thirty years and was the High Sheriff of one of the counties. She’s very active in charity circles.

[quote] Why was he playing a Pole of a Hungarian or whatever in that?

Czech it’s inferred that he’s Jewish. He was loosely based on Robert Maxwell, father of Ghislaine, but single & sexy.

It was always ridiculous that Richard’s mother should want him to marry Audrey. The mother was so into her Czech identity she would certainly have wanted grandchildren and Audrey was too old. And since Audrey never had children it would suggest she might be infertile. No hovering, socially-minded mother with a strong sense of familial history would not want immediate grandchildren so they could have a life of wealth, privilege and maybe granted a knighthood.

^ That situation sounds messy and makes 'the comedy' even more strained.

it’s *implied* that he’s Jewish

[quote]Penelope Keith, besides being an Olivier and BAFTA winner, has done a lot of fund-raising for charities for over thirty years and was the High Sheriff of one of the counties. She’s very active in charity circles.

Penelope Keith is one of the greats. She was amazing in The Good Life/Neighbors.

Back to Peter, he and Penelope had such chemistry together. There were also in a comedy called Executive Stress - for the second and third seasons, he replaced Geoffrey Palmer. It was pretty cute. They also had a reunion episode of To The Manor Born in 2007 which wasn't nearly as well written as the original, but it was still nice seeing them together.

How is it implied that he’s Jewish? He and his mother attend church regularly and talk about celebrating Christmas when they first came to England from Czechoslovakia.

I'm still trying to understand this bit in the OP's link.

[quote] Speaking about his success in sitcoms, he told the PA news agency in 2010: "If you have a great popular TV success, particularly in comedy, people don't think you can act on stage. "People thought I was just a sitcom actor and the BBC told me I'd never work in drama again. I didn't realise there were two worlds. It was new to me. I found it very odd and frustrating.

I just had my own Mandela effect: my memory was Peter Bowles played the friend of Wendy Craig in “Butterflies.” Wendy played a somewhat dissatisfied housewife who meets a suave middle aged man whose wife has just divorced him. She contemplates having an affair with Leonard. I looked the show up because I was surprised it hadn’t been mentioned in Peter Bowles’ obituary. It was Bruce Montague who played Leonard.

He had a very distinct voice, it was pleasant but slightly nasal grating on the ear.

Peter & his mother attend church because socially, it’s the thing to do. She talks him into it.

R32, that still doesn’t explain them celebrating Christmas when they went to England in 1939.

It seems he played in Terence Rattigan's 'Separate Tables' in the West End in the 90s opposite Patricia Hodge.

I bet there won't be thread on her when she passes away.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

He must have appeared in a lot of rubbish; he got third billing under these two hilariously-named non-entities.

He wasn't physically attractive.

I'm told he may have had a slight resemblance to Austrian Anton Walbrook. perhaps?

I always got him mixed up with Paul Eddington.

Physically not attractive but photogenic and debonaire.

Amazing to think Leslie Phillips, who also played in 'Rumpole', is still with us.

^ Still alive but facially disfigured.

I'm sorry, WHO?

{DL is an AMERICAN fag site! Just fyi.)

I thought he was quite handsome. I read that some years ago he appeared nude in a play about Beau Brummell when he was like 65. I'd have still gone to see him -- good-looking daddy, usually dressed to the nines in his role. He and Penelope Keith had wonderful chemistry on "To the Manor Born".

He plays the drug dealing cad Major Milligan in "Murder Must Advertise", appearing about 5 minutes into the episode. I love the woman who played Dian de Momerie, Bridget Armstrong.

[quote]How is it implied that he’s Jewish? He and his mother attend church regularly and talk about celebrating Christmas

R28 R33 Jew hatred is ancient and socio-culturally entrenched in England. Inferring, implying or stating that someone is "Jewish" or "of Jewish origin" is a pejorative indicating disdain and denegration.

R45, I don’t know why you won’t let this go but Mrs. Poo and Richard were not vaguely Jewish in TTMB. Please point me to any plots or dialogue which say otherwise.

I’m well educated and know all about the expulsion of the Jews in 1290 and the general Jewish-bias that has existed in England since.

If you had said it was implied that Harry Goldberg from Are You Being Served was Jewish, I would have agreed. However, in TTMB Richard and his mother have a private conversation about the first Christmas they spent in England and she recalls the pitiful Christmas tree they had. While an argument, a weak one, could be made that a Jewish mother would urge her son to attend church with herself for social reasons after 35 years in a country known for its casual antisemitism, it beggars the imagination to suggest that a Jewish family, newly immigrated, would have a Christmas tree in their own private home for social reasons.

It doesn’t make sense and isn’t true. The Robert Maxwell association is only because they thought it would be too easy to have the the lord of the manor to be American, as originally intended, and Bowles suggested Czech because Maxwell was big then.

R42 = village idiot

Is this show a comedy which uses witty word-play or is it just a situation comedy?

Has his sister Sally commented, mein herr?

How was he related to Camilla?

No! I loved this show. Penelope Keith‘s outfits were to die for. I loved her all-beige-and-camel ensemble in the first episode. The silk shirt - divoon!!

He was the 'Irish RM' also but I never saw that. Great actor.

[quote]I bet there won't be thread on her when she passes away.

I beg to differ, R34, and if it isn't SUCH FUN, Jemima Shore will investigate.

Pat is mother to Douglas Hodge.

I first encountered him in 'The Prisoner' (1967).

Pat was mother to A Douglas Hodge but not THE Douglas Hodge.