| Richard Briars has been around for a long time, although I could
not find his date of birth anywhere. The photo above was taken from
the BBC series the 'Good Life' where he played Tom Good, who with
his wife decided to get out if the rat race, ad set up a self
sufficient home where the grew there own food. As it was set in
suburban London, and they had a typical snobby neighbour who hated
the whole idea, it made for brilliant TV. It still gets repeated
years later and is still very funny.
The biography comes from here.http://www.baraboonow.com/derrickm/thegoodlife/briars.html
Richard Briers
has been enormously popular throughout his career in the UK because
of his regular contributions to television comedy series. He was the
linchpin of three of the most successful sitcoms ever made in
Britain: "Marriage Lines," "The Good Life" and "Ever Decreasing
Circles."
After a long career in popular television drama, in 1987 he joined
Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company and his already very
successful professional life took a new turn as he moved on to the
major classical roles.
"Ken offered me Malvolio in his production of 'Twelfth Night' Briers
recalls, "at the very time I had decided to expand my career when I
realized I had gone as far as I could doing sitcoms. As soon as I
worked with him, I thought he was truly exceptional."
After his Malvolio, Briers took on King Lear at Branagh's
insistence, followed by the title role in "Uncle Vanya" and Menenius
in "Coriolanus."
The role of Henry in A MIDWINTER'S TALE marks Briers' fifth
appearance in a Kenneth Branagh film, following his Bardolph in "HenryV,"
Leonato in "Much Ado About Nothing," the blind grandfather in "Mary
Shelly's Frankenstein" and his co-starring role with Sir John
Gielgud in Branagh's Academy Award nominated short film, "Swan
Song."
Other film credits include Michael Warner's "A Chorus of
Disapproval" and the film version of the hit TV series "Minder."
Briers trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he won the
Silver Medal and a scholarship to Liverpool Playhouse. He made his
West End debut in 1958 and has barely stopped working since in both
theatre and television. In both media, he has appeared often in the
work of playwright Alan Ayckbourn, playing leading roles in
"Relatively Speaking," "Absurd Person Singular" and "Absent Friends"
in the theatre and in "The Norman Conquests" and "Just Between
Ourselves" on television.
In 1989 he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the
Queen for his services to the arts.
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