More Sad News

Less than a fortnight after the death of Ian Carmichael comes news of the passing of another fine actor and thoroughly decent man of the same generation, Lionel Jeffries. His most lasting legacy will probably be the classic 1970 film of The Railway Children, which he directed and scripted, but he put in some wonderful performances too, both comic and dramatic. As Prison Officer 'Sour' Crout, he was an essential element in that great comedy caper Two Way Stretch; he did a similarly brilliant job as Inspector 'Nosey' Parker in The Wrong Arm of the Law; he was suitably appalling as the Marquis of Queensberry in The Trials of Oscar Wilde; and, much later in his career, he gave a memorable performance opposite Peggy Ashcroft in Dennis Potter's bleak Cream In My Coffee. He had a 'good war', too, serving in Burma. Another good man gone.