Actor Spotlight - Raymond Platt (Tom Start in Murrain)

 

Amongst Platt’s earliest credits is a role as a schoolboy in the ITV Play of the Week instalment ‘A Touch of the Sun’ (26^th May 1959) which featured esteemed actors Michael Redgrave and Roger Livesey in lead roles. It must have given him a taste for acting as Platt went on to study at RADA, graduating in 1965. Like his fellow ‘Murrain’ co-star, David Neal, Platt was in the 1965 BBC production of Hereward the Wake broadcast from 12^th September to 26^th December 1965. Platt’s character, Arnoul, would feature in three episodes. His next small screen engagement was a return to ITV Play of the Week with the episode ‘Come Laughing Home’ (20^th December 1966), a comedy scripted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, which featured Platt in the much more substantial role of Terry Fawcett.

Bernard Lee had appeared in an episode of the anthology series The Gamblers and Platt also appeared in the series in the episode ‘The Bridge’ (21^st December 1967). Platt was credited as a German character called Dieter alongside Brian Cox as an allied soldier called Mickey in a story set during the 1944 Normandy Landings. For the next few years Platt would appear in episodes of comedy series such as Doctor in the House and The Fenn Street Gang with his next notable dramatic role coming in 1973 with The Roses of Eyam (12^th June 1973). Written and directed by Don Taylor (who oversaw the Beasts episodes ‘During Barty’s Party’ and ‘Buddyboy’) this was a BBC play that told the story of Eyam, a Derbyshire village which voluntary quarantined itself during the time of the Black Death. This wasn’t to prevent the plague spreading to the village as it was already infected. They quarantined themselves to stop the plague spreading to nearby settlements and thus sentenced themselves to death with over half of the village succumbing.

Platt’s only appearance in visual media for 1974 was one which has gathered a cult following. The role was Irwin Ingham in the film Little Malcolm and His Struggle against the Eunuchs (1974) which also provided an early role for John Hurt and was based on the play by David Halliwell. After decades of being forgotten the film was resurrected and presented to a new audience thanks to the British Film Institute’s series of Flipside DVD and bluray releases. Platt’s appearance as Tom Start in ‘Murrain’ was his next TV role. Post-‘Murrain’ Platt appeared in an episode of the police drama Hunter’s Walk - ‘Missing’ (3^rd August 1976) which was directed by Richard Bramall (who oversaw the production of the Beasts episode ‘Special Offer’). Platt was reunited with his ‘Murrain’ co-star David Simeon who was also a regular cast member in Hunter’s Walk and appeared in the episode as Detective Constable Mickey Finn.

The Children of the Green Forest, which was transmitted between 13^th November 1977 and 11^th December 1977, was a rare recurring role with Platt seen as the character Daniel in the first four of five episodes. He had no TV or film appearances during 1978 but returned to the small screen portraying Davy, the servant to Shallow in a BBC production of the Royal Shakespeare performance of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part Two (16^th December 1979). His ‘Murrain’ co-star, David Neal, also featured in the cast as the Archbishop of York.

Roles really began to become very rare for Pratt over the next few years and he made only a few more more appearances on the small screen. The first of these was in episode two of the BBC period drama The Barchester Chronicles (17^th November 1982) in a small role as a clerk. Platt could later be seen in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Measure for Measure which toured between 1983 and 1984 and versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night during 1985. His next role was in the Pauline Collins / John Alderton starring drama series Forever Green. It was a small role as a photographer in the fifth episode of the first season (25^th March 1989). The final role I have found for Platt is playing an osteopath in ‘William the Great Actor’ (27^th November 1994) an episode of the 1990s BBC television adaptation of Richmal Crompton’s Just William.