Spotlight: Elizabeth Sellars (Angie Truscott in During Barty's Party)

Elizabeth Sellars, born in the West End of Glasgow on 6th May 1921 as Elizabeth McDonald Sellars, made her stage debut at the age of 15 and followed this with training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). On graduation in 1940 she toured with E.N.S.A. (Entertainments National Service Association) performing opposite Eric Portman and James Mason. After this she joined local repertory companies in Edinburgh and Glasgow and toiled in the weekly turnaround of provincial theatres for several years building her experiences and honing the skills and endurance that can be seen in her performance in 'During Barty’s Party'.

Her London stage debut was in a 1946 production of The Brothers Karamazov opposite Alec Guiness. This was followed by a string of roles for The Royal Shakespeare Company including Helen in Troilus and Cressida, Hermione in The Winter’s Tale and Gertrude in Hamlet. When she was not on the stage or screen Sellars studied for a degree in law and commented “I’ve already completed five years of law studies in England, and I like to keep my hand in. I really study law as a hobby, it’s fun, like crossword puzzles – exercises your brain. I first took it up as a sort of relaxation from the pressure of acting. I found it most soothing.[1]”

She made her TV debut playing the Duchess of Anholt and Lechery in a BBC production of the Christopher Marlowe play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (22nd June 1947) and entered cinema with the role of Judy in Floodtide (1949) with Gordon Jackson leading an all-Scottish cast for a drama set in the shipyards of Clyde. She was a rising star throughout the early 1950s with a string of roles in British films as well as some secondary supporting roles in Hollywood movies. Sellars started the 1950s with the supporting role of Christina Hackett in Madeline (1950), an often ignored film from esteemed director David Lean. She was promoted to lead status in Guilt Is My Shadow (1950), a crime potboiler which cast Sellars as an estranged wife of a getaway driver who she accidentally kills during a sexual assault. Filmed in Devon the movie found an appreciative audience with regular repeats on American TV in the 1960s and has gathered a small cult following.

Her next role was in the early Hammer Films production Cloudburst (1951), not a horror film but rather an attempt at a British noir thriller. Sellars was the ill-fated pregnant wife of an American code breaker (Robert Preston) who is killed in a hit and run accident. Preston uses his code breaking skills to track down the killers and exact his revenge. The film gives Sellars the distinction of being in both the first and final Hammer production filmed at their legendary Bray Studios base, the other being The Mummy’s Shroud (1967).

Sellars next film role, as another murderous wife, was in the quota quickie[2] Night Was Our Friend (1951). She portrayed Sally Raynor, the spouse of Martin Raynor (Michael Gough), who is thought to have been killed in a plane crash in Brazil. When he returns home he finds Sally has fallen for another man. Unable to face the future Martin considers killing himself…or does Sally have plans to do so already? The screenplay was by Michael Pertwee, the eldest brother of actor Jon Pertwee, who adapted his own stage play for the big screen. The film was an early entry into the filmography of director Michael Anderson who would go onto make the classic British war film The Dambusters (1955) and Seventies sci-fi Logan’s Run (1976). Sellars TV work during 1951 saw her make the first of several appearances in the drama anthology BBC Sunday Night Theatre with a role in ‘The Bridesman Danger’ (4th November 1951), a specially written for television play by Charles Lloyd-Jones.

Her next movie was the Dirk Bogarde starring Hunted (1952), known in America as The Stranger in Between, under the direction of Charles Chrichton. Sellars was cast as Magda, the unfaithful wife to Dirk Bogarde’s murderer. Her second film of the year opposite Bogarde was The Gentleman Gunman (1952), an Ealing Studios drama directed by Basil Dearden also starring John Mills. Set during World War Two London the film featured cherub faced Mills and the suave Bogarde as two unlikely undercover IRA agents and was based on a 1950 BBC TV play. Sellars portrayed Maureen Fagan who is romantically involved with both Bogarde and Mills. TV wise during 1952 Sellars made two appearances in BBC Sunday Night Theatre starting with the 'The Prisoner' (10th February 1952). She then swiftly returned for a production of Dial M for Murder (23rd March 1952) playing Sheila Wendice.

The Long Memory (1953), reunited her with John Mills and based on a 1951 novel of the same name by Howard Clewes. Filmed on the Thames Estuary and the backstreets of Gravesend the production has a bleak and grim atmosphere which gives a noirish ambience. Mills plays Phillip Davidson a man freshly released from prison after doing time for a crime he did not commit. Should he seek revenge on the men which will probably lead to his demise or should he begin afresh and try to make a new life? Sellars featured as Fay his love interest. The Broken Horseshoe (1953) was based on a BBC production of a Francis Durbridge serial and featured Sellars as Della Freeman, the girlfriend of a surgeon who is accused of murder. Sellar’s character helps clear the name of the doctor. Another substantial role followed with Recoil (1953) which had Sellars playing a young woman who witnesses the murder of her father. Convinced by the police she goes undercover to infiltrate the gang who killed him in a taunt crime thriller.

Sellars also found time to make two episode of the US TV anthology series Douglas Fairbanks Presents which was hosted by Fairbanks for his own production company. By now Sellars might be starting to experience déjà vu with her roles as she once again played a cheating wife in the episode 'The Surgeon'(11th February 1953). The second episode was 'Moment of Truth' (7th October 1953) which also gave a small role to little known actor Christopher Lee as a matador. The episode 'The Surgeon' was compiled with two other episodes of Douglas Fairbanks Presents into the portmanteau feature film Three’s Company (1953) which was theatrically released in the UK. For British television audiences she could be seen making another visit to the BBC Sunday Night Theatre strand in the episode 'Take Away the Lady' (26th April 1953). A month later she made her second appearance in the anthology series with the role of Mary Fitton in 'Will Shakespeare' (24th May 1953). Rudolph Cartier directed and Peter Wyngarde played the bard. Theatre work during 1953 saw Sellars appear in Angels in Love at the Royal Court theatre, Liverpool.

Terence Morgan was paired with Sellars for Forbidden Cargo (1954) to play brother and sister drug smugglers who are being investigated by policeman Nigel Patrick and bird watcher Joyce Grenfell. Sellars followed this with a role in her first Hollywood film, The Barefoot Contessa (1954), which featured Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Edmund O’Brien as the top billed stars. Sellars has a supporting role in the film alongside a swathe of Italian character actors. The year was completed with Sellars’ second Hollywood role, the Oscar nominated Desiree (1954), which documented Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise and fall and his love affair with the Desiree Clary (Jean Simmons). Sellars played Desiree’s sister, Julie, whilst Marlon Brando was Napoleon. The Hollywood films continued with Prince of Players (1955) which cast Sellars as the sister of Edwin Booth (Richard Burton). Around this time she was offered a long term contract by a Hollywood studio, but she turned this down and instead returned work on the stage in the UK.

The British horror portmanteau film Three Cases of Murder (1955) comprised of three stories with Sellars cast in the second tale. Each segment was introduced by British television host and personality Eamon Andrews with actor Alan Badel appearing as a different character in each story. Andrews’ introductions were more in line with the then current vogue for hosts on TV anthologies, whilst the portmanteau style was directly modeled on the classic Dead of Night (1945). Three Cases has gathered a cult following due to the involvement of Orson Welles who gained top billing, but only appeared in the third segment Lord Mountdrago. Allegedly Welles made suggestions to the director George More O’Ferrall throughout the first few days of filming and by the third day had completely taken over directing the story.

Sellars' segment, 'You Killed Elizabeth', sees two friends fall in love with the same woman, played by Sellars. After she is found murdered one of the men, prone to black outs, comes to believe he has killed his fiancée in a fit of rage during one of his black out episodes. This segment was directed by David Eady and eschewed supernatural elements in favour of a whodunit mystery written by Brett Halliday, a pseudonym for American writer David Dresser. Her TV work during 1955 included 'Man of Destiny' (1st October 1955), the second episode of the anthology drama ITV Television Playhouse. This was a version of the 1897 George Bernard Shaw play of the same name and Sellars featured as The Strange Lady opposite George Colouris and James Donald as Napoleon Bonaparte. Stage work for the year included the comedy The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker playing Ma Pennypacker during May 1955 at the New Theatre, London and the first British run of the Broadway play Tea and Sympathy later in the year.

For her next film role Sellars was yet again cast as a wife who is murdered. Talk about typecasting! The Last Man To Hang (1956), directed by Terence Fisher, was a courtroom drama which has a jury decide whether Sir Rodrick Strood (Tom Conway) has poisoned his wife Daphne (Sellars) or if her death was accidental. On the stage Sellars replaced Vivien Leigh as the governor’s wife in the Noel Coward play South Sea Bubble at the Lyric theatre in London during August 1956. The production was transmitted by the BBC (17th September 1956) with Sellars played Lady Alexandra Shotter in a cast that also featured Joyce Carey and Peter Barkworth.

Sellars found herself under the direction of Charles Crichton once more in The Man in the Sky (1957), distributed as Decision against Time in American. Jack Hawkins played test pilot John Mitchell opposite Sellars as his wife Mary. The producer for the film, Michael Balcon, also hired Sellars for her next cinema credit The Shiralee which cast her as an unfaithful wife opposite Peter Finch as her husband. Sellars was next seen in the BBC play, Ordeal by Fire (31st October 1957), joining Patrick Troughton, Robert Eddison and Peter Wyngarde in a costume drama set in the court of King Charles VII. Sellars played the aristocratic Francoise de Gaillemarde under direction by Rudolph Cartier. 

Law and Disorder (1958) was a comedy film that begun production under director Henry Cornelius who tragically died shortly after filming began. Charles Crichton was drafted in as a replacement and once again found himself working alongside Elizabeth Sellars who featured as barrister Gina Laselle, a role which reflected her interest in law. Robert Morley and Michael Redgrave took top billing. Her TV work for the year included an episode of ITV’s hugely successful drama anthology series Armchair Theatre – 'The Shining Hour' (5th January 1958) opposite Peter Wyngarde. The play was originally going to be broadcast the previous week but a malfunctioning crane camera scuppered the proposed live transmission so it was rescheduled for the 5th January transmission. Next for Sellars was a return to ITV Television Playhouse with an adaptation of 'The Browning Version' (20th June 1958) which saw her play the wife of the main protagonist. Her second Armchair Theatre role for the year came with 'Murder in Slow Motion' (5th October 1958). Theatre appearance during 1958 included Paris Is Not So Gay at Oxford Playhouse over March and The Deserters at the Royal Court, Liverpool during August.

January and February 1959 saw Sellars appear in a double bill of Jean Anouilh plays, The Traveller without Luggage and Madame de…, based at the Arts Theatre. On TV She made her first appearance in an ITV Play of the Week with 'The Judges Story' (24th February 1959). After a six year absence Sellars then returned to appear in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre with the episode 'The Fortrose Incident' (10th May 1959) a production of the J B Priestley play. Sellars received top billing when she played Lady Fortrose with Michael Aldridge portraying her husband Sir Edward Fortrose. Just over a month later she was cast in another episode of BBC Sunday Night Theatre, 'The Philadelphia Story' (14th June 1959), which saw her as Tracey Lord in a version of the Philip Barry play which had been adapted as a film in 1940 with Katherine Hepburn playing the same role. Sellars made only one film appearance during 1959 with the British thriller Jet Storm, also starring Richard Attenborough and Stanley Baker, which prefigures Seventies disaster films such as Airport and the modern issue of international terrorism. Sellars features as Inez Barrington, one of a group of plane passengers that includes such familiar faces as Patrick Allen, Diane Cilento and Harry Secombe! The film struggled to find an American distributor until 1961 when it was released under the title Jetstream.

1960 began with Sellars undertaking an appearance in an Armchair Theatre production of 'Pink Strings and Sealing Wax' (28th February 1960), based on the Roland Pertwee play. Among the cast was a young Judi Dench. The following month Sellars appeared in the stand alone ITV drama At Home (18th March 1960) and only a week later she was back on the small screen with a role in 'Flight 404' (27th March 1960), a first season episode of the mystery/thriller anthology series Suspense produced by ATV. Stage work for the year took in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon during June / July 1960 for The Taming of the Shrew and during August / September 1960 for The Winter’s Tale. In her personal life Sellars married the surgeon Francis Austin Henley[3] on 8th September 1960. They would remain lifelong man and wife. Her cinema credits for the year included the British crime movie The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) as Iris Muldoon. The film was directed by John Guillerman who would also oversee Sellar’s second film credit for the year, Never Let Go (1960), which starred Peter Sellers as a car thief. From now on film appearances became rarer for her.

Sellars took an extended period of leave from acting whilst she settled in to married life and she made only a few appearances during 1961 including her second appearance in an ITV Play of the Week with 'The Flashing Stream' (24th January 1961). She also agreed to appear in one of the episodes of the anthology series One Step Beyond which was recorded in the UK. 'The Villa' (6th June 1961) also featured Kenneth Cope and Michael Crawford in the cast. Her stage appearances during 1961 included a production of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon appearing as Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The title character was played by Ian Bannen.

It was back on the BBC play treadmill for This Year, Next Year (29th June 1962) with Sellars cast alongside Brenda Bruce, Frank Jarvis and Noel Johnson. Still Life (15th March 1963) was another play for television which also starred Peter Vaughan and Peter McEnery. Written by Jack Pulman the play was set in the world of night club entertainers. Just over a week later she could be seen in 'Too Late for Mashed Potato' (24th March 1963), an instalment of the BBC Sunday Night Play. Her third appearance in an episode of the ITV Play of the Week followed with Sellars playing Janet Spence in a version of the Aldous Huxley short story 'The Giaconda Smile' (24th September 1963). Nigel Davenport and Joan Hickson headlined. In its review of the play The Stage singled out Sellars for praise: 'Elizabeth Sellars gave a finely drawn performance as the psychopathic ‘woman scorned’ and made the melodramatic nature of her part seem not only real but moving.[4]' Her only film credit for the year was as Lady Sarah Robertson in the Hollywood blockbuster 55 Days at Peking (1963) which headlined Charlton Heston, David Niven and Ava Gardner.

First Night was a successful drama slot for the BBC and Sellars appeared in the episode 'The Happy Ones' (7th March 1964) which also boasted the talents of John Gregson, Donald Sinden, Cyril Luckham and Nigel Stock. The production was based on a novel by Maurice Edelman, adapted for television by Anthony Steven, and told the story of a polite conversation leading to a love affair. In the theatre Sellars could be seen as Olga in an Oxford Playhouse production of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. Her fourth appearance in an episode of ITV Play of the Week arrived with a role in 'The Sound of Murder' (2nd November 1964) which was based on the William Fairchild murder mystery play. Sellars was repeating her original role from the stage production at the Aldwych Theatre in 1959.

Sellar’s major project for the year was appearing as Dr May Howard in the BBC series R3, which ran for two seasons between 1964 and 1965, appearing in eleven of the thirteen episodes comprising the first season. Now seen as a conceptual and spiritual forerunner to the acclaimed 1970s BBC series Doomwatch this mid-Sixties series was intended to help demystify the roles of scientists and portray them as ordinary people facing everyday problems. The series was not strictly science fiction but did touch upon the related areas such as plagues, drug side effects, robots replacing men in manufacturing and post holocaust survival. With her regular role in R3 taking up most of her professional time Sellar’s made her final acting assignment for the year starring alongside John Gregson once more in a seasonal edition of the BBC drama anthology Thirty Minute Theatre with the episode 'Family Christmas' (23rd December 1965).

The following year saw Sellars only making two appearances on screen, both guest spots in ongoing drama serials; This Man Craig – 'Sticks And Stones' (11th March 1966) and The Power Game – 'The Dead Sea Fruit' (7th November 1966). Theatre engagements during 1966 saw Sellars appear in A Friend Indeed in Cambridge during April and May. 'Person To Person' (4th January 1967) was an episode The Wednesday Play with Sellars headlining as a divorced thirty-something, Julia Graham, who has an odd encounter with an architecture student when he appears at her door and asks to use the phone. Her fifth and final appearance in an ITV Play of the Week was as Jane Canning in 'Person Unknown' (21st March 1967) again reuniting her with John Gregson who leads a distinctive cast that offered early roles for Felicity Kendall, Michael Crawford and a pre-Playschool Brian Cant. The play was adapted by David Butler who was also an actor and was probably most known for his role as Doctor Nick Williams in Emergency Ward Ten which he played for five years. Sellars major cult cache role of the year was in the Hammer horror film The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) as Barbara Preston.

Sellars was off our screens during 1968 but returned to guest star in an episode of The Avengers – 'Take-Over' (14th April 1969) which was penned by Terry Nation and directed by Robert Fuest. Her other notable TV appearance during the year was in an episode of the BBC drama anthology W Somerset Maugham which adapted twenty six stories by the titular author over the course of two series. Sellars appears in 'The Three Fat Women of Antibes' (8th July 1969) as Lena Finch. Sellars made no screen appearances during 1970 and had only occasional outings for the next few years such as Thames Television anthology series Shadows of Fear (1971) episode 'Repent At Leisure' (2nd February 1971) and 'The Grill' (16th April 1972), an episode of STV’s anthology drama series Short Story. Peter Vaughan co-starred. She made only one appearance the following year with the role of the mother to Lady Franklin (Sarah Miles) in the film The Hireling (1973). Another year of no appearances was followed by a role in the seventh episode, 'A Sprig of Broom' (10th February 1975), of the spectacular failure that was Churchill’s People. This was followed by a role in an episode of the Thames Television drama anthology Shades of Greene which comprised of adapted stories from the work of author Graham Greene. Sellars was in illustrious company in the episode 'Two Gentle People' (30th September 1975) which also starred Harry Andrews, Elaine Stritch and John Carson.

Her next screen roles was in the Beasts episode 'During Barty’s Party' and this was her only role for the year. It's a remarkable performance and clearly demonstrates how skillful she was as an actor. The episode was filmed in almost a single take in one evening after a solid week of rehearsal and Sellars gives herself totally to the role as her character must take control of the situation. In fact, Sellars did not make another film or television appearance for another five years. If Angie Truscott had been her final role it would have been a fitting tribute.

She returned to the screen with 'Dear Brutus' (27th January 1981), an episode of Play for Today. Next was A Voyage Round My Father (19th April 1982) with Sellars playing the mother in the Laurence Olivier starring TV play written by John Mortimer. Another Play for Today episode, 'Last Love' (1st March 1983), gave a substantial role to Sellars when she played Annabel, a well to do widower who falls in love with Jack (Dave King), a self-made man from working class origins. Her other appearance for the year was in the ambitious Yorkshire Television drama series Number 10 which examined the private lives of seven British prime ministers who were in office between the 1780s and the 1920s. Sellars appeared as Lady Bradford in the sixth episode, 'Dizzy' (20th March 1983), which focused on the life of Benjamin Disraeli. Winter Sunlight (8th March 1984 – 29th March 1984) was a four part drama in which Sellars headlined as Dorothy Ashford, a middle aged woman who, after the death of her parents, begins to live her own life. The supporting cast included Patricia Haynes, Derek Farr and Derek Francis who played Ernest.

Roles became rarer for Sellars as she entered her twilight years and so the time between appearances became longer. She made a guest appearance in the series Farrington of the FO and the drama strand Play On One in the episode 'The Dunroamin’ Rising' (9th February 1988) playing opposite Thorley Walters who had featured in the Beasts episode 'The Dummy'. She was part of a truly star studded cast of British character actors in the American TV movie A Ghost In Monte Carlo (2nd April 1990) based on the Barbara Cartland novel. Her final screen role came in the first episode, 'Best of Enemies', (24th July 1990) of the forgotten wedding agency set comedy drama, Made in Heaven, which was produced by Granada. Sellars played the character Grace opposite Kenneth Connor as Harry. She retired from acting in 1990 to “a wee cottage in Scotland”[5] and kept away from the spotlight preferring to spend her time with her husband. He passed away in January 2009. Sellars died a decade later on 30th December 2019. Director Charles Crichton once commented that Sellars was "a cross between the early allure of Ingrid Bergman and the power of Bette Davis". Perhaps this made her to be a difficult fit, too intellectual for many of the typical roles in film and TV of the time, and so limited her becoming a bigger star despite a busy and fulfilling career. Sellars later reflected on not taking the offer of a Hollywood contract that "MGM wanted to sign me up and I would have played Nero's wife in Quo Vadis. I never saw myself as a superstar, but - perhaps if I had accepted, I might have become one."

[1] Avalanche Journal, 9th November, 1958, page 6


[2] The term quota quickie was applied to cheaply and quickly shot films made to fulfil a British government quota for UK produced and distributed movies.


[3] Henley was a senior consultant gastrointestinal surgeon at the Central Middlesex Hospital, London. He authored papers on such topics as the blood supply of the bile duct. He retired in 1979, passing away in 2009 at the grand age of 94


[4] The Stage, Thursday 19th September 1963, page 10


[5] The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography, Robert Michael “Bob” Cotter, McFarland and Co, 2013, page 232

Spotlight: Anthony Bate (Roger Truscott in During Barty's Party)

Possessing pale blue eyes and a cultivated yet cold, stern exterior Anthony Bate was often seen in sinister roles or playing unsettling characters in a career that spanned over forty years on the stage, in film and on television. He was perhaps best known to the general public for playing the Whitehall mandarin Oliver Lacon in the television series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1978) based on the novel by John Le Carre. He reprised the role in the adaptation of Le Carre’s follow up story Smiley’s People (1982).

Born on 31st August 1929 in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, the third son of hoteliers Hubert George Cookson Bate and Cecile Marjorie Canadine, the young Anthony was educated at King Edward VI College in Stourbridge, a highly selective sixth form college. His older brother Don Canadine Bate also attended the same college and was a journalist on a local newspaper before the war. After serving in the RAF he returned to journalism and was eventually appointed the Daily Mirror sports editor in 1972.

During his time in National Service Anthony Bate served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVS) between 1945 and 1947. Following VE Day the Bate family moved from mainland England to the Isle of Wight. The young Anthony had three possible futures mapped out for him; joining the banking industry, stay in the Royal Navy or joining his father in running the family owned North Bank Hotel in Seaview on the Isle of Wight. He chose none of these and decided instead to pursue an acting career encouraged by his childhood sweetheart, Diana Fay, who had previously encouraged him to join a local amateur dramatic society. He applied to drama school, was accepted and enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Amongst his peers were Barry Foster and Harold Pinter. Following his graduation Bate completed his National Service with the RNVS before finding work in repertory theatre in Worthing (he appeared in Waters of the Moon, Connaught Theatre, August 1953) and Bournemouth. His West End debut came with Inherit the Wind (1960). Bate married Diana Fay in May 1954. The union would produce two boys, born in 1962 and 1964 and the couple remained married up until Bate’s death.

Anthony made his uncredited film debut in the British romantic drama High Tide at Noon (1957) as the character Johnny Fernandez. This was rapidly followed with his TV debut in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Bate appeared in the first episode (28th July 1957), with Peter Wyngarde given top billing. Bate had to settle for the lowly credit “a man called Jacques.” He followed this with a tiny role as a shepherd in the Yuletide BBC production Behold, The King (24th December 1957).

His first regular TV role arrived the following year when Bate was cast as Forrest in all six episodes of the long forgotten BBC series Captain Moonlight: Man of Mystery (22nd March 1958 to 26th April 1958). This was a children’s comedy thriller series written and produced by Kevin Sheldon which featured a nerdy radio actor called Tony (Jeremy White) who played a famous crime busting hero called Captain Moonlight on the radio. Whilst his radio alter ego preferred battling spies and villains Tony was weedy and appalled by physical violence in real life. But, when he finds himself and his friends are threatened by real life gangsters he realises he must become his famous character. Bate appeared as one of the gangsters. Just prior to this role Bate had played Police Constable Downing in “All Buttoned Up” (8th February 1958), an episode of the long running BBC series Dixon of Dock Green.

Bate’s career was on a roll and his next TV appearance was in an episode of the adventure series White Hunter, produced at Twickenham Film Studios. His small role as an aircraft pilot featured in the episode “A Moment of Truth” (3rd May 1958). This was followed by more work for BBC children’s television starting with playing a clown in “Pepe Moreno and the Monkey Puzzle” (2nd September 1958), an episode of the BBC children’s drama series Pepe Moreno. He was then a fireman in “Jennings and the Organised Outing” (1st November 1958), an instalment of Jennings at School, a BBC children’s comedy drama. His final TV credit for the year was in the Roger Moore starring series Ivanhoe. Bate played Sir Edwin in the episode “The Night Raiders” (16th November 1958). Whilst making inroads into television and film productions Bate was still actively engaged in the theatre. During the first week of December 1958, for example, Bate could be seen at the Connaught Theatre in Divorce on Tuesday.

Kevin Sheldon, on the strength of Bates’ role in Captain Moonlight, cast him as Tarasse, a town councillor in two episodes of The Honey Seige based on the book and play by Gil Buhet. Next was the character A B Morley in two episodes (21st March 1959 and 4th April 1959) of the ABC sitcom All Aboard. Swashbuckling adventures followed with Bate popping up as Alwyn, an archer, in The Golden Spur (26th July 1959). His final TV role for the decade was as a prison officer in the BBC play Cards with Uncle Tom (8th September 1959). The year would also see Bate return to the big screen with his second uncredited film role as a soldier in the British war movie Desert Mice (1959).

Bate’s first role television role of the new decade was a return to Dixon of Dock Green to play another policeman, Constable Bert Scott, in the episode “The Black and The White” (12th March 1960). He was cast by Kevin Sheldon in a single episode of the second season of Captain Moonlight: Man of Mystery playing Taffy in the second episode transmitted 19th March 1960. He also had a small role as a driver in the short film The Big Day (1960) from future Children of the Stones director Peter Graham Scott. Saladin was his role in the first episode, “Lion Rampant” (12th June 1960), of the William Russell starring period adventure St Ives. Another ‘cough and a spit’ role was next as a reporter in the fifth episode (11th July 1960) of Deadline Midnight, a drama based in the world of journalism. His main film role for the year was as Jackson in the comedy Dentist in the Chair (1960). To round off the year Bate entertained viewers as part of the Yuletide episode of Armchair Theatre – “The Great Gold Bullion Robbery” (25th December 1960).

Bate started the new year with the role of Van Dakar in the BBC series The World of Tim Frazer which starred Jack Hedley as an engineer drawn into a spiral of espionage. He then popped up in an episode of the BBC early Saturday evening adventure series Garry Halliday playing Sergeant Jones in the episode “The Secret of Batch 3” (4th March 1961). In the world of cinema Bate had a small uncredited role as a detective in the British crime thriller movie Payroll (1961). Bate also joined Vivien Merchant and Griffith Jones in the ITV Television Playhouse production of the Harold Pinter play “The Collection” (11th May 1961) based in the world of the fashion industry. He then visited Beaconsfield Studios for a small uncredited role in the British B movie crime potboiler The Man in the Back Seat (1961) as an AA Patrolman. His other cinema credit for the year was in the sequel Dentist on the Job (1961) with Bob Monkhouse also returning. Bate donned a white lab coat to play an unnamed scientist.

On TV Bate was given more substantial roles than he was on the big screen and so he naturally gravitated towards the medium over the next few decades. The Attorney General (22nd June 1961) was a one-off play written by Phillip Grenville Mann, with Bate back in a military uniform as Sergeant Lane. It’s worth noting that the play offered an early role for Carole Ann Ford who was two years away from being cast as the grand-daughter of Doctor Who. July would see Bate appear in ITV’s long running legal drama Boyd Q C in the episode “Sunday’s Child” (20th July 1961). Bate then made his first appearance in The Avengers playing Harry Black in the episode “Tunnel of Fear” (5th August 1961). It was then a swift return to the bosom of the BBC drama department for his next TV credit. The Big Boys (28th August 1961) was a one-off drama which saw Bate as Larry Argent, a teacher in a London primary school who begins an affair with the wife of the headmaster.

Next was “To Await Collection” (2nd November 1961) fifth of six plays in the anthology series You Can’t Win which was based on the umbrella theme of crime does not pay. Bate completed the year with a stint in the John Hopkins adventure serial A Chance of Thunder (22nd November 1961 to 27th December 1961) playing Paul Rowlands in five episodes. A third, and final appearance, in Dixon of Dock Green was next with the episode “The Battle of Bellamy Court” (13th January 1962), though this time Bate was cast on the other side of the law as suspect Fred Bagshaw. He made another return to a series which had cast him previously for his next TV outing, though he played an entirely different character in “The Secret of Omar Khayam Part 5: The Temple” (3rd February 1962), an episode of Garry Halliday. Studio Four was an anthology series filmed at the BBC TV Centre’s newly constructed Studio Four and Bate was cast in the episode “The Intrigue” (12th February 1962) alongside Frank Finlay and Leonard Rossiter. Bate played a playboy who has become tired of his life which has been a succession of women and debts.

Bate was then cast as Tilso in an episode of the ITV swashbuckler Sir Francis Drake, “The Bridge” (11th March 1962), written by Brian Clemens. Top Secret was an Associated Rediffusion espionage series which starred William Franklyn as a British agent working in South America. Bate appeared in the episode “Maggie” (13th June 1962). Bate next appeared in the sixth episode of the pioneering ITV science fiction anthology series Out Of This World which had Boris Karloff as the host and Terry Nation on scripting duties. Bate featured in the episode “Botany Bay” (28th July 1962).

He made the first of two visits to the BBC Sunday Night Play for the year with “Dackson’s Wharf” (26th August 1962) a murder mystery based on the novel A Killing Frost by Eric Burgess. Bate then jumped back into the crime genre for his next small screen appointment with an episode of the ITV police series No Hiding Place, “Top of the Ladder” (2nd October 1962), which was written by Bill Strutton who would go on to write the ambitious Doctor Who story “The Web Planet”. Bate’s second appearance in a BBC Sunday Night Play came with “Something to Hide” (16th December 1962) written by actor Leslie Sands. Glyn Owen played a police inspector investigating a fatal car crash. Bate played Howard, a novelist, who is one of suspects. Cinema wise Bate appeared as Sergeant Reeves in A Prize of Arms (1962) which also starred Tom Bell, Patrick Magee and Stanley Baker. This was followed by The Set Up (1963) was a Merton Park Studios production based on a story by Edgar Wallace and was one of a series of films that was later repackaged for the American TV market as The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre. Bate appears as Ray Underwood.

His first television role for 1963 was in an ITV Play of the Week – “I Can’t Bear Violence” (12th March 1963). Written by Julian Symons the play had an early role for future Doctor Who and Emmerdale star Frazer Hines as a noisy boy. “The Truth About Alan” (4th June 1963) was Bate’s second instalment of the ITV Play of the Week. Bate played the dean of a university in which a promising student has been found drowned. At first suicide is expected but then events start to prove otherwise. Ian McShane had a small role as one of the university students.

Bate returned to the BBC for his next few credits making two appearances in the BBC drama anthology First Night within a single month. The first of these was “Guilty” (13th October 1964) in which played the character Frisby who is asked to pick out a suspected police killer from an identity line up. Not wanting to condemn another man to death Frisby refuses and subsequently comes under extreme pressure from the police. His second First Night appearance was “The Youngest Profession” (27th October 1964) a drama about people involved in a public relations campaign. The production was written by John Elliot and directed by Alan Bridges, who along with Merton Park Studios, gave Bate a substantial role in their cinema production Act of Murder (1964). Bate played Ralph Longman who finds himself embroiled in a psychological game with a man (John Carson who also featured in “The Youngest Profession”) who had an affair with his wife. Director Alan Bridges also cast Bate in the BBC First Night play “Hunt the Man” (25th April 1964). This was Bate’s third and final appearance in the popular drama strand. Scheduling wise, but already filmed before his First Night appearances, was the first of three appearances in the Roger Moore starring series The Saint – “The Elusive Ellshaw” (17th October 1963).

The Sullavan Brothers was a business drama created by Ted Willis that ran for three seasons. Bate played one of the brothers, Paul, through-out the series lifetime which provided him with regular work as well as increasing cache with producers and viewers alike. The series began on 3rd October 1964 and finished on 25th September 1965 clocking in with a total of 26 episodes. This understandably prevented Bate from taking roles in many other films or TV shows during this period.

Bate then guest starred in an episode of the Victorian period drama Sergeant Cork – “The Case of the Monk’s Hood Murder” (23rd May 1964) as Dr Percy Snedden. The episode was directed by John Cooper who would also direct “Murrain”. “Hunt the Man” (25th April 1964) was an episode of the drama anthology series First Night written by Jon Elliot and set within a television studio with Geoffrey Bayldon as a television producer. As well as featuring Bate the cast also included Richard Bebb who would later feature as one of the radio voices in “During Barty’s Party”.

Bate’s second Armchair Theatre appearance came with the episode “A Nice Little Business” (26th April 1964), the hundredth broadcast episode of the series. The play also featured Diana Dors and William Franklyn in the cast with a script from Marc Brandell. Dors played a bored wife with a dull husband who hatches a plan with his pet shop business partner to murder him. Arthur Lowe had a cameo as a police detective. Bate then appeared in the following episode, transmitted the next week, as a completely different character in “Pleasure Is Where She Finds Out” (4rd May 1964). Written by Robert Muller and starring Rosemary Leach as the bored wife of a hotel manager who seeks company from a travelling salesman played by Bate.

His second appearance in The Saint was his next chronological appearance on the small screen. Bate excels as the indiscreet politician Christopher Waites in the episode “The Imprudent Politician” (10th December 1964). Davy Jones’s Locker (1966) was a family friendly supporting feature which featured Bate as Lieutenant Commander Jim Matthews who is holidaying in Malta with his son Derek who discovers a sunken wreck full of treasure. Amongst the cast was a young Susan George.

The Idiot (1966) was a five part mini-series produced by the BBC broadcast between 11th January 1966 and 8th February 1966. Bate featured as the character Rhogozin opposite lead actors David Buck and Adrienne Corri. More guest roles followed; playing a medical doctor in an episode of Gideon’s Way – “Boy with A Gun” (27th February 1966) and playing an army commander in an episode of military police drama Redcap – “The Alibi” (11th June 1966). Theatre work during 1966 included Giles Cooper’s play Happy Family for the Hampstead Theatre Club during May

Next up was playing William Broome in the BBC series Broome Stages, a drama which detailed the exploits of a theatrical family throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. William Broome featured in the first three episodes transmitted 25th October 1966 to 8th November 1966. Whilst Bate’s appearance in Broome Stages was being broadcast Bate popped up on BBC 2 in the science fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown episode “Level Seven” (27th October 1966). Adapted by J B Priestley from the short story by Mordecai Roshwald the production cast Bate as the dictatorial general of an underground nuclear bunker which provides shelter for what remains of the government after a nuclear conflict. Level 7 is the deepest level and therefore most shielded from the effects of radiation. Despite this the base is not safe from the holocaust above them and as the events play out it becomes clear the ending will be bleak. Bate gives a fevered performance as the increasingly unhinged general in an episode that was lost from the BBC archive for decades before it was returned to the BBC archives a few years ago.

The year of 1967 would be a busy period for the actor. “Mr Irtin” (21st January 1967) was an episode of the ATV play series Drama 67 which featured Bate alongside Peter Jeffrey as the titular character in a play about a shy and inexperienced forty something who falls in love with a typist at work, a woman young enough to be his daughter. His final appearance in the ITV Play of the Week strand came with “The English Climate” (10th July 1967). Bate played a wandering husband who returns home to his wife (Dilys Laye) after a series of infidelities. Angel Pavement was a four part drama series from the BBC (19th August 1967 – 9th September 1967) which cast Bate alongside Murray Melvin and Cyril Luckham. Theatre 625 was a BBC Two drama anthology series which saw Bate undertook two roles; “The Fantasist” (15th May 1967) and “The Magicians: Edward Gurney and Brighton Mesmerist” (29th October 1967). Both episodes were directed by Peter Hammond. His next TV role was Inspector Javert in the 1967 BBC production of A Tale of Two Cities (22nd October 1967 – 24th December 1967).

After a seven year gap Bate made his return to The Avengers playing Earle in the episode “The Curious Case of the Countless Clues” (3rd April 1968). A scant ten days later Bate made his third and final appearance in The Saint, which during his absence had moved into an hour long format now shot on colour film. Bate plays a medical doctor up to no good in the episode “The House on Dragon’s Rock” (13th April 1968). Bate’s key television role for the year was in the landmark gangster thriller Spindoe. Bate was cast as London gang boss Eddie Edwards who lasts for the first four of six episodes before he comes to a sticky end. Half Hour Story was an ITV drama anthology and Bate appeared in the episode “Mr Universe and the Well Known Prisoner” (29th July 1968) as a prisoner officer who comes into conflict with one of his prisoners. He then appeared in another drama anthology, this time from Granada, called City 68. The umbrella theme of the series of plays was to explore issues and problems of urban living. Bate is given top billing as the character Bull Atherton in the episode “The System: The Flea Pit” (30th July 1968) a story about students in revolt. For Amusement Only was a series of seven self-contained comedy plays shot on location and with little or no dialogue. Bate was in one episode, “Henry the Incredible Bore” (9th September 1968), alongside Laurence Harvey and Michael Gough as the titular Henry.

1968 rolled into 1969 and Bate continued to be a popular guest actor in ITC film series. He started the year with another evil doctor role in “The Mission” (29th January 1969) an episode of The Champions. His next role was in the London Weekend Television espionage thriller The Inside Man. Bate pops up as Josef Borozek in the episode “The Spy Vanishes” (14th March 1969). Bate’s debut in a BBC Play of Month came with a version of Julius Caesar portraying Casca alongside such well-regarded luminaries as Frank Finlay, Robert Stephens and Edward Woodward. The Main Chance was a Yorkshire Television drama based set in the world of lawyers and courtrooms which starred John Stride as the barrister David Main. Bate made his first appearance in the series with the episode “The Professional” (2nd July 1969). Stage work for the year included the Harold Pinter drama Silence presented at the Aldwych Theatre by the Royal Shakespeare Company during July 1969. He then made his debut in the ITV Sunday Night Theatre strand with the episode “Moonlight on the Highway” (12th April 1969), a prestigious production with a script by Dennis Potter and direction by James McTaggart. Bate played Doctor Chilton who treats David Peters, played by Ian Holm, a disturbed young man obsessed with the 1930s crooner Al Bowlly who was killed in the London Blitz during World War Two.

Bate’s first role of the new decade was in the BBC period drama Ivanhoe (4th January 1970 -8th March 1970) giving a memorable performance as Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert. Also for the BBC Bate played the role of Doctor Halliday Sutherland in Marie Stopes: Sexual Revolutionary (25th June 1970). In the world of Theatre Bate and Margaret Tyzack appeared in Find Your Way Home, a play by John Hopkins at the Open Space theatre during May 1970. He was next seen on TV as the title character in the three part Yorkshire TV drama Grady (24th November 1970 – 8th December 1970). Grady was a character that had featured in an episode of The Main Chance the previous year and his creator, Edmund Ward, wrote the series. Bate reprised the role with Diana Coupland playing his wife.

Shadows of Fear was Thames Television anthology series which featured stories of people in bizarre and scary situations that are not caused by the supernatural but by other people. Bate appeared in the third episode, “At Occupiers Risk” (19th January 1971). The Expert was a vehicle for Marius Goring as Professor John Hardy which ran for four seasons between 1968 and 1976. Hardy was a forensic expert who not only works for the police, but also other interested parties. Bate guest starred in a two-part story “Whose Child: Part One: The Wife” (31st January 1971) and “Whose Child: Part Two: The Husband” (7th February 1971). Next was “Darwin’s Bulldog” (3rd May 1971), an episode of the documentary series Horizon, which dramatized Thomas Henry Huxley’s advocacy of Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. Bate played Huxley alongside Patrick Barr as Darwin.

He returned to the BBC Two science fiction anthology series Out of the Unknown for his next role. By now the series was produced in colour and had adapted a more horror heavy slant towards its storytelling. Bate starred in the episode “The Last Witness” (2nd June 1971) as Harris, a man who awakes in a hotel. He begins to have hallucinations and visions and recognises snatches of what is seeing. Eventually he realises that he is seeing a vision of the future that ends in murder. Bate stuck with the science fiction genre with his following role in “The Nature of the Beast” (11th September 1971), an episode of the dystopian future series The Guardians.

He headlined the BBC period drama Fathers and Sons (17th October 1971 – 7th November 1971) as Nikolai Kirsanov in BBC 2’s four-part adaptation of the novel by Turgenev scripted by Denis Constanduros. December was to prove a particularly busy for Bate with his second appearance in an episode in the ITV Sunday Night Theatre, “Some Distant Shadow” (12th December 1971), as a character called Claude Prentice in a script by the renowned John Hopkins. Rather surprisingly he then appeared in the following episode, “Second Time Around” (19th December 1971) transmitted only a week later, as a completely different character. Bate played a man who had divorced his wife (Gwen Watford) twenty years previously and have never met since. They then come face to face at a wedding reception. It was then back to anthology drama Suspicion for his next role as Detective Inspector Tyler in “I’ll Go Along With That” (14th December 1971) which was sandwiched between his two Sunday Night Theatre appearances.

It was back to the BBC for his next TV role with a guest spot in “A Case of No Resolution” (18th March 1972) an episode of The Befrienders, a drama based around the work of The Samaritans. Bate played a man who wants to divorce and can’t bring himself to do so. Bate made his second appearance in the series The Main Chance with a role in the episode “The Next Great Train Robbery” (12th July 1972). Stage work for the second half of the year included J B Priestley’s Eden End at the Forum theatre in Billingham during September and October 1972.

His second role in a BBC Play of the Month came with “King Oedipus” (24th November 1972) a version of the Sophocles play with Bate playing Creon. The setting of Ancient Greece is replaced with a modern day setting in a corrupt Middle East state. He also played Reverend Charles Carter in “The Haunting” (5th April 1973) an episode of the BBC anthology series Menace. “The Haunting” was a ghost story which concerned a Reverend Carter and his wife Emma (Marilyn Taylerson) taking up residence in a rectory and becoming aware that something is not right. A medium is called in and suggests they leave, but the rector refuses. Then things get worse… After this he appeared in the Iain Cutherbertson starring BBC drama Sutherland’s Law – “The Killing” (3rd September 1973).

His final appearance in the long running drama anthology Armchair Theatre, after an absence of nine years, came with a role in the sombre play “Beyond Our Means” (18th September 1973). Bate played Oliver Forsyth who, along with his wife (Katharine Blake), eats dinner with an old friend, Doctor Chateris (Peter Copley). During the meal it becomes apparent that the Forsyth’s son has a brain tumour. Ego Hugo (23rd October 1973) was a BBC Bristol play charting the life and times of Victor Hugo, the French novelist and poet whose most famous works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables. The younger Hugo was portrayed by Brian Cox, whilst the older, middle aged Hugo was played by Bate.

Helen: A Woman of Today was a thirteen part drama from London Weekend Television which told the lives and loves of Helen Tully played by Alison Fiske. Bate appears in the tenth episode, “Daniel” (23rd November 1973), playing the eponymous character. Hail Caesar (12th November 1973 – 26th November 1973) was a three part historical drama from the BBC which explored the plot to assassinate the Roman emperor. Bate played Brutus in all three episodes. Cinema wise Bate was cast as Doctor Borden in the 1974 British horror film Ghost Story which was directed by Stephen Weeks and also starred Marianne Faithfull, Leigh Lawson and a good selection of British character actors. Bate’s major role of the year was playing Harry Paynter in the London Weekend Television drama series Intimate Strangers (20th September 1974 – 13th December 1974). Paynter suffers a heart attack which transforms his relationships and his marriage. The play was followed by an episode of the Russell Harty chat show which featured Anthony Bate as guest along with Diana Dors, explorer Thor Heyerdahl and Georgie Fame.

Bate played Robert Warren across 24 episodes of the Thames Television soap Couples with his character debuting in the episode broadcast 16th December 1975. Warren was last seen in the episode transmitted 23rd April 1976. Shades of Greene was an anthology series based on the works of Graham Greene with Bate appearing in the episode “Chagrin in Three Parts” (6th January 1976). Murder was a short anthology series from Yorkshire Television in which Bate was cast as Robetton in the second episode, “Nobody’s Conscience” (13th June 1976), written by Edmund Ward. Robetton was a seemingly mild mannered man who hides a huge secret. Bate’s stage work took in the who-dunnit Getting Away With Murder staged at the Comedy theatre during July and August 1976. He then played Roger Truscott in “During Barty’s Party”. More horror anthology work followed with Bate appearing in the BBC2 Playhouse production “The Mind Beyond: Double Echo” (6th October 1976). Bate played a character called Doctor Raeburn who discovers a young autistic girl may have telepathic powers. Later in 1976 Bate made his first appearance in the long running daytime courtroom drama series Crown Court playing Roger Cunningham OBE in the case “Death For Sale” (10th November 1976). This rounded off a busy year of television employment.

Into the new year and Jubilee was a series of plays commissioned by the BBC to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II as the British monarch. Each play attempted to reflect the British way of life between 1952 and 1977. Bate appeared in the episode “Nanny’s Boy” (17th April 1977). The role that defined Bate in the public eye and was celebrated in many of the obituaries following his death came with the BBC play Philby, Burgess and Maclean (31st May 1977). Bate excelled as the Russian spy Kim Philby with Derek Jacobi as Guy Burgess. His work saw him being nominated as best actor at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in 1978. He followed this signature role by taking the part of Doctor Livesey in the BBC classic serial adaptation of Treasure Island (16th October 1977 – 6th November 1977), a fairly faithful retelling written by John Lucarottie and starring Alfred Burke as Long John Silver and Patrick Troughton as Israel Hands. He then returned to the daytime drama series Crown Court to play an aspiring politician called Truscott whose wife is in the dock for stealing tinned fish in the story “The Silencer” (15th November 1977).

1978 was a very busy year for the actor with Bate popping up in several plays and long running TV series. The year started with his final appearance in a BBC Play of the Month with an iteration of The Seagull (5th February 1978) based on the play by Anton Chekov. Bate portrayed Doctor Dorn in a cast that also featured Michael Gambon, Georgina Hale and Stephen Rea. “The Train That Never Arrived” (3rd March 1978), was part of the long forgotten BBC drama anthology A Life at Stake. Based on real events that took place in Holland in 1975 the play cast Bate as the real life journalist Dutch journalist, Gerard Vaders, who finds himself amongst those held captive on a busy commuter train. The siege lasted for seven days.

Bate next appeared in an episode of the detective drama Wilde Alliance, reuniting with actor John Stride. Playing the character Golombeck Bate appeared in the episode “Time And Again” (21st March 1978). “Crimes of Persuasion” (27th May 1978) was an episode of the anthology series Scorpio Tales written by Nicholas Palmer who had produced Beasts and “Murrain”. Bate played a politician who is attempting to introduce the death penalty for acts of terrorism in a twisted tale of revenge and loathing. Set in an alternate 1970s in a world where Germany was not defeated in the Second World War the superlative alternative history drama An Englishman’s Castle (5th June 1978 – 19th June 1978) starred Kenneth More as a writer on a soap opera who helps to overthrow the oppressive Nazi regime. Bate played Harmer, the boss of the TV Company that transmits the soap opera. Bate then returned to the confines of Crown Court for his third appearance, this time as a character who would return to the series in subsequent years. Bate first portrayed David Rockwell QC in the case “Does You’re Mother Know You’re Out?” (12th September 1978).

During January and February 1979 Bate was part of the cast of The Shadow Box, an award winning play by Michael Cristofer, which was making its UK debut staged at Warwick University Arts Centre Theatre. Bate was interviewed by the local paper The Coventry Evening Telegraph for the opening of the play and took time out to discuss his career. “I never did regard myself as a romantic lead. I hadn’t the kind of looks anyway. I felt that the better character parts would come as I got older – and they did. I am constantly amazed at how busy I have been lately. Things quietened down a little last summer and now all has been let loose.[1]”

His second career defining role came with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (10th September 1979 – 22nd October 1979) with his turn as the Whitehall mandarin Sir Oliver Lacon opposite spy finder George Smiley (Alec Guiness).Bate then went back to playing David Rockwell QC in Crown Court taking a role in the case entitled “Queen Bee” which started transmission on 3rd October 1978. Bate’s first role in a Play for Today came with the comedy drama “The Network” (20th December 1979). The play was set on a private clinic which was run by two doctors, Roland Jeffries (Bate) and Philip Hartley (Geoffrey Chater), who sells babies to rich couples who are childless. Doctor Jeffries had a polished bedside manner which hid his complete lack of ethics and immorality.

Scene was a long running programme aimed at school and college students that mixed real life topics and drama. Bate appeared in a single episode as a headmaster – “Coins against the Wall” (7th February 1980). He followed this with the role of Lord Sorenzo in the Roland Joffe directed BBC play Tis A Pity She’s A Whore (7th May 1980) which transposed the action of the original 17th Century Italy setting to Victorian England. Bate also appeared alongside Wendy Hiller in a stage play written by her husband, Ronald Gow, during May and June. The Old Jest opened in Brighton and then took in Richmond and Birmingham before arriving in the West End. Bate then went onto appear in Alphabetical Order by Michael Frayn at the Theatre Royal in Windsor between the end of June and start of July 1980

More work in an anthology TV series was next with Square Mile of Murder. This was a BBC series based on the novel by Jack House of the same name which depicted the real-life murders that took place in the Charring Cross area of Glasgow. Each instalment featured a different case and Bate appeared in “The Human Crocodile” (19th June 1980) as Dr Edward Pritchard, a mass murderer. His next role was in the BBC2 Playhouse production “Dalhousie’s Luck” (3rd August 1980) which was written by the actor Fulton Mackay under the pseudonym Aeneas MacBride. Bate, playing Captain Bate, was reunited with his Ego Hugo co-star Brian Cox who was credited as Dalhousie. Bate returned to anthology horror with a role in the BBC Two programme Leap in the Dark which featured a mixture of real-life and original tales of the supernatural. Bate’s episode, “To Kill a King” (12th September 1980), was written by Alan Garner and saw Bate cast as Harry, a depressed writer suffering from writer’s block. An apparition, or perhaps a muse, appears and helps the writer overcome his difficulty.

His second role in a Play for Today came with “Psy-Warriors” (12th May 1981) with Bate playing Warren, the unit commander responsible for training his soldiers in the art of psychological warfare. Scripted by David Leland and directed by Alan Clarke the play featured soldiers who are captured and interrogated by terrorists. However it becomes apparent that the torture may also be a sadistic form of psychological training. Bate then appeared as Clive Seymour in the BBC classic serial Fanny by Gaslight (24th September 1981 – 15th October 1981). His final role in a BBC2 Playhouse production came with “Last Summer’s Child” (6th November 1981) playing Alec Marriott, the husband of Billie Whitelaw’s Rose Marriott, whose summer holiday in Cornwall is overtaken with tragedy. This was the scriptwriting debut of Susan Hill[2] based on her own short story The Badness within Me.

His next role was in a Paramount Television TV movie, A Woman Called Golda (26th April 1982), a glossy biographical drama depicted the life story of the Israeli prime minister as played by Ingrid Bergman. Bate can be spotted playing Sir Stuart Ross amongst a large cast that includes Leonard Nimoy, Ned Beatty, Nigel Hawthorne and Judy Davis. Another return to Crown Court then beckoned and Bate was back as David Rockwell QC for a case entitled “Window Shopping” which was broadcast from 18th May 1982.

He reprised the role of Oliver Lacon for Smiley’s People (20th September 1982 – 18th October 1982). Nelly’s Version (1983) was a Channel Four production in which Bate was cast as the husband to a woman called Nelly who has no memory of her life before she finds herself signing a hotel register. Once in her hotel room she opens her luggage to find it stuffed full of money. Bate popped up as Lord Curzon in “Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey” (27th April 1983), the third episode of the BBC biographical drama Shackleton. Two days later Bate joined John Mills and Connie Booth in a touring production of Little Lies which started in Watford and ended with a West End run. Kisch Kisch (13th May 1983) was a one off BBC drama from the pen of Alun Owen which starred Bate alongside Ian Richardson in an intense play about two brothers who have a discussion after a funeral that leads to long suppressed revelations and truths. This was basically a two-hander with Bate and Richardson the only characters appearing on screen.

Weekend Playhouse was a seven episode London Weekend Television drama anthology series and Bate appears in the fourth episode “Grand Duo” (29th July 1984) as the Reverend Sinclair Dodd. During August 1984 Bate was the lead in a stage production of Masterclass at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle. His only film role of the year was in the badly received Paul McCartney vehicle Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984). Bate has a tiny role as an unnamed city banker. Exploits At West Poley (1985) was a Children’s Film Unit production based on the Thomas Hardy story Our Exploits at West Poley. Bate has a small role with the unwieldy credit The Man Who Has Failed.

BBC period drama Artistes and Models featured Bate in its second instalment, “Slaves of Fashion” (19th February 1986), as the artist Jean-Auguste Ingres. Call Me Mister was an attempt by the BBC and Robert Banks Stewart to launch another detective series in the mould of Shoestring or Bergerac. The series starred Australian Steve Bisley as the oldest son of a titled English family who immigrated to Australia to become a cop. After his father dies he returns to the UK but instead of embracing his title he becomes a private detective. Bate appears in the seventh episode, “Running Time” (17th October 1986).

Breakthrough at Reykavik (1987) was a Granada feature length dramatization of the historic meeting between the Russian leader Mikail Gorbachev (Timothy West) and American president Ronald Reagan (Robert Beatty) in Iceland that, despite initial failure, eventually led to a thawing of the Cold War between the two countries. Bate played the Georgian politician and diplomat Eduard Shevardnadze. This was Bate’s only screen appearance during 1987. Bate played Bernard Crowther, one of the suspects in the Inspector Morse episode “Last Bus to Woodstock” (22nd March 1988) alongside the Demon Headmaster himself, Terrence Hardiman, as another potential murderer. Theatre wise May 1988 saw Bate appear in a production of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket opposite Penelope Keith

In an attempt to capitalise on the success of the George Smiley BBC adaptations Granada commissioned Game, Set and Match (3rd October 1988 – 19th December 1988) based on a story by Len Deighton. Ian Holme played Bernard Samson a spy employed by SIS in London involved a globe-trotting conspiracy taking in Berlin, London and Mexico. Bate was bought on board due to his role in the Smiley series and added much value to the production with his portrayal of the shady Bret Renssalaer. Ian Holme was nominated for a Best Actor BAFTA and the series received a technical acknowledgement with a nomination for Best Film Editor BAFTA. The series won neither award.

War and Remembrance (13th November 1988 – 14th May 1988) was the equally epic and star-studded sequel to the American TV mini-series The Winds of War which continued the saga of the Henry family headed by Robert Mitchum as Victor Henry. Robert Hardy was on hand to play Winston Churchill and Steven Berkoff essayed an eccentric Adolf Hitler and Bate’s role as Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt can be easily overlooked given such glitzy co-stars as Jane Seymour, Topol, John Gielgud, Sharon Stone, Ian McShane, Robert Morley and Barry Morse to name but a few!

Into a new decade and Bate continued to play authority figures in guest roles in popular ongoing series. His first role for the 1990s was as Lord Pearson in “The Lost Mine” (21st January 1990), an episode of Poirot starring David Suchet. Eminent Domain (12th April 1990) was an American TV movie directed by John Irvin and starring Donald Sutherland as Josef Borski. Bate played Kowal. After a fallow year Bate returned to TV with his second dramatization for the science programme Horizon, “Hitler’s Bomb” (24th February 1992). Bate played Niels Bohr a Danish physicist who had won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics and whose work helped contribute towards German Atomic Energy research and the German nuclear energy programme during The Second World War.

Bate was now well into his sixties and he had thus begun to slow down and become more selective with what roles he accepted. His final recurring role on television was in Medics a drama series set in a hospital staffed by the likes of Tom Baker as surgeon Geoffrey Hoyt. Bate appears as Reginald Girling in two episodes of the second season (28th April 1992 and 5th May 1992) and returned for another two episodes during the third season (29th March 1993 and 5th April 1993). During November and December 1993 Bate joined the cast of Noel Coward’s Relative Values based at The Savoy Theatre

It would be 1995 before Bate was seen on screen again and from now on he took smaller roles such as shady politician James Greenless in the Prime Suspect story “Inner Circles” (11th February 1995). Two years later he was cast in “No Other Love” (2nd March 1997) an episode of the David Jason starring series A Touch of Frost. Bate portrayed an unhinged former military officer. This was followed by a small role in the second episode of the Carlton period production Rebecca (13th April 1997) based on the story by Daphne Du Maurier. Bate played another elderly author figure, Colonel Julyan. Bodyguards was an ITV drama about elite guards who protect VIPs against threats. Bate appeared in the episode “Stand Off” (29th May 1997) as Sir Thomas Glennie.

His only role during 1998 was in a two-part story that opened the third season of the BBC forensic detective series Silent Witness. Bate played the Cambridge professor Leon Foreman in “An Academic Exercise” (19th March 1998 and 20th March 1998). Bate made no film or TV appearances in 1999 but did make the obligatory appearance in Midsomer Murders in the episode “Garden of Death” (10th September 2000) as Augustus Deverell. Next was the BBC Films production Happy Now (2001), a black comedy set in Wales. His final film role was as Mr Brindley in the German produced movie Nowhere in Africa (2001). His final television role was as Douglas Manning in an episode The Bill transmitted on 26th February 2004.

Bate never had a preference for theatre and television and stated “I always feel I will go where the next good part is. Television really is only a matter of talking to a bigger audience. But it certainly takes times to adapt when you go back to the theatre. I find it needs a great deal of stamina. So I do Canadian Air Force exercises to build myself up for a stint on stage.[3]”

He married his childhood sweetheart Diana Fay on 22nd May 1954 and had two sons, Gavin Watson (born 1961) and Mark Hewitt (born 1963). Anthony Bate died on 19th June 2012 at the age of 84 in St Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight following a short illness. The obituary in newspaper The Telegraph summed up his performance technique and ability succinctly; “Bate’s pale blue eyes, fair complexion, mild manner and spare frame lent him an air of effortless sangfroid, enhanced by a natural restraint, which he used to ratchet up the dramatic tension. But although he could be almost disturbingly cool, he was the master of an emotional range which could not only chill but also amuse.[4]”

Most of his obituaries tended to concentrate on his role in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People though The Independent did cite his role as Roger Truscott in Beasts as a highlight of his career “Particular noteworthy was the two-hander “During Barty’s Party” for Nigel Kneale’s Beasts (1976), a stunning two-hander in which Bate and Elizabeth Sellars, shut into a chilly marriage, are trapped in their home as a plague of rats gnaw through the floorboards. The play ratcheted up the tension to astounding levels as once again the urbane Bate transformed dismissive business man to petrified infant.[5]”

A year after his death Bate made the news again when a collection of antique Chinese snuff bottles was discovered in a battered suitcase under a bed as relatives cleared his house. Inside there were more than seventy tiny bottles dating back to the 17th Century. Bate was an avid collector of the small bottles which ranged in height from just two and up to five inches. The items were put up for an auction with an estimate to sell for around £30,000, the collection actually went for £128, 0000.

[1] “Anthony Reaps the Rewards of Middle Age”, The Coventry Evening Telegraph, Saturday 20th January 1979, page 22

[2] Another link to Nigel Kneale here as Hill would write the novel The Woman in Black which benefitted from a glorious adaptation by Nigel Kneale when it was made for television.

[3] “Anthony Reaps the Rewards of Middle Age”, Coventry Evening Telegraph, Saturday 20th January 1979, page 22

[4] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9345241/Anthony-Bate.html (accessed 18th May 2017)

[5] “Anthony Bate: Actor Who Made His Name With a Cold, Stern Persona and an Aura of Menace” by Simon Farquhar, The Independent, Saturday 23rd June 2012 available at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/anthony-bate-actor-who-made-his-name-with-a-cold-stern-persona-and-an-aura-of-menace-7880381.html (accessed 2 January 2019)