Spotlight: Colin Bell (Barty Willis in During Barty's Party)

Born at the end of the Second World War Bell attended RADA alongside Ronald Pickup and Hywell Bennett and made his professional debut acting in local repertory theatre. A typical role from this period included Little Red Riding Hood during January 1965 for the Leatherhead Repertory Company. He was also attached to the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in a staging of Bertolt Brecht’s play Squire Puntila and His Servant Matti at the Aldwych Theatre.

Bell made his first television appearance in the soap opera The Newcomers playing a character named Peter in an episode transmitted 9^th November 1965. During 1966 he became a series regular playing the character Archie Lean. The same year also saw Bell undertake the regular lead role of Don in the BBC children’s adventure series Quick Before They Catch Us. In 1967 and 1968 Bell concentrated on stage work which took in roles in productions of The Good Natured Man at the Derby Playhouse, Hop Step and Jump at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, Lady Windermere’s Fan at Salisbury Theatre and Waiting For Godot at Morecambe’s Palace Theatre.

He returned to television screens with the role of Jim Coxon in 'A Banner With A Strange Device' for the series The First Lady (1969) and followed this with appearances in episodes of Z Cars, Play for Today and The Liver Birds in supporting roles. His most famous TV credit before Beasts was in two Doctor Who adventures playing military men in the Jon Pertwee era adventures 'The Sea Devils' and 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs'. Post-Beasts he appears to have only one further television credit playing Andy in the Play For Today instalment 'Come The Revolution'. Bell drifted away from the acting profession and for a while ran a pub before becoming a painter and decorator. Despite reports in Doctor Who Magazine in 1995 that Bell has passed away he is still very much alive at the time of writing.

Bell was a regular voice actor for radio during the 1970s which lent his role of Barty a patina of realism.

 Many thanks to Toby Hadoke for allowing me to access his interview with Colin in preparation for this profile.