Spotlight: Gary Watson (Radio Commercial Voice in During Barty's Party)

Gary Watson was born on June 13, 1930 in Shifnal, Shropshire, England as Garrowby Cawthorne Watson. Sandy haired, with intense blue eyes, he was a popular voice artist who contributed too many television commercials (including Nescafe and Lloyds Bank), training films and documentaries, particularly for British Transport Films. After graduating from Cambridge University he taught English for a while at the Westminster City School in London where he was an active member of the school drama society and directed several stage productions including a version of Treasure Island.

1961 was the gateway year for Watson to appear on our screens and he started by making his his first appearance in The Avengers with the role of Pardoe in the first season episode “Death on the Slipway” (24th June 1961). His next role was in the BBC anthology drama series Yorky which starred Wilfred Pickles in the title role. Watson appears as the Reverend Michael Winyard in the second season episode “How to Move a Mountain” (30th August 1961). Next Watson was cast as Captain Snell in the BBC Sunday Night Play “The Test” (5th November 1961) a cold war drama about a group of scientists about to test a devastating top secret weapon. The Second Mrs Tanqueray (9th March 1962) was a BBC play which featured his “During Barty’s Party” co-star Elizabeth Sellars in the main role. Watson appears as Captain Hugh Ardale. “Pictures Don’t Lie” (11th August 1962) was an episode of the Boris Karloff presented science fiction anthology series Out Of This World. Watson appeared as the radio scientist Nathen, who picks up signals coming from an incoming spaceship and succeeds in communicating with it when he slows the messages down. The aliens are concerned about the threat of humans and their potential violence. Nathen convinces them they are a peaceful species and so they agree to land nearby. When the scientist goes to look for them he cannot see the craft. The simple fact being the aliens are tiny in stature and Nathen has trod on the spaceship.

The Rival Flows East (14th October – 18th November 1962) was a six-part BBC drama series written by Terence Dudley in which Watson played Andrew Giddings opposite Judy Cornwell as a couple searching for a missing girl. His second appearance in The Avengers came in the episode “Immortal Clay” (1963) playing a more substantial role in the form of Allen Marling. The character Bush was his third appearance in The Avengers in the episode “Lobster Quadrille” (1964).

Watson’s first TV appearance for 1965 was in an episode of the John Thaw starring series Redcap. Watson appears as Major Silk in “A Question of Initiative” (2nd January 1965). He was then cast as another authority figure, Detective Sergeant Wimpole, in the Public Eye episode “You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always A Rabbit” (27th March 1965). Next was an appearance as a sailor, Shipman Roberts, in the comedy drama “The Winds of Green Monday” (20th September 1965), an instalment of the ITV Play of the Week. Armchair Mystery Theatre was a spin off anthology series from the much admired Armchair Theatre drama anthology. Watson appears in two episodes; “That Finishing Touch” (18th July 1965) as Geoffrey Baxter and “The Stairway” (26th September 1965) as Max one of a pair of killers alongside Bernard Bresslaw as his fellow murderer Stephen.

Watson’s highest profile role to date was as Aramis in the BBC dramatization of The Three Muskateers (13th November 1966 – 15th January 1967) alongside Jeremy Brett as D’Artagnan, Brian Blessed as Porthos and Jeremy Young as Athos. Following this he appeared as Arthur Terrall in episodes three to five of the Patrick Troughton Doctor Who adventure “The Evil of the Daleks” (3rd June – 17th June 1967). Ten days later he could be seen as Lieutenant Tetteris in the BBC one off drama Death Happens to Other People (27th June 1967).

Watson also provided the English language voice over for the UK release of the Russian film The Snow Queen (1967) based on the Hans Christian Andersen story. Back on television Watson appeared in the BBC drama anthology The Golden Age, in the episode “The Theatres: Richard Burbage” (29th November 1967), playing Burbage who was considered to be the first great actor of British theatre with roles in various Shakespeare productions staged at the Globe Theatre. Contrasts was a BBC arts programme and Watson was one of several readers for the episode “The Pre-Raphaelites” (17th December 1967) which told the story of a group of a new generation of painters in Victorian times that rebelled against the established order.

After a particularly busy year 1968 saw Watson make fewer appearance with the highlight being his fourth and final role in an episode of The Avengers as Stephen Kendrick in the episode “Wish You Were Here” (18th November 1968). The following year was busier; he made his second appearance in the series Public Eye playing Doctor Charles Nourse in the episode “My Life’s My Own” (20th August 1969), made his second Softly Softly appearance playing Harry Owen in the episode “Error of Judgement” (2nd October 1969) and was seen as Bilak, a diplomat of the Czech embassy in London, in the Special Branch episode “Exit A Diplomat” (26th November 1969).

At the start the new decade he appeared in the debut episode of the third season of Callan, playing Henshaw in the episode “Where Else Could I Go?” (8th April 1970). The espionage continued with Watson appearing in the BBC spy thriller Codename playing Tellor in the episode “A Walk with the Lions” (21st April 1970). London Weekend Television produced a series of six plays under the title of Big Brother which was themed around examining if 1970s society was heading towards a dystopian future as depicted in the George Orwell novel 1984. Watson appears in the episode “A Little Bit like a God” (27th September 1970) as Professor Robson. The cast also included Andre Morrell who had been a cast member of the legendary 1954 BBC production of 1984 scripted by Nigel Kneale. Watson then returned to role of Czech diplomat Ladislav Bilak in the Special Branch episode “Sorry Is Just a Word” (14th October 1970).

He undertook the role of storyteller on the Children’s BBC series Jackanory for a week of tales starting with “Preep and the Queen” (19th October 1970) and ending with “The Little Prince and The Tiger Cat” / “The Emperor’s Rhyme" (23rd October 1970). Thames Television produced a five episode version of Macbeth (4th November – 2 December 1970), updating it to the modern era with Michael Jayston as Macbeth. Watson was cast as Macduff.

His second appearance in an episode of Armchair Theatre came in the instalment “Wednesday’s Child” (10th November 1970). Watson played Doctor Charles Nourse who hires a private nurse to look after his wife after her miscarriages. However the two women become increasingly close in their relationship. Watson also had a part as a Scotland Yard police inspector in the film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), but his part was deleted from the final print. He returned to classical literature with the role of Creon in a two part version of the play Antigone (16th February and 1st March 1971) for the Thames Television educational programme Heritage. He then narrated the BBC single drama The Snow Goose (15th November 1971) which was adapted from the short story by Paul Gallico and starred Jenny Agutter and Richard Harris.

There were more narration duties for the BBC period drama Mistress of Hardwicke (9th April – 11th June 1972) based on the life of Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, a notable figure in Elizabethan society due to her shrewd business decisions and four marriages. He made his Z Cars debut as the recurring character Detective Inspector Connor in the episode “Connor” (11th September 1972). Inspector Connor would appear in eleven episodes over the next few years with his final appearance in the episode “Turnabout” (22nd April 1974). He busied himself with guest roles in such fare as “The Secret of the Magnifique” (19th February 1973), an episode of the anthology series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, and was the bumbling Inspector Rush in “Once The Killing Starts” (7th January 1974), an episode of the second season of the anthology series Thriller. Possibly one of Watson’s most recalled roles came in the shape of the hitman John Quentin in the hard boiled crime thriller The Hanged Man (15th February – 5th April 1975).

The Poisoning of Charles Bravo was a three part BBC Victorian melodrama starring Paul Darrow as Bravo, who is convinced that someone is trying to kill him. Watson pops up in the third episode, “Public Exposure” (2nd July 1975), as Mr Lewis. He was next seen in an episode of the BBC experimental drama anthology Centre Play. Watson is credited as Stranger in the episode “The Stick Insect” (18th August 1975). His is only TV credit for 1976 is for supplying voices for the commercials heard on the radio in the Beasts episode “During Barty’s Party”, a nod to Watson’s success and familiarity to viewers from his audio work.

The Sunday Drama was a HTV drama anthology strand. Watson appears in the episode “Silver Blaze” (27th November 1977) as Inspector Gregory opposite Christopher Plummer and Thorley Walters as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Murder Most English was BBC crime drama which starred Anton Rodgers as Chief Inspector Purbright. Watson appears in the two part story “Hopjoy Was Here” (8th May and 15th May 1977).

He was cast by the director Don Taylor (who had worked with Watson on “During Barty’s Party”) in the BBC2 Playhouse production “The Achurch Letters” (12th January 1977) as Charles Carrington. Watson then played the ill-fated Polish military attaché Arciszewsky who commits suicide in “The Polish Affaire” (4th March 1978), an episode of the World War Two drama Enemy at the Door. Watson made his second appearance in a BBC 2 Playhouse production under the direction of his old colleague Don Taylor. “A Last Visitor For Mr Hugh Peter” (30th January 1981) saw Taylor cast the actor as the personification of Death alongside such high calibre performers as Peter Vaughan as Hugh Peter, a prisoner reflecting on his forthcoming execution. Don Taylor also wrote the script for the play.

As an established voice artist Watson continued to be much in demand for his vocal skills with duties on the three-part BBC documentary The Flight of the Condor over February 1982, as one of the readers for Thames’ documentary series Six Centuries of Verse (1984) and being heard as a radio reporter in fifth episode of the children’s sci-fi series Chocky (6th February 1984), adapted from a story by John Wyndham. Look and Read was a BBC educational series for primary school children which presented stories in a serialised format with the aim to improve the viewers’ literacy skills. Badger Girl was one of the serialised stories (18th September -27th November 1984) and told the tale of three city living children going on holiday in the countryside. They discover a pony rustling scam and aim to discover who is responsible. Watson acted as the narrator for the entire series.

His final clutch of television appearances took in guest appearances; Roger Hilton in the King and Castle episode “Romance” (1st October 1986), Kelvin Halliday in the Miss Marple story “Sleeping Murder” (1th January 1987) and as Sir Greville Strickland in “The Hazard of the Die” (10th February 1988), an episode of the Robert Powell starring series Hannay. At the time of writing, November 2022, Watson is still with us and enjoying his retirement.