MURDER CASE
Reditor
about the death of British actor Barry Evans, who starred in "Here We Go 'Round
the Mulberry Bush" and the "Doctor in the House" TV sitcom. I know he was
murdered, but I never managed to get any other details.
Richard Valley
red...@aol.com
Reditor
It was in the newspapers, very briefly, but there were absolutely no details
in any of the reports I read. I'd really like to know what happened, since his
name is scheduled to come up in Scarlet Street in the near future.
Richard Valley
Scarlet Street
red...@aol.com
Catty
You what? Evans was murdered?! You jest? Where did
you hear about that?
Catty (a film bore)
xx
Noctur...@yahoo.com
And, again, you want to read it - you reformat it!
The youthful, ever-smiling Barry Evans found fame in the comedy series Doctor
in the House and Mind Your Language, but failed to shake off the image that
those television programmes gave him, despite his earlier appearances in a
wide range of screendramas and stage performances with the National Theatre
and Young Vic.
Born in Guildford, Surrey, in 1943, Evans was orphaned and brought up in a
Dr Barnardo's home in Twickenham, Middlesex. Intent on a career in acting,
he won a John Gielgud Scholarship to train at the Central School of Speech
and Drama, before making histheatre debut in Barrow- in-Furness. He found
his first big break in Spring Awakening at the Royal Court Theatre and, soon
afterwards, appeared in Chips with Everything on Broadway (1963).
On returning home, Evans joined the Nottingham Playhouse repertory company
and toured with it throughout Britain and the Far East. He also acted in the
films The Class (1961) and The White Bus (1966, directed by Lindsay
Anderson) and on television inRedcap (1964), Undermind (1965), The Baron
(1966), Much Ado About Nothing (1967) and Love Story (1967).
After a year with the National Theatre, Evans was chosen by the director
Clive Donner to star as the former grammar school boy Jamie McGregor,
determined to lose his virginity, in the film Here We Go Round the Mulberry
Bush (1968). The picture wasregarded as an adolescent romp, with music by
Stevie Winwood and Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group, which helped it to
capture the mood of the permissive society of the Swinging Sixties. He
subsequently appeared in the film Alfred the Great (1969).
Then, Evans was cast as a medical student, Michael A. Upton, in Doctor in
the House (1969), the ITV sitcom based on Richard Gordon's Doctor books and
scripted by writers such as John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Graeme Garden, Bill
Oddie and Barry Cryer. Theseries came about after Frank Muir, LWT's head of
comedy, acquired the rights to produce television adaptations of the books
in consultation with the author, 20 years after they had first appeared in
print and 15 years after the first film, starringDirk Bogarde and James
Robertson Justice. To update the stories for television, new staff and
students at St Swithin's teaching hospital were created.
Upton, young and gauche, and the other new students, played by Robin
Nedwell, George Layton, Martin Shaw, Simon Cuff and Geoffrey Davies, had to
deal with the wrath of authority in the person of Professor Loftus (played
by the actor Ernest Clark). Asecond series followed in 1970, before Upton
and some of his colleagues returned as newly qualified doctors for two
series of Doctor at Large the following year. However, Evans did not appear
in the further sequels, Doctor in Charge, Doctor at Sea,Doctor Down Under
and Doctor at the Top.
Evans appeared in the soap opera Crossroads and a Thirty Minute Theatre
production of Torquil (1972), as well as the films Die Screaming, Marianne
(1971) and Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976), before starring in the sitcom
Mind Your Language (1977-79)as the English teacher Jeremy Brown, who had to
deal with mature foreign students while enduring criticism from the
dragon-like college principal Miss Courtney (actress Zara Nutley). The
series, written by Vince Powell, returned in 1986 for a further13 episodes,
but it suffered from stereotypes of foreigners and Evans - by then in his
forties - subsequently found that casting directors and producers passed him
over for roles, as a result of the image he had of being a fresh-faced young
man with aboyish smile.
Between series of Mind Your Language, he appeared on television alongside
Dick Emery in the six-part comedy thriller Legacy of Murder (1982). He also
acted for one season with the Young Vic Theatre, toured in the hit comedy
Doctor in the House, withJimmy Edwards, and directed a regional production
of The Norman Conquests, in which he also played Norman. As acting work
diminished, Evans switched to taxi-driving to earn a regular income,
although in 1993 he returned to the screen as Bazzard in thefilm The Mystery
of Edwin Drood, which starred Robert Powell, but it failed to make an
impression.
Barry Joseph Evans, actor: born Guildford, Surrey 18
June 1943; died Claybrooke
Magna, Leicestershire c9 February 1997.
©1997 Newspaper Publishing P.L.C.
Anthony Hayward, Obituary: Barry Evans., Independent, 02-13-1997, pp 16.
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From the Independent:
You would know Barry Evans. Not his name, perhaps, but you would know the
face - fresh, open, good-looking in a pedestrian way. Barry was famous once,
a star even, at least in the domestic firmament. He began the Seventies as a
television doctor (Doctorin the House and then Doctor at Large) but became a
teacher in the ITV sitcom Mind Your Language.
The situation was a room full of foreigners learning English; the comedy
was... a room full of foreigners learning English. The most notable
foreigners in the series were Francoise Pascale and her breasts and Evans
found them quite a handful. Theprogramme was axed in 1979 (revived for a
season in the mid-1980s), Evans dropped out of sight and that was pretty
much the last the public knew.
But life out of the limelight went on, and a week ago, Barry Evans went to
work as usual. That was the last his friends and neighbours saw of him.
On Monday, police in Leicestershire stopped three people driving Evans' car
- a J-reg Montego (not very Hollywood) - and went to his house, a bungalow
in the village of Claybrooke Magna, Leicestershire. They found Evans' body
that night, arrested thethree on suspicion of murder, and ordered a
post-mortem.
The actor was back in the spotlight - "Mystery of TV Doc's Murder"
plastered across the tabloids, illustrated by that familiar, winsome grin.
"He was quiet, but everyone liked him. I remembered him from Mind Your
Language and was gobsmacked when I saw him sitting in one of our cabs,''
Susan Middleton, who works at Crest Taxis, was quoted as saying. "At first,
people knew him as Barry theactor, but over the years, he became Barry the
taxi driver."
He had played that role in his last film, The
Adventures of a Taxi- Driver, a sub-Carry
On tits 'n' titters flick circa 1975, and a comedown
from his movie debut, Here We Go
Round the Mulberry Bush, an "adolescent romp" that
became a cult hit. He starredin
both with Judy Geeson, with whom he is said to have
had a long affair. They never
married.
Despite the post-mortem, police do not yet know how Evans died. His body
was found, clothed, in his sitting-room, and there were no obvious signs of
a break-in. Police have released on bail the teenage girl and two men who
were in the Montego and arewaiting for the results of tests on Evans' body.
Locally, everyone knew about Evans' TV work, but, as
neighbours said: "He was
modest and never really talked about it."
Evans had not given up hope of a come-back - "What I want is a long run in
EastEnders,'' he said last year. He had discussed the options with his agent,
Malcolm Knight. "Barry was still on the books - he had decided to stay out
of the business for alittle while, basically because he was stereotyped. We
were beginning to talk about getting his career back on track."
Starring in a Seventies sitcom is apparently the
televisual equivalent of sailing the
Bermuda Triangle.
Richard O'Sullivan was Man About the House with Paula Wilcox and Sally
Thomsett, the Caroline Quentin and Lesley Ash of the Seventies. Neil
Morrissey and Martin Clunes should take note - Richard was so successful
that he was given his own show, Robin'sNest. But in 1994, the People
reported that Richard had "spoken from a clinic of his decline to being a
hard- drinking depressive".
Paula Wilcox still works, in Life After Birth on
Channel 4, and in children's television,
but Sally Thomsett's claim to fame has been a spread
in Hello! to celebrate giving birth
at the age of 46. This might not be unrelated to the
fact that Wilcoxplayed Chrissy, the
sensible one, and that Thomsett played Jo, the dizzy
blonde. As Tessa Wyatt,
O'Sullivan's subsequent blonde, in Robin's Nest, put
it: "You pay the penalty of
becoming identified with a particular character so
that people find itdifficult to see you in
any other light."
Thomsett, however, was not averse to playing the same role over and over in
life, if not on screen. "The Jo image has been very useful, " she said.
"I've been treated as a bimbo for years - and, I must say, it's rather
pleasant. I've never carried myown suitcase."
The type-casting seems to have been particularly severe in the Seventies
sitcom scene, perhaps because so many of the comedies were based on such
old-fashioned caricatures - all men gagging for it, all women fighting them
off, all foreigners stupid orstrange, all homosexuals screaming queens, all
doctors male and all nurses female.
What hope was there for Ian Lavender (Private Pike) after Dad's Army, or
for Melvyn Hayes (Gloria) after It Aint Half Hot Mum? The latter appeared
(in the Daily Mail) under the headline: "After six kids, maybe they won't
think I'm gay".
Then there were fewer channels and fewer hours of airtime but more money to
lavish on long-running home-made serials. The companies milked their comic
actors for all they were worth, placing them in show after show until the
public finally cracked andturned off.
And if the actor is not pulling in the punters he is out: Dennis Sellinger,
a talent agent who started in the business 61 years ago, said: "People do
become unfashionable - it's part of the business we're in. Someone like
Barry, who was very successfuland then runs out of steam, is not of value.
It's nothing to do with talent."
Barry Evans was no Simon Dee, fallen from grace and riches to the gutter.
Evans sank gently into decline, it seems, moving to the bungalow in
Claybrooke Magna four years and working first for Crest Taxis before setting
up on his own. His co-star,Francoise Pascal, had a bumpier ride. The parties
went on but the parts dried up. She moved to the United States, discovered
cocaine, beat her addiction and shopped her fellow celeb users to the News
of the World.
Ms Pascal too is still on the books at Mr Knight's
agency, but has had no acting work
for years. "Even Celebrity Squares don't call me
anymore," she told the Mail. "And I
used to be queen of those game- shows."
Mr Sellinger is philosophical. "TV can be a monster. While it can make
people big it can also kill them," he said. And once they have sunk into
obscurity, sad to say, they normally hit the headlines only when they die.
There is the odd exception,though.
When a character in Dawn French's sitcom The Vicar of Dibley said: "There
hasn't been a bus through the village since Hughie Green died, " the
entertainer re-surfaced, demanding an apology from the BBC. "I would be
grateful if you would inform peoplethat I am very much alive," he said
crossly.
©1997 Newspaper Publishing P.L.C.
Emma Daly, Barry and the fickle finger of fame.,
Independent, 02-15-1997, pp 21
In article <19981113235450...@ng98.aol.com>,
red...@aol.com (Reditor) wrote:
> >>You what? Evans was murdered?! You jest? Where did you hear about that?<<
>
> It was in the newspapers, very briefly, but there were absolutely no details
> in any of the reports I read. I'd really like to know what happened, since his
> name is scheduled to come up in Scarlet Street in the near future.
>
> Richard Valley
> Scarlet Street
> red...@aol.com
>
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
Noctur...@yahoo.com
Comedy star on hard times drank himself to death
( The Daily Telegraph )
BARRY EVANS, star of the Seventies television comedies Doctor in the House
and Mind Your Language, drank himself to death while trying to settle into a
new life as a taxi driver after his showbusiness career collapsed, an
inquest heard yesterday.
The coroner, Martin Symington, recorded an open
verdict after hearing that he was
financially hard-pressed and had become subject to
mood swings.
He said there was nothing to show it was "an accident or otherwise" .
When Mr Evans's body was found sprawled on a sofa at his bungalow in the
village of Claybrooke Magna, Leics, on Feb 10, last year, he was
four-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit, the inquest in Leicester
was told.
Dr Clive Bouch, a Home Office pathologist, said death was due to acute
alcoholic poisoning.
Mr Evans was 52 when he died and in fairly good health apart from his
drinking which, the inquest heard, had progressed from a bottle of whisky a
week to almost one a day.
His body was found by police who called to tell him they had recovered his
stolen Montego taxi and arrested a youth in connection with the theft. James
Leadbitter, then aged 18, from Hinckley, Leics, was later charged with Mr
Evans's attempted murder but the case was dropped.
The inquest heard that the telephone line to the
bungalow had been cut on the day of the
actor's death.
An unwitnessed document phrased in the form of a will and apparently meant
for Jimmy Gardner, an actor friend of the dead man, was also found in the
house.
It read: "Sorry. You were always good to me so you
inherit, OK?"
Mr Evans was at the top of his profession 20 years
ago. His boyish good looks
endearing him to millions as the naive Dr Michael
Upton and as the long-suffering
English teacher Jeremy Brown.
In the Sixites he appeared as a sex-obsessed schoolboy in the cult farce
Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush.
He never married but his name was linked to numerous
glamorous stars of the day,
including his film co-star Judy Geeson.
stev...@gmail.com
pamelag...@gmail.com
hartf...@gmail.com
scarl...@hotmail.co.uk
> I was one of the three stopped in the car and held for three days. It was not suicide. James said he was going to kill him the night before he conveniently "commited suicide" because he had come onto him. Don't ask me how he got of with it.
Please do drop me a line. Would very much love to hear your story, confidentiality assured. scarl...@hotmail.co.uk.
minam...@gmail.com
paulb...@hotmail.com
mokh.h...@gmail.com
> James killed Barry Evans right ?
mokh.h...@gmail.com
> I was one of the three stopped in the car and held for three days. It was not suicide. James said he was going to kill him the night before he conveniently "commited suicide" because he had come onto him. Don't ask me how he got of with it.
isabell...@gmail.com
delyan....@gmail.com
> I was one of the three stopped in the car and held for three days. It was not suicide. James said he was going to kill him the night before he conveniently "commited suicide" because he had come onto him. Don't ask me how he got of with it.
terrys...@gmail.com
It is inconceivable that someone could get away with murdering such a well known actor.
Is it lack of police professionalism ?
Surely there was some evidence ....
Very sad that it could happen to someone who gave so many fans so much joy
711h...@gmail.com
Anyone know how to contact the production company for this TV show?