Anthony Valentine: 1939 - 2015

December 2015

English actor | Callan | Colditz | Colditz | Raffles

We first remember him as Toby Meres, the psychopathic killer in the ITV Cold War spy series Callan which ran from 1967 to 1969. But later, he became the nation's favourite love-to-hate Nazi in the Colditz TV series (BBC/Universal Studios, 1972 - 1974). Later still he was cast as Raffles, everyone's favourite gentleman jewel thief (Yorkshire TV, 1977).

We're talking about actor Anthony Valentine (pictured above right alongside Edward Woodward starring as David Callan) who has died aged 76. Mostly, Valentine was cast as a villain of one sort or another, but many of the characters he played might be more generously described as "loveably misguided".

Anthony Valentine was a Lancashire lad. He was born in Blackburn and began his acting career aged just ten. By that time, he had moved to London with his parents and took a part in the film No Way Back (1949). Four years later he appeared in The Girl on the Pier (1953) playing Charlie Chubb, son on Inspector Chubb and a boy with detective ideas of his own.

His next move up was in the long-running BBC TV series Billy Bunter (1952-61) in which he played Harry Wharton, Captain of the Remove (public school Lower Fourth Form). And if you're now in your fifties or older, and British, you'll probably vaguely remember Billy Bunter (The Fat Owl) as a lazy, indolent, mean, conceited, amoral and greedy schoolboy with a penchant for cakes and deceit.

Following the success of the slick, suave and uber-stylish TV series, The Avengers (first aired in 1961), an antidote was clearly needed for those in danger of overdosing on the unlikely Avengers plots and comedic undercurrents, and so Callan was created.

Edward Woodward (made famous in the movie, The Wicker Man, 1973) played the lead (assassin) role in this gritty spy drama, and with more than a passing hint of cynicism and sadism. But Valentine also served up a thoroughly disreputable killer in this low-key but high tension series. Clearly, the character he played helped establish the prototype from which Valentine evolved the beautifully cultured nastiness that we came to love.

And hate.

By 1972, Colditz was one of the nation's primetime television fixes, and Valentine (first appearing in the second series) came into his own in the shape of Major (Horst) Mohn (image above), a sinister, battle-scarred and ruthless German ex-paratrooper (late of Hitler's personal guard) who treated the inmates of Colditz with the contempt he evidently felt they deserved; an attitude that frequently brought him into conflict not merely with the allied prisoners, but with the Wehrmacht Kommandant (ably and sensitively played by Bernard Hepton).

If you haven't recently watched the 1972 - 1974 Colditz TV series, it's highly recommended. Over the past forty or so years, the production has weathered exceptionally well, and the storylines and cosy intrigues are as gripping as ever. And of course, you get to love and hate Valentine all over again.

The TV series Raffles came along a few years later and gave Valentine an chance to don the garb of a very different anti-hero; in this instance a top hat, a cape and a walking stick in this Victorian-era crime drama (with occasional lapses into pathos and comedy). Supported (indirectly) by sidekick Harry 'Bunny' Manders (played by Christopher Strauli), Raffles would generally be found creeping into the bedrooms of the upper classes and relieving them of whatever jewels Lady So-and-So was wearing at the evening soiree. The series was totally unimportant and offered no clear moral guidance for TV viewers of the day. But it was eminently watchable, and Valentine carried it off with evident passing glee perhaps aware that the 13 episodes were never going to provide him with anything other than a weekly pay cheque, a mention in Radio Times, and small springboard to whatever more memorable acting parts lay ahead.

He also appeared in various TV series from Dr Finlay's Casebook, to The Avengers, to Softly, Softly, to Z-Cars, to Budgie, to Department S, to Minder, to Tales of the Unexpected, to Lovejoy, to The Knock (not necessarily in this order). And he was always fundamentally Anthony Valentine, a jobbing professional ever on hand to deliver a ready-to-screen villain, usually petty, but occasionally more ambitious and accomplished.

His success was primarily in television (and in theatre, we should mention), but he also took the odd film role in which, like many accomplished TV actors, he usually looked uncomfortable and miscast.

He was still acting into his seventies when progressive ill-health forestalled his career and he vanished from our screens, at least as far as new roles were concerned. As an actor who pretty much everyone of a certain age recognised, he was nevertheless a difficult man to put a name to. So in case you missed it, it's Anthony Valentine.

He's survived by his wife, actress Susan Skipper, and we're raising a glass of beer to him this evening. So join us if you will.

— Dexxion