John Challis: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 13:24, 19 September 2021
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2010) |
John Challis | |
---|---|
![]() Challis in Shrewsbury, June 2013 | |
Born | John Spurley Challis 16 August 1942 |
Died | 19 September 2021 | (aged 79)
Education | Ottershaw School |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1964–2021 |
Spouse(s) |
Jean Robertson
(m. 1966, divorced)Carol Davies (m. 1995) |
John Spurley Challis[1] (16 August 1942 – 19 September 2021) was an English actor. He had an extensive television career but is best known for portraying Terrance Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce in the long-running BBC Television sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003)[2] and its sequel/spin-off The Green Green Grass (2005–2009) and Monty Staines from the seventh series onwards in the ITV sitcom Benidorm from 2015 to 2018.
Early life
Challis was born in Bristol but when he was one year old, the family moved to south east London.[3] Challis attended the state boarding Ottershaw School near Woking, Surrey. Upon leaving school he worked as a trainee estate agent before becoming a professional actor.
Career
Television and radio
An early television role was in the controversial gangster drama Big Breadwinner Hog in 1969, and between 1971 and 1975 he made regular appearances in Z-Cars as Sergeant Culshaw.[4]
The 1979 Richard Beckinsale sitcom Bloomers was written about Challis's experience working at a garden centre while taking a break from acting.[5]
Challis was best known for playing Herman Terrance Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce in Only Fools and Horses (1981—2003). The series' writer, John Sullivan, also created a spin-off for Challis called The Green Green Grass (2005—2009).[6] The outdoor scenes of The Green Green Grass were filmed at his then home, surrounding fields and local villages.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/John_Tandy_November_2013_%28cropped%29.jpg/200px-John_Tandy_November_2013_%28cropped%29.jpg)
His other television appearances include Dixon of Dock Green, Thriller, The Sweeney, Doctor Who (The Seeds of Doom), Dracula, Beau Geste, Juliet Bravo, Coronation Street, Bloomers, Citizen Smith, Ever Decreasing Circles, Doctor Snuggles, Chance in a Million, The Bill, One Foot in the Grave, Open All Hours, The New Statesman, Don't Wait Up, Soldier Soldier, Brass Eye, My Family, In Sickness and in Health, Benidorm and Heartbeat. In the 2008 series of Last of the Summer Wine he guest-starred as a fake jewel thief trying to impress the ladies.
Challis appeared on the Channel 4 mockumentary television programme Brass Eye, where he was tricked into believing Clive Anderson had been shot by Noel Edmonds. On BBC radio, he played an interrogator in the play Rules of Asylum by James Follett, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1973. He also played Dibden Purlew in Getting Nowhere Fast from 2001 to 2004. In 2006 he took a cameo role in BBC's The Impressionists as Station Master Garre Saint Lézasr.
In 2012 he became the narrator of the National Geographic Channel series Strippers: Cars for Cash.
Theatre
Challis has had a number of stage roles, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s and the National Theatre.[7][8] He starred in pantomime at the Plaza Theatre in Stockport as Captain Hook in Peter Pan, a role he reprised in 2018 at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. He also appeared in pantomime at Weston Playhouse in winter 2011–12 playing Ebenezer in Aladdin and as King Rat in Dick Whittington at the Plaza Theatre in Stockport over Christmas 2013 and New Year 2014. In 2013 Challis occasionally contributed to the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Live Tour as the narrator.
In 2014, Challis began a theatre tour of his one-man show titled Only Fools and Boycie, which charted his life before, during and after his time as Boycie.
Personal life and death
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/John_Challis_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Challis was married to his fourth wife, Carol. They wed in Brighton in 1995[9] and since 1998 had lived in the Abbot’s Lodgings at Wigmore Abbey Grange, Adforton, Herefordshire. Challis had no children.[10]
Challis was a patron of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.[11] He was an Arsenal supporter.[12]
Challis has written two volumes of autobiography, Being Boycie and Boycie & Beyond.[13] From April 2012 he embarked on a book tour to promote Being Boycie, starting at Waterstones in Uxbridge.
On 6 September 2021, it was announced that Challis had to cancel several tours due to his cancer which was diagnosed in 2019.[14][better source needed]
On 19 September 2021, his friend Sheila Ferguson, former singer with The Three Degrees, announced via her Twitter page, that Challis had died over the weekend.[15]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1964 | Where Has Poor Mickey Gone? | Tim | |
1971 | Say Hello to Yesterday | Salesman | |
1981 | Burning an Illusion | Man in Car | |
1998 | The Tichborne Claimant | Rous the Landlord | |
2000 | Five Seconds to Spare | Shopping Centre Manager | |
2001 | Dream | Toby | |
Subterrain |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1967 | The Newcomers | Harry Kapper | 5 episodes |
1967 | Z-Cars | DC Armitage | 2 episodes |
1967 | Coronation Street | George Naylor | 2 episodes |
1968 | City '68 | Hospital Doctor | Episode: "The Old Country" |
1968 | Virgin of the Secret Service | Captain Kirby | Episode: "The Rajah and the Suffragette" |
1968 | Mr. Rose | DC Jackson | Episode: "The Frozen Swede" |
1968 | Softly, Softly | DC Rankin | 2 episodes |
1969 | Big Breadwinner Hog | First Operative | Episode: "Self-Discipline Is Its Own Reward" |
1969 | ITV Playhouse | Carstairs | Episode: "The John Hilarian Salt Exhibition and Numerous Illustrated Slides" |
1969 | Who-Dun-It | Rev. Lindsay Whittaker | Episode: "An Embarrassment of Murder" |
1969 | Dixon of Dock Green | Ray | Episode: "Obsession" |
1969 | Canterbury Tales | Farmhand | Episode: "The Shipman's Tale" |
1969 | Strange Report | Soldier | Episode: "Report 7931: Sniper – When Is Your Cousin Not?" |
1970 | The Misfit | Lofty | Episode: "On Not Being Lost" |
1971 | Brett | Riordan | Episode: "All the King's Horses..." |
1971–1975 | Z-Cars | Sgt. Culshaw | 11 episodes |
1971 | Crossroads | Jim Wright | 9 episodes |
1972 | ITV Sunday Night Theatre | Factory Guard | Episode: "The Last Journey" |
1974 | Who Killed Lamb? | Casson | TV film |
1974 | Dracula | Stockton-on-Tees Clerk | TV film |
1974 | Whodunnit? | Private Rhodes | Episode: "Goodbye Sarge" |
1974 | Crown Court | DI Stoddard | Episode: "The Messenger Boy: Part 1" |
1974–1977 | Coronation Street | DC Phillips | 8 episodes |
1975 | Nightingale's Boys | Pete | Episode: "Decision" |
1975 | The Sweeney | Skef Warren | Episode: "Stay Lucky Eh?" |
1975 | The Legend of Robin Hood | Castle Guard | Episode: "Part 5" |
1976 | Doctor Who | Scorby | All 6 episodes of "The Seeds of Doom" |
1976 | Open All Hours | Bread Man | Episode: "Well Catered Funeral" |
1976 | Thriller | Peter | Episode: "Sleepwalker" |
1976 | The Cedar Tree | Leonard Barnet | 2 episodes |
1976 | The New Avengers | Soldier | Episode: "Dirtier by the Dozen" |
1978 | The Law Centre | DS Sharp | Episode: "Millstone" |
1979 | Doctor Snuggles | Various | Voice; All 13 episodes |
1979 | Bloomers | Policeman | Episode: #1.3 |
1980 | Citizen Smith | Chief Inspector Humphreys | Episode: "The Letter of the Law" |
1980 | Play for Today | Victor Mintell | Episode: "Number on End" |
1981 | Play for Today | Harry | Episode: "Before Water Lilies" |
1981–2003 | Only Fools and Horses | Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce | 33 episodes |
1981 | Sink or Swim | Man at Door | Episode: "Ecology" |
1982 | Beau Geste | Cpl. Dupré | 4 episodes |
1985 | Relative Strangers | CID Man | Episode: #1.6 |
1985 | Late Starter | Policeman | Episode: #1.5 |
1985 | Storyboard | Billy Cato | Episode: "King & Castle" |
1985 | In Sickness and in Health | Policeman | Episode: #1.1 |
1985 | Juliet Bravo | Taylor | Episode: "Hostage to Fortune" |
1985 | Howards' Way | Morris | 2 episodes |
1986 | Chance in a Million | Policeman | Episode: "And What Shall We Do for a Ring?" |
1986 | Strike It Rich! | Big John | Episode: "Suspicions" |
1986 | Roland Rat: The Series | Policeman | Episode: #1.6 |
1986 | Lenny Henry Tonite | Various | Episode: "Gronk Zillman" |
1987 | C.A.T.S. Eyes | Stark | Episode: "A Naval Affair" |
1987 | Ratman | Police Chief | 2 episodes |
1987 | Alas Smith and Jones | Mexican Hotel Receptionist | Episode: #4.4 |
1987 | Ever Decreasing Circles | Maintenance Man | Episode: "Half an Office" |
1988 | Wish Me Luck | Victor Travussini | 5 episodes |
1988 | Don't Wait Up | Man in Jewellery Shop | Episode: #5.2 |
1988 | The Bill | Ian Gore | Episode: "Runaround" |
1988 | Casualty | Harry | Episode: "Living Memories" |
1992 | Sitting Pretty | Boris | Voice; Episode: "Anniversary Waltz" |
1992 | The New Statesman | General Giray | Episode: "A Bigger Splash" |
1992 | Sitting Pretty | The Trainer | Voice; Episode: "Happy Birthdays" |
1993 | Then Churchill Said to Me | Major Harry Bouchet | Episode: "Nanny by Searchlight" |
1993 | Get Back | Monty | Episode: "Money" |
1996 | Soldier Soldier | Police Superintendent | Episode: "Delayed Action" |
1997 | Wing and a Prayer | DS Doughty | Episode: "The Ties That Bind" |
1998 | Heartbeat | Stan Fraser | Episode: "Where There's a Will" |
2002 | Doctors | James Fletcher | Episode: "Feet of Clay" |
2005–2009 | The Green Green Grass | Aubrey "Boycie" Boyce | All 32 episodes |
2006 | The Impressionists | Station Master | Episode: #1.2 |
2007 | My Family | Jacob Marley | Episode: "Ho Ho No" |
2008 | Last of the Summer Wine | Jeremy | Episode: "Is Jeremy Quite Safe?" |
2015–2018 | Benidorm | Monty Staines | 15 episodes |
2015 | Doctors | Freddy Prenton | Episode: "Vapour Trail" |
2016 | Are You Being Served? | Captain Peacock | TV film |
2018 | Sooty | Henry Witham-Smythe | Episode: "Just Desserts" |
References
- ^ Being Boycie (2011) – p 9
- ^ Fagan, Gabrielle (8 February 2020). "John Challis: 'After three failed marriages I was resigned to being single, but meeting Carol was a turning point, she believed in me and grounded me'". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
John Challis is happy to accept he'll always be best known for playing Only Fools And Horses' cigar-chomping wide boy Boycie
- ^ Being Boycie (2011) – p 9
- ^ Challis, John (2011). Being Boycie. Wigmore Books Ltd. p. 250. ISBN 0956906109.
- ^ Challis, John (2011). Being Boycie. Wigmore. ISBN 978-0956906106.
- ^ "The Green Green Grass". BBC Online. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
- ^ Richardson, Andy (28 September 2019). "'It's been a remarkable career': John Challis talks Only Fools and Horses, Beatles encounters, and his upcoming tour". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
- ^ Enfield, Laura (10 November 2014). "Laura Enfield catches up with John Challis – Boycie from Only Fools and Horses – ahead of his appearance at the Abbey Theatre in St Albans". St Albans Review. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
- ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005 – April, May, June quarter 1995
- ^ "John Challis: Loving our real home from home". www.shropshirestar.com.
- ^ "Star 'Boycie' gets prickly with bird charity over hedeghogs". www.shropshirestar.com.
- ^ "'I'm on my fourth wife... not counting Marlene'". Birmingham Mail. 26 January 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ Chilton, Martin (6 October 2012). "Boycie & Beyond by John Challis: review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
- ^ "'Only Fools and Horses icon John Challis cancels tour amid secret cancer battle'". Daily Mirror. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ Ferguson, Sheila (19 September 2021). "Sheila Ferguson 3°". Retrieved 19 September 2021 – via Twitter.
I've been waiting for this for a few days now. It is with great sadness that I tell you that my dear friend, John Challis (Boycie from OFAH) has just passed