Christopher Benjamin (actor)

Christopher Benjamin (born 27 December 1934) is a British actor. He is best noted for playing Henry Gordon Jago in Doctor Who.

Biography

Benjamin was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. He is well known for his roles in some of the UK's biggest cult television programmes. This included playing the same character ("Potter") in two Patrick McGoohan dramas, Danger Man and The Prisoner, fuelling speculation that they are possibly linked. He played the Old Man (boss of Philip Roath) in the Thames Television comedy by Peter Tilbury, It Takes a Worried Man (1981). He was also an occasional guest star in The Avengers and Doctor Who, playing in three episodes of each, mostly in comedy roles, Christopher is now retired, and living in Barnstaple, North Devon. He also played recurring roles in several period dramas. He was Sir John Glutton, the regular adversary in the period family adventure series Dick Turpin, Channing in several episodes of the third series of When The Boat Comes In, and Prosper Profound in the acclaimed 1967 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga. He reprised the role of Henry Gordon Jago, from the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang in twelve series, to date, of Jago and Litefoot audio plays, after a well received episode of the Big Finish Productions audio C.D. series Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles entitled The Mahogany Murderers. He acted alongside Trevor Baxter who played Professor George Litefoot.

His few film roles include appearances in Ring of Bright Water (1969), Brief Encounter (1974), Hawk the Slayer (1980), The Tichborne Claimant (1998) and Angel (2007). He also provided the voice of Rowf in the animated film The Plague Dogs (1982).

Predominantly a stage actor, he has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He appeared at Shakespeare's Globe from 17 June to 5 October 2008 as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Selected credits

• Prosper Profond in The Forsyte Saga (1967)
• Dick Turpin: Sir John Glutton
• Danger Man: Potter in Koroshi (1968)
• The Prisoner: Labour Exchange Manager in Arrival (1967); Number Two's Assistant in The Chimes of Big Ben (1967); and named as 'Potter' in The Girl Who Was Death (1968).
• The Avengers: Swindin in Split (1968); Whittle in Never, Never Say Die (1967); and J.J Hooter in How to Succeed .... at Murder (1966)
• Ring of Bright Water (1969): Fishmonger
• The Strauss Family (1972): Dommayer
• Upstairs, Downstairs (A Change of Scene) (1973): Max Weinberg
• Doctor Who: Sir Keith Gold in Inferno (1970); Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977); and Colonel Hugh in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (2008)
  • Henry Gordon Jago in Big Finish audio dramas Jago & Litefoot (2009–present)
• Sir Hugh Bodrugan in Poldark (1975)
• George Tozer in Murder Most English (1977)
• James Channing in When the Boat Comes In (3 episodes, 1977)
• David Follett in The Sandbaggers, (1978)
• Mr. Vincent Crummles/Walter Bray in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982)
• Rowf in The Plague Dogs (1982) (voice only)
• Chief Constable in Blott on the Landscape (1985)
• French Ambassador in Yes, Prime Minister (1987)
• Eric Harmer in Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989)
• George Younger in Thatcher: The Final Days (1991)
• The Tomorrow People: Professor Lawrence Middlemass in Monsoon Man (1994)
• Sir William Lucas in Pride and Prejudice (1995)
• The Pope in Leonardo, the Alan Yentob drama documentary for the BBC (2003)
• The veteran barrister Mr. Ghaidan in Judge John Deed
• Colonel Surikov in BBC Radio's Flying the Flag

External links

• Christopher Benjamin at IMDb