22 Facts About Frank Middlemass

Francis George Middlemass was an English actor, who even in his early career played older roles.

Frank Middlemass is best remembered for his television roles as Rocky Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Algy Herries in To Serve Them All My Days, and Dr Alex Ferrenby in 20 episodes of Heartbeat.

Frank Middlemass was active in the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was the fourth and final actor to play Dan Archer in The Archers.

Frank Middlemass was born in Eaglescliffe, County Durham, the son of a shipping company director.

Frank Middlemass was brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne, and educated in Stockton-on-Tees.

Frank Middlemass entered the army at the age of nineteen and was wounded in the Dunkirk retreat.

Frank Middlemass left the army when he was 30 and was by then a lieutenant colonel.

Frank Middlemass started his acting career in rep in Penzance, Cornwall and then went on to join the Old Vic Company.

Frank Middlemass performed opposite Peter O'Toole in Waiting for Godot.

Frank Middlemass played Sir Charles Lyndon in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.

Frank Middlemass played the philandering butcher Mr Lyon in the final episode of the third series of Upstairs, Downstairs in 1973, but it was not until 1980, when he appeared in the post-World War I drama To Serve Them All My Days, that he first took a leading role in a British series.

Frank Middlemass followed this up with a notable performance in the BBC Television Shakespeare production as The Fool to Michael Hordern's King Lear, as Henry Baker in The Blue Carbuncle episode of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1984 and Brezhnev in Tom Stoppard's Squaring the Circle.

Frank Middlemass went on to play minor characters in Yes Minister; Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years ; Juliet Bravo; Only When I Laugh; All in Good Faith; Yes, Prime Minister; Oliver Twist ; Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady; and Miss Marple, in the 1989 episode "A Caribbean Mystery".

In 1989 Frank Middlemass recorded a role as a choirmaster for the Christmas ghost story Haunting Harmony; this was a co-production made chiefly for export and shown in Canada and Ireland at Christmas 1990, but not transmitted in Britain until 1993 in a late-night slot.

Frank Middlemass appeared in both British TV adaptations of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "The Blue Carbuncle" playing Peterson in the BBC adaptation and Henry Baker on the Granada TV series.

Frank Middlemass appeared on radio, most notably playing patriarch Dan Archer, the fourth actor to play the role, in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers.

Frank Middlemass played this role from 1982 until 1986, when the character was killed off.

Frank Middlemass made the BBC Radio appeal for Headway, the National Head Injuries Association.

Frank Middlemass raised a substantial amount of money; letters from admirers came along with some of the cheques.

Frank Middlemass joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984 and his Shakespearean roles included Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost.

Frank Middlemass appeared widely in classic plays such as Rosmersholm, Heartbreak House and You Never Can Tell.

Frank Middlemass never married, and for forty years he had a room in the house of his close friend, actor Geoffrey Toone, who died in 2005 after spending some time resident at Denville Hall.