50 Facts About Richard Beckinsale

Richard Beckinsale played Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom Porridge and Alan Moore in the ITV sitcom Rising Damp.

Richard Beckinsale is the father of actresses Samantha and Kate Beckinsale.

Richard Beckinsale stated in 1977 that he may have been a distant relative of the actor Charles Laughton.

Richard Beckinsale left school at 15 with ambitions to become a professional actor but he was still too young to go to drama school.

Richard Beckinsale spent a year working in numerous manual labour jobs, including spells as an upholsterer's apprentice, a pipe inspector, and an assistant in a grocery business.

At 16, Richard Beckinsale enrolled at Nottingham College, Clarendon, taking the drama teacher's training programme and spent the next two years there, until he was old enough to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Richard Beckinsale appeared in various other repertory productions around the country, including Hull, Leeds, London and Colchester.

Richard Beckinsale made his television debut in 1969 as a police officer in Coronation Street, in which he had to arrest veteran character Ena Sharples.

Richard Beckinsale later had a small role in a 1970 episode of A Family at War, playing a young soldier.

From 1974 to 1977, Richard Beckinsale starred as prison inmate Lennie Godber alongside Ronnie Barker in the hit BBC sitcom Porridge.

Richard Beckinsale expressed relief at landing the role, owing to his concern about being typecast as Geoffrey from The Lovers.

Richard Beckinsale initially played Godber with a Birmingham accent, but this was eventually abandoned.

Richard Beckinsale was the only member of the cast not to have appeared in The Banana Box, the play on which Rising Damp was based.

Richard Beckinsale subsequently starred alongside Barker in Going Straight, a spin-off of Porridge in which the two criminal characters are seen on the outside rebuilding their lives.

Richard Beckinsale starred in his final television comedy, Bloomers, the five completed episodes of which eventually aired in September and October 1979 on BBC 2.

Richard Beckinsale played Stan, an out-of-work actor who takes a job as a partner at a flower shop.

In between series one and two of The Lovers Richard Beckinsale starred in an ITV children's show titled Elephant's Eggs in a Rhubarb Tree.

Richard Beckinsale had the lead role of a young detective in the 1971 Armchair Theatre episode Detective Waiting.

Richard Beckinsale appeared in the films Rentadick and Three for All and made appearances in several other television series such as the Stephen Frears-directed ITV Playhouse episode "Last Summer" in 1977.

Shortly after his 30th birthday, Richard Beckinsale was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life.

Richard Beckinsale appeared in an advertisement for Asda which aired in 1978 and early 1979.

Richard Beckinsale appeared in the film version of Porridge released in 1979.

When Richard Beckinsale was accepted into RADA, they moved to London.

Richard Beckinsale became immersed in student life and he and his wife grew apart.

Richard Beckinsale met actress Judy Loe in 1968 at Crewe repertory.

Richard Beckinsale enjoyed playing the guitar and singing, and he performed in folk clubs in Nottingham as a teenager.

Richard Beckinsale enjoyed playing football and often played in charity matches with the Entertainers XI team.

Richard Beckinsale was a fan of Manchester United football team.

Richard Beckinsale stated that towards the end of his 19th-month run with the play Funny Peculiar, he took Valium and had several instances of having to start the play over again, due to overwork and mental strain.

Richard Beckinsale worked on the BBC sitcom Bloomers, five episodes of which were filmed prior to Christmas 1978.

In January 1979, for an insurance policy for a film, Richard Beckinsale passed a full medical examination in which his heart, lungs, breathing, and blood pressure were checked.

Jo Apted, wife of The Lovers director Michael Apted, stated that Richard Beckinsale attended a party at her house on Saturday night and felt unwell the next day.

Richard Beckinsale then took his five-year-old daughter Kate to visit Loe in hospital.

Richard Beckinsale seemed in good humour though, and made a joke out of it.

Richard Beckinsale said Beckinsale was still sleeping, and she left the phone to wake him up.

Richard Beckinsale had expressed worries about his cholesterol to friend Stephen Frears over dinner just days earlier, but he seemed healthy and fit and had no cardiac problems in his medical records.

Richard Beckinsale was always concerned about keeping fit and we used to tease him about it.

Richard Beckinsale used to play a lot of charity football, but the terrible thing is that he was a family man.

Richard Beckinsale was a very honest boy and he had that same quality in his acting.

Richard Beckinsale was cremated during a private service in Bracknell, Berkshire and his remains were then taken to Mortlake Crematorium.

At the time of his death, Richard Beckinsale had almost completed the BBC sitcom Bloomers.

Writer James Saunders's original script reveals that Richard Beckinsale was due to attend the sixth and last rehearsal for the final episode of the series on the day he died, with the show to be recorded the following day.

Christopher Strauli was recruited to replace Richard Beckinsale, playing a different character.

Richard Beckinsale was in the middle of making a television film, Bloody Kids, which then had to be re-cast.

One scene showed Richard Beckinsale questioning a character in the film with a tough stance, and looking quite different than his usual appearance with much shorter cropped hair.

Three days after Richard Beckinsale's death, Going Straight won a BAFTA award.

Richard Beckinsale holds the distinction of having starred in three different sitcoms, each of which won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy, in three successive years: Porridge in 1977, Rising Damp in 1978, and Going Straight in 1979.

When Beckinsale's book of poetry, With Love was published in 1980, Judy Loe, Ronnie Barker, and Richard Briers appeared on The Russell Harty Show to talk about the book and recite some of the poetry.

Richard Beckinsale hadn't done much but he was so loved that there was a universal sort of grief that went on.

In 2013, a blue plaque in Richard Beckinsale's memory was unveiled at his former school, College House Junior School in Chilwell.