Actor known for The Quatermass Experiment and The Darling Buds of May

Born: June 25, 1928;

Died: May 2, 2017

THE actor Moray Watson, who has died aged 88, enjoyed a television career of over five decades, usually playing charming members of the upper class. Although such roles may not have seemed a great stretch for a man who in real life was blessed with impeccable manners, aristocratic good looks and precise diction, the fact that he couldn’t give a bad performance if he tried and was well liked by his peers ensured that he was highly regarded and rarely short of work.

He made an illustrious debut on television, playing control room assistant Marsh in the now legendary BBC science-fiction thriller The Quatermass Experiment, broadcast live from Alexandra Palace in 1953. He later had a regular stint as Richard Lowe in the Hazel Adair/Peter Ling twice weekly soap opera Compact (1962), set in the glamorous world of magazine publishing. He stayed for two years - but despite leaving because he wanted more variety in his career he returned for the last few episodes to help the series come to an end in 1965.

He made a big impression as Barrington Erle in the BBC’s lavish production of Anthony Trollope’s The Pallisers (1974). Many years later he was delighted when Prime Minister John Major came to see him backstage in the theatre to tell him that he had the series at home and had enjoyed rewatching it that very afternoon. In 1991-1993 he played the retired brigadier in the ratings smash hit The Darling Buds of May, based on the novels by HE Bates and starring David Jason, Pam Ferris and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

He was born in Sunningdale, Berkshire, the youngest of three sons of ship broker Gerard Watson (who was later killed in action in the Second World War) and his wife Jean. He did one play whilst at prep school in Woking but was really inspired to go into the theatre when he saw London productions of the musical Something in the Air and the Terence Rattigan play Flare Path during his 1943 school holidays.

Having been to Eton he spent his national service in the Northamptonshire Regiment, determined to be an officer because “I didn’t want to be shouted at by sergeant-majors”. Having achieved his aim he spent some time stationed in Austria and after demobilisation he enrolled at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

Graduating after two years he went into weekly repertory in Whitley Bay, then fortnightly repertory in Leatherhead and Canterbury and finally three weekly repertory at Liverpool before finally arriving in London where he started to specialise in light comedy, debuting in Small Hotel at St Martin’s Theatre in 1955. At the same venue he played the butler Sellars in The Grass is Greener (1958) an excerpt of which was broadcast on television with the London cast which also included Joan Greenwood and Edward Underdown. Bar Watson, however, none of them made into the subsequent 1960 film version which found him acting opposite Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum.

His other theatre work included The Cross is Green (King’s Theatre Glasgow, 1960), George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma (Haymarket, London 1962), frequent collaborator Brian Rix’s Don’t Just Lie There, Say Something (Garrick Theatre, 1972), Noel Coward’s Hayfever (Lyric Theatre, 1979-80 and again at the Queen’s Theatre, 1983-84), The School For Scandal (Theatre Royal, Bath 1995-96), Pygmalion (Noel Coward Theatre, London 1996-97) and The Chiltern Hundreds (tour 1999). He regretted that after playing Sebastian (“a boring part”) in Twelfth Night in Liverpool in 1954 he never performed in another Shakespeare play.

He appeared as Clive Popkiss in two TV versions of Rix’s Rookery Nook (the first in 1965, the second in 1970) and among his notable recurring roles were Lord Collingford in children’s favourite Catweazle (with Geoffrey Bayldon in the title role, 1971), George Frobisher in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-88), and Mr Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1980). A myriad of leading guest parts included appearances in The Avengers (1966), Upstairs, Downstairs (1972), The Body in the Library (with Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple, 1984), Star Cops (1987), Norbert Smith - A Life (1989, as tedious actor Sir Donald Stuffy in the award winning Harry Enfield spoof documentary) and Midsomer Murders (2000). He also appeared in the 1982 Doctor Who story Black Orchid starring Peter Davison as The Doctor.

Film appearances were, surprisingly, rarer, but his military bearing made him a useful addition to the casts of, among others, The Valiant (1962), Operation Crossbow (1965) and The Sea Wolves (1980). He had particular success with one man shows, at which he excelled. The Incomparable Max was about the English essayist and wit Max Beerbohm, and Ancestral Voices (2003), was a Hugh Massingberd piece based in the diaries of writer James Lees-Milne. Latterly, and despite advancing years, he held court in the autobiographical “Looking Back and Dropping Names” which he also turned into a book, published in November last year.

He married the actress Pamela Marmont, whom he met at Webber Douglas, in 1955. She died in 1999 and he is survived by their two children Emma and Robin and four grandchildren.

TOBY HADOKE