BYRNE, PETER
Role: Bridegroom in Cabby
Born in London in 1928, Peter Byrne left school and worked in a theatrical agent’s office for several months while waiting for a place at the Italia Conti Stage School. He joined the drama school in 1944 but was soon working professionally, beginning with a propaganda documentary for Lewis Gilbert titled Sailors Do Care.
In 1945 he joined the Will Hay act on radio and, later, performed in the Jack Hylton revue, Crying Out Loud, before, in 1946, being called up for National Service. After leaving the army two years later, Byrne worked in various repertory theatres, including Farnham, Margate and Worthing, where he appeared in the stage adaptation of The Blue Lamp. He remained with the show when it moved to Blackpool and the West End.
Later, in 1955, he joined the cast of Dixon of Dock Green as Andy Crawford and stayed twenty years, by which time his character was a detective inspector. Other television credits include The Pattern of Marriage (his small-screen debut), The Jazz Age, Blake’s 7 and, lastly, Derek in the successful sitcom, Bread.
In films he played small parts in first features as well as meatier roles in second features but bowed out of this side of the business to concentrate on television and theatre. He’s appeared in numerous West End roles in such shows as There’s A Girl In My Soup, September Tide and, most recently, The Mousetrap, which he now directs.
MEMORIES
‘I did lots of bits and pieces for Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas, including brief roles in Watch Your Stern, Raising the Wind and The Iron Maiden. I had a similar small part in Cabby, just a few lines, yet I receive fan mail – can you believe that?
‘I remember I was running from one set to another and got lost while driving over to the location near Pinewood. Eventually I turned up and we got on with the scene. I’d never met the girl [Marion Collins] who played my bride but we were introduced, went into the clinch, said “goodbye” and that was the last I saw of her – that’s showbusiness. It was very pleasant, though.
‘When I was in Raising the Wind, I was in a sequence involving the orchestra. Although it wasn’t a Carry On film there were a lot of the same faces, including Ken Williams and Leslie Phillips, and one of the press officers came in with a group of Japanese journalists. I couldn’t get over it because they treated Ken and Leslie as if they were Robert Redford and Cary Grant! They went absolutely barmy when they saw the pair of them. It was the first indication, in my view, how big they’d become worldwide.’
PETER BYRNE
CAB DRIVER
Played by Hugh Futcher
Pulls up in his taxi during Again Doctor. He drops Gladstone Screwer off at Dr Nookey’s posh clinic but doesn’t expect to be paid in cigarettes!
CABBY
Played by Norman Mitchell
Seen in Screaming! driving Emily Bung and Mrs Parker around in his taxi when Emily, suspecting her husband of having an affair, wants to keep her beady eye on him.
CABBY, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
CADMAN, TOM
Stills Cameraman on Dick
CAESAR, JULIUS
Played by Kenneth Williams
In Cleo, the leader of the Roman Empire, or that’s what he likes to believe, is a weak-kneed individual hanging on to power by the skin of his teeth.
CAFÉ EL ZIGZIG
Seen in Spying, the café in Algiers is situated in the Street of A Thousand Artisans and where the British agents spot the Fat Man sitting outside wearing a fez.
CAFÉ MOZART
The café in Vienna where the British agent, Carstairs, arranges to meet Simkins and his team of trainee agents in Spying.
CAFÉ ZIGAZIG
Owned by Zig-Zig, this busy café is seen in Follow That Camel.
CAFFIN WARD
In Doctor, this is a women’s ward at the Borough County Hospital.
CAFFIN, YVONNE
Costume Designer on Constable, Spying, Doctor and Camping
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1904, Yvonne Caffin trained at RADA and then worked in research at the Academy before entering the film industry before the war, working for Gaumont-British and Mayflower. She later joined Islington Studios and Rank, where she spent the lion’s share of her career.
Films she worked on over the years include Miranda, The Astonished Heart, The Browning Version, To Paris With Love, Hell Drivers, Doctor in Clover, A Night to Remember, Tiara Tahiti, The Big Job and, finally, The Executioner.
She died in 1985, aged eighty-one.
CAIN, SIMON
Roles: Short in Cowboy, Riff at Abdul’s Tent in Follow That Camel, Tea Orderly in Doctor, Bagpipe Soldier in Up The Khyber, X-Ray Man in Again Doctor and Barman in At Your Convenience
Born in Orpington, Kent, Simon Cain, while attending Banstead Residential School, volunteered to go to Australia at the age of eleven. At Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School in Western Australia he was taught about life in the outback. At sixteen, he set off on a six-year trip around Australia, moving between jobs, including sheep shearer and motorbike mechanic.
While living in Perth in 1960, earning a living selling television sets, he became interested in amateur dramatics and, later, moved to Sydney where he began appearing in small parts on stage and in films, as well as making the occasional commercial. Other offers soon came his way and he appeared in several episodes of the Australian television Western, Whiplash, and films such as Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Sundowners and Coast Watchers. Additional credits during the early 1960s included television adaptations of The Merchant of Venice and the stage plays Show Boat and Once Upon a Mattress.
He returned to England in 1964 and while working for Schweppes secured a part in a play for the Little Theatre Club at London’s St Martin’s Theatre, paving the way for a string of television roles in shows such as Gideon’s Way.
Other television work has seen him in shows such as Doctor Who, Ryan International, Manhunt and Doomwatch, while his film credits include The Blood Beast Terror, School for Love, The Chairman and, in 1969, The Most Dangerous Man in the World.
CAKE, FRANCIS
Played by Mavise Fyson
One of the beauty contestants seen in Girls.
CALPURNIA
Played by Joan Sims
The cantankerous wife of Julius Caesar is seen in Cleo, tired of being left at home while her husband roams the world conquering nations.
CAMEMBERT, CITIZEN
Played by Kenneth Williams
The most feared man in France, although it’s hard to see why, Citizen Camembert is chief of the secret police and is seen in Don’t Lose Your Head. The finest pistol shot in France, Camembert