CONWAY, BERT
Played by Jimmy Logan
A loud-mouthed Scot who joins the Wundatours party travelling to the Mediterranean resort of Elsbels in Abroad. He jokes to Stuart Farquhar, the courier, about heading off for a dirty weekend, but it’s clear that is what he hopes the trip turns out like, especially when he eyes up Sadie Tomkins from the moment she climbs into the coach, even though he’s competing with Vic Flange for her affections. Makes his living as a bookmaker.
Bert Conway (Jimmy Logan, right) chats up Sadie Tomkins (Barbara Windsor) in the Med (Abroad)
COOK
Played by Anthony Sagar
In Cruising, the Cook is concerned when he realises his boss, Wilfred Haines, is suffering seasickness despite only just leaving port. When Haines makes a hasty dash for the toilets, he pushes into the Cook squashing a creamy dessert all over his face. Seen again, later, being accused by the chef of taking too long cracking open a pile of eggs.
COOK
Played by Mario Fabrizi
A Cook on the Happy Wanderer, he’s seen in Cruising confirming to Wilfred Haines that the ship is actually sailing.
COOK, CORPORAL
Played by Patricia Franklin
In England seen dishing out the so-called food in the NAAFI at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery.
COOKING FAT
In Loving, Jenny Grubb thinks the porter’s unseen black cat is called Cooking Fat in the flats where she lives.
COOKSON
For Cookson, the constable in Girls, see ‘Constable’.
COOLING, MISS
Played by Esma Cannon
The dithering, nervous old lady with a heart of gold tries her best as Bert Handy’s secretary in Regardless. Not the most reliable person in the world, she gets messages confused, which explains why Sam Twist, one of the employees, has a wasted journey to the Forth Bridge, instead of providing a fourth at a game of bridge.
COOMBS, PAT
Roles: Patient in Doctor and New Matron in Again Doctor
Born in London in 1926, Pat Coombs started her working life as a nursery school assistant, trained at LAMDA and began working on stage before establishing herself as a familiar face on television, primarily playing comedy parts or working as a foil for well-known comedians.
Her early credits included Lana Butt in the pilot of Beggar My Neighbour and the three subsequent series transmitted in 1967–68. She also appeared as Violet Robinson in Lollipop Loves Mr Mole in 1971 and the series, Lollipop, the following year. Other series in which she was cast included two runs of Don’t Drink the Water!, four series of You’re Only Young Twice, In Sickness and in Health, Birds of a Feather and EastEnders.
Coombs, who died at Denville Hall, the retirement home for actors, in 2002, made a handful of film appearances in productions such as Adolf Hitler – My Part In His Downfall and Ooh! You Are Awful. In the mid-1990s she was diagnosed with the bone disease osteoporosis but continued working until her final days, recording an episode of the radio series, Like They’ve Never Been Gone, with June Whitfield and Roy Hudd, just months before her death.
COOPER, JUNE
Roles: Girl in Don’t Lose Your Head and Hospitality Girl in Up The Khyber
Other screen credits include playing a stewardess in an episode of 1970’s Mister Jerico.
COOTE, CHARLES
Played by Charles Hawtrey
Chief designer at W.C. Boggs, manufacturers of quality toilet ware, the foppish Charles Coote is seen in At Your Convenience. He lodges with Agatha Spanner, with whom he strikes up a relationship and intends to marry. Agatha’s devotion to Charles rankles with her son, Vic, who happens to be the union representative at the toilet ware company.
COPE, KENNETH
Roles: Vic Spanner in At Your Convenience and Cyril Carter in Matron
Born in Liverpool in 1934, Kenneth Cope is probably best known for his television appearances in shows such as That Was The Week That Was, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Coronation Street and, more recently, Brookside, in which he played Ray Hilton.
Son of an engineer, he trained at Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School after giving up his job in the drawing office at the Automatic Telephone Company. While at Bristol, he made his screen debut when a production of The Duenna in which he was appearing was recorded.
After graduating, he worked in repertory theatre, initially at Cromer, before moving to London, earning money as a part-time garage attendant in-between acting jobs; eventually television work came his way with early credits being episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe and Dixon of Dock Green.
His big break came with the role of Jed Stone in Coronation Street, which led to appearances on That Was The Week That Was. But for many people, he’ll always be remembered as Marty Hopkirk, the helpful ghost in the detective series, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
He’s also chalked up a lot of film credits, including X the Unknown, The Yangtse Incident, Dunkirk, Naked Fury, Father Came Too, A Twist of Sand and Juggernaut.
MEMORIES
‘One scene in At Your Convenience involved a motorbike sequence with my character and Bernard Bresslaw’s. That was very memorable because Bernard couldn’t ride and was terrified. I think he’d told the production team that he could.
‘On the set at Pinewood, he had to come round this corner to my front door, switch off the engine, park it, leave it on its stand and come up the steps to my character’s house. Well, we could hear the bike revving up around the corner and then the bike would stall. He didn’t appear for about six or seven takes. Eventually he managed to get it around the corner but then drove too far past the mark, so that was no good. This went on for what seemed like all day. What made it even more funnier was that poor old Bernie’s visor was misted up and he couldn’t see anything either. In the end, a couple of fellas pushed the bike into the shot.
‘Matron was a lot of fun, too. Playing Cyril Carter was a lovely part. I had some say in the costume and went for suspenders because I thought they’d be funnier than tights. At lunchtime, you couldn’t get changed else you’d lose about fifteen minutes off your break, so I kept my costume on and walked over to get some lunch, wearing my full make-up, wig, the lot. I used to love going down the corridors in Pinewood because the high heels would make a hell of a noise on the floor. One day I passed three guys in the corridor, dressed like a nurse, and went straight into the gents. That didn’t half make them look!’
KENNETH COPE
COPPING, CORPORAL BILL
Played by Bill Owen
Sergeant Grimshaw’s trusty old corporal. Seen in Sergeant, he helps turn Able Platoon from a bunch of no-hopers into the champion platoon during their ten-week training course.
CORBETT, HARRY H.
Role: Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung in Screaming!
Born in Burma in 1925, the son of an army officer, Harry H. Corbett moved to