Donald Sinden - Television

Television

Sinden achieved an early wider fame with the non-theatregoing public in 1963 through the Associated Rediffusion series Our Man at St Mark's followed by Our Man from St Mark's. In 1975, he co-starred in the London Weekend Television situation comedy Two's Company, in which he played an English butler, Robert, to Elaine Stritch's American character, Dorothy. Much of the humour derived from the culture clashes between Robert's very stiff-upper-lip Britishness and Dorothy's devil-may-care New York view on life. Two's Company was exceptionally well received in Britain and ran for four seasons until 1979. Stritch and Sinden also sang the theme tune to the programme.

In 1981, Sinden starred in a new Thames Television situation comedy, Never the Twain. He played snooty antiques dealer Simon Peel who lived next door to a competitor Oliver Smallbridge (played by Windsor Davies). The characters hated each other and were horrified when they discovered that their son and daughter were to be married - thus meaning they were related. Despite a lack of critical acclaim, the series proved to be popular with audiences and ran for 11 seasons until 1991. One episode had Sinden being literally picked up by two police officers who were played by his own actor sons.

Other featured television roles included guest-starring in the cult series The Prisoner. From 2001-07 he played the part of senior judge (and father-in-law of the title character) Sir Joseph Channing in Judge John Deed and is the voice of Totally Viral.

Sinden was spoofed on Spitting Image, the British satirical television programme in which famous people were lampooned by caricatured latex puppets. For example, when his puppet, sitting in a restaurant, summons a waiter and asks "Do you serve a ham salad?" the waiter replies "Yes, we serve salad to anyone". His puppet was also frequently shown fawning to the Queen and unsuccessfully requesting a knighthood from her, an honour he did in fact receive in 1997.