Richard Briers - Television Career

Television Career

In 1961, Briers gained the lead male role in Marriage Lines (1961–66) opposite Prunella Scales. The following year Briers appeared in Brothers in Law (from the book by Henry Cecil) as callow barrister Roger Thursby. He was cast in this role by adaptors Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who had seen him in the West End. His other early appearances included Dixon of Dock Green (1962), The Morecambe & Wise Show, The Seven Faces of Jim (1961) with Jimmy Edwards, a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever (1968) and the storyteller in several episodes of Jackanory (1969).

Briers was cast in the lead role in The Good Life (1975–78), playing Tom Good, a draughtsman who decides, on his 40th birthday, to give up his job and try his hand at self-sufficiency. An enormously successful series, the last episode in 1978 was performed in front of the Queen. In 1977, he starred with his The Good Life co-star Penelope Keith in the televised version of Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests.

Briers was the original narrator and voice actor for the Enid Blyton series Noddy.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he played roles in many programmes including Goodbye, Mr Kent (1982), All in Good Faith (1985), Tales of the Unexpected (1988), Mr. Bean (1990) and Twelfth Night (1988) as Malvolio. In 1987, he appeared in the Doctor Who episode Paradise Towers. From 1984 to 1989 he was the lead role of Martin Bryce in Ever Decreasing Circles, and in 1993 took the lead role of Godfrey Spry in the BBC comedy drama If You See God, Tell Him. In 1995 he played the character Tony Fairfax in the BBC comedy Down to Earth. Fairfax is a cultural adviser to the president of a banana republic in Latin America. When the president is deposed by a military coup, Tony is sacked and deported back to England and ends up staying with his brother Chris (Christopher Blake) and his wife Molly (Kirsten Cooke).