Richard Briers

Actor Jan 14 (died age 79) Raynes Park, Surrey, England, UK 1955–2025 (70 year career)

6.4 avg rating

Biography

Richard David Briers, CBE (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor. His fifty-year career encompassed television, stage, film and radio. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it was a decade later, when he narrated Roobarb and Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1974–76) and when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), that he became a household name. Later, he starred as Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), …

Known For

Film

Peter Pan

Sam "Smee" Smiegel

Film

Watership Down

Fiver (voice)

Film

Much Ado About Nothing

Signor Leonato

Film

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Grandfather

Film

Hamlet

Polonius

Film

Henry V

Lieutenant Bardolph

Film

Murder She Said

'Mrs Binster'

Film

The Three Musketeers

Louis XIII (voice)

Filmography

Acting (121)

Movies (62)

The Good Life: Inside Out

2025

The Good Life: Secret & Scandals

2022

as (archive footage)

7.0

Roobarb and Custard: The Complete Collection

2017

as Narrator, Roobarb, Custard / lot of characters. (uncredited)

British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves

2016

as Acting Role (archive footage) (uncredited)

5.7

Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time

as Mouse (voice)

Cockneys vs Zombies

as Hamish

Run For Your Wife

as Newspaper Seller

Horror on the High Rise

2011

All About The Good Life

2010

National Theatre Live: London Assurance

2010

as Mr. Adolphus Spanker

7.0

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley

2009

as Roobarb/Custard (voice)

As You Like It

as Adam

Dad

as Larry James

Our Hidden Lives

as Herbert Brush

The Funny Blokes of British Comedy

2005

as Himself

6.0

Peter Pan

2003

as Sam "Smee" Smiegel

7.1

Bob the Builder: The Knights of Fix-A-Lot

as Robert (voice)

Unconditional Love

as Barry Moore

Victoria & Albert

as Joseph Paxton

Love's Labour's Lost

as Sir Nathaniel

The Student Prince

as Dr. Corbitt

Spice World

as Bishop

Hamlet

as Polonius

The Adventures of Toad

1996

as Rat

In the Bleak Midwinter

1995

as Henry

7.1

Heavy Weather

1995

as The Hon. Galahad Threepwood

7.5

The Adventures of Mole

1995

as Rat

6.0

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

as Grandfather

Skallagrigg

as Old Arthur/George

Mole's Christmas

as Rat

Frances the Firefly

as Narrator (voice)

Much Ado About Nothing

as Signor Leonato

Peter's Friends

as Lord Morton

Swan Song

as Nikita

Henry V

as Lieutenant Bardolph

7.1

A Chorus of Disapproval

1989

as Ted Washbrook

5.3

Children's Favourites - Volume 1

1988

as Alias (voice)

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

1988

as Malvolio

6.9

Doctor Who: Paradise Towers

1987

as The Chief Caretaker

6.5

Arms and the Man

1983

as Bluntschli

The Aerodrome

as The Rector

It's Your Move

as The Husband

P.Q. 17

as Jack Broome

Village Wooing

1979

as A

Watership Down

1978

as Fiver (voice)

7.2

Our Flesh and Blood

1977

as Mr. Smythe

A Small Miracle

1976

as Himself - Commentator

Great

1975

as Isambard Kingdom Brunel

5.6

The Four Musketeers

1974

as Louis XIII (voice) (uncredited)

6.4

The Three Musketeers

1973

as Louis XIII (voice)

Rentadick

as Miles Gannet

All the Way Up

as Nigel Hadfield

Fathom

as Flight Lt. Timothy Webb

The Bargee

as Tomkins

All in Good Time

as The Young Husband

A Home of Your Own

1964

as The Husband

6.0

Doctor in Distress

1963

as Medical Student (uncredited)

The Girl on the Boat

as Eustace Hignett

Murder She Said

as 'Mrs Binster'

A Matter of WHO

as Jamieson

Bottoms Up!

as Colbourne

Girls at Sea

as 'Popeye' Lewis

Television (59)

Kingdom

2007

as Jim Wright

7.1

A Bucket O' French and Saunders

2007

6.2

That's What I Call Television

2007

as Self

Torchwood

2006

as Parker

7.3

My Appalling School Report

2006

Extras

2005

as Richard Briers

7.8

Roobarb and Custard Too

2005

as Narrator

6.0

Agatha Christie's Marple

as Wilson

New Tricks

as James Farlow

Comedy Connections

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

as Self

Monarch of the Glen

as Hector MacDonald

The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything

2000

Watership Down

1999

as Captain Broom (voice)

7.2

Parkinson

1998

as Self

A Respectable Trade

1998

as Sir Charles Fairley

6.0

Geoff Hamilton: a Man and His Garden

1998

as Narrator

Midsomer Murders

as Stephen Wentworth

Brass Eye

as Self

Down to Earth

as Tony Fairfax

If You See God, Tell Him

as Godfrey Spry

Mr. Bean

as Mr. Sprout

Inspector Morse

as Sir Clixby Bream

Lovejoy

as Raymond Doncaster

Screen Two

as Old Arthur/George

All in Good Faith

as Reverend Philip Lambe

2.1

Alias the Jester

1985

as Alias

6.6

Ever Decreasing Circles

Natural World

Wogan

as Self

Goodbye Mr Kent

as Travis Kent

Tales of the Unexpected

as Albert Dobson

Minder

as Col. Caplan

The Galton & Simpson Playhouse

1977

as Henry Fairlane

The Other One

as Ralph Tanner

The Norman Conquests

as Reg

Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk

One-Upmanship

The Good Life

as Tom Good

Noddy

as Narrator

Roobarb

Birds on the Wing

as Charles Jackson

Tall Stories

1971

Play for Today

1970

as Mr. Smythe

6.3

From a Bird's Eye View

1970

as George Lemon

5.5

Ben Travers Farces

1970

as Charlie Tutt

Ooh La La!

1968

NBC Experiment in Television

1967

as (voice)

BBC Play of the Month

as Sandy Tyrell

Theatre 625

as David Prentice

Doctor Who

as Chief Caretaker

Brothers In Law

Marriage Lines

Faces of Jim

as John Frobisher

Tony Awards

as Self - Nominee

Armchair Theatre

as Stanley Frelaine

Dixon of Dock Green

as Ken Tracey

Little Red Tractor Stories

as Narrator (voice)

Bird Bath

as Narrator

6.0