Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE (4 June 1927 - 5 November 2020) was an English actor known for his roles in British television sitcoms playing Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983) and Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1992–2005). His film appearances include A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Madness of King George (1994), Mrs. Brown (1997), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was born on 4 June 1927 in North Finchley, Middlesex. He was the son of Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor, and Norah Gwendolen (née Robins). He attended Highgate School from September 1939 to December 1945. He served as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines during his national service from 1946 to 1948, following which he briefly worked as an unpaid trainee assistant stage manager.
Palmer's early television appearances included multiple roles in episodes of The Army Game (Granada Television), two episodes of The Baron and as a property agent in Cathy Come Home (1966). After a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he acted in major productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company and was directed by Laurence Olivier in J. B. Priestley's Eden End. Palmer found the play so dull, however, that he was deterred from a stage career.
Two BBC sitcom roles brought him attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), and the phlegmatic dentist Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983).
In 1978, Palmer appeared as organized crimelord Simon Sinclair in London Weekend Television's hard-hitting police drama The Professionals, the episode entitled "Where the Jungle Ends".
Palmer played Doctor Price in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" (1979), determined to have breakfast amidst the confusion caused by the death of a guest and Fawlty's inept way of handling the emergency. In 1986, Palmer appeared as Donald Fairchild in the first series of an ITV sitcom, Executive Stress, alongside Penelope Keith. He later left, and was replaced by Peter Bowles.
Palmer later starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in another BBC sitcom, As Time Goes By (1992–2005). In 1997, he also appeared with Dench in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he portrayed Admiral Roebuck to Dench's M, and Mrs Brown, playing Sir Henry Ponsonby to Dench's Queen Victoria.
Palmer married Sally Green in 1963. They had a daughter, Harriet, and a son, Charles, a television director. Palmer was a longtime resident of Lee Common in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, and enjoyed fly fishing in his spare time. At the time of his death, he resided in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
Palmer died peacefully at his home on 5 November 2020, aged 93.
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Movies (69)
To Olivia
2021
Paddington
2014 · Head Geographer
Walrus: Two Tonne Tusker
2013 · Narrator
Bert & Dickie
2012 · Charles Burnell
Run For Your Wife
2012 · Man on Toilet
Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim
2012 · Narrator
Lost Christmas
2011 · Dr. Clarence
W.E.
2011 · Stanley Baldwin
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009 · Self / Dr Price
La Pantera Rosa 2
2009 · Joubert
Margaret Thatcher: El Largo Camino a Finchley
2008 · Sir John Crowder
Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned
2007 · Captain Hardaker
James Bond's Greatest Hits
2006 · Narrator (voice)
The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag
2005 · Corbett's Ghost
Pope John Paul II: 1920 - 2005
2005 · Narrator
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005 · Self
Piccadilly Jim
2004 · Bayliss
The Young Visiters
2003 · Minnit
Peter Pan
2003 · Sir Edward Quiller Couch
Great Comedy Moments
2001 · Jimmy Anderson (archive footage)
Rat
2000 · The Doctor
Anna y el Rey
1999 · Lord John Bradley
Alice Through the Looking Glass
1998 · White King
Mr. Men & Little Miss: The Christmas Letter
1998 · Narrator / Santa
Reckless: The Sequel
1998 · Robert Crane
Stiff Upper Lips
1998 · His Butler's Voice
007: El mañana nunca muere
1997 · Admiral Roebuck
Mrs Brown
1997 · Henry Ponsonby
The Madness of King George
1994 · Warren
Stalag Luft
1993 · The Kommandant
A Question of Attribution
1991 · Donleavy
Smack and Thistle
1991 · Sir Horace Wimbol
Hawks
1988 · SAAB Salesman
A Fish Called Wanda
1988 · Judge
Season's Greetings
1986 · Bernard
Clockwise
1986 · Headmaster
The Insurance Man
1986 · The Angry Doctor
A Zed & Two Noughts
1985 · Fallast
Radio Pictures
1985 · Glyn Bryce
Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire
1985 · Narrator
Absurd Person Singular
1985 · Ronald Brewster-Wright
Waters of the Moon
1983 · Robert Lancaster
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
1983 · Jimmy Anderson
The Honorary Consul
1983 · British Ambassador
The Funny Side of Christmas
1982 · Jimmy Anderson, Ben Parkinson
The Houseboy
1982 · Eric
Mr. Kershaw's Dream System
1982 · Psychiastrist
A Midsummer Night's Dream
1981 · Quince
Safe at Work?
1980 · Narrator
The Outsider
1979 · Col. Wyndham
Loyalties
1976 · Graviter
A Story to Frighten the Children
1976 · Det. Chief Insp. Harris
The Battle of Billy's Pond
1976 · First Policeman
Goodbye
1975 · Jack
O Lucky Man!
1973 · Examination Doctor/Basil Keyes
Only Make Believe
1973 · Richard Nicholls
Doctor Who: The Mutants
1972 · Administrator
Michael Regan
1971 · Chief Superintendent
The Uninvited
1971 · Jack Mervyn
The High Game
1970 · Man at the Clinic
Doctor Who and the Silurians
1970 · Masters
1+1=1.5
1969 · Gosford
The Chequers Manoeuvre
1968 · Professor Wybrow
Cathy Come Home
1966 · Property Agent
No Place Like Earth
1965 · Chief Officer
Ring of Spies
1964 · Police Officer (uncredited)
Drama '63: A Well Dressed Man
1963 · Basil Mallard
Incident at Midnight
1963 · Dr. Tanfield
A Prize of Arms
1962 · Cpl. Myers
TV shows (91)
La Corona Vacía
2012 · Lord Chief Justice
Chateau Monty
2008
Ashes to Ashes
2008 · Lord Scarman
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
2007 · Self
The One Show
2006 · Self
He Knew He Was Right
2004 · Sir Marmaduke Rowley
Absolute Power
2003
Looking for Victoria
2003 · Narrator
Grumpy Old Men
2003 · Narrator
Dickens
2002 · Thackeray
Stig of the Dump
2002 · Robert
The Savages
2001 · Donald
The 1940s House
2001 · Narrator (voice)
The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
1996 · Jimmy Anderson
Mr. Men and Little Miss
1995
Look at the State We're In!
1995 · The Ruler
As Time Goes By
1992 · Lionel Hardcastle
Screen One
1989 · Donleavy
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989 · Vice Admiral Hamling
Christabel
1988 · Mr Burton
Inspector Morse
1987 · Matthew Copley-Barnes
Executive Stress
1986 · Donald Fairchild
Hot Metal
1986 · Harold Stringer
Summer Season
1985 · Glyn Bryce
Oxbridge Blues
1984 · Fred
Fairly Secret Army
1984 · Major Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott
Natural World
1983 · Narrator
Blackadder
1983 · Field Marshal Haig
Dalgliesh
1983 · Edwin Lorrimer
Death of an Expert Witness
1983 · Edwin Lorrimer
Whoops Apocalypse
1982 · Foreign Secretary
The Kenny Everett Television Show
1982 · Various
The Last Song
1981
Bergerac
1981 · Nigel Carter
Plays for Pleasure
1981 · Alec Boot
Butterflies
1978 · Ben Parkinson
Scorpion Tales
1978 · Arnold Sparrow
An Audience with...
1978 · Self
The Professionals
1977 · Avery, Simon Sinclair
Maidens' Trip
1977 · Wilfred
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
1976 · Jimmy Anderson
Bill Brand
1976 · Malcolm Frear
Fawlty Towers
1975 · Dr. Price
Angels
1975 · Lawrence Rutherford
Three Comedies of Marriage
1975 · Dennis
The Sweeney
1975 · Commander Watson
Churchill's People
1974 · Samuel Partridge
Happy Ever After
1974 · Mr Critchley, Bob Holsgrove
Away from It All
1973 · Ashe
Colditz
1972 · Doc
Crown Court
1972 · Kenneth Eden
Van der Valk
1972 · Head of Faculty
Six Days of Justice
1972 · Mr. Nicholas
The Goodies
1970 · School Headmaster
Play for Today
1970 · Detetective Chief Inspector Harris, Jack Buckett
Menace
1970 · Major Ryder
Ben Travers Farces
1970 · Hugh Stafford
Doomwatch
1970 · Major Sims
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969 · Mac
Frost on Sunday
1968 · Self – Guest
The Expert
1968 · Asst. Chief Constable Rogers
City '68
1967 · Robins
ITV Playhouse
1967 · Harper, Oscar, Bradley Fawcett, Man at the clinic, Eric
Trapped
1967 · Doctor Clay Morrow
The Further Adventures of the Musketeers
1967 · Oliver Cromwell
The Revenue Men
1967 · Bill Mitchell
Mystery and Imagination
1966 · Turner
Softly, Softly
1966
BBC Play of the Month
1965 · Monteith
Thirty-Minute Theatre
1965 · Professor Wybrow
Out of the Unknown
1965 · Jack Mervyn, Chief Officer / Gosford / Jack Mervyn
The Troubleshooters
1965 · Jeremy Martin
The Man in Room 17
1965 · Ian McWatt
The Joe Baker Show
1965
Londoners
1965 · Jack Poncey
Gideon's Way
1965 · Jeff Grant
The Wednesday Play
1964 · Property Agent
Detective
1964 · Chief Superintendent Smeed
Doctor Who
1963 · Administrator, Masters
The Human Jungle
1963 · Williams
The Saint
1962 · Pete Ferguson
Bulldog Breed
1962
Suspense
1962 · Newspaper Reporter
Family Solicitor
1961 · Hugh Cowley
Drama 61-67
1961 · Basil Mallard
The Avengers
1961 · Dr. Terence, Paul Manning, Martin Smythe
The Strange World of Gurney Slade
1960 · Floor manager
The Odd Man
1960 · Const. Swift
No Hiding Place
1959 · Det. Sgt. Walsh
Armchair Theatre
1956 · Rankin
Best Of Enemies