Christopher Strauli (born 13 April 1946) is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is known for appearing as Norman Binns in the British

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

sitcom '' Only When I Laugh''.

Early life and education

Strauli was born in

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,674 in the 2021 census, while the population of the civil parish was 31,128. Harpe ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. He was educated at Felixstowe Grammar School in

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. After

teacher-training college Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their ta ...

he gave up a career as a mathematics and science teacher to attend the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

in London.

Career

Following his education spent some years at the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...

, before earning some minor and supporting television roles. Since 1969, Strauli has appeared in at least two films and over twenty-five television productions. In 1973 he appeared in On we go, a series of 15 minutes episodes conceived to learn English. Strauli played

Bunny Manders Harry Manders (almost exclusively known as Bunny Manders) is a fictional character in the popular series of Raffles stories by E. W. Hornung. He is the companion of A. J. Raffles, a cricketer and gentleman thief, who makes a living robbing the ...

, the assistant to A.J. Raffles, the gentleman thief in the

series '' Raffles'' (1975–1977). He later appeared as feeble

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...

Norman Binns in the ITV

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' Only When I Laugh'', occupying a bed in a ward next to characters played by

James Bolam James Christopher Bolam (born 16 June 1935) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Terry Collier in '' The Likely Lads'' and its sequel ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'', Jack Ford in ''When the Boat Comes In'', Roy Fig ...

and

Peter Bowles Peter John Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an English screen and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as '' Callan: A Magnum for Schneider'' and '' I, Claudius''. He is best remembered for his roles in sit ...

and attended by doctor Richard Wilson. Strauli was then recruited by the show's writer,

Eric Chappell Eric George Chappell (25 September 1933 – 21 April 2022) was an English television comedy writer and playwright who wrote or co-wrote some of the UK's biggest sitcom hits over a more than quarter-century career, first gaining significant noti ...

, to replace

Richard Beckinsale Richard Arthur Beckinsale (6 July 1947 – 19 March 1979) was an English actor. He played Lennie Godber in the BBC British sitcom, sitcom ''Porridge (1974 TV series), Porridge'' (along with its sequel series ''Going Straight'') and Alan Moore ...

in the film version of ''

Rising Damp ''Rising Damp'' is a British sitcom, written by Eric Chappell and produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, which was originally broadcast from 2 September 1974 until 9 May 1978. Chappell adapted the story from his 1973 stage play ''The Banana ...

'' (another of Chappell's shows) as a new character, John, an art student. He appeared as Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (1978) and Claudio in Measure for Measure (1979) as part of The

BBC Television Shakespeare The ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' is a series of British television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to ...

.
Played a leading character, Paul Hatfield, in ITV 1985-86 sitcom ''

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The show is about the recently widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend ...

'' (known as ''Mixed Doubles'' in the United States) (1985) and also featured in some of

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, musician, screenwriter, and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act ...

's sketch shows. In recent years he has concentrated predominantly on theatre work. He appeared in the TV movie '' S.O.S. Titanic'' (1979) as wireless operator

Harold Cottam Harold Thomas Cottam (27 January 1891 – 30 May 1984) was a British Wireless telegraphy, wireless operator on the RMS Carpathia, RMS ''Carpathia'' who fortuitously happened to receive the distress call from the sinking RMS Titanic, RMS ''Titan ...

, and in 3 episodes of the 1987 television serial of '' Fortunes of War'' playing Toby Lush. He played Nigel Smith in 1 episode of: '' Bergerac'': "Tangos in the Night" the same year.
Strauli also appeared in ''

Doctors Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

'' as Paul Woodford in "God's Gift"(2000), '' Down to Earth'' as Mr. Bell in ‘The Great Escape’(2000), and '' Waking the Dead'', playing Duncan Sanderson MP, in Parts 1 and 2 of "False Flag" (2004)

References

External links

strauli.co.uk
Strauli's official website
strauli.blogspot.com
Strauli's

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

* 1946 births English male film actors English male soap opera actors English male stage actors Living people Actors from Harpenden Male actors from Hertfordshire Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art {{UK-stage-actor-stub