Richard Heffer (born 28 July 1946 in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
) is a British actor, best known for his roles on television in the 1970s and 1980s. His film career included appearances in ''
Women in Love
''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...
'' (1969), ''
Waterloo'' (1970), ''
Penny Gold
''Penny Gold'' is a 1973 British drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring James Booth, Francesca Annis, Nicky Henson and Joss Ackland. The screenplay concerns two policemen who investigate a series of murders.
Premise
A police detective ...
'' (1973), ''
The Sign of Four
''The Sign of the Four'' (1890), also called ''The Sign of Four'', is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective.
Plo ...
'' (1983), ''
Countdown to War
''Countdown to War'' is a television film made in 1989 as a co-production by Granada Television and PBS. It recounts the events that occurred between 15 March 1939, when the German army commanded by Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and created t ...
'' (1989), ''
Night of the Fox'' (1990), ''
Possession'' (2002), and ''
Dimensions
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coord ...
'' (2011).
He played supporting roles in television series early in his career, including ''
Department S'', ''
The Pathfinders'' and ''
Jason King'', before gaining the role of British Army Captain Tim Downing in the BBC/Universal television series, ''
Colditz
Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II.
Geography
Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the ...
'' (1972–74), in which Heffer was a regular throughout. He went on to play Det. Sgt. Alan Bruton in the final series of ''
Dixon of Dock Green
''Dixon of Dock Green'' was a BBC police procedural television series about daily life at a fictional London police station, with the emphasis on petty crime, successfully controlled through common sense and human understanding. It ran from 19 ...
'' (1976) and Peter Porteous in two series of ''
Enemy at the Door
''Enemy at the Door'' is a British television drama series made by London Weekend Television for ITV. The series was shown between 1978 and 1980 and dealt with the German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, during the Second Wo ...
'' (1978-1980).
Heffer went on to guest in ''
Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...
'', ''
Public Eye'' and ''
Survivors'' in the 1970s. He played Peter Witney alongside
Roy Marsden
Roy Marsden (born Roy Anthony Mould; 25 June 1941) is an English actor who portrayed Adam Dalgliesh in the Anglia Television dramatisations (1983–1998) of P. D. James's detective novels, and Neil Burnside in the spy drama '' The Sandba ...
in ''
Airline
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...
'' in 1982, and took the leading role of rabies expert Michael Hilliard in the acclaimed BBC thriller ''
The Mad Death
''The Mad Death'' is a television serial made by BBC Scotland. It was filmed in 1981 and transmitted 2 years later in 1983.
Plot
The three-part series examined the effects of an outbreak of rabies in the United Kingdom and was noted for its oc ...
'' in 1983. He also played Dr Charles Cartwright in the early series of the sitcom, ''
Don't Wait Up''.
Heffer continued to appear regularly on TV drama series in the 1980s, starring with Marsden again in Anglia's adaptation of ''
The Black Tower
''The Black Tower'' is an Adam Dalgliesh novel by P.D. James, published in 1975.
Plot synopsis
Adam Dalgliesh, recovering from a serious gun wound, is tired of death, and goes to the Toynton Grange care home to see an old friend. But his frien ...
'', and continued to appear in guest roles in ''
Boon
Boon may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Boon (game), a trick-taking card game
* ''Boon'' (novel), a 1915 satirical work by H. G. Wells
* ''Boon'' (TV series), a British television series starring Michael Elphick
* The Ultimate Boon ...
'' and ''
Howards' Way
''Howards' Way'' is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC1 between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the wealthy yachting and business com ...
''. He has appeared in ''
Wycliffe Wycliffe (and other similar spellings) may refer to:
People
*John Wycliffe (and other spellings) (c.1320s – 1384), English theologian and Bible translator
* Wycliffe (name), includes a list of other people with the name
Places
* Wycliffe, Count ...
'', ''
Trial & Retribution
''Trial & Retribution'' is a feature-length ITV police procedural television drama series that first aired on 19 October 1997. Written and devised by Lynda La Plante as a follow-on from her successful television series '' Prime Suspect'', each ...
'', ''
Heartbeat'' and ''
Rosemary & Thyme
''Rosemary & Thyme'' is a British television cosy mystery thriller series starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. The show began on ITV in 2003. The third series ended in August 2007. ...
''. He also narrated three special feature documentaries for
2entertain
2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...
's ''
Doctor Who'' DVD range between 2008-12.
Filmography
External links
*
1946 births
Living people
British male television actors
{{UK-tv-actor-stub