I didn't get where I am today ...

[muriel_volestrangler]

... without mourning the death of John Barron, the actor who played CJ in the Reggie Perrin TV series.

This won't mean anything to non-anglophiles, I'm afraid. But he always brought a smile to my face.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/07/db0702.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/07/ixportal.html

A strange episode in his career:

"In 1980-81, during the war between Iraq and Iran, he was among a group of British actors persuaded to make a film in Iraq by the authorities in that country. The Great Question was about an Iraqi revolt against British rule in the 1920s.

The actors arrived by aeroplane, which had to fly without lights into an unlit airport - a precaution against attack by missiles. Barron, who played General Haldane, commander-in-chief of the British troops, recalled noon temperatures of more than 100 degrees and freezing nights huddled around open fires.

The rebels were played by Iraqi soldiers, and Barron remembered one scene being cancelled because the soldiers were ordered to the front to counter an Iranian assault. The film, which lasted several hours, was never shown outside Iraq."

[GAspnes]

1. ah, 'Grot!'

I remember the program, and CJ, vaguely. Sorry to see another classy actor leave us.