Norman Eshley
Encyclopedia
Norman Eshley is an English
actor
best known for his roles on television
.
He is possibly best known for his role in the sitcom George and Mildred
as the snobbish, right-wing real estate agent Jeffrey Fourmile, the foil to George. He had previously played characters in its predecessor, Man About the House
, most famously as Robin Tripp's brother Norman who married Chrissy, but in an earlier episode he had also played a sleazy married executive named Ian Cross who tried to seduce Chrissy.
Eshley attended Bristol Grammar School
and worked in a bank, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
. He then played many Shakespearean roles on stage. His first screen role was in the 1968 film The Immortal Story
, directed by Orson Welles
.
He played a lead character, Steve, in Blind Terror
, made in 1971, opposite Mia Farrow
.
Eshley's other TV credits include: Department S
, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
, The Onedin Line
, I, Claudius
, Secret Army, The Sweeney
, The Duchess of Duke Street
, Return of the Saint
, Minder
, Brookside
, Taggart
, Cadfael
, Dangerfield
, One Foot in the Grave
, Murder Most Horrid
, Warship
, The Professionals
, and The Bill
.
In 1988 he appeared in a public information film about road safety called 'Accident in Park Road'. His character is seen driving a Ford Escort before running over a child who dashes out between cars in front of him. He is questioned by Graham Cole
who plays a policeman, a role he played as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill
.
Along with Douglas Fielding, he provided the narration for the Blind Guardian
album Nightfall In Middle Earth.
He no longer advertises in The Spotlight
and appears to have retired from acting with his last role in the BBC TV series New Tricks in 2007.
Eshley was previously married to Millicent Martin
and is now married to Lynette Braid.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for his roles on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
He is possibly best known for his role in the sitcom George and Mildred
George and Mildred
George and Mildred is a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper...
as the snobbish, right-wing real estate agent Jeffrey Fourmile, the foil to George. He had previously played characters in its predecessor, Man About the House
Man About the House
Man About the House is a British sitcom starring Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett that was broadcast for six seasons on ITV from 1973 to 1976. It was created and written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. The series was considered daring at the time due to its subject matter of...
, most famously as Robin Tripp's brother Norman who married Chrissy, but in an earlier episode he had also played a sleazy married executive named Ian Cross who tried to seduce Chrissy.
Eshley attended Bristol Grammar School
Bristol Grammar School
Bristol Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England. The school was founded in 1532 by two brothers, Robert and Nicholas Thorne....
and worked in a bank, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, opened by Laurence Olivier in 1946, is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an organisation securing the highest standards of training in the performing arts, and is an associate school of the Faculty of Creative Arts of the University of the...
. He then played many Shakespearean roles on stage. His first screen role was in the 1968 film The Immortal Story
The Immortal Story
The Immortal Story is a 1968 French film directed by Orson Welles and starring Jeanne Moreau. The film was originally broadcast on French television and was later released in theaters. It was based on a short story by the Danish writer Karen Blixen...
, directed by Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
.
He played a lead character, Steve, in Blind Terror
See No Evil (1971 film)
See No Evil, also known as Blind Terror, is a 1971 British thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Mia Farrow as a recently-blinded woman named Sarah.-Plot:...
, made in 1971, opposite Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
.
Eshley's other TV credits include: Department S
Department S
Department S is a United Kingdom spy-fi adventure series produced by ITC Entertainment. The series consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969–1970. It starred Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King , Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst...
, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Randall and Hopkirk , first transmitted during 1969-70, is a British private detective television series starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk, respectively. The series was originally created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman...
, The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin...
, I, Claudius
I, Claudius (TV series)
I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it proved one of the corporation's most successful drama serials of all time...
, Secret Army, The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
, The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess Of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1935. It was created by John Hawkesworth, the former producer of the highly successful ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
, Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...
, Minder
Minder (TV series)
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
, Brookside
Brookside
Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
, Taggart
Taggart
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
, Cadfael
Cadfael
Brother Cadfael is the fictional main character in a series of historical murder mysteries written between 1977 and 1994 by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter under the name "Ellis Peters". The character of Cadfael himself is a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey, in western England,...
, Dangerfield
Dangerfield (TV series)
Dangerfield is a British drama series about a small town doctor / police surgeon, which ran for 6 series, between 1995 and 1999. Originally Nigel Le Vaillant played the central role , but this character later left the series, the focus switching to his replacement, played by Nigel Havers.The BBC...
, One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...
, Murder Most Horrid
Murder Most Horrid
Murder Most Horrid is a BBC dark comedy anthology series starring comedian Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999....
, Warship
Warship (TV series)
Warship was a popular British television drama series produced by the BBC between 1973 and 1977. It was also dubbed into Dutch and broadcast in the Netherlands as Alle hens...
, The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
, and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
In 1988 he appeared in a public information film about road safety called 'Accident in Park Road'. His character is seen driving a Ford Escort before running over a child who dashes out between cars in front of him. He is questioned by Graham Cole
Graham Cole
Graham Cole is an English actor.He is best known as PC Tony Stamp in the ITV police drama The Bill, a role he has played from 1984 until 2009. He had made previous uncredited appearances as an unnamed PC....
who plays a policeman, a role he played as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
Along with Douglas Fielding, he provided the narration for the Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian
Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in the mid-1980s in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres...
album Nightfall In Middle Earth.
He no longer advertises in The Spotlight
The Spotlight (directory)
The Spotlight is a UK directory of actors and actresses. It was established in 1927.It originally existed as a printed directory, but now also exists as an online interactive directory....
and appears to have retired from acting with his last role in the BBC TV series New Tricks in 2007.
Eshley was previously married to Millicent Martin
Millicent Martin
Millicent Mary Lillian Martin is an English actress, singer and comedienne.Martin was born in Romford, England. She made her Broadway debut opposite Julie Andrews in The Boy Friend in 1954...
and is now married to Lynette Braid.
Selected television roles
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Man About the House Man About the House Man About the House is a British sitcom starring Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett that was broadcast for six seasons on ITV from 1973 to 1976. It was created and written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke. The series was considered daring at the time due to its subject matter of... |
Norman Tripp |
| 1976 to 1980 | George and Mildred George and Mildred George and Mildred is a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper... |
Jeffrey Fourmile |
| 1997 | One Foot in the Grave One Foot in the Grave One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000... |
Inspector Rickles |
| 1999 | Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight Sweetheart is a sitcom that ran for six series on BBC1 from 1993 to 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life after discovering a time portal allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the... |
Priestley |
Selected filmography
- CrossplotCrossplot (film)Crossplot is a 1969 film starring Roger Moore. Italian actress Claudia Lange was also featured in her largest English-speaking role. Bernard Lee, famous for his role as M in the James Bond films, also appeared.-Plot:...
(1969) - See No EvilSee No Evil (1971 film)See No Evil, also known as Blind Terror, is a 1971 British thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Mia Farrow as a recently-blinded woman named Sarah.-Plot:...
(1971)
