Peter Benson (actor)
| Peter Benson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 June 1943 England, UK |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1961–present |
Peter Benson (born 13 June 1943)[1] is an English actor probably best known as Bernie Scripps in the popular ITV1 TV-series Heartbeat, a drama about the police in the fictional "Aidensfield" in the 1960s. He has also had a number of other film and television roles, often playing weak or vacillating characters.
Television and theatre
Benson's other television and theatre work includes the regional premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. On television his credits include the Dauphin in Shaw's Saint Joan, Henry VI in all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III for the BBC Television Shakespeare Series, Reuben with Bill Maynard in Alan Plater's Trinity Tales, Henry VII in The Black Adder, Bernard in All Creatures Great and Small, Bor in the Doctor Who serial Terminus. Recent roles include the made-for-TV film Merlin[2] and A Touch of Frost.[1]
He has also had parts in The Royal, Rumpole of the Bailey, Jeeves and Wooster, The Bill, Peak Practice, Casualty, Tenko and Lovejoy, among others.[1]
Benson played Bernie Scripps in Heartbeat between 1995 and 2010. In the TV-series 'Bernie' Scripps ran Aidensfield Garage, and the local funeral service. He was often involved helping first Claude Greengrass (Bill Maynard), his half-brother Vernon Scripps (Geoffrey Hughes) and later Peggy Armstrong (Gwen Taylor) with disastrous money-making schemes.[3]
Film roles
His film work include roles in Michael Crichton's The First Great Train Robbery,[4] John Boorman's Excalibur, Roman Polanski's Tess[5] and Christian Cantamessa's Air.