
Richard Briers
Department: Acting
Biography
Richard David Briers, CBE (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor. His fifty-year career encompassed television, stage, film and radio. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it was a decade later, when he narrated Roobarb and Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1974–76) and when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), that he became a household name. Later, he starred as Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and he had a leading role as Hector in Monarch of the Glen (2000–05). From the late 1980s, with Kenneth Branagh as director, he performed Shakespearean roles in Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006).
Known For

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1994

Hamlet
1996

Watership Down
1978

Much Ado About Nothing
1993

In the Bleak Midwinter
1995

Fathom
1967

Love's Labour's Lost
2000

It's Your Move
1982

Heavy Weather
1995

Cockneys vs Zombies
2012

The Bargee
1964

Run For Your Wife
2012

Rentadick
1972

The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005

Great
1975

A Matter of WHO
1961

Swan Song
1992

Twelfth Night, or What You Will
1988

Peter Pan
2003

Girls at Sea
1958

All the Way Up
1970

Arms and the Man
1983

The Four Musketeers
1974

The Three Musketeers
1973

The Good Life: Secret & Scandals
2022

Roobarb and Custard: The Complete Collection
2017

All in Good Time
1964

Village Wooing
1979

A Chorus of Disapproval
1989

The Aerodrome
1983

Our Hidden Lives
2005

Murder She Said
1961

Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time
2013

Doctor in Distress
1963

Mole's Christmas
1994

The Student Prince
1998

Dad
2005

Peter's Friends
1992

Henry V
1989

Bottoms Up!
1960

Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band: The Official BBC Children in Need Medley
2009

National Theatre Live: London Assurance
2010

British Sitcom: 60 Years of Laughing at Ourselves
2016

Spice World
1997

As You Like It
2006

A Small Miracle
1976

Skallagrigg
1994

Our Flesh and Blood
1977

The Adventures of Mole
1995

A Home of Your Own
1964

Unconditional Love
2002

The Girl on the Boat
1962

All About The Good Life
2010

P.Q. 17
1981

The Adventures of Toad
1996

Doctor Who: Paradise Towers
1987

Victoria & Albert
2001

Frances the Firefly
1994

Horror on the High Rise
2011

Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot
2003

Children's Favourites - Volume 1
1988

The Good Life: Inside Out
2025

French and Saunders' Christmas Carol
1994

Ever Decreasing Circles
1984

Midsomer Murders
1997

Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk
1976

Torchwood
2006

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
2001

Doctor Who
1963

Tales of the Unexpected
1979

Monarch of the Glen
2000

Comedy Connections
2003

The Good Life
1975

Marriage Lines
1961

Mr. Bean
1990

Lovejoy
1986

If You See God, Tell Him
1993

Roobarb
1974

From a Bird's Eye View
1970

New Tricks
2004

Wogan
1982

Natural World
1983

That's What I Call Television
2007

My Appalling School Report
2006

Down to Earth
1995

Goodbye Mr Kent
1982

Brothers In Law
1962

Tall Stories
1971

The Other One
1977

Alias the Jester
1985

A Bucket O' French and Saunders
2007

Extras
2005

Ooh La La!
1968

Kingdom
2007

Geoff Hamilton: a Man and His Garden
1998

Brass Eye
1997

Dixon of Dock Green
1955

A Respectable Trade
1998

Screen Two
1985

The Norman Conquests
1977

Bird Bath
—

Roobarb and Custard Too
2005

Agatha Christie's Marple
2004

Play for Today
1970

The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything
2000

NBC Experiment in Television
1967

Parkinson
1998

Little Red Tractor Stories
—

Play for Today
1970

Armchair Theatre
1956

BBC Play of the Month
1965

Birds on the Wing
1971

Ben Travers Farces
1970

All in Good Faith
1985

The Galton & Simpson Playhouse
1977

Watership Down
1999

Noddy
1975

Theatre 625
1964

Faces of Jim
1961

Faces of Jim
1961

Faces of Jim
1961

One-Upmanship
1976

Tony Awards
1956