Gary
Hope's first television appearance was in the ABC Television drama anthology series
Armchair Theatre. The play entitled The Rose Affair was a multi-award
winning production. The Rose Affair also stars Natasha Parry, Dudley Foster,
Anthony Quayle, Joseph O'Connor and Naunton Wayne. Gary Hope plays the character
Mr.Face Jr. "The
Play is a witty and imaginative reworking of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale..."
(Screenonline). The
Rose Affair was first broadcast on October 8 1961. Alun Owen wrote the script;
his fifth for the series, Charles Jarrott directed and the producer is Sydney
Newman, (black & white 58 minutes). See the full synopsis at BFI
Screenonline website.
Gary
Hope also made three episodes of The Avengers, one of the most iconic British
television series ever made. Gary
plays a character called Barker in A Change of Bait, in this episode,
first broadcast on December 23 1961, Archie Duncan (Victor Platt), an elderly
packager stricken with heart disease has purchased a shipment of bananas hoping
to sell them at a profit. The
second of Gary Hope's appearances in The Avengers is in the episode entitled,
November Five which was first broadcast on November 11 1963. Gary plays
Michael Dyter, the successful candidate in a by-election to become the
Member of Parliament for South-East Anglia.
The
third of Gary's outings in The Avengers is The Superlative Seven
(April 8 1967). A huge gymnasium devoid of any equipment is the opening setting
where a number of men and women are lined up along a wall. Kantwich (John
Hollis) is a representative of a foreign power who has brought his champion, a
huge oriental wrestler, Toy Sung (Terry Plummer) to compete against the
supposedly unbeatable warriors of Jessel (Donald Sutherland).
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