Gareth Hunt
Last updated : 6th April 1999
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Gareth Hunt
Last updated : 6th April 1999
Back to the New Avengers intro page
|
Gareth Hunt was born in London, England on 7th February 1943. He served in the Merchant Navy for six years after which he had a variety of jobs before training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He then did rep at Ipswich, Bristol Old Vic, Coventry, Royal Court in London and Watford before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. His first taste of real exposure came in the Doctor Who set 'Planet of the Spiders'. Next came Upstairs Downstairs where he played Frederick the footman. After this came his first lead role: The New Avengers – a show that he remembers with much fondness and is always happy to talk about. Despite the relative success of The New Avengers, Gareth has not been able to maintain such a high profile, unlike his cohort in the show, Joanna Lumley. Despite his appearance in the popular BBC dramatisation of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop in 1981, television roles throughout the 1980's almost dried up, though there were occasional film appearances. His only other lead role came with the 1992 BBC sitcom Side by Side in which he played a builder trying to keep his son under control without upsetting the snooty neighbours. To be honest Side by Side was a pretty weak affair and was lucky to get a second season. Gareth decided to pursue business interests through his ideas for a CD-ROM containing details of hundred of British actors and clips from performances. Strangely the idea attracted no interest but once the Internet took off, he transformed it into a website run by a new company, e-Media-c. He was also planning to write a book about The New Avengers which would include photos that he had taken during filming. Gareth has twice been married and has two sons. Most of the information below is taken from the
Internet Movie Database.
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| Year | Film or TV Show title and country | Character | Comments |
| 1974 | Doctor Who six-episode set 'Planet of the Spiders' (TV, UK) | Arak | These were Jon Pertwee's final episodes. |
| 1975 | Space:1999 episode ‘The Guardian of Piri’ (TV, UK) | Eagle Pilot | |
| 1975 | The Hanged Man episode ‘The Bridge-Maker’ (TV, UK) | Malone | Thriller serial in which a wealthy business man becomes the target of assassinateion attempts. |
| 1975 | Upstairs, Downstairs (TV, UK) | Frederick | Gareth appeared as the footman in the final season of this hugely popular WW1 series which contrasted the lives of an upper-class English family with that of their servants. |
| 1979 | The World is Full of Married Men (Film, UK) | Jay Grossman | Watching this we know we are firmly in the 1970's - when men were men and women were, er..., birds. a classy piece of Seventies cheese...I mean what other decade would have Bonnie Tyler singing the title song actually standing singing to you! And it got better from then on in. Old Gazza plays the normal south London Posh Cockney Wide-boy Mike Gambit type character.....some of his outifits are classics! Pink shirt underneath purple waistcoat??? Ummmmm! |
| 1979 | Number One – Licenced to Love and Kill (Film, UK) | Charles Bind | James Bond spoof. Little else known about this as nobody seems to be able to find it now! Thanks to Frank Harris for info! |
| 1979 | The House on Garibaldi Street (Film, UK) | ? | Post-WW2 drama concerning the Israeli Secret Service (MOSSAD) trying to track down a Nazi war-criminal. |
| 1981 | The Old Curiosity Shop (TV, UK) | ? | A BBC production (six half-hour episodes?) of the Dickens novel. |
| 1982 | Minder Series Three episode 'The Son also Rises' (TV, UK) | Ted Standen | Wonderful, long-running series concerning dodgy-dealer Arthur Daley (George Cole) and his ever put-open bodyguard Terry McCann (Dennis Waterman). This episode features Gareth as a crooked businessman who finds that, due to 'debts' he has incurred with a gang of criminals, his son is being threatened. |
| 1982 | Funny Money (Film, UK) | Banks | |
| 1984 | Bloodbath at the House of Death (Film, UK) | Elliot Broome | Comedy horror film starring Vincent Price and, of all people, DJ Kenny Everett (!!!) and his long-time sidekick Cleo Rocos. Oh yeah – Pamela Stephenson is in it, too – hurray! So we wait with eager anticipation for the next time this is shown! |
| 1987 | It Couldn't Happen Here (Film, UK) | Uncle Dredge/postcard seller/ventriloquist | Surreal film starring Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys examining the effects of Thatcherite policies on 1980's England. Gareth stars in multiple-roles. |
| 1987 | A Hazard of Hearts (TV, UK) | Highwayman | Period romance |
| 1988 | A Chorus of Disapproval (Film, UK) | Ian Hubbard | Small-town soap. Surprisingly good taste for director Michael Winner!. |
| 1989 | The Lady and the Highwayman (TV, UK) | The Coachman | Cartland period bodice-ripper with early exposure for Hugh Grant. |
| 1990 | A Ghost in Montecarlo (TV, UK) | Dalton | Avengers assemble! Here you also find Joanna Lumley and Lew Collins. And Laurie Johnson provides the music. The film itself is a soapy drama concerning a woman's desire to leave her aristocratic environment. |
| 1992 | The Forgotten Wells (Film, Sweden) | Craig Lammar | A television crew are held prisoner in some sewers by a couple of armed desperados. But none of them reckon on another man who has lived down there since he was a kid. Now he is a psychotic half-man half-beast..... Sounds like good quality entertainment to me! |
| 1992 | Side by Side (TV, UK) | Vince | Naff sitcom. |
| 1996 | Upstairs, Downstairs Remembered: The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary (TV, UK) | - | Gareth presents a series of clips and interviews with the other cast members of the show. Gordon Jackson (who had played butler Hudson) had sadly passed several years before. Available on video. |
| 1997 | Fierce Creatures (Film, UK) | Inspector Masefield | Follow-up to the hugely successful A Fish Called Wanda |
| 1997 | Parting Shots (Film, UK) | Inspector Bass | Jo and Diana Rigg co-starred. This Michael Winner film hasn’t been officially released yet – possibly because The Observer said it was one of the worst British films ever and apparently even Di is hoping it sinks without trace! |
| 1997 | The Best Show in the World... Probably (TV, UK) | - | A programme about TV adverts, I think. |
If anybody has anything to add to this page then please let Dave know! Thanks!
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