Just as much a part of the British landscape as red pillar boxes and rain at Wimbledon, Geoffrey Palmer's hangdog face and lugubrious manner have graced British screens for more than 50 years. The 73-year-old comedy legend has brought his deadpan delivery to such glorious sitcoms as Butterflies and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, as sparring partner for Judi Dench in As Time Goes By, and now in Simon Nye's latest sitcom, The Savages.
Yet Geoffrey isn't the gloomy curmudgeon he so often portrays, but a gentle, easy-going granddad. 'People see me and say, "Oh see you do smile,"' chuckles Geoffrey. 'I think I'm quite cheerful. I'm lucky and a happy man. It was kind of an accident these roles came my way.' He pauses, then adds: 'Unless it's just the face. 'I could never abide the person who smiles a lot to show he's being funny. I ain't Des O'Connor. I cant bear that. I'di rather get a laugh by looking as though I'm not trying to get a laugh. Besides, 'he adds, 'I always think I look silly when I smile.'
In The Savages, Geoffrey's adding another grump to his CV of gloomy characters. He plays Donald Savage, who hangs around with his son Adam, a freelance cartoonist, because both are at a loose end. 'Donald's a grumpy grandpa,' says Geoffrey. 'He's a bit lost in the world; his wife's pushed off. He talks about her as being dead, presumably to cover op the horror of a man being left after 34 years. He's fond of his family, but He's socially inept, like most of us.'
Geoffrey, on the other hand, has little to be gloomy about. He's been married to Sally for 38 years and they have two children, Harriet and Charles, who has a son, one-year. old Billy. Geoffrey's been more successful than Donald at the parent game, too. 'It wasn't always that way, but Charles and I have a terrific relationship, thanks to him more than me.' He's making a stab at being a granddad, too, though he thinks his nose is daunting to baby Billy. 'He does kind of grab it and then slowly goes tense and cries,' Geoffrey laughs.
In spite of being around for and in, some of the greatest British TV ever made, Geoffrey refuses to bemoan the much-lamented lack of good comedy, and insists that every era has as many poor sitcoms as good. But he'd rather stare at a wall than watch most television. 'I think there's more c**p on TV than ever' moans Geoffrey. 'There are shows like In a Land of Plenty, but the proportion of tosh is far greater now because everything is driven by ratings.'
Just as well, then, that his passion these days isn't work, but fishing, which he took up a dozen years ago. 'There are dates booked when I go fishing, and if an acting job will fit in with that, that's fine -- but my agent has long since despaired of me since I got into fishing,' says Geoffrey, though he admits he's not ready to retire. 'I don't want to work all the time, but I'd hate not to work and I'd hate not to be asked.' Never fear, Geoffrey. There's little chance of that.
Thanks to Maree Wilson for sending me this article which appeared in the T. V. Times (UK) in the April 21-27, 2001 edition.