- published: 06 May 2014
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Alfred Burke (28 February 1918 – 16 February 2011) was an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Frank Marker in the drama series Public Eye, which ran on television for ten years.
Burke was born in Peckham, London, the son of Sarah Ann O'Leary and William Burke. He was educated at Leo Street Boys' School and Waltham Central School. He started work aged 14, working in a railway repair firm in the City of London after leaving school. He became a club steward and also worked in a silk warehouse, joining a local amateur dramatics group before moving to Morley College and winning a scholarship to RADA in 1937. His acting career started two years later at the Barn Theatre in Shere, Surrey. His London debut was at the Watergate Theatre, where in a lean spell he worked in the kitchen. He worked with the Young and Old Vic and other companies, including working on Sailor Beware on stage.
Burke built a solid reputation across a wide range of character roles in films and on television. His acting career included: The Angry Silence, Touch and Go, Interpol, Yangtse Incident and Buccaneers, as well as such televised plays as The Tip and Treasure Island.
Dennis Waterman (born 24 February 1948 ) is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.
His acting career spans over 50 years, starting with childhood roles in film and theatre, and including adult roles in film, television, and West End theatre. He is notable for the range of roles he has played, including for example horror (Scars of Dracula), adventure (Colditz), comedy (Fair Exchange), comedy-drama (Minder), musical (Windy City) and sports (The World Cup: A Captain's Tale), as well as police TV series like The Sweeney. He has appeared in over 25 films.
He has married four times and has been caricatured in the TV series Little Britain.
Waterman was born the youngest of nine children to Rose Juliana (née Saunders) and Harry Frank Waterman in Clapham,London. The family, which included siblings Ken, Peter, Stella, Norma and Myrna, lived at 2 Elms Road, Clapham Common South Side. Harry Waterman was a ticket collector for British Rail. Two older sisters, Joy and Vera had already left home by the time Dennis was born, and another brother, Allen had died as a young child.
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.
Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.
In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place. So does the very first recorded Robin Hood rhyme, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: "Robyn hode in scherewode stod." However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire).