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Patrick Newell
Patrick Newell
	Newell as Mother in The Avengers in 1968
Born	Patrick David Newell; 27 March 1932; Hadleigh, Suffolk, England
Died	22 July 1988 (aged 56); Essex, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1953–1988
Spouse	Derina House (m. 1959)
Children	2

Patrick David Newell (27 March 1932 – 22 July 1988)^[1] was a British actor perhaps best known for playing Mother in The Avengers.

Early life and education

The second son of Eric Llewellyn Newell, of High Lodge, Hadleigh, Suffolk,^[2] an Oxford-educated physician who served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps,^[3] Newell was educated at Taunton School and completed his National Service, where a fellow recruit was Michael Caine, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, alongside Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole.^[4]

Career

Newell began to be seen frequently on TV, usually cast as a fat villain or in comic roles. Given his rotund appearance and ability for playing slightly stuffy types, he was a natural stooge in several comedy shows, first for Arthur Askey, in Arthur's Treasured Volumes (ATV, 1960), then for Jimmy Edwards in Faces of Jim (BBC, 1962), with Ronnie Barker also supporting.^[5]

He was originally cast as one of the inept recruits in the first of the Carry On films, 1958's Carry On Sergeant but, according to producer Peter Rogers, Newell turned up on the first day of filming, only to recognise the real-life sergeant hired to drill the cast as the one who'd made his life hell in the Army. He then, so Rogers claims, got into his Rolls-Royce, drove off and was never seen again.^[4]

In an interview with the TV Times in 1968, he claimed to have gained weight as a deliberate attempt to boost his career, marking him out for some niche roles.^[6] In Who's Who on Television in the late 1970s, Newell described himself as "Actor with a weight problem—the more he diets, the less work he seems to get."

His most notable role was as "Mother", the spymaster in The Avengers.^[4] He had previously appeared in two earlier Avengers episodes: "The Town of No Return" (Diana Rigg's debut) and, as a Minister of the Crown, in series five's "Something Nasty in the Nursery".

Other cult television appearances included roles in Maigret, The Persuaders!, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), the Doctor Who story "The Android Invasion", The Young Ones and Kinvig.

Newell played Inspector Lestrade in the 1980 TV series, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, made in Poland.^[7] He also turned up as a Playboy Bunny in one of the Benny Hill comedy specials. Film appearances include the Gluttony segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971).

In 1984, he landed a more significant role, as Sutton/Blessington in ITV's well-received The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes production of "The Adventure of the Resident Patient", alongside Jeremy Brett.

Death

Later in life Newell succeeded in losing a substantial amount of weight, but this did not prevent his early death from a heart attack. He was married and had two children.^{[citation needed]}

Selected filmography

Film

Dial 999 (1955) – Brewers Man (uncredited)
The Rebel (1961) – Art Gallery Patron (uncredited)
Night Without Pity (1961) – Doctor
Crooks Anonymous (1962) – 2nd Jeweller
The Boys (1962) – Crowhurst
The Dock Brief (1962) – 1st Warder
Unearthly Stranger (1963) – Maj. Clarke
Never Mention Murder (1964) (Edgar Wallace Mysteries) – Barman
Father Came Too! (1964) – King Harold
Becket (1964) – William of Corbeil (uncredited)
Do You Know This Voice? (1964) – Neighbour
Every Day's a Holiday (1964) – Mr. Hoskins
The Alphabet Murders (1965) – Cracknell
A Study in Terror (1965) – PC Benson
Bindle (One of Them Days) (1966) – Mr. Hearty
The Sandwich Man (1966) – River Bus Man
The Long Duel (1967) – Colonel
Danny the Dragon (1967) – Potter
The Strange Affair (1968) – Victim
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) – Doctor (segment "Gluttony")
The Canterbury Tales (1972) – Prior (uncredited)
Go for a Take (1972) – Generous Jim
Where's Johnny? (1974) – Basil
Vampira (1974) – Man in Hotel Room
Man About the House (1974) – Sir Edmund Weir
The Incredible Sarah (1976) – Major
Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977) – M. O. Billings
The Golden Lady (1979) – Charlie Whitlock
The Shillingbury Blowers (1980) – Mr. Meadows
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) – Bentley Bobster
Redondela (1987) – José María Gil Ramos
Consuming Passions (1988) – Lester (final film role)

Television

Arthur's Treasured Volumes (1960) – Various characters
Maigret
Deadline Midnight (1961) – Bertie Miller
Faces of Jim (1962) – Various characters
Danger Man (1964) – Alex
Thorndyke (1964) – Polton
The Idiot (1966) – Lebediev
The Illustrated Weekly Hudd (1966)
Room at the Bottom (1967) – Cyril Culpepper
All Gas and Gaiters (1967) - Ghost
The Avengers (1968) – Mother (the spymaster) / Sir George Collins / Smallwood
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - The Man From Nowhere (1968) – Mannering
Never Say Die (1970) – Mr. Oliphant
The Misfit (1971) – Stanley Allenby-Johnson
The Des O'Connor Show (1971)
Casanova (1971) – Schalon
The Persuaders!
Sadie, It's Cold Outside (1975) – Chip shop proprietor
Moll Flanders (1975) – Thomas Woodall
Doctor Who: The Android Invasion – Part Four (1975) – Colonel Faraday
Wilde Alliance ('A Question of Research ', 'A Game for Two Players', episodes) (1978) - Bailey
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (unscreened) (1980) – Inspector Lestrade
The Whizzkid's Guide (1981–1983)
Doctors' Daughters (1981) – Archdeacon Bellwether
Kinvig (1981) – Mr. Horsley
Jemima Shore Investigates – Jamie
Bottle Boys (1984) – Mr. Dawson
Sherlock Holmes, "The Resident Patient" (1985) – Blessington/Sutton
Ladies in Charge (1986) – Maxwell
The Young Ones
Benny Hill comedy special – Playboy Bunny

References

^ "Patrick Newell". BFI. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018.
^ The Medical Directory, Part 2, J. & A. Churchill Ltd, 1957, p. 1611
^ British Medical Journal, 4 January 1969, no. 1, p. 59
^ ^a ^b ^c Pete Stampede (21 May 2006). "Avengers Forever: Patrick Newell". Avengers Forever. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
^ "Six More Faces of Jim: The Face of Perseverance". 23 May 1963. p. 11 – via BBC Genome.
^ Avengers Declassified Archived 10 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
^ Barnes, Alan (2002). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. pp. 145–146. ISBN 1-903111-04-8.