You have got to hand it to Jess Conrad – he freely admits that he wasn’t a great singer nor a great actor but he carved out a very good and long career not to mention lucrative – mainly in the acting field both in films and on Television. He made money early on and to his credit, bought a spacious house in Denham Village with neighbours like Roger Moore, He was always seen and photographed around in the company of top stars. He was in such films as ‘Konga’ and ‘The Boys’ and even to this day regularly appears in Pantomime – a very lucrative job for an actor.

He appeared in this episode of The Human Jungle – what an excellent series this was with Herbert Lom as Dr Corder

‘The Flip Side Man’, was directed by Sidney Hayers, with Jess Conrad cast as ‘Danny Pace’, a pop idol loved by millions, but with a major mental health problem. He thinks he is being stalked by a double; firstly, at a concert, and then in a recording studio. Pace’s manager, ‘Laurie Winters’ ( the late Annette Carell ) calls in Corder. The psychiatrist eventually learns that Pace is plagued by demons of guilt after his pregnant wife ( Maureen Davis ) died as the result of a domestic accident on the night he triumphed at a local talent contest.

Tracking Danny Pace down to the dance hall he won the contest at, he finds the singer reacting in horror to the sight of himself in a full-length mirror. He smashes it, before driving away in his sports car – he collides with an oncoming ambulance, and is killed. Pace’s manager asks Corder to tell the police that Danny died trying to avoid the ambulance, in order to make the tragic news look good in the press. A disgusted Corder tells him to “go home and think!”.

‘The Human Jungle’ was produced by Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn, whose film credits include ‘The Fast Lady’, ‘The One That Got Away’, and ‘Unearthly Stranger’. Wintle went on to produce the Diana Rigg episodes of ‘The Avengers’.

A few years after this, Jess Conrad made a guest appearance on ‘Are You Being Served’

ABOVE – With Captain Peacock

ABOVE – John Inman admires Jess Conrad’s golf stance