Anyone tuning in tomorrow evening to the episode of Heartbeat on ITV3 in England – it is also on during the daytime – an episode called ‘Seeds of Destruction ‘ will see the very last appearance on screen of the legendary actor Richard Todd playing Major Harold Beecham ( 2007)

Richard Todd – ABOVE and BELOW – as Major Beecham in Heartbeat

Richard Todd BELOW – as Lord Caversham on the London Stage in a Countrywide tour of ‘An Ideal Husband’ – he had scored a major success with this and broken Theatre records when he appeared in this Oscar Wilde play in the late Sixties when he played the leading man.

In those days it virtually did a tour of London Theatres – The Strand Theatre, the  Garrick Theatre and I think  Wyndhams – something highly unusual and a mark of its tremendous success.

This  Production starred  Richard Todd, Margaret Lockwood, Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans – a  huge hit in England, a kind of yardstick for Oscar Wilde and wonderful escapism

We saw him as Lord Caversham at one of the Theatres in the tour of this famous Oscar Wilde play in early May 2001, where Patrick Ryecart played the lead.

He appeared in the leading role in the stage play ‘The Business of Murder’ at the Mayfair Theatre from 1983 to 1991 and he still holds the record for the number of appearances in the West End in a straight play as the same character

Richard Todd’s acting career had indeed been a long and illustrious one – being at the very top of the Film World for a time on both sides of the Atlantic.

He was a star of the Screen and the Stage and before that a War Hero who was one of the first paratroopers – if not the first – to land at Pegasus Bridge under the command of Major John Howard who he later portrayed in the film ‘The Longest Day’

From a personal angle, to me his most famous role would always be as Robin Hood in the 1952 film ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ – the best version of the famous story that I have seen !!

However we will all be able to see him in Heartbeat tomorrow evening 22 May 2019 on ITV3.  Don’t miss it !!