PAUL DARROW

Remembering the actor behind Blake’s 7’s Kerr Avon

“i’m forever avon,” said the late Paul Darrow of the role that won him cult status. “I am him and he is me… I played him as I imagined I would behave, given the circumstances that he was in.”

Born Paul Valentine Birkby on 2 May 1941, Darrow graduated from RADA (where he shared a flat with Ian McShane and John Hurt) to become a reliably charismatic guest actor in such TV fare as The Saint and Z Cars.

It was Blake’s 7, the BBC sci-fi saga about a group of freedom fighters taking on the evil Federation, that finally earned him fame in 1978. Cast as ruthless tech genius Kerr Avon, Darrow delivered a magnetic, show-stealing performance, relishing each acidic barb every bit as much as the audience. “I invested certain elements in his character that I would like in mine,” he admitted. “I made him scrupulously honest. If he said he’d kill you, he would.”

The final shot of the series saw him facing surrounding Federation troopers with a characteristically wry grin. “That’s part of me, actually. I tend to smile at life’s ironies.”

Darrow also appeared in the Doctor Who stories “The Silurians” and “Timelash”, and voiced Grand Moff Tarkin in videogame Star Wars: Empire At War.

Avon remained an inseparable alter-ego. Darrow returned to the role in audio dramas, and in 1989 wrote Avon: A Terrible Aspect,a prequel novel.

Sadly, in 2014, complications relating to an aortic aneurysm caused surgeons to amputate both of the actor’s legs. He passed away on 3 June, after a brief illness. NS