BORN ON THIS DAY

WARREN MITCHELL (19262015). The actor from London played ‘Britain’s favourite bigot’, Alf Garnett. He was only the third choice for the role, with producers hoping to secure Peter Sellers. Once praised by a football fan for ‘having a go at immigrants’ as Alf, Mitchell replied: ‘We’re having a go at idiots like you.’ RICHARD BRIERS (1934-2013). The part of Tom Good in the BBC’s The Good Life was written for Briers, but he was convinced the sitcom would not be a hit because it was too ‘mundane and middle class’. He studied at RADA, and said one of his favourite reviews described his portrayal of Hamlet as ‘like a demented typewriter’.