Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs (born Andreas Siegfried Sachs; 7 April 1930) is a German-born British actor and playwright. He is most famous for his television role as Manuel in the comedy series Fawlty Towers. On radio, he is a notable writer and frequent performer, perhaps most famous for his portrayal of G.K. Chesterton's amateur sleuth Father Brown, in the BBC radio series of the same name. He also portrayed Dr. John H. Watson in Bert Coules' BBC radio series, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (2002 - 2010) in which he replaced the late Michael Williams.

Early life

Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina (née Schrott-Fiecht), a librarian, and Hans Emil Sachs, an insurance broker. His family moved to England when he was eight years old to escape the Nazis (his father was Jewish). His family settled in North London, and he still lives in Kilburn.

In 1960, Sachs married Melody Lang, who appeared in one episode of Fawlty Towers. His stepson is John Sachs, formerly Capital Radio DJ and Gladiators commentator.

Career

He made his screen debut in 1959 in the film The Night We Dropped a Clanger. He then appeared in numerous TV series throughout the 1960s before being cast in the John Cleese comedy series, Fawlty Towers in 1975. Since then, he has made numerous appearances on television and has worked extensively as a voiceover artist and narrator of documentaries.

Radio

Sachs began acting on radio in the late 1950's, including Private Dreams and Public Nightmares by Frederick Bradnum, an early experimental programme made by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. In 1978, after BBC Radio 4 broadcast The Revenge, a ground-breaking 30-minute play totally without dialogue (an experiment in binaural stereo recording), 'written' and performed by Sachs, playwright Jonathan Raban dismissed the work as a 'wordless sequence of noises' and 'a well-puffed curiosity'. The play has subsequently been repeated a number of times on BBC Radio 7, most recently in August 2009.

From 1984 to 1986, Sachs starred as Father Brown in a BBC Radio series based on the stories of G. K. Chesterton.

From 2002 to 2010, he took over the role of Dr. John Watson from Michael Williams in four series of original Sherlock Holmes stories for BBC Radio 4, opposite Clive Merrison as the famous consulting detective. These were transmitted as The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and have been released on compact disc and cassette.

Other radio appearances include The Code of the Woosters as Jeeves, and The Count of Monte Cristo as Edmond Dantes. He has also done work on several audio plays from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre, including in their award-winning Chronicles of Narnia adaptation, where he voiced Puzzle the Donkey in The Last Battle.

Plays by Andrew Sachs

• One Man and His Dog (1962)
• Till Death Do Us Join (1964)
• Flat to Let (1964)
• Pie and Pea Supper (1966)
• Kidnapped (1967)
• Time for a Coat (1967)
• Decline and Fall of the Empire (1969)
• Philately Will Get You Nowhere (1971)
• Made In Heaven (1971)
• Home From Home (1972)
• Cash Me a Portrait (1972)
• The Revenge (1978)
• Cash Me a Portrait (1985)

Lists of Plays

• Plays written by Andrew Sachs
• Plays in which Sachs appears as an actor

Further Information

For details of his work in other media, please see Wikipedia

External links

• IMDB entry
• Radio Plays by Andrew Sachs