
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE (4 June 1927 - 5 November 2020) was an English actor known for his roles in British television sitcoms playing Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983) and Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1992–2005). His film appearances include A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Madness of King George (1994), Mrs. Brown (1997), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was born on 4 June 1927 in North Finchley, Middlesex. He was the son of Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor, and Norah Gwendolen (née Robins). He attended Highgate School from September 1939 to December 1945. He served as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines during his national service from 1946 to 1948, following which he briefly worked as an unpaid trainee assistant stage manager. Palmer's early television appearances included multiple roles in episodes of The Army Game (Granada Television), two episodes of The Baron and as a property agent in Cathy Come Home (1966). After a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he acted in major productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company and was directed by Laurence Olivier in J. B. Priestley's Eden End. Palmer found the play so dull, however, that he was deterred from a stage career. Two BBC sitcom roles brought him attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), and the phlegmatic dentist Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983). In 1978, Palmer appeared as organized crimelord Simon Sinclair in London Weekend Television's hard-hitting police drama The Professionals, the episode entitled "Where the Jungle Ends". Palmer played Doctor Price in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" (1979), determined to have breakfast amidst the confusion caused by the death of a guest and Fawlty's inept way of handling the emergency. In 1986, Palmer appeared as Donald Fairchild in the first series of an ITV sitcom, Executive Stress, alongside Penelope Keith. He later left, and was replaced by Peter Bowles. Palmer later starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in another BBC sitcom, As Time Goes By (1992–2005). In 1997, he also appeared with Dench in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he portrayed Admiral Roebuck to Dench's M, and Mrs Brown, playing Sir Henry Ponsonby to Dench's Queen Victoria. Palmer married Sally Green in 1963. They had a daughter, Harriet, and a son, Charles, a television director. Palmer was a longtime resident of Lee Common in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, and enjoyed fly fishing in his spare time. At the time of his death, he resided in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Palmer died peacefully at his home on 5 November 2020, aged 93.

Queen Victoria's Last Love: Abdul Karim

Goodbye

The Expert

Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened

Best Of Enemies

フォルティ・タワーズ

The Human Jungle

名探偵ポワロ

Absurd Person Singular

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

ブラックアダー

The Sweeney

Doctor Who

Inspector Morse

The Avengers

Ashes to Ashes

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

He Knew He Was Right

As Time Goes By

Absolute Power

The Professionals

The Goodies

The Further Adventures of the Musketeers

ホロウ・クラウン/嘆きの王冠

Natural World

The Saint

Doctor Who and the Silurians

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin

Colditz

ワンダとダイヤと優しい奴ら

Doctor Who: The Mutants

Grumpy Old Men

Whoops Apocalypse

ピーター・パン

パディントン

Butterflies

A Zed & Two Noughts

Cathy Come Home

Incident at Midnight

Out of the Unknown

The Kenny Everett Television Show

To Olivia

Ring of Spies

Dalgliesh

オー! ラッキーマン

Lost Christmas

Stalag Luft

Gideon's Way

英国万歳!

アンナと王様

Queen Victoria 至上の恋

The Battle of Billy's Pond

Bergerac

Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley

A Question of Attribution

A Prize of Arms

Piccadilly Jim

007/トゥモロー・ネバー・ダイ

ウォリスとエドワード 英国王冠をかけた恋

Play for Today

Bill Brand

Stig of the Dump

Clockwise

Bert & Dickie

The Savages

Doomwatch

The 1940s House

Scorpion Tales

Rat

Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire

Van der Valk

Armchair Theatre

The Honorary Consul

Hawks

Executive Stress

ピンクパンサー2

Mystery and Imagination

The Young Visiters

Crown Court

The Insurance Man

An Audience with...

The Man in Room 17

The Outsider

Stiff Upper Lips

Hot Metal

アナザーワールド 鏡の国のアリス

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Softly, Softly

Oxbridge Blues

The Troubleshooters

BBC Play of the Month

The Wednesday Play

Run For Your Wife

The One Show

Angels

No Hiding Place

Churchill's People

Reckless: The Sequel

Season's Greetings

Smack and Thistle

Mr. Kershaw's Dream System

Safe at Work?

Mr. Men & Little Miss: The Christmas Letter

No Place Like Earth

A Story to Frighten the Children

Only Make Believe

Michael Regan

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Drama '63: A Well Dressed Man

The Funny Side of Christmas

Radio Pictures

James Bond's Greatest Hits

The Uninvited

1+1=1.5

Mr. Men and Little Miss

The Last Song

Londoners

The Odd Man

Dickens

Detective