There was once an industry joke that Sam Kydd was in every British film ever made. He wasn't. Not quite. But in a long, varied, and ridiculously prolific career that saw him appear in more films than any other British actor - he was in Ealing comedies (Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt), Hammer Horrors (The Quatermass Xperiment, The Hound of the Baskervilles), Peter Sellers classics (Up the Creek, I'm Alright, Jack, ) and war epics (The Cruel Sea, Sink the Bismarck!). On television he was a favourite of scriptwriters Ray Galton & Alan Simpson, and Johnny Speight; sparring with such comedy heroes as Spike Milligan, Charlie Drake, Eric Sykes, Benny Hill, Arthur Askey, Harry Worth, and Dick Emery. And of course he was the character of Orlando in ITV's hugely popular Crane and its spin off Orlando.
Now in conversation with comedy historian Robert Ross, Sam's actor/writer/voiceover/musician son Jonathan Kydd salutes his beloved father's often neglected and under-valued career which sprang from the trials of World War II Prisoner of War to gallantly adding lustre to early 1980s Coronation Street. This is the remarkable tale of Britain's most credited and, often, uncredited, actor.
