Michael Brandon makes a streetwise American detective agreeable company without softening every rough edge. We like his warmth and comic timing, especially opposite Glynis Barber; the police work is less reliable.
Fi1m perspective
In Dempsey and Makepeace (1985), Michael Brandon's James Dempsey talks as though tact were an unnecessary delay. Glynis Barber's Harriet Makepeace meets him with enough composure to make his wisecracks sound like increasingly eager attempts to provoke her. We laughed at their sparring because her calm makes his insistence on being the difficult one look faintly childish. Brandon allows that joke to be on him. The tough American remains confident, but his partner prevents confidence from settling into smugness.
He had already worked steadily in American films and television before the British police series became his breakthrough. His early leading roles included Mike Vecchio in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) and Roberto Tobias in Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971). The 1970s and early 1980s brought steady work in both media. Dempsey then gave him a particularly useful setting: an American whose roughness could irritate an English partner. Cultural difference supplied a repeatable joke, and Brandon and Barber had the timing to keep it going.
The series also shows where his appeal meets its limit. Tony Wharmby's familiar setup gives the leads plenty to disagree about, but its investigations can feel perfunctory. Brandon's warmth keeps a potentially wearing character enjoyable; it cannot supply interest that the crime-solving lacks. We like the performance without asking it to make the programme more ambitious than it is. Barber matters here as much as Brandon, since her resistance keeps the partnership from becoming an evening spent indulging one man's jokes.
His later work has included television guest parts, voice work and West End theatre, notably playing Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer: The Opera (2003). There have also been film supporting parts, including Senator Brandt in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Those are different demands from sustaining a police partnership, though Dempsey remains the clearest reason for our affection. Begin there if comic friction matters more to the evening than a demanding case.
Biography
Michael Brandon (born Michael Feldman) is an American actor. He was born on 20 April 1945 in Brooklyn, New York, and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He is best known for playing Lieutenant James Dempsey in the British television series Dempsey and Makepeace (1985–86), opposite Glynis Barber. He also directed the final episode of the series. Brandon has appeared in films including Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and in television series such as Doctor Who (2005) and Death in Paradise (2011). He narrated the American dub of the children's series Thomas & Friends (2004–12).
His stage work includes the original Broadway production of Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969) and the role of Jerry Springer in the West End production of Jerry Springer: The Opera (2003–04). He has been married to actress Glynis Barber since 1989.
