Tim Healy

In Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983), Dennis Patterson is in charge, and Tim Healy makes that look like something else to put up with. The pleasure is in how little satisfaction Dennis seems to take from his position. We warmed to Dennis because Healy makes the effort of managing other people so apparent, without asking us to admire him for it. This is a performance worth seeking out, though the series’ sexual and national stereotyping sometimes makes its company harder work than it needs to be.

Jimmy Nail’s Oz supplies belligerence, while Kevin Whately makes Neville’s homesickness awkward and credible. Between those performances, Healy’s reluctance to lead gives Dennis a useful place in the group. He need not compete with Oz’s noise or Neville’s unhappiness to register; being responsible for people who are difficult company is enough. We value the restraint here, because it helps the series keep its attention on men who need wages rather than an adventure.

That role was his breakthrough in 1983, and the programme continued through further series until 2004. Frequent casting as Geordie or working-class Northern men has kept him in familiar territory, with the risk that an accent and a dependable manner become all a part requires. Dennis works because Healy gives us the discomfort beneath that familiarity. Purely Belter (2000), in which he plays the abusive father Mr McCarten, sets him a different task.

His later sitcom parts include Les / Lesley Conroy in Benidorm from 2009 to 2018 and Gastric in Still Open All Hours from 2014 to 2019. Les / Lesley is a recurring cross-dressing role, a more overt comic premise than Dennis’s weary supervision. The continuing emphasis is on working within an ensemble, and that is where we most value him. Start with Auf Wiedersehen, Pet if you want to see how much he can do when simply being in charge is a source of irritation.