Simon Callow: Four Weddings and a Funeral actor to play latest quirky character in new sitcom

Callow will portray an icorrigible pensioner in a three-part show based on Andrew Birch's cartoon strip 'The Rebel'

Simon Callow made his stage debut in 1973 (Rex)

He looks familiar….

Simon Callow’s face has danced across our screens for years. He played the large and likable bon vivant from Four Weddings and a Funeral, a soft-spoken bounty hunter in Tarantino’s Django and – in a particularly memorable episode of Doctor Who – appeared as Charles Dickens. Now Callow is set to play another quirky character in a new sitcom based on Andrew Birch’s cartoon strip The Rebel in The Oldie magazine. The show will appear in three half-hour episodes on the Gold channel.

Who is Callow’s character?

He’s an incorrigible pensioner called Henry Palmer who, whilst appearing respectable on the outside, harbours rebellious and even anarchic tendencies. The near 70-year-old, who looks like an upstanding citizen, tirelessly rebels against the petty and small-minded things that should incite us all to take a stand.

What does the actor think about his new role?

Callow laughingly says that he has a few things in common with his new character: “Henry is very very angry, and he has much to be angry about i.e. everything in the world around him. He sees himself as a fearless exposer of cant and folly. Others sometimes have a different view of him. It’s a part I can relate to very very easily.”

What else has Callow been up to lately?

The actor is currently working on the fourth volume of a collection of biographies he has written about Orson Welles. Alongside this – and preparing for his new role - he also has just enough time to give after dinner speeches to a range of giggling audiences.