Patrick Cargill

Throughout the 1950s he was rarely off the West End stage in a string of farces and comedies, in many of which he played the leading role.

He was the first actors to play the same character in two British television series. He played Miguel Garetta in both Top Secret (1961) and No Hiding Place (1959).

In 1967 he was offered the television series, "Father Dear Father", especially written for him, in which he played a thriller writer and the inept father of two teenage daughters, played by Natasha Pyne and Ann Holloway.

Best known for his appearances on British television in the comedy series Father, Dear Father (1968), Patrick Cargill was also a distinguished stage actor and a brilliant farceur. His immaculate timing was known throughout the profession to the point that when directors where casting a certain type of leading role they would refer to it as a "Patrick Cargill part". Cargill made his stage debut in Bexhill on Sea, Sussex as a teenager before joining Anthony Hawtrey's company in London.

The series ran until 1973 and in 1976 he returned to television in The Many Wives of Patrick (1976), in which he appeared as a middle-aged playboy trying to divorce his sixth wife in order to remarry his first.

In 1978 he appeared on the London stage in a revival of Anthony Shaffer's thriller, "Sleuth", which was not well received by the critics on the grounds that with all his charm, Cargill's leading role lacked menace.