Get the latest gossip

The Responder review: Final performance that shows Bernard Hill's powerful presence was undimmed, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS


What a way to take his final curtain. Bernard Hill (pictured), an actor of unmatched power, died yesterday - hours before his final performance aired.

As fraught copper Chris Carson answered a call to a burgled house in The Responder, those who (like me) have been fans of Hill since the 1980s took one look at the geezer in the battered armchair with the walking frame and chorused: 'Gissa job!' But at the start of the Thatcher years, Hill was Britain's best-known actor — the face of the recession — playing Yosser Hughes, a Scouse tarmac-layer who loses his job, in Boys From The Blackstuff. When rookie cop Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo) spins off the road and crashes into a hedge, her partner Eric (Ian Puleston-Davies) reacts with stunned gratitude: 'You just bought me a new conservatory.'

Get the Android app

Or read this on Daily Mail

Read more on:

Photo of Brendan Hill

Brendan Hill