Richard Beckinsale Richard Beckinsale Richard Arthur Beckinsale (6 July 1947 – 19 March 1979) was an English actor, who played Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom "Porridge" (along with its sequel series "Going Straight") and Alan Moore in the British ITV sitcom "Rising Damp". He is the father of actresses Samantha Beckinsale and Kate Beckinsale. Beckinsale was born in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, to an Anglo-Burmese father, Arthur John Beckinsale, and an English mother, Maggie Barlow. He left Alderman White Secondary Modern School at 15 with ambitions to become an actor, so while working in numerous manual jobs he enrolled at a Nottingham adult
Arena (UK TV series) Arena (UK TV series) Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC since 1 October 1975. Voted by TV executives in "Broadcast" magazine as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has produced over six hundred episodes directed by, among others, Frederick Baker, Jana Boková, Jonathan Demme, Nigel Finch, Mary Harron, Vikram Jayanti, Vivian Kubrick, Paul Lee, Adam Low, James Marsh, Leslie Megahey, Volker Schlondorff, Martin Scorsese, Julian Temple, Anthony Wall, Leslie Woodhead, and Alan Yentob. The current series editor is Anthony Wall, who has edited "Arena" since 1985. The