Sharp made more than 130 appearances in television and occasionally films between 1949 and 1991. By the mid-1960s he mostly appeared in British television on popular shows of the era such as
The Avengers in the 1967
"Murdersville" episode as the publican, the
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode
"The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo";
The Prisoner,
Not on Your Nellie opposite
Hylda Baker,
Z-Cars, and in 1976 in
The Sweeney episode
"On the Run" in which he played
Uncle, a homosexual retired
Magistrate who becomes embroiled in the escape of a
psychopathic prisoner having befriended the prisoner's former accomplice. He performed in
Charles Dickens TV adaptations in the 1980s. In 1991, he made his last television appearance in the programme
Lovejoy. He played the role of the "apparently cynical" Uncle Will in
Luigi Comencini's 1966
Incompreso. Sharp's most notable television appearances in a recurring role was on the
All Creatures Great and Small television series, in which he portrayed Ezra Biggins, an aged, parsimonious and awkward Yorkshire dairy farmer. "John Sharp was just like you see him," recalled
Peter Davison, who played
Tristan Farnon in the series. "He was a wonderful
raconteur and would tell you these long stories."
Christopher Timothy, who played the leading role of
James Herriot, added: "I found myself getting quite moved when I watched an episode recently, not because of what we were doing, but because all those lovely people are no longer with us. John Sharp was a lovely, lovely man." ==Selected filmography==