Stage In the early 1960s, Marsden worked with the
Royal Shakespeare Company and began to accumulate an extensive list of theatrical credits that include everything from
Anton Chekhov and
Henrik Ibsen to contemporary
Soviet playwright
Alexander Vampilov. His preference was for the alternative experimental theatres of
Glasgow,
Edinburgh,
Cambridge and
Birmingham over London's commercial theatre. His appearances include Crispen in
The Friends, 1970;
Casca and
Lucilius in
Julius Caesar, 1972; Paul Schippel in
Schippel, 1974; Heinrich Krey in ''The Plumber's Progress
, 1975. He also played Long John Silver in Treasure Island'' at London's
Mermaid Theatre around Christmas for two years and Henry Higgins in
Pygmalion at the
Albery Theatre. In 2008, Marsden appeared in two productions,
Murder on Air and
Happy Jack at the
Theatre Royal,
Windsor.
Television His prominent television roles include George Osborne in a 1967 adaptation of
Vanity Fair and the title role of
Arthur Chipping in 1984's
Goodbye Mr. Chips. Marsden has also appeared in guest roles in episodes of
The New Avengers (episode "
The Tale of the Big Why"),
Space: 1999,
Only Fools and Horses (episode "
Little Problems"), and
Tales of the Unexpected (episode "
Proof of Guilt"). Marsden starred in
Yorkshire Television's 1978–1980
Cold War espionage series
The Sandbaggers. He played Neil Burnside, the dour and fiercely protective director of operations for the
Secret Intelligence Service, whose character spent as much time infighting with his superiors in
Whitehall and his own department as he did battling the
KGB. The show ran for three series and 20 episodes. In 1982,
Yorkshire Television cast him in
Airline, a series in which he played Jack Ruskin, a scrappy
Second World War pilot trying to start his own post-war airline against establishment opposition. It also starred his wife, Polly Hemingway, who was pregnant with their first child during most of the filming. In an interview, Marsden said "It was one of the most enjoyable programmes I ever made. Learning to fly those old
DC-3s was terrific. And I enjoyed playing Ruskin enormously because he had hope. Of course, he was a pain up the tushie most of the time, but then you'd see that youthful desire to actually get out and triumph against enormous odds. I identified with that character the most." Marsden's portrayal of
Adam Dalgliesh in Anglia TV's
P. D. James series spanned fifteen years. The series began as adaptations played out in serials of five or six one-hour episodes each, which were, unusually for the time, recorded on outside broadcast videotape as opposed to film: •
Death of an Expert Witness (1983); •
Shroud for a Nightingale (1984); •
Cover Her Face (1985); •
The Black Tower (1985); •
A Taste for Death (1988); •
Devices and Desires (1991). After producer John Rosenberg died in early 1991 (during the transmission run of
Devices and Desires), the format of the adaptations changed. Initially, Anglia followed the trend made popular by the
Inspector Morse series, condensing the next two adaptations into two-hour filmed TV films. •
Unnatural Causes (1993); •
A Mind to Murder (1995). The final two adaptations were filmed in three one-hour episodes: •
Original Sin (1997); •
A Certain Justice (1998). The Dalgliesh role was taken by
Martin Shaw when the
BBC took over the rights to James's novels and produced its own series. In 1993, Marsden appeared in
The Last Vampyre, a feature-length episode of
Sherlock Holmes. In 2006 he played Ted Cartwright, a veterinarian, in "
Bad Blood", in the fourth season of ''
Foyle's War''. Marsden presented a nine-part crime documentary series ''Roy Marsden's Casebook
for ITV West in 2007. He also appeared in the 2007 Doctor Who'' episode "
Smith and Jones" as Mr Stoker, a medical consultant. In 2008, he appeared in the ITV series
The Palace as King Richard's private secretary, Sir Iain Ratalick. That same year he played Sir Charles Marlow in the television film adaptation
She Stoops to Conquer; Polly Hemingway appeared in the film as Mrs. Hardcastle, the first time the two formerly married actors had appeared in the same production since 1982's
Airline. Marsden reprised his
Only Fools and Horses role in 2009 as one of the Driscoll brothers in the spin-off series,
The Green Green Grass. He also appeared in the television film
Margaret (2009) as
Norman Tebbit. In 2010 Marsden appeared in an episode of
New Tricks, and in 2011 in an episode of
Silent Witness. He played Commander Haydock in the 2016 adaptation of
Agatha Christie's
N or M?, a three-episode part of the BBC's
Partners in Crime serial.
Film His film credits include
Toomorrow (1970), a small part as a Gestapo officer in
The Eagle Has Landed (1976),
The Squeeze (1977), and Oberon in
Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (2005). == Personal life ==