Nicky Henson

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Corin Redgrave, Von Richthofen and Brown, 1970.   Henson had a meeting with producer-director Roger Corman for Major Laoe Hawker, VC. Alexander von Richtofen, a direct descendant of the Red Baron WWI flying ace,  was Corman’s first assistant director on De Sade, 1968, but not on this project. He had returned home to assist on 29 productions from from The Tin Drum to TV’s Derrick, acted in  12, wrote two and directed one.  (First saw Henson   – with Francesca Annis, Jane Birkin, Pauline Coillins, etc – in the West End’s  Passion Flower Hotel stage musical in 1965).
  2. Kurt Christian, Horror Hospital, 1973.     Abraham was first offered to Henson in what the Italians somehow called… Forbidden Diary of a Girls’ Boarding School. 
  3. Robin Askwith, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, 1974.     To be honest, Henson’s lead in The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, 1976, was not any loftier.
  4. Gareth Hunt, Undercover Lover, 1979. Canadian producer-director Linbdsay Shonteff tried jumping on the Bondwagon with Licensed To Kill.   Smooth Tom Adams was his hero – The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wild World, as the alternative 1977 title had it.  The script and budget were not good.  Undaunted, Shonteff tried again and managed an el cheapo trio about No 1 of the Secret Service –  Nicky Henson as Charles Bind (!).  The poster pitch was as  obvious as the scenario: Tell the other guy to move over – I’m No 1… A sequel was announced: An Orchid For No 1, but Henson  was snapped up  by the Royal Shakespeare Company (for Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, etc). This film became the sequel  with Bind, played by Gareth Hunt, already in the busines as one of TV’s New  Avengers.   The franchise closed with  Number One Gun,1990, when  Michael Howe was (in a) Bind. Imagine if 007 had been played in the first three films by three different actors… four, counting Adams.
  5. Peter Firth, Lifeforce, 1984.
  6. Chris Sullivan, Lifeforce, 1984.
  7. John Hallam, Lifeforce, 1984.
  8. Alexei Sayle, Doctor Who #142: Revelation of the Daleks, 1985.      The Liverpool stand-up won The DJ away from Henson, rocker and ex-child actor Phil Collins, future Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane, Kenneth Cranham and two genuine BBC disc-jockeys: Alan Freeman and the dreaded paedphile Saville.   Despite 108 UK screen roles, Henson never encountered The Doctor – just Doctors in 2008.

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  8