The actor Ron Pember, who has died aged 87, was familiar to television audiences thanks to his wiry physique and his long, thin and cadaverous face, often moustachioed. His prominent cheekbones, domed forehead and darting eyes were excellent tools for conveying wily factotums, jobsworth officials, dodgy spivs and seedy operators on both sides of the law.
Hard-working, natural and versatile, he swung happily from good value cameos to leading character parts, with his role as radio operator and resistance member Alain Muny in Secret Army (1977-79) cementing his place as a television favourite. Now often unjustly languishing in the shadow of the sitcom ’Allo ’Allo, which plundered it for comic effect, Secret Army was a respected, sophisticated drama that brought nuance to its depiction of a fictional resistance movement in German-occupied Belgium during the second world war, regularly drawing audiences of 16 million.
