Remembering Charles Stapley
He starred in ATV productions over three decades from The Adventures of Robin Hood to award-winning daytime serial Crossroads for which he is most fondly remembered. In later years he became a regular in the press when commenting about his stepdaughter Heather Mills.
He starred in ATV productions over three decades from The Adventures of Robin Hood to award-winning daytime serial Crossroads for which he is most fondly remembered. In later years he became a regular in the press when commenting about his stepdaughter Heather Mills.
85-year-old Stapley was born in Ilford without a theatrical backdrop to his younger years. His father worked for a London-based cement company and upon leaving school he first worked as a researcher at the Ministry of Supply in Cambridge before joining the RAF.
His first taste of show business came when he joined the Rank Organisation in the film distribution arm. While with Rank he took to auditioning for theatre parts, his first an un-seen off-stage singer at the Haymarket Theatre in the 1949 production of The Heiress.
Heading to the North East he joined the coastal town of South Shields’ Repertory Company at the Pier Pavilion where he appeared in some major roles, before heading back to London and the West End theatres in minor parts.
By 1953 his theatre career had become reasonably successful, and it wasn’t long before Charles was auditioning for television roles. He first worked for the BBC in 1955 in the drama Candida and later in the year switched to ATV appearing in every episode of the now legendary Adventures of Robin Hood series alongside Richard Green.
During the 1950s and 60s Stapley appeared both on screen and on stage in various productions – ranging from action adventure ATV series Ivanhoe in 1958 to the 1961-63 Drury Lane Theatre Royal production of My Fair Lady. It was in this production he made the history books by appearing as Professor Higgins more times than any other theatre actor.
His biggest television success, and longest running on-screen character, was that of Ted Hope in ATV’s daily saga Crossroads.
Charles joined the cast in 1970 having several spells as a main character as well as semi-regular periods up until 1979. In the series he played a retired navy captain who wooed and married a former theatre actress Tish (the late Joy Andrews) and together they ran The Hope Chest antique shop.
With an eye for the ladies his real-life months out of the show – often to do theatre work – were brought about by the fictional philandering of Ted and his saucy affairs. – Ted notably in 1973 and 1979 was seen to woo other women.
Crossroads co-star and personal friend Janet Hargreaves, who played Rosemary Hunter in the show, told ATV that Charles was “A dear friend and a fine actor.” And added that he was “always helpful” to his colleagues in offering support when learning lines and rehearsing new theatre parts. She added, rather sadly, that “I miss him terribly.”
The late 1970s fling saw Ted leave the fictional Kings Oak Village for the last time, but his stage career continued successfully after Crossroads including parts in The Mousetrap, No Sex Please – We’re British and on television in dramas such as Number 10 and Do You Remember?
Charles married three times; his first wife was the BBC’s first female newsreader Nan Winton who became more famous as a reporter on current affairs series Panorama. In more recent years his marriage to Beatrice Mills became a talking point via his stepdaughter Heather Mills who decided, it often seemed, to blame all her childhood woes at the foot of Charles and he several times commented to the press on her latest goings on. He said of her accusations “Heather is simply a very confused woman for whom reality and fantasy have become blurred.”
The height of this media attention came when Mills divorced from musician Sir Paul McCartney. Stapley however didn’t take it as an opportunity to bite back at her bile instead telling the Daily Mail: “The one person I certainly don’t feel sorry for is Sir Paul McCartney. He was a grown man when he married Heather, he knew what he was doing… … ‘I don’t know if the accusations she has made about Sir Paul being violent towards her are true or not, but while I know more than most of Heather’s tendency to embellish the truth, ‘I do know that her terrible childhood was no lie. I believe Heather is fighting for a settlement which will allow her to bring up her daughter comfortably – security she never had as a child.”
Clearly Heather didn’t have much luck with anyone associated with the Crossroads saga – McCartney having recorded the theme tune for the show in the mid-1970s. Charles leaves two children, one from his first and another from his second marriage. Both The Adventures of Robin Hood and Crossroads have been released on DVD. Find out more at ATVDVD.co.uk
Charles Henry Stapley. 23rd July 1925 – 8th January 2011