MARTIN JOHNSON

For 30-odd years after World War II, there was scarcely a film made in Britain without the name of Sam Kydd somewhere on the credits. A craggy faced character actor, you had to look a long way down the cast list to find him, but there he’d be, just above the deputy lighting director, or the first wardrobe assistant.
Neither did it take Sam a long time to learn his lines. As the bosun on a ship, he’d say: “Aye aye skipper” before vanishing below decks never to be seen again. Or as a bobby on the beat (remember them?) with a rela...