Geoffrey Palmer is one of British television’s most reliable supporting actors, appearing in several of the most popular situation comedies of the last 20 years or so, and on occasion taking the lead role himself.

With his bloodhound features and lugubrious voice and manner, Palmer is instantly familiar in whatever role he plays. Not only is his face at once recognizable from the situation comedies in which he has appeared, but his voice is doubly well known from his frequent employment as a voice-over artist for television commercials (notably for Audi cars). After serving his apprenticeship as an actor in the theater, Palmer emerged as an accomplished performer in television situation comedy through his casting as the absentminded eccentric Jimmy, brother-in-law to Leonard Rossiter’s Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Forever apologizing for turning up at the Perrin household in search of a meal after yet another “cock-up on the catering front,” Palmer’s Jimmy was manifestly appealing, although divorced from reality and pathetically woebegone. These qualities were clearly ideal for situation comedy, and soon after the end of the Perrin series, Palmer was back on the screen on a regular basis playing Wendy Craig’s other half in Carla Lane’s hit series Butterflies. As manic-depressive dentist Ben Parkinson, Palmer provided extremely sturdy support to Craig herself, alternately bewildered at his wife’s outbursts and endearingly patient and clumsy in his efforts to understand her frustrations—although he could also be stubborn, tactless, and impervious to suggestion when he chose.

Palmer returned to the dottiness of Jimmy in the Perrin series when he went on to play the comically unhinged Major Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott, the central character in Fairly Secret Army. Convinced that the country was on the brink of chaos due to the machinations of the political left, Truscott was committed to forming his own army to counter the revolution that he feared was just around the corner. Thanks largely to Palmer’s performance as Truscott, this seemingly unpromising scenario fared reasonably well, with the dotty major proving surprisingly lovable in his futile attempts to muster a competent force, despite his reactionary views and rabidly bigoted attitude toward those of differing political opinions.

His subsequent series, Executive Stress and As Time Goes By, both saw Palmer back in more familiar sitcom territory, playing belligerently adorable partners in support of strong female stars—in the first instance, Penelope Keith (in the role of her husband, Donald Fairchild) and in the latter case, Judi Dench (in the role of her old flame, Lionel Hardcastle). Executive Stress proved a mixed success, although Palmer gave good value as always, but As Time Goes By settled in well as the plot traced the reunion of the two erstwhile lovers. Palmer played a returned colonial planning to write his memoirs, to be typed up by Dench’s secretarial agency. This led to the gradual rebirth of their romance, culminating in their marriage in the 1995 series.

Palmer has occasionally ventured out of the sitcom territory with which he is usually associated. Notable examples of experiments in other fields of comedy have included guest appearances in such acclaimed shows as Fawlty Towers and Blackadder Goes Forth, in which he played Field Marshall Haig.