KENNETH Cope, who died at the ripe old age of 93 last week, enjoyed cult status on an impressive variety of fronts.
The Liverpool born actor and writer was a much loved soap star gracing the cobbles of Coronation Street as street trader Jed Stone, or ‘Sonny Jim’, between 1961 and 1966, even returning to reprise the role in 2008. Between 1999 and 2002 he transferred over to Merseyside to play the character of Ray Hilton in Brookside.
Soap stardom was only one of Cope’s many claims to fame though. In the early 1960s he appeared as a key player in the BBC’s ground breaking satire showcase That Was The Week That Was, using his natural comic timing to pinch much of the thunder from fellow pioneers like host David Frost and singer Millicent Martin every Saturday night.
Relatively brief as that comic turn may have proved to be - the show only ran between 1962 and 63 - it allowed him to hone a ‘cheeky chappie’ persona that would serve him well throughout his career.
You can see it writ large in the brace of Carry On films that he appeared in at the start of the following decade. He was the Zapata-moustached shop steward Vic Spanner given to hollering “Everybody out!” at the drop of a double entendre in Carry On At Your Convenience in 1971, and played Cyril, the son of Sid James, in Carry On Matron the following year, a role that allowed him to famously drag-up as a nurse alongside Barbara Windsor as he tries to steal a stash of contraceptives from a local maternity hospital.
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He actually appeared in three of the hugely popular Carry On comic capers, but his role in Carry On Jack in 1963 went uncredited. Other cult-friendly credits include turns in Joseph Losey’s The Damned (1963) and Hammer’s X The Unknown (1956).
He also popped up in many a cult-friendly TV series in his time, with supporting roles in The Avengers on several occasions, and also notched up credits in everything from Doctor Who to Minder and Dixon Of Dock Green.
However, the role which Cope will probably be forever remembered for is one which lasted only one series before it was unceremoniously axed. As the nervous and chatty Marty Hopkirk, he was one half of a down-at-heel detective agency alongside Mike Pratt’s world weary Jeff Randall in Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased).
When he’s killed off in episode one, Marty returns to the fold as a ‘ghost’ sleuth, famously decked out in a white suit and boasting all manner of special powers that he uses to help his old pal Jeff, the only person who can actually see him in spirit form, solve all kinds of crimes.
An odd but lovingly crafted and charming inversion of the traditional TV detective series, it proved a little too bizarre for mainstream audiences and was laid to rest after a mere 26 episodes. It has since gained a sizeable cult following, though, and as vehicles for Kenneth Cope’s unique comic skills and everyman persona go, it feels just about perfect.
