The classy actor could play both establishment and villainous characters with aplomb. He was naturally charming and hugely admired by great men of theatre like Harold Pinter
Tall, commanding, deep-voiced and usually moustached, Peter Bowles, who has died at the age of 85, was frequently cast as either establishment chaps or gangster geezers.
His most successful roles in the former camp were as Richard DeVere in To the Manor Born (1979-81), one of Britain’s most-watched sitcoms, and The Irish RM from 1983-85, playing Maj Yeates, a British Army officer sent to 19th-century UK-ruled Ireland as a “resident magistrate”.
