Image © ITV Studios, 1968

I can count on one hand the amount of famous people who, when they passed away, caused me to feel a deep personal sense of loss. Of course, it is always sad when anyone who has touched our lives passes away, and there are many actors and crew members who worked on TV series and films that I have enjoyed whose passing upset me. But very few deaths have been announced which have resulted in my heart sinking. Kenneth Cope, or Ken as I came to know him, is one of that handful.

Ken was one of those actors who stole every scene that he was in. Whether it be as Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), or Jed Stone or Ray Hilton in Coronation Street and Brookside respectively, or Vic Spanner in Carry On at Your Convenience, or Cyril Carter in Carry On Matron, or any of his countless guest roles in iconic series such as Catweazle, The Avengers, Out of the Blue (alongside daughter Martha) and others, he was the star of the show.

It’s probable, and rightly so, that Ken is best remembered as Marty. It is impossible to imagine anyone else in the role (and whilst Vic Reeves tried, he failed to capture the pure likeability and vulnerability that Ken gave the part).

He had what can only be described as a magnetically infectious screen presence. We laughed when he laughed, we despaired when he despaired, and we cried when he cried. Even when playing rogues he gained our love and sympathy as he was the epitome of the proverbial loveable variety. His performance as Marty was perfectly pitched. We not only became gripped by his escapades, but sympathetically so, feeling his loneliness as he paced the quiet streets of London at the start of many episodes, and feeling his pain as he looked longingly at widow Jeannie.

The story of how he got the part of Marty is well known, but typical of the man. He was dining with his wife (the lovely actress Renny Lister, who he met in 1961 on the aforementioned Coronation Street) and, as we might expect, was making her laugh over dinner. Unbeknownst to Ken, sitting nearby was director/producer Cyril Frankel - who immediately called co-producer Monty Berman and exclaimed “We’ve found the ghost!” Ken would always thereafter state that “anyone who wants to get into show business should just take their wife out and make them laugh”.

Unlike many other fans of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), I never met Ken in person. I was never one for attending conventions or autograph-hunting film fairs. By the time we’d been put in contact by mutual friend Annette André, he wasn’t feeling up to visitors. But we both enjoyed several chats on the phone over the years, including in 2019 when he granted me an exclusive interview to be broadcast to attendees at the A Celebration of ITC 2 event which I organised at Elstree Studios to mark the 50th anniversary of Randall and Hopkirk and Strange Report.

He was as pleasant, yet frank, as one would have expected him to be in that interview. When asked about Cyril Frankel, he immediately chimed in with “he was a bastard”. I decided not to broadcast that opinion at the event! He was equally as assured, but opposite in his opinions, when talking about his Randall co-stars Mike Pratt and Annette André, both of whom he could not have spoken more highly of. Mike, he said, had personally visited him at his house in Regent’s Park, after he had auditioned, to tell him that he had got the part. Ken knew at that point that he’d found a friend for life, bowled over as he was by the generosity of such an action. Annette would, of course, remain a lifelong friend: “She was a good girl and we all loved her to bits”.

Above all, he came across as incredibly bashful about the show and the fact we were celebrating it, exclaiming, “I’m so glad it’s the 50th, thank you for being there and thank you for remembering it!” As if we could ever forget it.

Whilst it was clear that Ken’s health was not 100%, he gave his all during that interview and I know that all at the event were so grateful to have heard his voice. It’s possible that this was the last interview he gave, and although audio-only perhaps his last public appearance. I hope that he always felt the love that we all had for him.

The on- and off-screen chemistry between the three leads was undoubtedly one of the reasons Randall and Hopkirk has become so well-remembered and it’s fair to say that Ken was the glue that held it all together.

It’s a matter of record that Ken and his co-stars wanted to put more humour into the episodes. In some instances they managed it, such as in That’s How Murder Snowballs, where Marty dances across the theatre stage. It’s a moment which has gone down in TV history, but were it not for Mike and Ken’s persistence it would never have been included.

Dennis Spooner, the show’s creator, was on-board with their idea of injecting more fun and humorous elements in to the series. However, producer Monty Berman, and especially creative consultant Cyril Frankel – who saw the series very much as a straight-laced detective drama with a twist – were less keen. When, for the episode Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave, Ken suggested that, for the football match sequences at the end of the episode, he could be seen celebrating on the pitch with the players, the idea was firmly shut down.

Image © BBC Studios, 1963

Image © Pye Records, 1963

Image © BBC Studios, 1976