CHRISTIAN ROBERTS

Written By Michael Darvell
 

(17 March 1944 - 26 December 2022)

Christian Roberts, who has died from cancer aged 78, was for a while a popular English actor, particularly for the film To Sir, With Love (1967). He worked mainly on the stage, for various repertory companies around the UK and later became a director of the Theatre Royal in Windsor. He also pursued a career in theatre production, staging and appearing in a couple of long-running West End musicals. He was also involved in his family’s Job’s Dairy business. However, he eventually gave up acting and the theatre and moved to Barbados.

Christian Roberts was born in Southmoor, Berkshire, and was educated at Cranleigh School in Surrey. He secured a place at Rada from 1964 to 1966 and immediately afterwards made his first film, To Sir With Love, written and directed by James Clavell and starring Sidney Poitier as a black teacher faced with a class of East End hooligans, one of which was Denham, played by Roberts. Around the same time he appeared in some TV, including Theatre 625, Haunted and The Mock Doctor.

His next film was The Anniversary (1968), an adaptation of Bill Macilwraith’s play about a family visit to their monstrous mother. On stage it had a brilliant performance by Mona Washbourne but the film role went to a miscast Bette Davis who, apparently, had some of Roberts’ lines cut as they were better than some of her own speeches. Roberts then had a part in Twisted Nerve (1968), the Boulting brothers’ thriller about a disturbed young man played by Hywel Bennett. He went on to appear in Henry Levin’s The Desperados with Vince Edwards, Lewis Gilbert’s The Adventurers with Bekim Fehmiu, Candice Bergen and Olivia de Havilland, and Alan Cooke’s sci-fi drama The Mind of Mr Soames with Terence Stamp.

He was in James Clavell’s historical drama The Last Valley with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, but then it was more television. Rarely if ever was Roberts the star of any film but he did do well on the West End stage. He produced and starred in Bob Carlton’s Return to the Forbidden Planet, a sci-fi spoof of The Tempest which won an Olivier Award in 1990, and From a Jack to a King, Carlton’s rock 'n' roll version of Macbeth.

In 1995 Roberts emigrated to Barbados where he ran the Lone Star hotel and restaurant. He also got involved in making films for the Barbados Film Festival. Christian Roberts married Christine Carswell in 1973 and they have two children.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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