{
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  "@id": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/1233763/bert-parnaby",
  "name": "Bert Parnaby",
  "url": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/1233763/bert-parnaby",
  "knownForDepartment": "Acting",
  "description": "James Bertram \"Bert\" Parnaby (4 March 1924 – 30 July 1992) was a British actor who was notable for a string of TV and Film roles from the 1960s through the 1980s. His TV roles included performances in Blackadder, By the Sword Divided, Juliet Bravo, Inspector Morse and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1988, he appeared as Father Christmas in the BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His film credits included Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Dressmaker (1988) and The Reunion (1989).\n\nWhilst living in Didsbury, Bert was a schoolmaster at Manchester Grammar School during the 1950s and early 1960s. Teaching English, he was greatly involved in the production of teachers’ plays. He subsequently became an HMI (one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools).\n\nOn leaving the education profession, Parnaby worked as a producer and performer for the BBC. His monologues on breakfast radio often started ‘I hate …’, for example the edition about the Post Office, which was based on the Didsbury branch, albeit unnamed.\n\nParnaby died in July 1992 at the age of 68, shortly after the death of his wife Jane. A bench in their memory was later erected in Drummer Street, Cambridge.",
  "birthDate": "1924-03-04",
  "deathDate": "1992-07-30",
  "birthPlace": "Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK",
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  "lastVerified": "4 May 2026",
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      "title": "Casualty",
      "year": "1986",
      "role": "as Billie Jennings",
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      "title": "Bergerac",
      "year": "1981",
      "role": "as Doctor Ferns",
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      "title": "Inspector Morse",
      "year": "1987",
      "role": "as Ben",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/cvGqqBcCwahSQgLsCLdUKZG1Skq.jpg",
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      "title": "All Creatures Great and Small",
      "year": "1978",
      "role": "as Colonel Jenkins",
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      "title": "Blackadder",
      "year": "1983",
      "role": "as Cain, a Peasant",
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      "title": "The Comic Strip Presents...",
      "year": "1982",
      "role": "as Man",
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      "title": "Lovejoy",
      "year": "1986",
      "role": "as Sorrel",
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      "title": "The Chronicles of Narnia",
      "year": "1988",
      "role": "as Father Christmas",
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      "title": "The Play on One",
      "year": "1988",
      "role": "as Bill",
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      "title": "First Among Equals",
      "year": "1986",
      "role": "as George Bainbridge",
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      "title": "The Contract",
      "year": "1988",
      "role": "as Adam Percy",
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      "title": "Prick Up Your Ears",
      "year": "1987",
      "role": "as Magistrate",
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      "title": "Nightingales",
      "year": "1990",
      "role": "as The Inspector",
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      "title": "My Cousin Rachel",
      "year": "1983",
      "role": "as Seecombe",
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      "title": "Reunion",
      "year": "1989",
      "role": "as Dr. Jakob Strauss",
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      "title": "Bad News",
      "year": "1983",
      "role": "as Neighbor",
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      "title": "The Dressmaker",
      "year": "1988",
      "role": "as Mr Barnes",
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      "title": "Dirty Movie",
      "year": "1984",
      "role": "as Man",
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      "title": "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe",
      "year": "1988",
      "role": "as Father Christmas",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/6LUwgYymfy3OrzUV9OD6e4S7RUz.jpg",
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      "title": "Rainy Day Women",
      "year": "1984",
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      "title": "Gas and Candles",
      "year": "1991",
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      "title": "Completely Bad News",
      "year": "2019",
      "role": "as Neighbour",
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      "title": "Unfair Exchanges",
      "year": "1985",
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      "mediaType": "movie",
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      "title": "On the Palm",
      "year": "1987",
      "role": "as Slatterthwaite",
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}