FROM FORTHCOMING DOCUMENTARY - ALFRED BURKE IS FRANK MARKER
There are those actors, no matter the many characters they have played throughout long and distinguished careers who will always be associated with one distinct role. George Cole as the ever-dodgy Arthur Daley, Patrick Macnee as the urbane and silky smooth John Steed, or David Jason as middle-aged wide-boy Del Trotter.
Alfred Burke had a long and successful television and theatrical career that began just before the outbreak of World War II and carried on through the second half of the 20th century to his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1990s. But even as he played The Shepherd in Frank McGuinness’ Oedipus at The National in 2008, aged 90, he would never escape the character and series that made him a household name - Frank Marker in Public Eye. He was always there, not so much a shadow but an indelible essence created by Burke’s brilliant performance as the shabby, down-at-heel inquiry agent; a performance that etched into the collective minds of viewers over seven series’ between 1965 and 1975.