Several 'child' parts for TV followed, including Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971) and Poldark (1975) in which the 21-year-old Gibson plays Geoffrey Charles Poldark (aged 15). Other TV work followed until, in 1982, Richard Gibson took on the character for which he is best known - Herr Otto Flick in the long-running TV comedy series 'Allo! 'Allo! Gibson would appear in 78 episodes over the next ten years.
Richard Gibson had with him the hat and glasses he used in 'Allo! 'Allo! I asked if he would put them on and let me have a photograph with him as Flick. He duly obliged!
Richard Gibson was born in Uganda in 1954. When 16 years old, he appeared as Marcus in the Joseph Losey directed film The Go-Between (1970). With the screenplay by Harold Pinter, this film had an all-star cast that included Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Michael Redgrave, Edward Fox and Margaret Leighton.
I met Richard Gibson at the NEC in Birmingham in August 2006. I asked him to sign my War Diaries of Rene Artois book, and also include his character name. He looked up, grinned, and in a Herr Flick type of voice said, "I'd better write that very carefully!"
(autograph page)
Richard Gibson's most recent TV role was as a solicitor in the drama Omagh (2004)
Gibson toured the UK and abroad with the Stage version of 'Allo! 'Allo! in which he also revealed his abilities as a capable violinist! He also released a single with Kim Hartman entitled Rock Around Ze Clock!
Herr Otto Flick is a Gestapo Officer and godson of Heinrich Himmler! Dressed in a full length black leather coat, octagonal spectacles and a walking stick for his stiff-legged limp, his aims in life are to suppress the 'peasants' and seduce the Commandant's assistant Helga. He is also desperate to acquire the Van Klomp painting of the 'Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies' - something that he never succeeds in doing.
The War Diaries of Rene Artois
Richard Gibson as Herr Flick & Kim Hartman as Helga
Richard Gibson (foreground) in The Go-Between
Richard Gibson
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