Never seen those before, thanks!
And it's totally fine, he deserves his own topic

Timeless will be very pleased to see this topic

How on earth did you guess?

Gareth deserves all the love you can give him, he got such a hard time for being in TNA for so many years.

I've seen both of these pics (I've seen so many pics of Gareth and Joanna it's getting hard to find new ones), but I love them both. Although I wish Gareth wasn't smoking in the one. Naughty Gareth!

I loved him in Upstairs, Downstairs, too. Only problem is they didn't use him enough! But he wears lovely waistcoats and looks gorgeous in all of them. And in his last episode he gets a little rougish and Gambit-like. Joy! If you ever get a chance to watch him in it, do.

More Gambit (and Gareth) love:







Love the last one.

The last one's great

Isn't it though? I wish I had a proper 8x10, not just a tiny saved pic from ebay. But you get the idea.

So what other series/films has Gareth been in? Because to be honest I've only seen him in TNA and Parting Shots

Didn't you watch Parting Shots??
I put it in media a while ago, because Joanna's in it as well.

It was odd, but quite fun to watch. And really an Avengerish cast. Joanna, Gareth and Diana Rigg

Neither have I. I've seen all the colour ones, but not all the B&W Emma Peel's. Still got loads of Cathy's to watch as well, and so far I've only seen 1 Tara King episode, so that'll keep me busy for a while
Anyway...we're drifting off again.

Bloody hard work. We ought to get paid for it

Upstairs, Downstairs is his other most notable series--it's just before TNA, and it's where Brian Clemens spotted him and thought "Gambit!" He's only in one episode of the fourth season, and about half of season five, but whenever he's on there's usually something good going on. If you can watch him in UpDown I'd really recommend it. That's the only thing I've really watched him in all the way through, too, to be honest. Everything else he did never made it over here, and then he was in the theatre a lot. And I have to admit I skimmed Parting Shots and only watched the Joanna/Gareth/Diana bits. The one scene Joanna and Gareth shared, I watched the way Gareth leaned against the bar and listened to Joanna, and the way she said her lines to him, and it was very Purdey/Gambitish. Joy! I've also seen him in the Barbara Cartland movies, too. I've watched lots of clips, actually, just not very many complete shows.

Most of the trivia's pretty standard--he studied at Webber Douglas, which was the same place Patrick did, joined the Navy at 15 and was there for seven years. His dad (the Irishman with a dash of Welsh) died in World War Two when he was only 2 years old, so he never knew him. His mum was from the Isle of Man and remarried when he was six. But his stepdad had been in the army and was raised in an orphanage, and was really strict as a result. Gareth claims he didn't mind him, though, but I sort of wonder. Oh, and his aunt was in showbiz, too. I have no idea why he changed his name from Alan Leonard to Gareth though. No one's ever explained that.

He had three sons, too, one by each of his wives (yes, Gareth got around a bit): Gareth jr., Oliver Leigh, and Jason Howard. His oldest was the same age as Jamie, and he and Joanna hired a nanny while they were in Canada and used to smuggle up food to their room for them (they were sharing a suite to save funds).

Yes, I know way too much Avengers trivia. Stay tuned for the Honor Blackman quiz game.

^Wow, that's a lot of info! Most of it I didn't know, apart from him and Joanna sharing a suite in Canada and smuggling food up for their sons
And I'll definitely stay tuned for the Honor Blackman quiz game, I know quite a lot about her

^I didn't know he had 3 either.

And as for Joanna (I know I'm going off-topic now, but I shall forgive myself for it )
At first she had been told that she couldn't have children at all, so having Jamie must've been quite a surprise, especially because she was only 21 (I'm 20 and I can't imagine having a child anytime soon!) And it definitely can't have been easy raising a child alone and working as an actress at the same time. So I'm guessing that's part of the reason why she only has 1. And by the time she got married she was 40 and Jamie was already 19 so she probably didn't feel like doing all of that again (I'm just guessing here of course)
But you're right Maartje, she does seem very maternal. But now of course she has 2 granddaughters, and judging from what she says in interviews, she adores being a granny

Aaaanyway, back on topic

Very fab!
Though I'd rather say my granny is Purdey than Patsy (for obvious reasons)

You're quite right. Joanna has a rare disorder that only affects, I believe, 1 in 10000 women, and because of it she was told she was infertile. Then she started getting a belly. All the photographers started poking it and saying "Getting a bit fat, aren't we?" so Joanna went and starved herself and worked out lots and gave herself daily injections of who knows what, and lost weight everywhere but her stomach. So she went to her doctor, and asked if she might be pregnant. "No, no, you've never had a period, so it's impossible." Repeat. Finally she got someone to admit she was. One month later, Jamie was born, four months premature. Joanna was stuck in a private room so as not to "upset" the other mothers because she had no father with her, and for a long time Jamie was in intensive care and she paced around the hospital getting thin with worry and wasn't allowed to touch him. To this day, she has a very poor opinion of the medical profession because they told her she was "silly" for so long. She desperately wanted more kids, but didn't find anyone to have them with in time. She was hanging out with a bunch of the crew on TNA once, and said "You know, it'd be lovely to have a child with every one of my friends," meaning everyone there. She never got the chance.

(to get you back on topic I have to do everything around here )

Gareth also had his first kid pretty young. He got married as soon as he left the Navy, so he would have been about 22. He says that was pretty stupid. He must have had Gareth jr only a couple of years later. He and his wife, Carol, split because he wanted to act and she was having none of it, but they remained good friends. So with a divorce, a son, and a vow to never get married again between them, he and Joanna had a lot in common! That was part of the reason they were so content to just be good friends, even though they both thought the other was gorgeous (they had eyes, kids). They really, really liked each other, as was apparent when he died. Of course they both ended up married again. Gareth's second wife was Swedish and they had Oliver in 1981. I noticed he waited a reallllly long time before he married Amanda (they were together for something like 10 years before that), but they stuck together until he died, so I think he finally found the right one. Which is nice.

Jason must have been born in 1988, so he's still pretty young. That would have made him only 19 at the oldest when his dad died.

Here's a shot of Younger and Older Gareth together: