Later Roles
After leaving Coronation Street, he went on to a three-year stint on the BBC1 series All Creatures Great and Small in a minor role. Feast also went for the role of Fred Dibnah in a 1989 drama called Our Fred but the one off never came about. Another role which eluded him was that of Howard Booth in Yorkshire TV's 'The Bounder'. Apparently Feast was offered the role as a result of his strong showing at the audition, but his refusal to grow a rakish moustache counted against him; no such problem for Peter Bowles who duly secured the role.
As the roles dried up, Feast made a brief foray into local politics. He initially stood as the Labour candidate for Glossop East in the Derbyshire County Council elections, but during a public debate at Glossop Town Hall, Fred fluffed his lines and could only mumble that the local Labour manifesto was "something about wheelie bins, dog dirt and joyriders" and that he'd be a "better councillor than Alf Roberts"—a reference to Bryan Moseley's Coronation Street character who was Mayor of Weatherfield.
Fred was abruptly de-selected the following morning by the local Labour Party committee, but immediately re entered the election as an independent candidate. He polled less than 40 votes, and lost his deposit—but not before a bravura performance at the count, upstaging the returning officer and other candidates with an off-the-cuff 14 minute speech—much of his ire aimed at the Labour National Executive.
He was dropped for a TV commercial by car manufacturer Rover, who had planned to reprise his Coronation Street character's ubiquitous Rover 2000 -with Feast, no less, at the wheel.
Read more about this topic: Fred Feast
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