John Bardon - Acting Career

Acting Career

Bardon is best known for playing Jim Branning in the popular British soap opera EastEnders. His character Jim, the father of established character Carol Jackson, first appeared briefly in 1996. The character of Jim returned to the series in 1999 and this time became a regular character, later marrying Dot Cotton (June Brown). Bardon filmed his final scenes for EastEnders in March 2011.

He also was a regular in Rumpole of the Bailey, as a member of the "clan Timson, a family of South London villains", as described by Rumpole.

Bardon had previously made notable guest appearances in Dad's Army in 1975 and Are You Being Served? in 1976. He also starred in the British police drama The Sweeney in which he played a villain called "Doc Boyd" in the episode "Faces", first broadcast on Monday 8 September 1975. In the same year, he also appeared as a bookmaker in the film One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. In 1982 he appeared on Channel Four as legendary comedian Max Miller in Here's a Funny Thing in a reprise of the role from the stage version of the production which had been seen at Liverpool Playhouse, the Edinburgh Fringe and the Fortune Theatre in London. He appeared in 1983 as Mr Jarvis in the much acclaimed BBC drama, Johnny Jarvis (Nigel Williams). In 1986 he appeared as a security guard supervisor in an episode of Only Fools and Horses from series five called "The Longest Night", in the same year he appeared as a Railway ticket collector in the film Clockwise. He was also a guest star in two episodes of Coronation Street in the early 1990s. In 1991 he appeared in the BBC sitcom Birds of a Feather, he appeared again in 1998 both a Daryl Stubbs' father. In 1999 he appeared in the film East Is East as Mr. Moorhouse, a white supremacist at odds with Om Puri's Pakistani character.