Norman Eshley (30 May 1945 – 2 August 2025) was an English character actor and writer. He began his career on stage but was best known for his television roles, notably as Jeffrey Fourmile in the sitcom George and Mildred.
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Early life
Eshley was born in Bristol, England, on 30 May 1945. He attended Bristol Grammar School and then worked in a bank, before deciding to become an actor and training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Career
Eshley started his career on stage and played in many Shakespearean roles before establishing himself as a theatre performer on the West End theatre circuit.
Eshley's first screen role was in the 1968 film The Immortal Story, directed by Orson Welles. He played a lead character, Steve Reding , in Blind Terror (1971) and appeared in the Pete Walker horror film House of Mortal Sin in 1975.
In 1969, Eshley appeared alongside Dudley Sutton in two very similar villainous roles: in the Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) episode "Could You Recognise the Man Again?", and in the Department S episode "Handicap Dead". However, he is possibly best known for his role in the sitcom George and Mildred (1976–79) as the snobbish, right-wing estate agent Jeffrey Fourmile, the foil to George. He had previously featured in several episodes of the show's direct predecessor, Man About the House (1973–76), as Robin Tripp's brother Norman, who marries Chrissy (Paula Wilcox). In an earlier Man About the House episode, "In Praise of Older Men" (1974), Eshley played a sleazy married executive named Ian Cross who tried to seduce Chrissy.
In 1985, Eshley played the Reverend Redwood, a benevolent vicar who runs a social club with a view to rehabilitating ex-convicts in the Minder episode "Give Us This Day Arthur Daley's Bread".
Eshley's other TV credits include: Thriller ("The Colour of Blood"/US title: "The Carnation Killer", 1973) as an escaped serial killer, Warship (1973–74), The Duchess of Duke Street, I, Claudius, The Sweeney (all 1976), Return of the Saint (1978), a former SAS colleague of Bodie in The Professionals' episode "Kickback" (1980), a vicar in Minder (1985), Taggart (1990), Cadfael (1994), One Foot in the Grave (1997), Dangerfield (1998), and The Bill (1999–2000).
In 1988 he appeared in a public information film about road safety called Accident in Park Road. His character is seen driving a Ford Escort, before running over a child who dashes out between cars in front of him. He is questioned by Graham Cole who plays a policeman, a role Cole played as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill.
Along with Douglas Fielding, Eshley provided the narration for the Blind Guardian albums Nightfall in Middle-Earth and Legacy of the Dark Lands. He had roles in the BBC TV series New Tricks (2007) and A Christmas Campaign (short, 2011). In 2019, he appeared in the documentary The Immortal Orson Welles, directed by Chris Wade.
Eshley's final credit is a posthumous performance as Lord Lestrade in the audio drama Sir Sherlock: The Red Letter Day.
Personal life and death
Eshley was married three times. In 1969, he married actress Millicent Martin in Brighton. The couple divorced in 1973. Eshley later married Lynette Braid in the 1980s; this marriage too ended in divorce.
In 1993, Eshley was a passenger in a car involved in a crash in the Dordogne, France. He sustained a punctured lung, a cracked sternum, a broken shoulder blade, a fractured arm, and head and neck injuries when cut from the wreckage.
In 2015, Eshley married Rachel Spiers, they lived in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, until his death from cancer at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on 2 August 2025, aged 80.