Anton Lesser will perhaps now always be best known for his role in the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.

He appeared as Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright in the ITV series for 10 years until it finished last month with series nine.

Mr Lesser was a key member of the cast, alongside Shaun Evans as Endeavour and Roger Allam as DCI Fred Thursday.

While he may regret his role coming to an end, he is unlikely to be short of work as he has proved how versatile an actor he is on stage and screen over many years.

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He recently appeared as retired police officer Vernon Marley in the BBC crime drama Better, starring Leila Farzad and Andrew Buchan.

And in October he was on stage at the Oxford Playhouse in Anthony McCarten's play The Two Popes.

Oxford Mail:

He spoke at an Inspector Morse festival in Jericho last month, organised by John Mair.

Hundreds of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour fans took part in a day of events at the festival before the final series ended.

Mr Lesser told the audience at St Barnabas Church that his role as Reginald Bright didn't get off to a particularly good start.

He said: "The first day of shooting I could not say a word without Shaun (Evans) - he could not stop laughing.

"It was just a lovely way to start."

He added: "From the beginning, Endeavour was a thorn in his side, but then there was this grand realisation that despite the brittleness of the relationship there was somewhere where they met.

"There were moments when you saw Bright softened up by his own troubles."

Oxford Mail:

The actor said he regretted that so many of his scenes, including those with Roger Allam, ended up on the cutting room floor.

Mr Lesser has been a star in various television shows throughout his career which started in 1979 with The Mill on the Floss.

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Since then, he has appeared in TV dramas including Killing Eve, Vanity Fair, Vital Signs, Little Dorrit, Primeval, Ripper Street, Dickensian and The Hollow Crown.

One of his biggest roles was as villainous advisor Qyburn in the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones.

His other major parts have been as Harold Macmillan in The Crown, Prime Minister Clement Attlee in A United Kingdom, Thomas More in Wolf Hall and Major Partagaz in Star Wars: Andor.

The Inspector Morse series, starring John Thaw, ran from the late 1980s until 2000 and was then followed by the Lewis series (2006-2015) and Endeavour (2012-2023), starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF