Derek Hardwick

Derek Hardwick's screen career didn't kick off until his 50s. Born in Dunedin in 1917, Hardwick began acting on TV and film in the 60s, during three years in England. Often he played cranks or eccentrics; occasionally he got to co-star. In 1960s romp The Taking Mood he was a legendary fisherman, and in 1982 teleplay The Pumice Land a violin-playing loudmouth. Next he won a prize in Czechoslovakia for film Among the Cinders; this time as a larger-than-life loner taking his grandson on a trip. Hardwick also reported for Town and Around. He acted almost till the end, with a role in Erebus: The Aftermath the year before his death on 24 April 1988. 

We did my scene in an hour and a half. Ordinarily, something like that could have taken a week or two, what with rehearsals, waiting around, and retakes ... I had to play to play it with my tongue stuck in my cheek so far it looked like a cigar. Derek Hardwick on acting in BBC television series Clochemerle, The Press, 21 June 1973, page 4