Robert Arnold

Obituary

Robert Clive Cooper Arnold, actor: born Manston, Kent 26 June 1931; married 1958 June Brown (one son, four daughters, and one daughter deceased); died Brighton, East Sussex 4 February 2003.

Robert Arnold spent much of his acting career on the stage, but became a household name as PC Reginald Swain in Dixon of Dock Green, Britain's longest-running police series. Over nine years in the middle of its run, Arnold saw his character pound the beat, then switch to CID as a detective constable.

When he joined in 1964, Dixon of Dock Green was weathering competition from another BBC drama, Z Cars, which revolutionised the way in which the police were portrayed on television. Its warts-and-all depiction of officers and recognition of increasing violence on the streets made it popular, but the cosiness of the older series featuring Jack Warner as George Dixon, who greeted viewers each week with the words "Evenin', all", continued to attract large audiences for another 12 years.

Arnold took the role of PC Swain shortly after the programme's creator, Ted Willis, had left and Dixon was promoted to desk sergeant (as Warner approached 70). This brought the other policemen greater attention – and storylines. Off the beat, there was romance for Swain, who married a policewoman, Liz Harris, played by the actress Zeph Gladstone.

Born in Kent in 1931, Arnold had followed his father into the RAF but quickly bought himself out. After working for a newspaper in Peterborough, he trained at Rada and made his professional début as Young Siward in Macbeth, alongside Laurence Olivier, at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. In two further seasons there, he played Silvius in As You Like It and Guiderius in Cymbeline (directed by Peter Hall).

He appeared on the West End stage in Ross (as Hamed, alongside Alec Guinness, Theatre Royal, Haymarket), King Lear (featuring Paul Scofield, Aldwych), The Provok'd Wife (Vaudeville), Captain Brassbound's Conversion (Haymarket) and The Merchant of Venice (as Solanio, in Peter Hall's production starring Dustin Hoffman, Phoenix, 1989-90).

During a happy four-year run at the National (1984-88) with Peter Hall, he played parts in Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale and Cymbeline.

Apart from Dixon of Dock Green (1964-71), Arnold's television work included the starring role in Cradlesong (1958) and one-off character parts in Armchair Theatre, General Hospital and Blake's 7. In "The Anniversary" episode of Fawlty Towers (1979), he was one of a group of friends who travelled to the infamous Torquay hotel to celebrate Basil and Sybil's wedding anniversary, with Basil trying to keep from them the reality that his wife had driven off after an argument.

Married to the actress June Brown, who played Dot Cotton in EastEnders, Arnold preferred to maintain a low profile despite the huge media attention heaped on his wife as a soap-opera star.

Published in The Independent Friday, 14 February 2003