| Richard Waites | |
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Richard Waites as "Cuthbert Lilly" in a sketch from Series 1 of "Zzzap!" in 1993. |
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| Born | 10 July 1963 Shropshire, Oswestry |
| Occupation | Actor/Writer |
Richard Waites (born 10 July 1963) is a British actor who is most famous for appearing as Cuthbert Lilly in all 131 episodes of the popular CITV show ZZZap!.
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Prior to appearing in Zzzap! he appeared as "Hamilton Dent" on the Saturday Morning show No. 73, he reprised the role a year later for the spin-off 7T3. He also appeared in No.73's successor Motormouth as "Francesco Fortune"[1] in a spoof soap called Spin Off alongside Roger Sloman and Wendy van der Plank. It took a comedic look at the supposed goings on behind-the-scenes of the Motormouth studios, this segment was dropped after the first series. He continued to make guest appearances on Motormouth and its successor What's Up Doc?. He also appeared as various characters in the What's Up Doc spin-off Wolf It.
In 1989 he made an appearance in the original pilot for the long-running CITV programme Art Attack alongside host Neil Buchanan. He played Art Critic "Boringus Personicus" and an Art Teacher.
A year later in 1990 he appeared for 4 episodes as Lord Layta in "Jackson Pace : The Great Years" written by Daniel Peacock and starring Josie Lawrence.
His stage work includes two seasons at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, a tour of Privates on Parade with Colin Baker, and Whodunnit by Anthony Shaffer with Lynda Baron, John Altman and Carry On actor Jack Douglas.
See main article Zzzap!
In 1993 he was cast as Cuthbert Lilly in Zzzap! The character proved so successful that he got his own Spin-off show entitled Cuthbert's Diary (which was narrated by Waites). He originally played both Cuthbert and Tricky Dicky. The character of Tricky Dicky was dropped after Series 1, as the character was deemed too scary for younger viewers. Although Waites was seen on screen as Cuthbert, it was actually Neil Buchanan who provided the voice, and it wasn't until Series 10 in 2001 when Waites voiced the character of Cuthbert himself. He appeared in character as Cuthbert on the 25th of December 2000 in the CITV studio.
During his time on Zzzap! he appeared in other shows; he played the character "Bernard" in an episode of Casualty in 1994 called "Grand Rational" and in the same year he appeared in 22 episodes of series 3 of another Saturday Morning show called Parallel 9. He played the 3rd incarnation of "Mercator".[2] In 1995 he also made an appearance in an Advert for BT (British Telecom) alongside Bob Hoskins,[3] and also with Joanna Lumley and Adrian Edmonson for cider. Four years later in 1999 he appeared as Neville Tweedy in 4 episodes of Late Lounge for the TV channel Bravo.[4]
TV roles have been less frequent since Zzzap! ended in 2001. In 2004 he appeared on the Saturday Show Ministry of Mayhem. His last credited TV appearance to date was in an episode of Gina's Laughing Gear in 2007 called "Astronuts" in which he played the lead character called "Ziggy".