Norman Eshley

Norman Eshley
Born	(1945-05-30)30 May 1945 Bristol, England
Died	2 August 2025(2025-08-02) (aged 80) Gloucester, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, writer
Years active	c. early 1960s–2021[1]
Spouses	Millicent Martin ​ ​ (m. 1969; div. 1973)​ [citation needed] Lynette Braid ​ ​ (m. 1980; div. 1981)​ [citation needed] Rachel Spiers ​ (m. 2015)​ [citation needed]

Norman Eshley (30 May 1945 – 2 August 2025) was an English character actor and writer. He started his career on stage but was best known for his television roles, notably as Jeffrey Fourmile in the sitcom George and Mildred.^[1]

Eshley who was born in Bristol, England on 30 May 1945. He attended Bristol Grammar School, worked in a bank, before training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He played many Shakespearean roles on stage. before establishing himself as a theatre performer on the West End theatre circuit.

His first screen role was in the 1968 film The Immortal Story, directed by Orson Welles. He played a lead character, Steve, in Blind Terror (1971) and appeared in the Pete Walker horror film House of Mortal Sin in 1975.^[2]

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. In the show's direct predecessor, Man About the House, (1973–76) he had previously featured in several episodes as Robin Tripp's brother Norman, who married Chrissy (Paula Wilcox), and Jeffrey was mentioned in the spin-off show, Robin's Nest in the episode "Love and Marriage" as Robin's best man, who never turned up to the wedding due to having mumps. 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.^[2]

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".^[3]

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.^[2]

Along with Douglas Fielding, Eshley provided the narration for the Blind Guardian album Nightfall in Middle-Earth.^[4] He had roles in the BBC TV series New Tricks (2007) and A Christmas Campaign (short, 2011).^[2] In 2019, he appeared in the documentary The Immortal Orson Welles, directed by Chris Wade.

Eshley was married three times. In 1969, he married actress Millicent Martin in Brighton.^[5] The couple divorced in 1973.^[6] Eshley later married Lynette Braid in the 1980s; this marriage also ended in divorce.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8][1]

• The Immortal Story (1968) – Paul, the sailor.^[9]
• The Lost Continent (1968) – Jonathan, the Prisoner
• Crossplot (1969) – Athol
• See No Evil (1971) – Steve Reding
• House of Mortal Sin (1976) – Father Bernard Cutler
• The Disappearance (1977) – Young Husband
• George and Mildred (1980) – Jeffrey Fourmile
• Empty Mirror (2000) – Oz Riley
• A Christmas Campaign (2011) - Creative Director
• The Immortal Orson Welles (2019) - Himself
• Cold Sun (2021) - Head of Counter Terrorism Commander

• Norman Eshley at IMDb
• Norman Eshley discography at Discogs