Richard Waites

Richard Waites (Born July 10, 1963) appeared in all 131 episodes of Zzzap!

Trained at Birmingham School of Dramatic Art before moving to London.

He played Cuthbert Lilly in the whole show and Tricky Dicky briefly in the first series.

Before Zzzap, Richard was in a long running programme called No.73 which was a Saturday morning show made by TVS. It featured future producer and co-star of Zzzap(as Smart Arty) Neil Buchanan.

Richard portrayed the quirky neighbour Hamilton Dent from Autumn 1987. The decision was made to reinvent No.73 mid-series so by January 1988 the programme would be called 7T3 and rather than inside the same studio it had been in for the last seven years, there could be more outside bits.. despite the fact it was winter and quite frankly the cast and crew would've preferred to be in a nice warm studio during these bitter icy Saturday mornings.

The setting may have changed but the format stayed the same with the cost of production increasing- this ensured the final curtain on the inhabitants of 7T3 and was swiftly axed by TVS in March 1988.

Presumably there were plans for a ninth series in September but the axe proved otherwise.

TVS suggested a brand new format to most of the now redundant cast and crew of 7T3. Ultimately (but not exactly) known as 7T3’s replacement, Motormouth was being prepared to be broadcast live every Saturday morning from Autumn 1988-Spring 1989. Neil and Andrea Arnold remained as presenters for the brand new show and Tim stayed as producer- in fact most of the crew from 7T3 unsurprisingly transferred over to Motormouth.

Richard Waites got to play a new character called Francesco in a comedy within Motormouth entitled “Spin Off” alongside Spatz’s Joe Greco and later-to-be Wizadora Wendy Van Der Plank.. although it got the axe at the end of the first series.

When Spin Off ended, Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds had a lengthy discussion with Richard and asked him whether he’d like to help out with creating a brand new arts programme which would be mainly Neil’s brainchild under “production consultant/ main presenter” but Tim would still produce.

The programme was "Art Attack"- and a pilot was recorded for TVS' approval.

Richard Waites was suddenly dropped soon afterwards either because he had no desire to play a character called “The Head” or there was no need or room for him in Series 1- this was probably something Neil and Tim both regretted as Richard wouldn’t work on television for almost three years afterwards when he reappeared on the last episode of Motormouth (1992) albeit a few appearances on Jackson Pace: The Great Years alongside Keith Allen and Josie Lawrence (created by Granada).

Ironically Buchanan and Edmunds were reunited with Richard again and the three started to discuss plans to involve Richard in a new project called “Zzzap!” where he’d portray two characters, instead of just one.

Richard was eager to promote Zzzap- and appeared on a GMTV programme as Tricky Dicky. Richard later featured on the CITV Awards and in the CITV studio once as Cuthbert Lilly.

When Series 2 of ZZZap! was being aired in 1994, Richard starred in Casualty in an episode called Grand Rational he played Bernard. He starred in all 22 episodes of Series 3 of Parallel 9 as the 3rd incarnation of Mercator. On top of that, he was invited to be a audience member of the LWT show "An Audience With.. Ken Dodd".

As well as TV programmes, he's also appeared in many adverts including one for British Telecom alongside Bob Hoskins in 1995. Six years after Zzzap ended in 2001, Richard starred in a comedy pilot called Astronuts, as a robot called Ziggy, who was similar to Kryten from Red Dwarf.

His last appearance in acting was in the 2010 movie Coffee Sex You. He has since stopped acting and is now a successful librarian in London.

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