There is a reference in Gareth’s RADA record to “TV work, for Alan Davidson” in the Autumn of 1965 (which could have been an advertisement), but his earliest documented television appearance was in a production of Zigger Zagger, the play by Peter Terson. It had been commissioned, workshopped, and then performed by the National Youth Theatre at the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre (in Holborn, London) in August 1967, and was subsequently broadcast by the BBC on September 27th of that year. Gareth played the Youth Employment Officer, a part which involved singing. Sadly, only a fragment of the broadcast performance survives, ironically as a clip within an episode of Talkback on October 3rd 1967, in which some viewers were complaining about the subject-matter (football hooliganism). Gareth doesn’t appear in the surviving clip, however a programme cover from the stage production exists:

Above image from Wikipedia’s entry on Zigger Zagger

His second television role was in an adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence short story, The Thorn in the Flesh, of which a copy survives on a film reel in the ITV archives. It aired on the 23rd October 1967:

Above image courtesy of Glyn Thomas, from a scrapbook created by Annie Novac

In August 1967, Gareth had filmed an uncredited supporting role as the “Assassin with Sunglasses” in an episode of The Avengers entitled “Murdersville”. The Avengers series is available on DVD, and currently on BritBox in the UK.

The episode in question was first screened on the 8th of November 1967. The following website is an invaluable resource for information (including Dialogue Sheets for the episode) and is the source of the above image:

https://www.dissolute.com.au/the-avengers-tv-series/series-5/523-murdersville.html

Gareth spent most of 1968 working in theatre (notably at the RSC), but he did appear in a television play called The Escape Club that was shown on May 11th of that year as part of the ABC Armchair Theatre series. Unfortunately, no copies of this play seem to have survived.

Above image courtesy of Glyn Thomas, from a scrapbook created by Annie Novac

In 1969, Gareth got his first big break in television. He was cast as one of the leads in a new Yorkshire Television police series, Parkin’s Patch, set in rural Yorkshire.

The following images all courtesy of Glyn Thomas, from a scrapbook created by Annie Novac

Parkin’s Patch was keenly anticipated, as its creators were the same team that had written Z Cars and Softly, Softly, both very popular programmes at the time.

There was considerable interest from local news publications:

As a former resident of Leamington Spa, Gareth’s success in winning the role of Ron Radley attracted attention there:

There were some publicity stills:

As well as a number of listings featuring Gareth in television programming publications:

The series was well-received. The pilot was shown on 16th September 1969, and the show ran for a total of 26 30-minute episodes. The full series was released on DVD in 2012 by Network.