Michael Keating

Michael Keating has died. If you grew up on British sci-fi in the late seventies and early eighties, you know him as Vila Restal — the lockpicker, the coward, the comic heart of Blake's 7. He played the role so well that the show would have collapsed without him. The death is a real loss.

The work

Born November 29, 1947 in London. Came up through the seventies on the small-role circuit until Blake's 7 cast him in 1978. Vila wasn't supposed to be the audience-favorite character. The creators wrote him as comic relief in a serious ensemble. Keating took the part and built something deeper — a man whose cowardice was the only sane response to being trapped on a spaceship with revolutionaries who had a death wish.

The whole run is on DVD and worth tracking down. The Blake's 7 complete series box set is the canonical purchase. It hasn't aged into a cult-only product the way some seventies BBC sci-fi has — the writing holds up, especially Series B and C.

After Blake's 7 wound up in 1981, Keating did the British actor thing — Doctor Who guest spots, The Bill, theatre work including a run in The Who's Tommy. He had a long second act as Reverend George Stevens in EastEnders from 2005 to 2017. Different audience, different register, same instinct for finding the human in a thinly-written part.

If you've never seen Blake's 7, start there. Classic Doctor Who DVDs or the EastEnders archive are good places to see what he did afterward.

Why Vila Restal matters

Most sci-fi heroes of that era were dashing, decisive, or both. Keating's Vila was neither. He'd rather be drunk than fight, he'd rather hide than confront, and he was the smartest practical thinker on the ship. That combination — fear plus competence — has barely been done on screen since. Tony Soprano's panic attacks, maybe. Otherwise it's a rare archetype.

Keating made it work by playing the fear honest. No camp, no winking. Vila was scared because the world was scary, and his survival instinct was the only thing keeping the rest of the crew alive. The show's best episodes — Orac, Children of Auron, Rumours of Death — all hinge on Vila being the canary in the coal mine.

Fans who want a tactile piece of the show: vintage Blake's 7 memorabilia on eBay goes for surprisingly little money. Original Radio Times covers, action figures, the lot.

Awards, briefly

Keating won Best Supporting Actor at the 1980 BAFTA TV awards for Blake's 7 and picked up a 2010 British Soap Award nomination for EastEnders. Both deserved. Neither captures what he actually did for an art form that doesn't usually credit comic-supporting players.

For the serious fan: the Blake's 7 reference book Liberation by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore is the best critical writing on the show.

What he leaves

A genuinely great performance in a genre that rarely produces them. A reminder that the funny one in the ensemble is often the one carrying the show. And about 52 episodes of British sci-fi that look better at 45 than they did at 12.

Put on Series B, episode 7 — Trial — and watch what Keating does in the background while Avon and Blake argue. That's the talent. That's what's gone.