The same actors playing different parts in sitcoms or dramas

I know that in this day and age it just wouldn't look convincing if the same actors played different parts in sitcoms or dramas, but I know that throughout the 60s and 70s (and even into the eighties) a number of British and American series sometimes used the same actors in different guest roles.

I have seen on the Internet Movie Database that a few actors played different parts in series such as Z-Cars. There are a quite a few sitcoms featuring the same actors in different roles but I can only think of one off the top of my head and this is the most ridiculous example:

I saw a few episodes of Terry and June in the early 90s on UK Gold when my parents watched the series. I was never a fan myself but I remember noticing that Terry's friend and colleague Malcolm was re-cast in later series. In one of the last episodes Terry, June, Malcolm and Malcolm's wife are at a party held by Terry and Malcolm's boss (who had servants!) and there was a drunk butler who was played by none other than the previous "Malcolm" actor who had only left two series before!

Did producers and casting directors think that viewers wouldn't notice? It is a bit like re-casting Peter Howitt as a policeman in one episode of Bread two years after he quit playing Joey Boswell!

I SWEAR that there already been a thread about this....

Well, there are probably thousands of different threads that have been created over the years, so it wouldn't be out of the question.

I think this type of thing happens a lot still. Lots of soap actors who have regular roles, turn out to have appeared as different character for a few episodes a couple of years previously. The actors who play/player Heather from EastEnders and Karl Kennedy from Neighbours spring to mind.

I'm led to believe Midsummer Murders uses the same actors in different roles over time also.

I've definitely seen it more in a lot of earlier series from the 60s/70s and early 80s. Even shows like Fawlty Towers did it. I think it's likely because there was no VHS or catchup services in those days, so even if you think you might have recognised an actor being in the show before, there was no way to be sure unless they repeated it. So I imagine they didn't worry about such things back then.

Taggart has done this a few times over its 20 year

Most recent and prominent examples I can think of are Freema Agyeman and Karen Gillan both appearing as different characters in Doctor Who before returning as companions.

Tony Hawks guest starred as different characters in Red Dwarf so often, he became known as the "Fifth Dwarfer".

The only example I can come up with is from Law & Order. Before he played Detective Briscoe, Jerry Orbach played defence lawyer Frank Lehmann in one or two episodes.

Most notably with DI Burke, who first appeared in 1986 as a murder suspect.

As others have said, it happens all the time. I looked up an actor who was on last week's Casualty, and discovered that he's played two characters before, as well as four on The Bill.

Casulty, Holby and Doctors must use hundreds of actors every year, it's no wonder you might see the same ones from time to time. They probably recycle the stories every couple of months as well.

This practice was particularly rife on Prisoner Cell Block H. Just to give one example of many, Ray Meagher (who later played Alf in Home and Away) played not two but three fairly major characters.

The Bill did this a lot right up to 2010. Many actors played a one off part before becoming a regular cast. Some examples that come to mind;
-Sam Callis (Sgt Stone, 2007-2010): played the recuring part of Karl Radford in from September-December 2004.
-Christopher Fox (DS Max Carter, 2007-2010) starred in one epsidoe in the August (as a different character) before becoming a regular in the December. I don't know how the got away with that one. A few years Previosuly okay, but five months?!

But there's loads of cast members of The Bill who have done this there's even a page on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regular_The_Bill_actors_who_have_appeared_in_other_roles

Also many actors have played numerous roles over the years as 'Criminals' or other one off roles.

The actress who played Jen in Neighbours cicra 1995 is returning to the show playing a different character.

The actress who played Harold's daughter Kerry in Neighbours returned to the show as someone else. The writers were clever here as Harold and Lou thought they were seeing a ghost!