Last modified on Fri 12 Mar 2021 12.06 EST
Basil Moss, who has died aged 85, was a perennial character actor often popping up in popular series as authority figures, but he found his best parts in two BBC soaps.
He became a familiar face on television as the librarian Alan Drew in Compact, set in the offices of a glossy women’s magazine. The role made him a heart-throb as his character went through various melodramas in and out of the reference library, including a string of relationships, from the time he arrived in 1963 – a year after Compact began – until his departure shortly before its demise, in mid-1965.