Biography

Arnold Yarrow was an actor, screenwriter and script editor. As a writer he wrote for series such as EastEnders, Crown Court, Softly, Softly, and Barlow at Large, the latter two he also served as script editor on. As an actor, his screen credits included the films Mahler and The Son of Pink Panther, though he was perhaps best known for playing Ethel Skinner's love interest Benny Bloom in EastEnders from 1988 to 1989. Three years after leaving the soap, the seventy-two year old Yarrow returned to the series as a writer, penning several episodes between 1992 and 1994. With this writing credit and his final on screen acting credits in the Screen Two film Genghis Cohen and London’s Burning in 1993, he subsequently retired from the industry altogether around the mid 90s. Yarrow also played Bellal in the 1974 Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks and, following the death of Earl Cameron in 2020, was the show's oldest surviving cast member until his death, at the age of 104, in Herne Bay on 9th December 2024.