impworks Logo - a grinning imp in flight

Actor Ubiquity Score (Work in Progress)

Sunday, December 11th, 2016

This silly idea came out of a conversation at the Everyman probably more than 10 years ago.  A simple score to measure just how ubiquitous an actor is on Television.  It came up in conversation with a friend last week and then I stumbled across my notes while doing some house keeping on my PC.  Its very much a Work in Progress (I’d love to hear suggestions for shows to go on the list).  We only ever started messing around with it for UK actors but there could easily be a version for US actors

An actor scores points for each of the following shows they have appeared in.

Number of Appearances Points
1 1
2 2
4 3
8 4
16 5
32 6
64 7
128 8
256 9
512 10
1024 11
2048 12
4096 13

It pretty easy to check most of these at IMDB although CBeebies Bedtime Stories may require a bit of Googling.

So Helen Worth scores 12 for Coronation Street (2087 episodes), 3 for Doctor Who (6 episodes) and 1 for Z Cars for a total score of 16.

If a show has been rebooted, remade or several adaptations in the case of a novel each version is counted separately.

eg appearing in Poldark 2015 for four episodes and Poldark 2017 for one episode would score 3+1=4

Doctor who counts as a single show despite the gap because the 50th anniversary episode features all the actors who had played the character.  Despite a title change The Likely Lads / Whaterver Became of the Likely Lads is also counted as a single show.

Bryan Blessed (total 25):

  • Doctors (2 episodes) 2
  • The Royal (1) 1
  • Lovejoy (2) 2
  • Boon (1) 1
  • Doctor Who (4) 3
  • Z Cars (115) 7
  • Blakes 7 (1) 1
  • Survivors (1) 1
  • I Claudius (6) 3
  • The Sweeney (1) 1
  • Jackanory (5) 3

The UK List

  1. A Touch of Frost
  2. All Creatures Great and Small
  3. Are You Being Served?
  4. Benidorm
  5. Bergerac
  6. Blakes 7
  7. Boon
  8. Byker Grove
  9. Call the Midwife
  10. Casualty / Holby City / Doctors / Holby Blue
  11. CBeebies Bedtime Stories
  12. Coronation Street
  13. Cracker
  14. Crossroads
  15. Dad’s Army
  16. David Copperfield
  17. Death in Paradise
  18. Dixon of Dock Green
  19. Doctor Who
  20. Downton Abbey
  21. East Enders
  22. Emerdale / Emerdale Farm
  23. Game of Thrones
  24. Grange Hill
  25. Jonathan Creek
  26. Heartbeat
  27. Hollyoaks
  28. Hustle
  29. Jackanory
  30. Last of the Summer Wine
  31. Lewis
  32. Life on Mars / Ashes to Ashes
  33. London’s Burning
  34. Lovejoy
  35. Mansfield Park
  36. Merlin
  37. Midsomer Murders
  38. Miss Marple
  39. Morse
  40. Monarch of the Glenn
  41. New Tricks
  42. Only Fools and Horses
  43. Play for Today
  44. Red Dwarf
  45. Robin Hood
  46. Robin of Sherwood
  47. Sherlock Holmes
  48. Silent Witness
  49. Soldier Soldier
  50. Spooks
  51. Survivors
  52. Taggart
  53. The Bill
  54. The Likely Lads / Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
  55. The Morecambe and Wise Show
  56. The Musketeers
  57. The Professionals
  58. The Royal
  59. The Sweeney
  60. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Smily’s People
  61. Upstairs Downstairs
  62. Z-Cars
Leave a Comment

impworks © Copyright Mark Caldwell 1996 - 2024