The show ran for 10 years and was shown in 35 countries, and through it, the handsome Alexander won a world-wide following; it also introduced him to unusual – for him – financial stability.

Terence Alexander was born in London, but after his parents, Joseph and Violet, became Master and Matron of Knaresborough Hospital, Yorkshire became his home. It accounted for the authentic accent he brought to the part of Charlie Hungerford.

From Ratcliffe College, Leicester, he went to Norwood College, Harrogate, and after he changed his mind about becoming a priest, his stage career began in the Harrogate Opera House with a part in JB Priestley's The Good Companions.

That career, however, was soon interrupted by the War. Called up at 18, he served with the 27th Lancers in Italy where he was badly wounded when his armoured car was hit be enemy fire. In the 1970s he had surgery to remove shrapnel from his injured leg.

Demobilised with a 50 per cent disability pension, Alexander returned to the stage, working in repertory theatre and meeting his first wife, the actress Juno Stevas, the sister of Norman St John-Stevas (now Lord St John of Fawsley), and the mother of his two sons.

Alexander found a niche as a character actor and made numerous appearances on the London stage; it was a living, but not for him a pleasant one. Naturally shy, he developed an eye condition so that the bright stage lights made him dizzy and gave him headaches.

Films, television and radio suited him far better. His numerous films included The League of Gentlemen, a stylish 1960 thriller starring Jack Hawkins and Richard Attenborough, and The Day of the Jackal (1973), and he was a familiar presence on TV, often in comedies and comedy sketches, but it was as Montague Dartie in the BBC's famous adaptation of John Galsworthy's The Forsyth Saga that he found an ideal role. When Bergerac came along, however, he considered Charlie to be the best role he ever had.

A bon viveur, and charmingly eccentric, he believed in the mystical power of numbers – the number 23 being of especial importance to him. His school number at Ratcliffe was 23; he first stage appearance was on the 23rd of the month, as was his first important part (in Macbeth, with John Gielgud); as was the day he joined the Army in 1943; as was the day he was seriously wounded a year later, and as was the day he was demobilised. Juno Stevas was 23 when they married, and the marriage ended 23 years later.

Terence Alexander is survived by his second wife Jane and by his two sons from his first marriage.