Man who played caretaker in Trapped is responsible for loads of iconic British characters

In light of this week’s episodes of The Celebrity Traitors, we’re taking a look at the splendid career of actor Simon Greenall.

But Greenall isn’t even in this year’s cloak-and-dagger BBC series, we hear you say. Technically you’d be correct to point that out, as of course it’s just been Richard E. Grant, Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Ross Kemp, Sebastian Croft, Sharon Rooney, Myha’la, Bella Ramsey, and Julie Hesmondhalgh representing the acting world this time around.

And yet, one fan’s tweet regarding Thursday's (22 October) episode of The Celebrity Traitors has reminded us of the great work done by Greenall since starting out in the early 1990s.

Referring to the pulse-pounding mission which saw traitorous Maya Jama, James Acaster and King Kenny having to steal shields from the blindfolded faithfuls, the viewer wrote on X: “This Traitors challenge is literally CBBC Trapped! (a way better designed TV show).” To be fair though, this comparison also applies to the series as a construct.

Now that's nostalgic. (CBBC)

In case the fantastical kids game show is new news, it featured Greenall in the role of The Caretaker for its entire four-series run between 2007 and 2010. Unfolding in a dark tower marooned in the middle of the ocean, Trapped! finds Greenall’s imprisoned character tasked with catching as many children as he can to placate the all-seeing Voice.

Six young participants compete across each episode; locked inside a cage-lift, they are winched upwards to their starting place at the tip of the tower by The Caretaker (who commentates on the action from a turret-adjacent attic) before journeying back down floor by floor. One kid is eliminated as they pass through the floors, leaving just one survivor at the bottom who claims the Key of Freedom and escapes.

So where else have we seen Greenall? You’ll be surprised to learn he’s actually the man behind many iconic characters, including the animated Russian meerkats Aleksandr Orlov and Sergei, who have embodied the business insurance firm Compare the Market in its advertising materials since 2009.

The 68-year-old memorably played Michael the Geordie throughout the Alan Partridge universe, beginning with 1997’s I’m Alan Partridge, while even lending his voice to The Twins in the Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Flight Before Christmas, and this year’s The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Greenall at the Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa World Premiere in 2013.(Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Studiocanal)

Let’s not discount his part as Captain Barnacles in the children’s TV show Octonauts either, which committed him to 122 episodes in total. Comedy is in Greenall’s very bloodstream, it seems, having collaborated with impressionists Jon Culshaw and Debra Stephenson, as well as industry heavyweights Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield, James Corden, Jack Dee, Armando Iannucci, Graham Linehan, David Baddiel, Leigh Francis, Peter Serafinowicz, and Jon Richardson over the years.

Those projects include Lead Balloon, The Keith Lemon Sketch Show, Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul, Big Train, World of Pub, and Newman & Baddiel in Pieces.

In 2008, Greenall delighted school-aged kids yet again with various voice roles on The Mr. Men Show, and has bulked out his CV with pitstops on Car Share (headlined by Peter Kay), Doctor Who, strange true-crime story The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, Plebs, Inspector George Gently, and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

That’s pure versatility distilled into one human being right there!