I've just been thinking lately about sitcom characters and ones that you always feel there is more to them then is ever mentioned on screen. In particular I am thinking of Mr Sweeney from One Foot In The Grave. I always get the impression that if he turned out to have a few bodies hidden in his basement I wouldn't be surprised. Anyone ever else thought he was slightly odd or is it just me?
Tucker from Citizen Smith was always so timid and nervy that I imagined he'd have a side you wouldn't want to mess with. Wolfie always wanted him in on jobs, so I'm sure he was not one to mess with.
Probably the greatest "shady" character around currently is Super Hans from Peep Show. Although we do see a fair bit of his behaviour on-screen, it is the way that the writers allude to his off-screen activities which makes the character such a winner.
Only Fools and Horses had a lot of shady characters, but my favourite was the Jim Broadbent character. Nobody can switch from funny to sinister quite as effectively as the Broadbent.
Mr Sweeney was very odd indeed. The unseen Mother, the archery practice in the backyard, the dixon of dot green society - odd, odd, odd.
Hugh Abbot in the first series of The Thick Of It. Whenever I watch it, I think, "What's he hiding?" Unfortunately they wrote the character out after six episodes, so we never found out.
Quote: zooo @ March 30 2010, 7:00 PM BST
You remember Hugh Abbot? Played by Chris Langham?
I was trying to figure out if you were doing one of your jokes.
Quote: zooo @ March 30 2010, 7:10 PM BSTI was trying to figure out if you were doing one of your jokes.
You just stomp all over me, zooo. That's it, stomp away.
Quote: chipolata @ March 30 2010, 6:36 PM BSTOnly Fools and Horses had a lot of shady characters, but my favourite was the Jim Broadbent character. Nobody can switch from funny to sinister quite as effectively as the Broadbent.
I was going to say the Driscoll Brothers but then remembered that Del did get worked over by them.
Mike in Bless This House always struck me as being a potential sex pest.
George Roper was a dogger and Mr Harman (the maintainance man in Are You Being Served?) was a pimp and small-time heroin dealer. 
And Hilda from Ever Decreasing Circles ran a brothel for underaged fruit pickers in her laundry room.
Whilst Fred Quilly in Hi-De-Hi! was a ketamine fiend who was known to emasculate former employer's stallions, using the dismembered genitalia in satanic fertility rituals. If this weren't enough, he was also a vociferous member of several violently racist pseudo-political parties. Tragic really.