Енн Рейтел

Reitel's family arrived in Scotland as refugees from Estonia and Germany. He trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1982 Reitel starred in The Further Adventures of Lucky Jim, a sitcom on BBC Two written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Reitel played Jim Dixon, based on the character created by Kingsley Amis.

He appeared on stage in Me and My Girl at the Adelphi Theatre in 1986. On television he worked as an impressionist on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image and starred in the ITV sitcom Mog as a burglar who spent his days in a psychiatric hospital, pretending to be insane.

He played the lead role in the UK TV comedy series The Optimist which ran from 1983 for two series. The programme was almost entirely silent. In each episode 'The Optimist' wandered through life doing his best to look on the bright side. He was usually thwarted in his endeavours by the people he encountered. He also appeared in the first series of the UK comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

In 2001 he appeared in a short film called Coconuts with Michael Palin, in which they did a demonstration on how coconuts can be used in place of horses. This film can be seen on the second disk of the collector's edition of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.