5 Finest Small TV Roles

A celebration of some of TVs finest small roles because small is really beautiful!

By A.W. Wilson /

As Game of Thrones cruises majestically towards the end of its second season all the plaudits are quite rightly showering upon Peter Dinklage who steals scene after scene as €˜the imp€™ - Tryion Lannister. Plenty has been written about Dinklage already, so I€™m steering clear of doing that. Instead I€™m going to take an overused and lame gag about him playing a little role and use that to crowbar in a piece about something that€™s not connected at all but sounds like it might be. So here goes, this is a celebration of some of TVs finest small roles. This of course contains spoilers, but only in the strictest definition of the word. And I€™ve quoted some very bad language too.

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Newman €“ Seinfeld

Jerry€™s nemesis and Kramer€™s best friend (unless you count Bob Sacramento) is an overweight, tight-fisted, bitter and arrogant man, and it€™s testament to the craft of the writers and to the actor Wayne Knight that he added such value to a show that€™s rightly billed as the best of its kind. Newman€™s encounters with Jerry (always pre-empted by that famous loaded €˜hello€™ on both sides) were legendary, and his ridiculous capers and rivalries with Kramer were a joy to behold. But it was the delivery of his carefully worded dialogue that set him apart. He was pure Shakespearian villain €“ Iago living in a New Yorka partment. And working as a postman. Good moment: As the result of a ludicrously contrived series of events Newman is at the wheel of a flaming post-van screaming in a Hindenburg commentary style - €˜Oh the humanity!€™