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.
Acting career
In 1982 Reitel starred in The New Adventures of Lucky Jim, a BBC2 sitcom written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Reitel played Jim Dixon, based on the character created by Kingsley Amis.
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.
He played the lead role in the 2007 film Trust Me, a comedy about a pair of con men.
Reitel was the second choice to play Del Boy Trotter in Only Fools and Horses (behind Jim Broadbent aka Roy Slater in the series), but was busy with other projects (the role ultimately went to David Jason).
He also played two roles in different episodes of long-running sitcom One Foot in the Grave. In the first Christmas special, he played "Mr. Starkey", a down and out who holds Victor Meldrew and his neighbour's father at gunpoint to wait for Armageddon on Christmas Day. In the second episode of series 3, "Dreamland", he played a tramp who took a fancy to Victor's shoes, but drew the line at his Noel Edmonds-esque sweater.
2DTV – Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jack Straw, John Prescott, Michael Jackson, Anthony McPartlin, Jeremy Clarkson, Michael Howard, Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay, Prince Harry, Tom Cruise, Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen, Pope John Paul II, Johnny Vegas, Will Young, Tim Henman, Justin Hawkins, Jack Osbourne, Phil Spencer, David Dimbleby, Peter Andre, Frank Skinner, Des Lynham, Robbie Williams, Gareth Gates, Uri Geller, David Blunkett, Charles Kennedy, Dick Cheney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prince Phillip, Prince Edward, Prince William, Osama Bin Laden, Wayne Rooney, Various voices
Spitting Image – Geoffrey Howe, Cecil Parkinson, Robert Maxwell, Dustin Hoffman, Denis Thatcher, Norman Fowler, Konstantin Chernenko, Prince Philip, Paddy Ashdown, Chris Patten, Michael Jackson, Denis Healey, Nelson Mandela, Julian Clary, Winston Churchill, Donald Sinden, Lester Piggott, Peter Snow, David Owen, Mark Phillips, Robert Armstrong, Alec Guinness, Ian St. John, OJ Simpson, Gary Barlow, Prince William, Paul Condon, Jack Straw, Satan, Paul Keating, Kenneth Baker, Mike Smith, Phil Cool, Paul Channon, Pope John Paul II, Donald Coggan, Jesse Jackson, David Attenborough, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nicholas Witchell, David Icke, Steve Jones, West Midlands Police Sergeant, Norman Tebbit, Polish advertiser, Neil Kinnock, Kenneth Clarke, George Younger, Elton John, Matt Aitken, Laurence Olivier, Frank Bruno, Prince Harry, Frank Bough, Richard Branson, Robert Maclennan, Mark Knopfler, Caspar Weinberger, John Hunt, Rick Rickerson, Q, Desmond Wilcox, Ray Cooney, Nicholas Fairbairn, David Gergen, Vincent Price, Bobby Robson, Ian MacGregor, Roy Jenkins, Paul McCartney, Kieran Prendiville, Translator, Prince
