Michael Keating dies aged 79 after EastEnders and Blake's 7 roles

michael keating has died aged 79, ending a screen career that linked EastEnders, Blake's 7, Doctor Who and Casualty. The report of his death drew immediate tributes from people who worked around his best-known roles and from accounts tied to the shows he helped define.

Blake's 7 and EastEnders

Keating was born in London in 1947 and first reached genre television with Goudry in the 1977 Doctor Who story The Sun Makers. He moved into Blake's 7 in 1978 as Vila Restal, a part Peter Anghelides later described as the one character to appear in every Blake's 7 TV episode between 1978 and 1981 and in both Radio plays.

That run mattered because it fixed Keating inside two very different British television pipelines: science fiction fandom and long-running soap viewing. He then returned to a weekly audience when he started playing Reverend Stevens in EastEnders in 2005, a role that kept him on the show until 2017.

Tributes from X

Cult Edge, the publisher of multiple Blake's 7 books, wrote on X: "So terribly sad to hear reports that we’ve lost Michael Keating. What a loss, and what a wonderful man. He’ll be hugely missed. Thoughts are with his family and friends. RIP Michael, and thank you xx" Paul Carmichael, the podcaster behind Sophie Aldred’s Ace Odyssey podcast, added: "So sorry to hear that Michael Keating has died. A fine actor with a wonderful career, including a recurring role in #EastEnders, but to me he will always be the wonderful Vila in #Blakes7. RIP."

Peter Anghelides said: "What a joy it was to work with Michael. Little did I realise when first encountering him at Television Centre in 1981 that some three decades later I would be writing and producing Big Finish Blake's 7 audio stories for him as Vila Restal." He also said: "His cheery presence on studio days was always most welcome."

Television Centre

Anghelides added: "I would sit at the back of the Audio Sorcery control room hooting with laughter at his comic timing in our recordings." He also said: "Blake's 7 fans loved him as Vila, the only character to appear in every Blake's 7 TV episodes between 1978 and 1981 and in both Radio plays."

For viewers who knew Keating through EastEnders, Blake's 7, Doctor Who or Casualty, the practical outcome is simple: his credits now sit as a finished body of work, and the strongest signal of how he was regarded comes from the people who used the past tense first and used it with care.