bit player

Sauerkraut has long been a bit player in the American diet, topping the occasional hot dog or Reuben sandwich.

"The headline in the business section of the Times was: 'Unknown Bit Player Buys Warner Brothers,'" he recalls with a laugh.

Playing the basement-dwelling, unpredictable father to Leah Remini’s sharp-tongued New Yorker, Carrie Heffernan, Stiller had the opportunity to flex both his dramatic and comedic muscles, earning his place in the show’s ensemble instead of being relegated to a bit player.

Rolls-Royce is a bit player in a market that has powerful and successful leaders, and that rival Pratt and Witney lost $8bn trying and failing to break into.

But South Africa’s leader was nothing more than a bit player in this tableau, while the white Afrikaners under supposed threat of extermination didn’t even get speaking parts.