Richard Murdoch

Richard Bernard Murdoch (6 April 1907 in Keston, Kent - 9 October 1990) was a British comedic radio, film and television performer.

Richard Bernard Murdoch attended Charterhouse School. He then appeared in Footlights whilst a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Murdoch had his radio break in the BBC comedy programme "Band Waggon" (1938-40) as part of a double act with Arthur Askey, acquiring the nickname "Stinker" as a result. He reprised this role in the 1940 film of the same name and after the war appeared in the TV version, "Living It Up". During World War II, he served in the RAF.

He famously composed rather suggestive doggerel about Ella Wheeler Wilcox as lyrics to the opening bars of Alexandre Luigini's "Ballet egyptien".

Murdoch appeared with Kenneth Horne in "Much Binding in the Marsh". He also appeared in "The Men from the Ministry", a BBC Radio comedy series about two civil service members, with initially Wilfrid Hyde-White, but more famously Deryck Guyler. He played Uncle Tom in "Rumpole of the Bailey", and appeared as a Privy Councillor in the first "Blackadder" series in 1983.

In the early 1980s, Murdoch provided the English narration for the Polish animated version of "The Moomins", from the classic series of books by Tove Jansson.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/m/murdoch_richard.shtml BBC Comedy Guide information]
* [http://www.footlights.org/history Cambridge Footlights history]

References

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0613768/ Richard Murdoch from IMDB]