Norman Shelley

Norman Shelley
Born	16 February 1903(1903-02-16)
Died	22 August 1980(1980-08-22) (aged 77)
Occupation	Actor

Norman Shelley (16 February 1903 – 22 August 1980) was an English actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's Children's Hour. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers.

Perhaps Shelley's single best-known role was as Winnie-the-Pooh in The Children's Hour adaptations of A. A. Milne's stories; for many British people of the mid-20th-century, his is the definitive voice of Pooh. Other roles for The Children's Hour included Dr. Watson (opposite Carleton Hobbs as Holmes) in a series of adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories; Toad in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows; and the role of Dennis the Dachshund in the specially written Toytown series. Shelley also played the parts of Gandalf and Tom Bombadil in the 1955-6 radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In the 1973 BBC television series Jack the Ripper Shelley played Detective Constable Walter Dew.

Life and career

He was born on 16 February 1903 at 4 Milton Chambers, Chelsea, London, the son of Frank Shelley, a painter, and his wife, Alice Campbell, née Glover. He took up stage acting on the advice of the actress and teacher Rosina Fillipi. His first appearance was at the Old Vic in 1919, and in the early 1920s he toured with the Charles Doran Shakespeare Company, in such roles as Trebonius in Julius Caesar and Sebastian in Twelfth Night. During the 1920s and early ’30s he worked principally in London, where he was most associated with Peter Godfrey's experimental productions at the Gate Theatre Studio.^[1]

Shelley first broadcast for the BBC in 1926, though he made his early radio reputation in Australia and New Zealand. He gradually shifted his interest from stage to radio, and in the late ’30s he established a reputation as a respected and versatile British radio actor. In 1937 he married Monica Daphne, née Brett. During the Second World War he was a member of the BBC's wartime repertory company, but left to serve as a ferry pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary.^[1]

In the 1930s and 1940s he was a Children's Hour regular, famous as Dennis the Dachsund in Toytown, and as Winnie-the-Pooh, whom he first played in 1939. He played Dr Watson to Carleton Hobbs's Sherlock Holmes over a 25-year period.^[1]

In the late 1950s he took part in recorded dramatized versions by Argo Records of Alice in Wonderland (1958) and Through the Looking-Glass, both directed by Douglas Cleverdon and both starring Jane Asher in the title role.^[2] For the same company he also recorded his impersonation of Toad in Wind in the Willows (1960) with Richard Goolden as Mole.

Late in life he found new fame as Colonel Freddy Danby in the BBC radio serial The Archers. He was still recording episodes of The Archers at the time of his death. He collapsed suddenly at Finchley Road tube station, London, on 21 August 1980, and was declared dead in the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead. His wife had predeceased him; he was buried near her at Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire, on 28 August.^[1]

Churchill impersonation

A recurring rumour holds that some of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches to Parliament during World War II were subsequently recorded for radio broadcast (the House of Commons not being at the time set up for location recording) not by Churchill, but by Shelley impersonating Churchill. Although the rumour has been promoted by controversial historian David Irving to support his unflattering view of Churchill, there is a lack of supporting evidence, and many of Irving's specific claims have been disproven by other researchers. Shelley did record a performance of Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech,^[3] but that was several years after the speech was originally made,^[4] and there is no record of its having been broadcast as genuine Churchill (or, indeed, at all). He would, however, claim that he did once voice Churchill for an introduction to a wartime propaganda film for distribution overseas with Churchill’s permission. The Prime Minister could not find time for the necessary visit to the studio.

(Churchill did re-record most of his speeches at Chartwell in 1949. The EMI Engineer responsible has told the BECTU History Project that he used one of the then new BTR tape recorders and Churchill usually did this in bed and so they have a more relaxed air than the original broadcast. These are often what are heard when played today.)

Selected filmography

• East Lynne on the Western Front (1931)
• Strawberry Roan (1945)
• We of the West Riding (1945) - narrator
• Daughter of Darkness (1948)
• Blind Man's Bluff (1952)
• The Price of Silence (1959)
• The Angry Silence (1960)
• Very Important Person (1961)
• A Place to Go (1963)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight". Diversity Website. http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/the-cast3.html. Retrieved 2010-03-22. 
2. ^ "Alice in Wonderland: Wired for Sound". http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/tauspace/sound_only2.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-15. 
3. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (29 October 2000). "Finest hour for actor who was Churchill's radio voice". The Observer. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2000/oct/29/uknews.theobserver. Retrieved 2009-05-29. 
4. ^ The 78rpm record on which the speech is recorded is dated 7 September 1942, whereas Churchill's speech was broadcast in the summer of 1940. See Sir Robert Rhodes James "An actor read Churchill's wartime speeches over the wireless". WinstonChurchill.org. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norman_Shelley&action=edit&section=2. Retrieved 2010-03-22. 

External links

• A detailed debunking of the impersonation of Winston Churchill rumour
• Shelley, Norman at BFI
• Norman Shelley at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Shelley, Norman
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Date of birth	16 February 1903
Place of birth
Date of death	22 August 1980
Place of death