Kate Williams

Born: 1941
Died:

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RKate played the nurses in Holiday On The Buses. She was the holiday centre nurse and was looking for a man, instead she found Blakey and although she had a soft spot for Cyril it didn't light her fire. Blakey however thought
it true love. Someone who could light the Nurses fire was Jack but would Blakey catch them.

Kate was born in 1941 in London. After completing her education to advanced level she worked as a secretary before finally realizing her ambition to train for the stage. After drama school she joined a repertory company. In the mid 1960's Kate made her first TV appearance in the long running 'Newcomers' serial..

Wilfred Brambell

Born: 22nd March 1912
Died: 18th January 1985

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Wilfrid Brambell played Bert in Holiday On The Buses. He was on holiday looking for romance and found it with Mum (Doris Hare). Who can forget the Ballroom Scene where Blakey is giving dancing lessons but Bert and Mum decide to show him a quick turn of foot. Wilfrid Brambell was brilliant in the classic comedy Steptoe and Son and to find out more about him you should visit Steptoe & Son web site.

An Irish film and television actor, born in Dublin, best known for his role in the British television series Steptoe and Son. He also starred alongside The Beatles in their film A Hard Day's Night. On leaving school he worked part-time as a reporter for the Irish Times, part-time as an actor at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, before becoming a professional actor for the Gate Theatre. In World War II he joined the Forces entertainment organisation ENSA.

His television career began during the 1950s, when he was cast in small roles in three Nigel Kneale / Rudolph Cartier productions for BBC Television: as a drunk in The Quatermass Experiment (1953), as both an old man in a pub and later a prisoner in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) and as a tramp in Quatermass II (1955). All of these roles earned him a reputation for playing old men, though he was only in his forties at the time.

It was this ability to play old men that led to his casting in his most famous role, as Albert Steptoe, the irascible father in Steptoe and Son. Initially this was a pilot on the BBC's Comedy Playhouse anthology strand: but its success led to a full series being commissioned, which lasted throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. There were also two feature film spin-offs, a stage show and an American re-make entitled Sanford and Son, based on the original British scripts. In the latter, Brambell's part was taken by Red Foxx.

The success of Steptoe and Son made Brambell a high profile figure on British television, and earned him the major role of Paul McCartney's grandfather in The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night. A running joke is made throughout the film of his character being "a very clean old man." This is in reference to his on-screen son, Harold, in Steptoe and Son constantly referring to his father as "you dirty old man!" (In real life too, he was nothing like his Steptoe persona, being dapper and well-spoken).

In 2002, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary film on the off-screen life of Brambell and his relationship with Harry H. Corbett, who played Harold Steptoe in Steptoe and Son. The film revealed that the two men detested each other and were barely on speaking terms outside of takes by the end of the programme's run. In a series almost entirely based around the pair of them with no other regular characters, this made production of the series difficult and stressful. This tension partly related to Brambell's difficult private life. As he battled with alcoholism, he frequently forgot his lines and caused other problems both on and off the set. Brambell was also a homosexual at a time when it was almost impossible for public figures to be openly gay. He was arrested and charged for 'cottaging' in the early 1960s and subsequently holidayed annually in Asia. Earlier in his life he had been married, from 1948 to 1955, to Molly Josephine but the relationship ended after she gave birth to the child of their lodger, Roderick Fisher, in 1953.

After the final series of Steptoe and Son was made in 1974, Brambell had some guest roles in films and on television, but both he and Corbett found themselves heavily type cast as their famous characters. In an attempt to take advantage of this situation, they undertook a tour of Australia in 1977 with a Steptoe and Son stage show: however, with the pair openly despising each other, the tour was a disaster and a working relationship proved impossible. On one occasion, Brambell used bad language and was openly derogatory about the New Zealand Cathedrals in an interview. Brambell did, however, appear on the BBC's television news to pay a half hearted tribute to Corbett after the latter's death from a heart attack in 1982. The following year Brambell appeared in Terence Davies' film Death and Transfiguration, playing a dying elderly man who finally comes to terms with his homosexuality.

Brambell himself died in London less than three years later, of cancer. He was seventy-two. News of his death received far less attention than that of his co-star, and his funeral only attended by a handful of people. He left £170,000 to his partner.

Arthur Mullard

Born: 19th September 1912
Died: 11th December 1995

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From a humble background, he was born in Islington, and started work at 14 as a butcher's assistant, and went on to join the Army at 18. It was during his time in the army that he began boxing, and duly became the champion boxer of his regiment. When he eventually left the Army he did actually have a short stint at boxing professionally. Following the end of the Second World War in 1945 the burly ex-boxer sought out work as a stuntman at the Pinewood and Ealing film studios, from which he drifted into uncredited bit-parts in classic British films such as Oliver Twist, The Ladykillers, The Belles of St. Trinians and The Lavender Hill Mob.

Mullard's distinctive "ugly mug" appearance and particular variety of cockney accent lent itself to a certain character and pretty soon he graduated to more visible roles in comedy films and on television. It was on television where Arthur Mullard truly made a name for himself, firstly as a straight man for the likes of Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill, and he starred in The Arthur Askey Show. It was the London Weekend Television series Romany Jones, first aired in 1973, which give Mullard his highest profile, playing the part of Wally Briggs, a crafty caravan-dwelling character.

So popular was Mullard's character in Romany Jones that a spin-off series - Yus, My Dear - was created in 1976, where Wally and his wife Lily(Queenie Watts) had moved out of their caravan into a council house. The series introduced a new character, Wally's brother Benny, the first acting role for future EastEnders and Snatch star Mike Reid. Yus, My Dear was a smash hit and Arthur (or "Arfur" as he was widely known) was regularly seen as a guest star in other programmes and even in television commercials.

Such was Mullard-mania in the late seventies that the man even graced the pop charts in 1978 with his own rendition of "You're The One That I Want" (originally from the movie Grease) in a duet with Hylda Baker (who was also in her sixties). It might have been an even bigger hit, but a live appearance by the two veteran comic performers on the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops was such a disaster (Mullard and Baker fluffed the lyrics and seemed utterly confused as to what was happening) that record sales plummeted spectacularly after the broadcast.

The hit single was to be the last great success of Mullard's life, and following an uncredited narration on the Glenn Close- led live action 101 Dalmatians (which screened in 1996) he died in his sleep on December 11, 1995.

In a newspaper interview after his death, Arthur Mullard's daughter, Barbara, claimed that he had sexually abused her for years and had driven her mother to commit suicide. His friends, she said "weren't surprised".

Henry McGee

Born: 04th May 1939
Died: 28th January 2006

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Henry played the Holiday Centre Manager in Holiday On The Buses, his wife was played by Hal Dyer who was the real wife of Michael Robbins at the time. He is best known for playing the straight man to comedians like Benny Hill and Charlie Drake. A British actor best known as straight man to Benny Hill for many years. McGee also served often as the announcer on Hill's TV programme, delivering the upbeat intro "Yes! It's The Benny Hill Show!"

Born in South Kensington, London, McGee hoped to become a doctor, but the death of his father when he was 17 put financial strains on the family that forced the abandonment of his plans. Having enjoyed acting as a schoolboy, McGee decided to follow in the footsteps of his mother's side of the family, which could trace its involvement back in acting to Kitty Clive. He went on to play supporting roles in many films and television series and dramas, including The Saint and The Avengers, but it is for his comedy roles that he is best remembered. Ironically, his most enduring role was as the long suffering 'mummy' of 'Honey Monster', a large, yellow, furry creature appearing in advertisements for the breakfast cereal Sugar Puffs.

He played 'Two-Ton Ted' in the promotional video of Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West). His other comedy roles included the Centre Manager in On The Buses, and opposite Charlie Drake in the comedy The Worker (1965 - 1970).

TV work includes The Worker, Benny Hill Show, Doctor at Large, Dick Emery Show, Tommy Copper Show, The Goodies, Rising Damp, Sykes Films include Revenge of The Pink Panther, Adventures of A Taxi Driver, Carry On Emmanuelle and of course Holiday on the buses. He had a long and successful theatre career, during which he tackled a wide range of roles, receiving critical plaudits for his deadpan delivery in farces such as Plunder.

He spent the last six months of his life in a nursing home, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Wendy Richard

Born: 20th July 1943
Died:

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Wendy Richard, MBE (born Wendy Emerton on 20 July 1943) is an English actress best known for playing Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? and Pauline Fowler in EastEnders from 1985 to 2006. Ms. Richard appears about a half hour into the On The Buses film ,in a scene about 2 minutes long. Watch for the stop at the laundrette (shades of Pauline!). Stan had earlier dropped off his washing there (in violation of regs), and now whilst collecting his laundry, he picks up the wrong bundle of clothes. He is relieved of the bag by the Blakey, who is then caught red-handed by the owner of the clothes (Wendy), a young woman clad in mini-skirt and boots, with very dark brunette hair. Her voice is quite distinctive, right from the initial "That's him! He stole my washing!" From The Wendy Richard Appreciation Pages.

Richard was educated at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth before attending the Italia Conti Academy stage school. She first became familiar to TV audiences playing Joyce Harker, a regular in the BBC's 1960s soap opera, The Newcomers. She has also appeared in Dad's Army (as Private Walker's girl-friend Shirley), Up Pompeii, The Likely Lads and several of the Carry On films. In 1962, her distinct cockney vocals also helped get her to #1 on the UK singles chart uncredited, on the single, Come Outside, by Mike Sarne.

Richard is best known for two roles: Her role in the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served? as Miss Shirley Brahms, a sales representative with a heavy Cockney accent, catapulted her to fame. (Richard also appeared in the Are You Being Served? sequel Grace & Favour in 1992 and 1993.) Richard found continued success as heroine and matriarch Pauline Fowler on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role she played from the first episode in 1985 until the character's death on Christmas of 2006. On July 10, 2006, the BBC announced that Richard had decided to leave EastEnders, after nearly 22 years in the show. An interview with The Sun revealed that problems with the EastEnders storyline (Primarily her marriage to Joe Macer) was the main cause for her departure.

Pat Coombs

Born: 27th August 1926
Died: 25th May 2002

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A British actress. Born in Camberwell South London, Pat was one of Britain's great character actresses and she was known for many roles on radio, film and television sitcoms.

She first made her name in the post-war era of radio variety as 'Nola', the dim and put-upon daughter of Irene Handl in Arthur Askey's Hello Playmates; their double-act had started as a guest spot on Bob Monkhouse's show. Later she became a regular performer in the 1963 series of The Dick Emery Show. She also starred in the sitcom Wild, Wild Women.

After a relatively unsuccessful partnership with Peggy Mount in the television series Lollipop Loves Mr Mole (1971), the two found a better platform for their talents when they were reunited in Yorkshire TV's You're Only Young Twice (1977), set in a home for the elderly; the two actresses were to become close friends. During her long career, Pat made two memorable contributions to Dad's Army. In 1970, she played Mrs Hall in the Dad's Army movie and later in 1975, she played the dual part of Marie / the Clippie in the radio adaptation of "A Soldiers Farewell".

Her other television work included Beggar My Neighbour (1967); Don't Drink the Water (1974); and The Lady is a Tramp (1983), in which she co-starred with Patricia Hayes in a series set among 'down-and-outs'. She was also the subject of This is Your Life and appeared regularly as a guest on Noel Edmonds's Saturday night entertainment show Noel's House Party. Pat Coombs also appeared in films, including Carry On Doctor (1968); Carry On Again, Doctor (1969); On the Buses (1971); Ooh, You Are Awful (1972), with Dick Emery; Spike Milligan's Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1972) as well as a minor role as Henrietta Salt in the 1971 classic, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

In 1989 she appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. For a year she played Marge Green, Brown Owl of the Walford Brownies' pack, where she worked closely with EastEnders stallwarts, June Brown and Gretchen Franklin. She also guested in the BBC comedy Birds of a Feather. Pat was diagnosed with osteoporosis in 1995, and despite being in great pain she nonetheless became an active campaigner for the 'National Osteoporosis Society'. Her Christmas appeal letter raised £100,000 for the charity's research.

She had just completed a role for Radio 4 alongside June Whitfield in 'Like They've Never Been Gone' when she died on May 25, 2002 from "complications arising from emphysema".

Michael Sheard

Born: 18th June 1938
Died: 31st August 2005

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A Scottish actor who featured in a large number of films and television programmes. Star Wars fans know him as Admiral Ozzel from The Empire Strikes Back, whereas those of Grange Hill will remember his performance as the terrifying deputy headmaster Mr Maurice Bronson.

In 1983, he played Herr Grunwald, the German manager of a building site in the first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. He portrayed Adolf Hitler five times, including in The Tomorrow People (1978) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). He also portrayed Heinrich Himmler twice. In 1980 he had a major supporting role in Stephen Poliakoff's esteemed BBC television play Caught on a Train.

He made appearances in six stories in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, with the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Doctors. He also appeared as the police seargant in the fifth episode of the comedy series Mind Your Language. More recently he appeared with Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, in The Stones of Venice (a Doctor Who audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions).

He wrote several memoirs including Yes, Mr Bronson: Memoirs of a Bum Actor published in 1997, Yes, Admiral published in 1999, Yes, School's Out! published 2001 and Yes, It's Photographic! published in 2004.

In February 2005 he played a small cameo role as the narrator in Star Wars fanfilms Order of the Sith: Vengeance and its sequel Downfall - Order of the Sith - alongside Jeremy Bulloch and David Prowse. These fanfilms were made in England in support of Save the Children.

He died 31 August 2005, aged 67, at his home on the Isle of Wight. He had been suffering from cancer. A few weeks previously (9 August 2005) he appeared via telephone on the Iain Lee show on LBC and talked about his many appearances in film and television.

Yootha Joyce

Born: 20th August 1927
Died: 24th August 1980

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An English actress born in South London as Yootha Joyce Needham to musical parents. In 1956 she married the actor, Glynn Edwards - best known for playing Dave, landlord of the Winchester Club in Minder - but the marriage ended in divorce in 1968. It was through Edwards that she first came to prominence in the renowned Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop, going on to make her film debut in 1962 in Sparrows Can't Sing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she became a familiar face in many one-off sitcom roles and supporting parts in films, with her first main recurring role being Miss Argyll, frustrated girlfriend of the title star Milo O'Shea in three series of Me Mammy (1968-71). But it wasn't until 1973 that she acquired a starring role, when she was cast as man-hungry Mildred Roper, wife of landlord George, in the innovative sitcom Man About The House. This series ran until 1976 and told the story of two young women and a young man sharing the Ropers' upstairs flat, and the sexual tension and misunderstandings such living arrangements provide.

When the series reached a natural end, a spin-off was written for the Ropers, and George and Mildred first aired in 1976. The couple were seen moving from the London house in Middleton Terrace which they'd owned in the previous programme and into a suburban semi-detached property in Peacock Crescent, Hampton Wick. Much of the new series centred on Mildred's desire to better herself in her new surroundings, but always being thwarted, usually unwittingly, by her lifeskill-lacking husband's desire for a quiet life.

A feature film was made of George And Mildred in 1980, but this was to be Joyce's last work. Amidst growing concern over her health she was admitted to hospital in the summer of 1980. A sixth, and final, series of George and Mildred was due to be recorded later that year, but Yootha Joyce died, in hospital, of liver failure four days after her 53rd birthday on 24th August, 1980, following a long battle with alcoholism. The actor Brian Murphy, who played her TV/screen husband, George Roper, was at her bedside. In an episode of the 1999 television series What A Performance!, Murphy recalled how Joyce had looked to be making a recovery after being admitted to hospital with a serious liver infection. "Only two days earlier, she was sitting up in bed looking not too bad... When I went back on the Sunday, I was expecting to see her even better. She sadly had gone into a coma, and whilst I was sitting there, she slipped away."

At the inquest into her death, it was revealed that she had been drinking upwards of half a bottle of brandy a day for ten years, and that she had, in the words of her lawyer, Mario Uziell-Hamilton, become a victim of her own success and the thought of being typecast as Mildred Roper¹. In the 2001 tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce, friends also revealed how she had become depressed at her failure to find another long-term partner following her divorce. Norman Eshley, who had so memorably played George's mortal enemy, Jeffrey Fourmile (in reality they were close friends) said in this documentary that he couldn't believe that her alcoholism was so serious; he said that her performance and comic timing was always perfect.

She made her last television appearance, posthumously, on Max, Max Bygraves' variety show, on 14th January, 1981. She sang the Carpenters song, "For All We Know." At the end of this performance, she told Bygraves, "Thanks, I enjoyed that." Comedian Kenneth Williams recorded in his diary that ...she looked as though she was crying...

Johnny Briggs

Born: 05th September 1935
Died:

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An English actor. He is best known for his role as Mike Baldwin in the soap opera Coronation Street, in which he appeared from 1976 to 2006.

A graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school, Briggs also had roles in a number of other British shows including Crossroads and No Hiding Place, as well as a number of Carry On films. He cited the hectic filming schedule as the main reason for his departure from Coronation Street. His final scenes in the show were recorded on March 13 and broadcast on Friday 7 April, 2006.

Johnny lives in the Stourbridge suburb of Pedmore, England, and suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) - on leaving the Street, announced his intention to spend more time at his Florida home. He is also an avid golf fan and regularly plays at Stourbridge Golf Club.

Briggs is a good friend of radio DJ James H Reeve, and the pair can regularly be seen out in Manchester together. He has recently become a regular fixture on Reeve's radio show, with callers mocking his early roles in film and television.

He won the British Soap Award for Lifetime Achievement in May 2006, and was appointed an MBE in the New Year's Honours December 2006.

Robert `Bob` McNab

Born: 20th July 1943
Died:

Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, McNab started out at his local club, Huddersfield Town. He was signed by Bertie Mee for Arsenal in October 1966, and immediately won a place in the Arsenal side. He was the Gunners' first-choice left back for the next nine seasons, reaching the 1968 and 1969 League Cup finals (both of which Arsenal lost).

McNab made his debut for England in 1968 against Romania; McNab made four appearances in all for England, but never became a regular. However, he certainly had success domestically, winning the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and then the Double in 1971. McNab continued to play through much of the early 1970s for Arsenal, including the FA Cup final loss to Leeds United in 1972 and finishing second in the league a year later. However, the latter part of his career at Arsenal was blighted by injury and the emergence of Sammy Nelson meant McNab was no longer guaranteed a place in the first team.

McNab was released on a free transfer in the summer of 1975; he played first for Wolves before trying his luck in the NASL in the United States. He finished his playing career at Barnet, before moving to Canada to coach the Vancouver Whitecaps. McNab later emigrated to Los Angeles, California, where he still lives today, working as a property developer. He is the father of the actress Mercedes McNab. Appeared in the series 7 episode named `The football match`.

Rudolph Walker

Born: 20th September 1939
Died:

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A British character actor. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Walker went to the United Kingdom in 1960. Rudolph appeared in the very first episode of on the buses. He is also known for his comedic roles in Love Thy Neighbour and The Thin Blue Line and in Ali G Indahouse. He also appeared in Doctor Who in 1969.

He was the first black actor to be seen regularly on British TV, and has always been proud of his role on the controversial Love Thy Neighbour as a result. He can now be seen playing Patrick Trueman in EastEnders. He was awarded the OBE in 2006. He also played a taxi driver in Let Him Have It.