THE ENTERTAINER (REMEMBERING ROY HUDD)

It is a measure of how affectionately Roy Hudd was held by his peers and subsequent generations of performers that tributes poured in when news broke of his death.

Kathy Burke, Mark Gatiss and Simon Blackwell led those who paid tribute to the Londoner who was a regular fixture on British TV and radio for six decades.

An actor, author, comedian and an authority on all things music hall, he harboured dreams of being a variety show entertainer but by the time he got into showbusiness the industry had changed, forcing him to pursue a much more varied career.

That versatility would prove his greatest attribute, helping him win admirers for his work in sitcoms and dramas like 'Common As Muck', Dennis Potter's 'Lipstick On Your Collar' and 'Karaoke', in the ITV soap 'Coronation Street' and his long running satirical BBC Radio 2 show 'The News Huddlines'.

Born in Croydon in 1936, Hudd's father Harry was a carpenter who left his wife Evie after the second World War.

Evie died when Roy was 10 but he hadn't realised she took her own life until he was doing research for an autobiography published 60 years later.

Raised by his grandmother and educated at Tavistock Secondary Modern School and Croydon Secondary Technical School, he served in the RAF under national service where he helped organise many concerts and shiws.

Hudd worked at various stages of his early life as a messenger for an advertising agency, a window dresser and as an assistant to the draughtsman Henry Buck who created the London Underground tube map.

However he had a hankering to perform comedy and made his debut at the Streatham Hill Theatre at a show in aid of the Sir Philip Game Boys Club in 1957.

Hudd was part of a double act with a childhood friend Eddie Cunningham who went by the stage name of Eddy Kay.

Known as "The Peculiar Pair", they supported variety stars like Max Miller but struggled to make a living.

Within a year they landed jobs as Redcoats in the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton, rubbing shoulders with the Irish comedian Dave Allen and singer Cliff Richard.

The duo honed their comic skills in Butlins and within a year they appeared on the BBC Radio light entertainment show 'In Town Tonight'.

However his agent sensed the entertainment industry was changing and advised him to audition for a role in a production of 'The Merchant of Venice' and develop a range of skills he could rely on - advice that would stand him in good stead for the rest of his career.

Hudd made his solo debut in 1959 on the popular BBC Radio variety show 'Workers' Playtime' which led to a first TVappearance alongside David Frost, Willie Rushden, Eleanor Bron, Michael Crawford and John Bird on the BBC's 'Not So Much A Programme, More A Way of Life'.

He landed his own BBC sketch show in 1966 'The Illustrated Weekly Hudd' which featured performers like Sheila Steafel and Patrick Newell, with future Monty Python star Graham Chapman among the writers.

The show ran for just one season and all 22 episodes were wiped by the corporation.

It took a few years for Hudd to recover from its axing.

In 1968, there was a small role in Vernon Sewell's British horror film 'The Blood Beast Terror' with Peter Cushing.

Three years later, Hudd played Nero's MC in Bob Kellett's cheeky comedy 'Up Pompei' with Frankie Howerd and Michael Horden and as Nick the Pick in Kellett's Medieval spoof 'Up The Chastity Belt' with Howerd, Eartha Kitt, Lance Percival and Graham Cowden.

He also played an anglet who tries to fish 50p out of a drain along with Bruce Forsyth in Graham Stark's movie 'The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins' in a sketch about avarice.

There was also an appearance as a milkman in 'The Alf Garnett Saga', Bob Kellett's spin-off film of the BBC sitcom 'Till Death Do Us Part' with Warren Mitchell and and Dandy Nichols.

In 1975, Hudd was commissioned to front BBC Radio 2's half hour satirical sketch show 'The News Huddlines' and it was to make him a household name.

A topical sketch show which gently poked fun at current events, it was a hit that ran for 26 years with a cast that at various stages included June Whitfield, Chris Emmett, Janet Brown, Alison Steadman and developed the writing talent like Andy Hamilton, David Renwick and Paul Kerensa.

In 1977, he graced London's West End as Fagin in a revival of Lionel Bart's musical 'Oliver!' at the Albert Theatre. 

In 1978 Hudd played Max Quordlepkeen, the host at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' with Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern and Stephen Moore.

However his versatility as a performer started to really pay off later in his career, with an acclaimed performance in 1993 as a theatre organist obsessed with Louise Germaine's Sylvia Berry in Dennis Potter's Channel 4 rock n'roll generation comedy 'Lipstick On Your Collar' with Ewan McGregor, Douglas Henshall and Bernard Hill.

He would also appear for both BBC1 and Channel 4 in Potter's final work 'Karaoke' as the agent to Albert Finney's playwright Daniel Freed.

In the mid 90s he joined Edward Woodward, June Whitfield, Tim Healy, Kathy Burke and Saeed Jeffrey for two series of William Ivory's BAFTA winning BBC1 binmen comedy drama 'Common As Muck'.

Hudd got the chance to play Sherlock Holmes in 1999 in BBC Radio 2's spoof, 'The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes' with June Whitfield.

There was also a film role on 2000 as the grandfather of Greg McLane's Sewell in Mark Herman's Geordie football comedy drama 'Purely Belter' with Tim Healy, Charlie Hardwick, Kevin Whatley and Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer. 

That year he also appeared in a musical of Charles Dickens' 'Hard Time's' at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.

When the 'News Huddlines' ended its run, he landed on 2002 the part of Blanche Hunt's undertaker boyfriend Archie Shuttleworth in ITV's soap 'Coronation Street' for a year, appearing again in some episodes in 2006 and 2010.

In 2008, Hudd was cast as The Wizard in a Royal Festival Hall production of 'The Wizard of Oz'  

There were also guest appearances in shows like ITV's 'The Quest' with David Jason and Hywel Bennett, 'Midsomer Murders', 'Law and Order': UK' and 'The Last Detective' with Peter Davidson, BBC1's 'New Tricks', 'Casualty', 'Ashes to Ashes', 'Missing', 'Call the Midwife' and 'Holby City'.

In 2015, Hudd played the music hall comedian Bud Flanagan in the BBC drama 'We're Doomed!: The Dads Army Story' -he had previously won a Society of West End Theatre award for playing the entertainer in 1982ib a production of 'Underneath the Arches'.

A year he guest starred in an episode of the hit ITV sitcom 'Benidorm' with Steve Pemberton, Siobhan Finneran, Tim Healy and Johnny Vegas.

One of his final TV roles was as the father of Olivia Colman's DS Ellie Miller in the third and final series of ITV's crime drama 'Broadchurch'.

Over the years he wrote or co-wrote around 20 books including 'Roy Hudd's Cavalcade of Variety Acts' in 1997 which documented some of the most bizarre acts to take to the variety hall stage.

There was one more theatrical venture, touring the UK last year with Liza Goddard and Isla Blair in a production of Oscar Wilde's 'A Woman of No Importance'.

Hudd succumbed to illness in recent months and his health went into a sharp decline.

The outpouring of affection for this humbke and good humoured comic actor was fitting for one one of Britain's most underrated and cherished entertainers.

Britain has lost a true entertainer and one of the last links to its musical hall past.

(Roy Hudd passed away on March 15, 2020 at the age of 83)