Brian Wilde

2022-09-24T18:20:26Z

86.148.205.252: /* Career */

{{short description|British actor (1927–2008)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{refimprove|date=September 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Brian Wilde
| birth_name = Brian George Wilde
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1927|06|13}}
| birth_place = [[Ashton-under-Lyne]], [[Lancashire]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2008|03|20|1927|06|13}}
| death_place = [[Ware, Hertfordshire|Ware]], [[Hertfordshire]], England
| resting_place = Harwood Park Crematorium, [[Stevenage, Hertfordshire|Stevenage]], Hertfordshire, England
| years_active = 1953–1997
| spouse = {{marriage|Eva Stuart|1960}}
| children = 2
}}
[[File:BrianWildePlaque.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Brian Wilde [[blue plaque]] in [[Ashton-under-Lyne]]]]

'''Brian George Wilde''' (13 June 1927 – 20 March 2008) was an English actor, best known for his roles in [[television comedy]], most notably [[Mr Barrowclough]] in ''[[Porridge (TV series)|Porridge]]'' and Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst in ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9f8cb314|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721185254/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b9f8cb314|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-21|title=Brian Wilde|work=BFI}}</ref> His lugubrious world-weary face was a staple of British television for forty years.

==Career==
Though born in [[Ashton-under-Lyne]], [[Lancashire]],<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |title=Brian Wilde (obituary)
|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2008/03/20/db2003.xml
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324163950/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2008/03/20/db2003.xml
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=24 March 2008
|publisher=The Daily Telegraph
|date=21 March 2008
|access-date=21 March 2008
}}</ref> Wilde was brought up in [[Devon]] and [[Hertfordshire]] and attended [[Richard Hale School|Hertford Grammar School]]. He trained as an actor at [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art|RADA]].<ref name="Telegraph"/>

He had an early uncredited role as a small-time crook in the film ''[[Forbidden Cargo (1954 film)|Forbidden Cargo]]'' (1954), starring [[Jack Warner (actor)|Jack Warner]] and [[Nigel Patrick]], and a small but significant dramatic part in the horror film ''[[Night of the Demon]]'' (1957). His early television work included the series ''The Love of Mike'' (1960) and supporting [[Tony Hancock]] in episodes of his [[Associated Television|ATV]] series in 1963. Wilde also played Detective Superintendent Halcro in a series of two-part thrillers about undercover Scotland Yard officers, ''The Men from Room Thirteen'' ([[BBC]], 1959–61). He had minor roles in films such as ''[[Life for Ruth]]'' (1962), ''[[The Bargee]]'' (1964), ''[[The Jokers]]'' (1967) and ''[[Carry On Doctor]]'' (1967), and on television in ''Room at the Bottom'' (1966–67) as Mr Salisbury.

His first major television success was in 1970 as refuse depot manager "Bloody Delilah" in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] sitcom ''[[The Dustbinmen]]''. He showed his sinister side as the mischievous magician Mr Peacock in the children's drama series ''[[Ace of Wands (TV series)|Ace of Wands]]'' between 1970 and 1972. That year he starred as a murderer in ''The Uninvited'', an episode of the BBC's supernatural thriller series ''[[Out of the Unknown]]''. Also in 1971, in the television drama ''[[Elizabeth R]]'', Wilde played the efficient, merciless 'rackmaster' [[Richard Topcliffe]], who was charged with the torture of prisoners in the [[Tower of London]]. He played a character in the 1970s British children's series ''[[The Ghosts of Motley Hall]]'', by [[Richard Carpenter (screenwriter)|Richard Carpenter]].

===''Porridge''===
In 1973, he starred as a different kind of gaoler in the second episode of ''[[Seven of One]]'', a series of seven individual stories, all of which starred [[Ronnie Barker]]. In the episode, entitled "Prisoner and Escort", Wilde played [[Mr Barrowclough]], one of two prison officers whose job it is to escort Barker's character [[Norman Stanley Fletcher|Fletcher]] across the moors to his prison (the other was Mr Mackay, played by [[Fulton Mackay]]). The episode proved successful and a series was commissioned by the BBC, titled ''[[Porridge (TV series)|Porridge]]''. Wilde reprised his role as the timid and eager-to-please Barrowclough. ''Porridge'' which ran until 1977, was a great success, with a [[Porridge (film)|film version]] being made in 1979.

===''Last of the Summer Wine''===
Wilde gained and established another role in 1976, when he took over from [[Michael Bates (actor)|Michael Bates]] as the third member of a trio of old men in the BBC sitcom ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]''. The character, Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst, was a determined ex-army man who planned the group's misadventures with military precision and a painstaking eye for detail. Wilde saw the long-running series gather momentum and continue its success; he stayed with the series for nine years, before leaving in 1985 to work on other projects. Foggy was written out of the series and was replaced by [[Michael Aldridge]] as Seymour Utterthwaite.

When Aldridge left ''Last of the Summer Wine'', Wilde returned as Foggy in 1990. He stayed until 1996, when he contracted [[shingles]] during the preparations for series 19 and decided to leave. [[Frank Thornton (actor)|Frank Thornton]] was invited to join the cast to replace Wilde, making his debut in the 1997 Christmas special "There Goes The Groom!". Wilde never returned to the programme, despite several invitations to do so.

===Other work===
He featured in "The Fear Merchants", an episode of [[ABC Weekend TV|ABC]]'s ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'', in January 1967. In this he played Jeremy Raven, a ceramics manufacturer caught up in a sinister plot to get rid of the competition. In 1978, Wilde voiced the [[public information film]] series ''[[Play Safe (public information film)|Play Safe]]'', highlighting the dangers of [[overhead power line]]s to children.

He also supplied the voice of the magician Meredith in the children's animated series ''[[Alias the Jester]]'', ''[[Cocoa Krispies|Shortie the Giraffe]]'' in ''[[Cocoa Krispies|Coco Pops]]'' and narrated an animated series, ''[[Microscopic Milton]]'', about a microscopic little chap who lives in a clock on the mantelpiece, in the parlour of the house that belongs to a lady called Mrs. Witherspoon. Wilde starred in his own BBC series in 1988, ''[[Wyatt's Watchdogs]]'', as retired soldier Major Wyatt who forms his own [[neighbourhood watch]] group. As a stuffy ex-army member who leads a motley bunch of comic characters, Wyatt was quite similar to Foggy. The programme, which co-starred [[Trevor Bannister]], was written by [[Miles Tredinnick]] and ran for one series of six episodes.

===Death===
Wilde suffered a fall in January 2008 from which he never recovered. He died in his sleep on the morning of 20 March 2008 at his home in [[Ware, Hertfordshire|Ware]], [[Hertfordshire]] and was survived by his wife Eva, their son Andrew and daughter Sarah.

His son, Andrew Wilde, had been film editor on ''Last of the Summer Wine'' from the mid-1990s until the final episode in 2010, working initially on many of the episodes that had starred his father and later on the Frank Thornton editions.<ref name="Independent">{{cite news
|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/brian-wilde-foggy-in-last-of-the-summer-wine-798985.html
|title=Brian Wilde: Foggy in 'Last of the Summer Wine'
|first=Anthony
|last=Hayward
|work=[[The Independent]]
|date=21 March 2008
|access-date=21 March 2008
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7306954.stm
|title=Summer Wine star Brian Wilde dies
|date=21 March 2008
|access-date=21 March 2008
|work=BBC News}}</ref>

==Partial filmography==
===Film===
{{Div col}}
* ''[[Street Corner (1953 film)|Street Corner]]'' (1953) – Pinky – Bogus Detective Sgt (uncredited)
* ''[[Will Any Gentleman...?]]'' (1953) – 1st Clerk
* ''[[Forbidden Cargo (1954 film)|Forbidden Cargo]]'' (1954) – Smuggler at Airfield (uncredited)
* ''[[Simon and Laura]]'' (1955) – Peter Harbottle
* ''[[Now and Forever (1956 film)|Now and Forever]]'' (1956) – Policeman (uncredited)
* ''[[Tiger in the Smoke]]'' (1956) – Trumps
* ''[[Interpol (1957 film)|Interpol]]'' (1957) – The Monk
* ''[[Night of the Demon]]'' (1957) – Rand Hobart
* ''[[The Gypsy and the Gentleman]]'' (1958) – (uncredited)
* ''[[Girls at Sea (1958 film)|Girls at Sea]]'' (1958) – Bill
* ''[[Corridors of Blood]]'' (1958) – Man in Operating Theatre Audience (uncredited)
* ''[[Subway in the Sky]]'' (1959)
* ''[[Beyond the Curtain]]'' (1960) – Bill Seddon
* ''[[Scotland Yard (film series)]]'' (1961) - The Never Never Murder - Porter
* ''[[Life for Ruth]]'' (1962) – Newspaper Photographer (uncredited)
* ''[[We Joined the Navy]]'' (1962) – Petty Officer Gibbons
* ''[[West 11]]'' (1963) – Speaker
* ''[[The Informers (1963 film)|The Informers]]'' (1963) – Lipson
* ''[[The Man Who Finally Died]]'' (1963) – Cemetery Superintendent (uncredited)
* ''[[The Bargee]]'' (1964) – Policeman
* ''[[Rattle of a Simple Man]]'' (1964) – Fred
* ''[[Darling (1965 film)|Darling]]'' (1965) – Willett
* ''[[Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment]]'' (1966) – Mr. Gilbert (uncredited)
* ''[[Rasputin the Mad Monk]]'' (1966) – Vassily's Father (uncredited)
* ''[[The Jokers]]'' (1967) – Sgt. Catchpole
* ''[[You Only Live Twice (film)|You Only Live Twice]]'' (1967) – 1st Policeman (uncredited)
* ''[[Carry On Doctor]]'' (1967) – Man from Cox & Carter
* ''[[Connecting Rooms]]'' (1970) – Ellerman
* ''[[Goodbye Gemini]]'' (1970) – Taxi Driver
* ''[[Carry On Henry]]'' (1971) – Warder (scenes deleted)
* ''[[One Brief Summer]]'' (1971) – Lambert
* ''[[No Sex Please, We're British (film)|No Sex Please, We're British]]'' (1973) – Policeman
* ''[[Alfie Darling]]'' (1975) – Doctor
* ''[[To the Devil a Daughter]]'' (1976) – Black Room Attendant
* ''[[Adventures of a Taxi Driver]]'' (1976) – Harold
* ''[[Porridge (film)|Porridge]]'' (1979) – Barrowclough
{{div col end}}

===Television===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
|-
| 1963 || ''[[Hancock (1963 TV series)|Hancock]]'' || Stan Lovegrove || 1 episode
|-
| 1964 || ''[[Melissa (1964 TV series)|Melissa]]'' || Chief Inspector Carter || 5 episodes
|-
|1965–1966 || ''[[The Man in Room 17]]'' || George Horton / Dr. Boddington || 2 episodes
|-
|1966 || ''[[The Baron (TV series)|The Baron]]'' || Paul Sutton || Episode: "Portrait of Louisa"
|-
|1966–1967 || ''[[Room at the Bottom (1967 TV series)|Room at the Bottom]]'' || Mr Salisbury || 7 episodes
|-
|1967 || ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' || Jeremy Raven || Episode: "The Fear Merchants"
|-
|1967 || ''[[George and the Dragon (TV series)|George and the Dragon]]'' || Policeman || 1 Episode
|-
|1970 || ''[[The Dustbinmen]]'' || Bloody Delilah || 14 episodes
|-
|1970 || ''[[Catweazle]]''|| Vicar || Episode: The Telling Bone’’
|-
|1970–1973 || ''[[Special Branch (TV series)|Special Branch]]'' || Professor Munro / Alan Pritchard || 2 episodes
|-
|1971 || ''[[Elizabeth R]]'' || Richard Topcliffe || Episode: "Horrible Conspiracies"
|-
|1971 || [[Justice (1971 TV series)|''Justice'']]|| David Latimer/Jeavons || To Help an Old School Friend
|-
|1972 || ''[[Ace of Wands (TV series)|Ace of Wands]]'' || Mr Peacock || 3 episodes
|-
|1973 || ''Black & Blue'' || Major Forster || Episode: "[[Secrets (Black and Blue)|Secrets]]"
|-
|1973 || ''[[Marked Personal]]'' || Stan Lyons || 2 episodes
|-
|1974–1977 || ''[[Porridge (TV series)|Porridge]]'' || Mr. Henry Barrowclough || 19 episodes
|-
|1975 || ''[[The Sweeney]]'' || Stanley Hedges || Episode: "Thin Ice"
|-
|1976–1985, 1990–1997 || ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]'' || Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst || 116 episodes
|-
|1984–1986 || ''[[The Kit Curran Radio Show]]'' || Roland Simpson || 6 episodes
|-
|1988 || ''[[Wyatt's Watchdogs]]'' || Major John Wyatt || 6 episodes
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0928415}}
* [http://www.milestredinnick.co.uk/page5.html Wyatt's Watchdogs site]
* [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/553520610425427488 Photos on Pinterest]
;Obituaries
** [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/brian-wilde-foggy-in-last-of-the-summer-wine-798985.html ''The Independent''], 21 March 2008
** [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3592678.ece ''The Times''], 21 March 2008
** [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/mar/24/bbc.television ''The Guardian''], 24 March 2008
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilde, Brian}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Ashton-under-Lyne]]
[[Category:English male television actors]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]
[[Category:Male actors from Lancashire]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:People educated at Hertford Grammar School]]
[[Category:British male comedy actors]]

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Brian Wilde