Derek Fowlds

Derek Fowlds
Fowlds in 1974
Born	Derek James Fowlds (1937-09-02)2 September 1937 Wandsworth, London, England
Died	17 January 2020(2020-01-17) (aged 82) Bath, Somerset, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, presenter
Years active	1962–2020
Spouse(s)	Wendy Tory ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1973)​ Lesley Judd ​ ​ (m. 1974; div. 1978)​
Partner	Jo Lindsay (1976–2012; her death)
Children	2

Derek James Fowlds^[1] (2 September 1937 – 17 January 2020) was an English actor. He played "Mr Derek" in The Basil Brush Show (1969–1973), Bernard Woolley in the sitcom Yes Minister (1980–1984) and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988), and Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat (1992–2010).

Early life

Derek James Fowlds was born on 2 September 1937 in Wandsworth, London, the son of Ketha Muriel (née Treacher) and James Witney Fowlds,^[2] a salesman. In early life he and his mother and sister went to live in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, at his maternal grandmother's home.^[3] There Fowlds attended Ashlyns School, a secondary modern school.^[4] After leaving school aged 15, Fowlds worked at a printer's firm as an apprentice and, as his National Service, spent two years in the RAF as a wireless operator.^[1]

Career

After success in amateur acting, his teacher encouraged him to take it up as a career and Fowlds won a scholarship to RADA in 1958.^[5]

Fowlds made his debut on the West End stage in The Miracle Worker. He appeared in various film roles, including Tamahine (1963), East of Sudan (1964), Hotel Paradiso (1966), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969), Tower of Evil (1972) and Mistress Pamela (1974), before becoming familiar to British television child viewers as "Mr. Derek" in the popular British children's series The Basil Brush Show for four series, replacing Rodney Bewes as presenter.^[1]

Fowlds played Lord Randolph Churchill in the ATV series Edward the Seventh (1975). In Yes Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister he played the naïve and callow Bernard Woolley alongside Paul Eddington's Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne's Sir Humphrey Appleby.^[1]

From 1983 to 1985, Fowlds played the lead role in the sitcom Affairs of the Heart. He had a more sinister role in the 1990 political thriller Die Kinder. Fowlds then played curmudgeonly Oscar Blaketon in the long-running Yorkshire Television police drama nostalgia series Heartbeat for its entire 18-year run beginning in 1992. The character first appeared as the local police sergeant, then retired from the force (due to Oscar's ill health) and ran the post office before becoming a publican.^[1]

Personal life

Fowlds married, and later divorced, Wendy Tory. He later married Blue Peter presenter and dancer Lesley Judd. They divorced in 1978. His partner of 36 years, Jo Lindsay, died in 2012.^[1] He was the father of two sons, including the actor Jeremy Fowlds. His autobiography, A Part Worth Playing, written with Michael Sellers, was published in 2015 by Fantom Publishing.^[6]

Fowlds died at Royal United Hospital in Bath on 17 January 2020 aged 82 from complications of heart failure and sepsis, which had followed pneumonia.^[1][7][8] His funeral was held at St Katharine's Church in Holt, Wiltshire, on 17 February 2020.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Derek Fowlds.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Derek Fowlds.

• Derek Fowlds at the British Film Institute
• Derek Fowlds at IMDb
• Derek Fowlds as Oscar Blaketon in 'Heartbeat' Archived 10 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine