R2OK! Forum Index R2OK!
Contact R2OK! admin

Click here for R2OK! Website


 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

RIP Mr Higginbottom

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> In Memoriam
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:44 am    Post subject: RIP Mr Higginbottom Reply with quote

Actor and singer Tony Melody has died at the age of 85.

R2 listeners of a certain age will remember him in many episodes of the Clitheroe Kid, in which he played a number of parts, most notably that of Jimmy's neighbour, the thuggish taxi driver Horatio Higginbottom. Such was Higgy's ill-concealed detestation of Jimmy's series character that he perpetually addressed him simply as Clitheroe. You can catch occasional repeats on BBC7 but not many of the show's recordings have been preserved.

TM made many other film, radio and TV appearances and some may remember him playing John Nettles' boss in early episodes of BBC1's Bergerac.

He was also a singer but apparently Melody was his real name and not a manufactured one.

My sympathy to his family.

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RockitRon



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 7646

PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I had noticed this a few days ago and wondered whether to mention it. Hugh Lloyd also died last week, at the same age.

Both were very much supporting comic actors who turned up regularly in many radio and tv comedies. I remember Tony Melody as the milkman who taught Harold to dance in Steptoe & Son; Hugh was for many years the foil to Terry Scott (in Hugh and I) and his most famous couple of minutes must have been as the chap who made off with Tony Hancock's wine gums after they'd both given blood.

Both of them continued to work almost until their deaths, and didn't confine themselves to comedy - Tony played Len Fallows in the dramatisation of the Harold Shipman case, Hugh had a part in a Foyle's War, and only last week ITV repeated the episode of Doc Martin he appeared in, as the old chap with the terrible smell which turned out to be his dead budgie inside his shopping bag.

Sad to hear of their passing, but they will not be forgotten.
_________________
Ron
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, sorry I forgot to mention Hugh Lloyd. Funnily enough both he and I were educated at the King's School, Chester--but 25 years apart, of course!

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> In Memoriam All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com