Windsor Davies

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Windsor Davies (28 August 1930 – 17 January 2019)<ref name="BBC Arts">Template:Cite web</ref> was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981) over its entire run. The show's popularity resulted in Davies and his co-star Don Estelle achieving a UK number-one hit with a version of "Whispering Grass" in 1975. He later starred with Donald Sinden in Never the Twain (1981–1991), and his deep Welsh-accented voice was heard extensively in advertising voice-overs.

Early life

Davies was born on 28 August 1930 in Canning Town, East London,<ref name="ukbmd.org.uk"/> to Welsh parents. In 1940 they returned to their native village of Nant-y-moel, Glamorgan.<ref name="Gdn20190120">Template:Cite news</ref> Davies studied at Ogmore Grammar School and worked as a coal miner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He performed his National Service in Libya and Egypt, with the East Surrey Regiment, between 1950 and 1952.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following teacher training at Bangor Teacher Training College,<ref name="BBC Arts" /> he taught English and Maths at Leek in Staffordshire,<ref name="BBC20190119">Template:Cite news</ref> and at a school in Elephant and Castle, south London.<ref name="Timesobit" />

Davies had become active in amateur dramatics, including the Bromley Little Theatre, and took a short drama course with a Kew theatre company.<ref name="BBC20190119" /> He became a professional actor at the age of 31 and began working at the Cheltenham repertory theatre in 1961.<ref name="Timesobit" />

Career

Television

Davies' best known role was as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981),<ref name="BBC Arts" /> who was modelled on similar individuals Davies had met as a soldier during his national service. "Bastards, real bastards some of them were. They knew it, too, and took pride in it," he once said.<ref name="Timesobit" /> Among his character's catchphrases was "Shut Up!!", delivered as an eardrum-shattering military scream.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another phrase was "Oh dear, how sad, never mind", delivered in a dry, ironic manner, and used when others around him had problems. Journalist Neil Clark, contributing to The Times in 2005, described his performance as the "definitive portrayal of a bullying and uneducated sergeant-major" and reported Spike Milligan was of the opinion that Davies' role was "the funniest comic performance he had ever" watched.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> Davies and co-star Don Estelle had a number-one hit in the UK with a semicomic version of "Whispering Grass" in 1975.<ref name="BBC Arts" />

His other television roles included the sailor Taffy in the first of the BBC series The Onedin Line (1971), a boat captain in an episode of Special Branch, a special branch detective in Callan (1972), and the antique dealer Oliver Smallbridge in Never the Twain (1981–1991), with Donald Sinden.<ref name="BFI">Template:Cite web</ref> In the field of science fiction television, Davies appeared in the 1967 Doctor Who story "The Evil of the Daleks" as Toby;<ref name=who>Template:Cite web</ref> and was the voice of Sergeant Major Zero (a spherical robotic soldier in charge of 100 other spherical robotic soldiers) in the 1983 Gerry Anderson-Christopher Burr production Terrahawks.<ref name="BBC Arts" />

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In September–October 1985, Davies played the lead role of George Vance, a museum custodian elevated to the peerage, in the six-part BBC Two comedy series The New Statesman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This was based on the play by Douglas Watkinson<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and is not to be confused with the later sitcom of the same name. (Colin Blakely played the role of Vance in a pilot episode transmitted on BBC2 in December 1984.)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Davies also featured in the BBC comedy sitcom Oh, Doctor Beeching!, written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove, as the Lord Mayor in an episode broadcast in 1997. He also featured in an episode of 2 Point 4 Children in 1999, as Ben's long-lost Uncle Ion.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Films

In the cinema, Davies played major roles in two Carry On films, Behind (1975) and England (1976), in the latter again as a sergeant major. He played Mog in the Welsh rugby film Grand Slam (1978), and was a sergeant in the Highland Regiment in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1973) with Jim Dale and Spike Milligan.<ref name="BFI Filmog" /> In 1989, he revived the role of Sergeant Major Williams in a 30-minute Royal Air Force training film, Hazardous Ops.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Voice work

Davies' distinctive voice was heard in commercials for New Zealand's Pink Batts house insulations and confectionery ads for Cadbury's Wispa<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and for Heinz Curried (Baked) Beans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also appeared alongside New Zealand rugby union coach Alex Wyllie in New Zealand advertisements for Mitre 10 hardware stores in the early 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Davies and Wyllie had worked together previously on the rugby-themed film Old Scores in 1991.<ref name=doodleman/>

In the 1970s, he read an edition of BBC Radio 4's Morning Story programme,<ref name="BBC Arts" /> and also narrated the audiobook for the Ladybird children's classic Treasure Island.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He sang and voiced many characters in the Paul McCartney film Rupert and the Frog Song in 1984, and appeared in that year's children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman as three different characters (the Ringmaster, the Black Knight, and an Ugly Sister).<ref name=doodleman>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1984, he auditioned to be the voice of the UK's speaking clock.<ref name="BBC Arts" />

Personal life and death

In 1957, he married Eluned Lynne Evans; the couple had four daughters and a son. Eluned died in September 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Timesobit">Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> Davies lived in the south of France,<ref name="Gdn20190120" /> and was a keen birdwatcher.<ref name="Timesobit" />

He died on 17 January 2019, aged 88, four months following the death of his wife.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

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Discography

Albums

Year Album UK Notes Sources
1975 Sing Lofty X With Don Estelle <ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>
1978 Bless You For Being An Angel X <ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":22">Template:Cite web</ref>
Do I Worry X <ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":22" />
1983 Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book X Audiobook <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Singles

Year A-side B-side UK Notes Sources
1975 "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" X With Don Estelle <ref name=":1" /><ref name=":32">Template:Cite web</ref>
"Whispering Grass" "I Should Have Known" 1 <ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":32" />
"Paper Doll" "When I Learn To Love Again" 41 <ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":32" />
1976 "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" "What a Wonderful World" X <ref name=":1" /><ref name=":32" />
"Nagasaki" "Anything Is Possible" X <ref name=":1" /><ref name=":32" />
1979 "Cool Water" "Muck Spreadin' Charlie" X <ref name=":32" /><ref name=":1" />

References

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