Deathpool 2020

[Davelfc]

 

 

The actor Derek Fowlds, who has died aged 82, enjoyed long-running stardom on the small screen in popular TV shows ranging from children’s programmes to sitcom and drama.

To a generation of young viewers, he was familiar as “Mr Derek” in The Basil Brush Show. For four years (1969-73) he weathered bad jokes and puns from the waistcoat-wearing fox puppet, who usually followed them up with his catchphrase: “Boom! Boom!” During the first day of recording, it occurred to Fowlds: “I’ve had 10 years as a straight actor – what are people going to think?” However, he became a household name, adopting a slightly stern demeanour to keep the furry star in check, in response to constant interruptions, such as Basil rustling a bag of jelly babies and offering him one at a critical moment.

 

Each week, alongside a series of sketches and a musical guest, came “story time”, in which Fowlds would read Basil a tale about one of his fictional ancestors. The wily fox was the creation of Peter Firmin, and was operated and voiced by Ivan Owen in the cultivated style of the caddish comedy actor Terry-Thomas.

 

The Basil Brush Show was rare for a children’s programme in featuring topical political jokes – and politics was at the core of Fowlds’s next TV success. The satirical sitcom Yes Minister (1980-84), written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, was disarmingly realistic in its depiction of the machinations of government and the power wielded by civil servants.

 

Fowlds played Bernard Woolley, the private secretary struggling to keep the peace between the idealistic but inept new minister of administrative affairs, Jim Hacker (played by Paul Eddington), as he tries to shake up his department, and Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne), the permanent under-secretary, speaking in gobbledegook as he attempts to block change.

 

Nervously steering a moderating course in the role – with Bernard’s loyalties split between his political and civil service bosses – Fowlds then appeared with Eddington and Hawthorne in the sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986-88), in which Hacker achieves his ultimate political ambition of running the country – and the writers revealed him to be a Tory. Both sitcoms were showered with accolades, including five Bafta awards.

[Davelfc]

Sorry, this isn't the TLW Deathpool 2020, but those celebrities won't wait and stop popping their clogs until one is created.