Brian Wilde: The Untold Story

Brian George Wilde, born on 13th June 1927, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK, was an actor, best known for his TV roles comedy, most notably Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and Foggy Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine. His lugubrious, world-weary face was a staple of British TV for 40 years. Wilde was brought up in Devon and Hertfordshire, having attended Hertford Grammar School, before training as an actor at RADA. Brian had an early uncredited role as a small-time crook, in the film Forbidden Cargo (1954), starring Jack Warner and Nigel Patrick, followed by a small but significant and dramatic part in the horror movie, Night of the Demon (1957). His early TV work included the series The Love of Mike (1960) then supporting Tony Hancock in episodes of his ATV series during 1963. Wilde also played Detective Superintendent Halcro in The Men from Room Thirteen (BBC, 1959-61), a series of two-part thrillers about undercover Scotland Yard officers. He had minor roles in films including Life for Ruth (1962), The Bargee (1964), The Jokers (1967) and Carry On Doctor (1967), and on TV in Room at the Bottom (1966-67) as Mr Salisbury. Brian's first major success in TV was during 1970, as refuse depot manager Bloody Delilah in the ITV sitcom The Dustbinmen. He showed his sinister side as the mischievous magician Mr Peacock, in the children's drama series Ace of Wands from 1970 - 1972. Wilde starred as a murderer in The Uninvited (1971), an episode of the BBC's supernatural thriller series Out of the Unknown, also having appeared that year in the TV drama Elizabeth R, playing the efficient, merciless 'rackmaster' Richard Topcliffe, who was charged with the torture of prisoners in the Tower of London. Brian then played a character in the 1970s British children's series The Ghosts of Motley Hall, by Richard Carpenter. Wilde starred as a different kind of gaoler in the 2nd episode of Seven of One during 1973, a series of 7 individual stories, all of which starred Ronnie Barker. In the episode, entitled Prisoner and Escort, he played Mr Barrowclough, one of two prison officers, whose job it was to escort Barker's character Fletcher across the moors to his prison, the other having been Mr Mackay, played by Fulton Mackay. Due to the popularity of the episode, a series was commissioned by the BBC, titled Porridge, in which Brian reprised his role as the timid and eager-to-please Barrowclough.