Bernard Wrigley (born 25 February 1948 in Bolton,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England) is an English singer, actor and comedian. He is sometimes known by the nickname "The Bolton Bullfrog". Wrigley's career as a singer and storyteller began in the late 1960s, when a love of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

led him to perform in folk clubs. Since then he has released over sixteen albums of traditional and original songs, stories and monologues. His main instruments are the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and concertina. He began acting around the same time and has made many appearances on stage, most famously in

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

's '' Waiting for Godot'' alongside

Mike Harding Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist. Harding has also been a photographer, traveller, filmmaker and playwright. Early life and education Harding's ...

at Bolton's

Octagon Theatre The Octagon Theatre is a producing theatre located in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Programme The Octagon produces eight or nine professional theatre productions each year in its Main Auditorium. Productions come from a wide range of ty ...

, and Jim Cartwright's ''

Road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

'' at the

Royal Exchange Theatre The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Wrigley has made many appearances in British TV programmes in a career spanning over five decades, including ''

Phoenix Nights ''Phoenix Nights'' is a British sitcom about The Phoenix Club, a working men's club in the northern English town of Bolton, Greater Manchester. The show is a spin-off from the "In the Club" episode of the spoof documentary series ''That Pete ...

'' (where he was Dodgy Eric, who sold club owner Brian Potter a '' Das Boot''

fruit machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively as ...

, a

bucking bronco A bucking horse is any breed or either gender of horse with a propensity to buck. They have been, and still are, referred to by various names, including bronco, broncho, and roughstock. The harder they buck, the more desirable they are for r ...

and an obscene

bouncy castle Bounce or The Bounce may refer to: * Deflection (physics), the event where an object collides with and bounces against a plane surface Books * Mr. Bounce, a character from the Mr. Men series of children's books Broadcasting, film and TV * ''B ...

), '' Emmerdale'' (as eccentric rocket inventor Barry Clegg) and ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' (most recently as the Rev. Marvin Winstanley, the shady 'internet priest' whom Roy and Hayley approached to arrange their wedding - Wrigley's sixth character in the

soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

). His other credits include ''

Wood and Walters ''Wood and Walters'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Julie Walters and Victoria Wood for Granada Television and written entirely by Wood. The show was short-lived, with one pilot in 1981 and a series of seven shows in 1982. ...

'', ''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (often abbreviated as ''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip ...

'', '' Last of the Summer Wine'', ''

Cold Feet Cold feet is a phrase that refers to a person not going through with an action, particularly one which requires long term commitment, due to fear, uncertainty, and doubt. A person is said to be "getting cold feet" when, after previously committin ...

'', '' Coogan's Run'', ''

dinnerladies Lunch lady, in Canada and the US, is a term for a woman who cooks and serves food in a school cafeteria. The equivalent term in the United Kingdom is dinner lady. The role is also sometimes known as cafeteria lady. Sometimes, a lunch lady also ...

'', ''

Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings ''Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings'' is a one-off Christmas comedy sketch-show special, written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood. It was first broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day 2000. The cast included Wood's frequent co-stars Celia ...

'', '' Shameless'', ''

Heartbeat A heartbeat is one cardiac cycle of the heart. Heartbeat, heart beat, heartbeats, and heart beats may refer to: Computing *Heartbeat (computing), a periodic signal to indicate normal operation or to synchronize parts of a system *Heartbeat, clus ...

'' ''

In with the Flynns ''In with the Flynns'' is a British sitcom created by Caryn Mandabach, produced by Caryn Mandabach Productions, and broadcast by the BBC. The first series began broadcast on 8 June 2011 for six episodes on BBC One and in high definition on BBC On ...

'' and Fat Friends. He also appeared as a union official in '' Brassed Off'' and as a school teacher in ''

Rita, Sue and Bob Too ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' is a 1987 British comedy-drama film directed by Alan Clarke, set in Bradford, West Yorkshire about two teenaged schoolgirls who have a sexual fling with a married man. It was adapted by Andrea Dunbar, based on two of ...

''. In 1978 he was a night school teacher in Alan Bennett's play, ''

Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf ''Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf'' is a 1978 television play by Alan Bennett, produced by London Weekend Television and directed by Stephen Frears. The title of the play is a parody of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', which in turn plays on ...

''. On

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

he has acted in plays lasting from 15 to 90 minutes. BBC Radio Lancashire has broadcast many of his pre-recorded series, such as ''Wrigley's Ramblings'' and ''Home Brewed'', and his readings of many stories written by Tommy Thompson. As a writer he has released various combinations of his songs and monologues. In 2006, he produced a book of silly one-verse poems ''Shorts For All Occasions'', which was followed in 2008 by ''The Longs & The Shorts Of It''.

Discography

*''The Phenomenal B. Wrigley'' (1971) *''Rough and Wrigley'' (1974) *''Songs, Stories & Elephants'' (1976) *''Ten Ton Special'' (1976) *''The Bolton Bullfrog'' (1981) *''Rude Bits!'' (1985) *''The Instrumental Album'' (1988) *''Wanted: Live!'' (1991) *''Buggerlugs'' (1992) *''Albert, Arthur & the Car Park'' (1997) *''Magnificent Monologues'' (2000) *''Fairly Truthful Tales'' (2002) *''Magnificent Monologues Volume 2'' (2002) *''Monologology'' (2003) *''Amblethwaite 'Appenings'' (2004) *''God's Own County'' (2005) *''Every Song Tells a Story'' (2009) *''Songs of the Seven Seas'' (2011)

References

External links

* * 1948 births Living people English male singers English folk singers English male television actors Male actors from Bolton Transatlantic Records artists English male comedians Comedians from Lancashire {{UK-tv-actor-1940s-stub