Bernard Wrigley (born 25 February 1948 in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

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 Lancash ...

, 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 In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

. 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 strin ...

and

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

. He began acting around the same time and has made many appearances on stage, most famously in Samuel Beckett'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 Jim Cartwright (born 27 June 1958) is an English dramatist, born in Farnworth, Lancashire. Cartwright's first play, ''Road'', won a number of awards before being adapted for TV and broadcast by the BBC. His work has been translated into more ...

'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 Pet ...

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

Das Boot ''Das Boot'' (, English: "The Boat") is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as ...

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 ...

, 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 ''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, ...

'' (as eccentric rocket inventor Barry Clegg) and '' Coronation Street'' (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'', ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of '' Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes f ...

'', '' Cold Feet'', ''

Coogan's Run ''Coogan's Run'' is a 1995 UK TV series featuring Steve Coogan as a series of odd characters living in the fictional town of Ottle. It was written by various people including Coogan, Patrick Marber, David Tyler, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, ...

'', ''

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'' and ''

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 ...

''. He also appeared as a union official in ''

Brassed Off ''Brassed Off'' is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure ...

'' 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 Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two ...

'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 BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Darwen Street in Blackburn. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

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 Actors from Bolton People from Farnworth Transatlantic Records artists {{UK-tv-actor-1940s-stub