Edward Harry Kelsey (4 June 193023 April 2019) was an English actor. He was best known for voicing the role of Joe Grundy for 34 years in ''
The Archers
''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...
'' 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' ...
and for voicing various other characters on television.
Early Life and career
Kelsey was born in
Petersfield
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...
,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, and educated at
Churcher's College
Churcher's College is an independent, fee-charging day school for girls and boys, founded in 1722. The Senior School (ages 11–18) is in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire with the Junior School and Nursery (ages 2 years, 9 months–11) ...
. In 1954, he joined the
Radio Drama Company
The Radio Drama Company is a company of actors formed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. It is sometimes referred to as RDC, or the Rep, a survival from its original name, the Drama Re ...
by winning the
Carlton Hobbs BursaryCarlton Hobbs Bursary winners
at BBC.co.uk, accessed 23 January 2018 He was known for voicing the characters of Colonel K and Baron Silas Greenback in the animated series '' Danger Mouse'' produced by Cosgrove Hall
Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of childre ...
. He also appeared on such British TV programmes as '' The Avengers'', '' Softly, Softly'', ''The Saint
The Saint may refer to:
Fiction
* Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations:
** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...
'', ''Public Eye
Public Eye or The Public Eye may refer to:
* ''Public Eye'' (TV series), a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975
* ''The Public Eye'' (TV series), a Canadian television public affairs television series which aired on CBC Televisio ...
'', ''Dempsey and Makepeace
''Dempsey and Makepeace'' is a British television crime drama made by LWT for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham. Lead roles were played by Michael Brandon (Lieutenant Dempsey) and Glynis Barber (Detective Makepeace), who later married ...
'', ''Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...
'', ''Juliet Bravo
''Juliet Bravo'' is a British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC1. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over con ...
'', '' Doctor Who'', ''Minder
A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds".
Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...
'', ''Angels
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...
'', ''Casualty
Casualty may refer to:
*Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster
**Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare
* The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...
'', ''The Vicar of Dibley
''The Vicar of Dibley'' is a British sitcom which originally ran on BBC One from 10 November 1994 to 1 January 2007. It is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes ...
'', '' Reilly: Ace of Spies'', '' Shoestring'', ''Wives and Daughters
''Wives and Daughters, An Every-Day Story'' is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. It was partly written whilst Gaskell was staying with the salon hostess M ...
'', ''Anna of the Five Towns
''Anna of the Five Towns'' is a novel by Arnold Bennett, first published in 1902 and one of his best-known works.
Plot background
The plot centres on Anna Tellwright, daughter of a wealthy but miserly and dictatorial father, living in the St ...
'', '' Campion'', ''The Tripods
''The Tripods'' is a series of young adult novels written by John Christopher, beginning in 1967. The first two were the basis of a science fiction TV series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.
Synopsis
The story of ''The Tripods'' ...
'' and '' EastEnders''.The Power of the Daleks
''The Power of the Daleks'' is the completely missing third serial of the fourth season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is ...
'' and Edu in ''The Creature from the Pit
''The Creature from the Pit'' is the third serial of the 17th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 27 October to 17 November 1979. It was the first se ...
''. He voiced Mr. Growbag in '' Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' (2005), several characters in ''Victor and Hugo
''Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime'' (also known as ''Victor & Hugo'') is a British animated series made by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television and broadcast on Children's ITV from 6 September 1991 to 29 December 1992. Its eponymous ...
'', Cosgrove Hall's '' The Reluctant Dragon'' and ''The Wind in the Willows
''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...
'' (TV and film), H.H. Junketbury in ''The Talking Parcel
''The Talking Parcel'' (also published as ''The Battle for Castle Cockatrice'') is a 1974 book by Gerald Durrell in which children are transported to the fantasy land of Mythologia to save it from cockatrices. They are aided by a talking parrot ...
'', Farmer Listener and Forester in ''The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
''The Flying Ship'' (Russian title ''Летучий корабль''), or ''The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship'', is a Russian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in '' The Yellow Fairy Book'' and Arthur Ransome in '' Old Peter's Russian ...
'' and also for the voice of "The Thing" in another Cosgrove Hall production, ''Truckers
A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...
'', based on a book by Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels.
Pratchett's first no ...
.
Death
He died of a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
on 23 April 2019 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. He was 88 years old.
Filmography
References
External links
*
The Archers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelsey, Edward
1930 births
2019 deaths
English male film actors
English male radio actors
English male soap opera actors
English male stage actors
English male voice actors
People educated at Churcher's College
People from Petersfield
Male actors from Hampshire
The Archers
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors