Frederick Robert Yule (7 October 1893, Norfolk – 11 December 1982,

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

) was an English character actor, comedian and singer, mainly known for his appearances in post-

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

programmes such as ''

ITMA ''It's That Man Again'' (commonly contracted to ''ITMA'') was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran for twelve series from 1939 to 1949. The shows featured Tommy Handley in the central role, a fast-talking figure, around whom the other cha ...

'', ''

Ray's a Laugh Ted Ray (born Charles Olden; 21 November 1905 – 8 November 1977) was an English comedian of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, on radio and television. His BBC radio show ''Ray's a Laugh'' ran for 12 years. Biography Ray was born Charles Olden i ...

'', ''

Band Waggon ''Band Waggon'' was a comedy radio show broadcast by the BBC from 1938 to 1940. The first series featured Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch, Richard "Stinker" Murdoch. In the second series, Askey and Murdoch were joined by Syd Walker, and the thir ...

'' (1947 era) and ''

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 settin ...

''. He began his stage career as a singer in pantomime, West End musicals and music hall. He first broadcast in 1925, as the vocalist with

Herman Darewski Herman Darewski (17 April 1883 – 2 June 1947) was a British composer and conductor of light music. His most successful work was perhaps ''The Better 'Ole'', which ran for over 800 performances in its original London production in 1917. Some o ...

's orchestra. After that he became a prolific broadcaster with a wide range, including variety, drama, features, talks, and programmes for young listeners. His voice was well known to a generation of radio listeners as the one that stopped "the mighty roar of London's traffic" at the start of each episode of ''

In Town Tonight ''In Town Tonight'' is a BBC radio programme that was broadcast on Saturday evening from 1933 to 1960 (except for a period of 26 weeks in 1937 when ''The BBC presents the ABC'' was broadcast instead). It was an early example of a chat show, o ...

''. He also provided more than one voice in a radio adaptation of "Three Men in a Boat" by Hubert Gregg. This was repeated, after many years in the archives, on BBC Radio 4 extra. His sole film appearance was in ''The Charcoal-Burner's Son'' (1939)."Personally Speaking" BBC radio interview 1978 He was married to music hall actress Doreen Monte.

References

1893 births 1982 deaths English male radio actors English male comedians Actors from Norfolk 20th-century English comedians {{England-actor-stub