Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a
Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British
radio comedy Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve variety show, sitcom elements, sketches, and various types of comedy found in other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be con ...
programme ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, most notably
Neddie Seagoon
Neddie Seagoon was a character in the 1950s British radio comedy show ''The Goon Show''. He was created and performed by Welsh comedian Harry Secombe. Seagoon was usually the central character of a ''Goon Show'' episode, with most plots involving ...
. An accomplished tenor, he also appeared in
musicals and films – notably as
Bumble
Bumble is an online dating application. Profiles of potential matches are displayed to users, who can "swipe left" to reject a candidate or "swipe right" to indicate interest. In heterosexual matches, only female users can make the first contac ...
in ''
Oliver!'' (1968) – and, in his later years, was a presenter of television shows incorporating
hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...
s and other devotional songs.
Early life
Secombe was born in
St Thomas, Swansea, the third of four children of Nellie Jane Gladys (née Davies), a shop manageress, and Frederick Ernest Secombe, a
commercial traveller and office worker for a Swansea wholesale grocery business.
From the age of 11 he attended
Dynevor School, a state grammar school in central Swansea.
His family were regular churchgoers, belonging to the congregation of St Thomas Church. A member of the choir, from the age of 12 Secombe would perform a sketch entitled ''The Welsh Courtship'' at church socials, acting as "feed" to his sister Carol. His elder brother,
Fred Secombe, became the author of several books about his experiences as an Anglican priest and rector.
Army service
After leaving school in 1937, Secombe became a pay clerk at Baldwin's store. With war looming, he decided in 1938 that he would join the
Territorial Army. Very
short sighted, he got a friend to tell him the sight test, and then learnt it by heart. He served as a
Lance Bombardier in
No.132 Field Regiment of the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
.
He referred to the unit in which he served during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in the
North African Campaign,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, as "The Five-Mile Snipers". While in North Africa Secombe met
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...
for the first time.
In Sicily he joined a concert party and developed his own comedy routines to entertain the troops.
When Secombe visited the
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...
to entertain the troops after the 1982
Falklands War, his old regiment promoted him to the rank of sergeant – 37 years after he had been
demobbed
Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...
.
As an entertainer
He made his first radio broadcast in May 1944 on a variety show aimed at the military services. Following the end of fighting in the war but prior to demobilisation, Secombe joined a pool of entertainers in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
and formed a comedy duo with
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...
.
Secombe joined the cast of the
Windmill Theatre
The Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street, London, was a variety and revue theatre best known for its nude '' tableaux vivants'', which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians o ...
in 1946, using a routine he had developed in Italy about how people shaved.
An early review said that Secombe was “an original humorist of the infectious type and is very funny in a series showing how different men shave and in an impression of a vocalist.” Secombe always claimed that his ability to sing could always be counted on to save him when he bombed.
After a regional touring career, his first break came in radio in 1951 when he was chosen as resident comedian for the Welsh series ''
Welsh Rarebit
Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit ( or ) is a dish consisting of a hot cheese-based sauce served over slices of toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later reinterpreted as "rarebit", ...
,'' followed by appearances on ''
Variety Bandbox
''Variety Bandbox'' is a BBC Radio variety show transmitted initially in the BBC General Forces Programme, General Forces Programme and then the BBC Light Programme, Light Programme. Featuring a mixture of comic performances and music, the show h ...
'' and a regular role in ''
Educating Archie
''Educating Archie'' was a BBC Light Programme comedy show which was broadcast for nearly ten years between June 1950 and February 1960, mostly at lunchtime on Sundays. The programme featured ventriloquist Peter Brough and his doll Archie Andr ...
''.
Secombe met
Michael Bentine
Michael Bentine, (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922General Register Office for England and Wales – Birth Register for the March Quarter of 1922, Watford Registration District, Reference 3a 1478, listed as "Michael J. Bentin", mother ...
at the Windmill Theatre, and he was introduced to
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
by his agent
Jimmy Grafton. Both Milligan and Sellers credited him with keeping the act on the bill when club owners had wanted to sack them. Together with Spike Milligan, the four wrote a comedy radio script, and ''Those Crazy People'' was commissioned and first broadcast on 28 May 1951. Produced by
Dennis Main Wilson
Dennis Geoffrey William Wilson, known as Dennis Main Wilson (1 May 1924 – 20 January 1997) was a British producer of radio and television programmes, mainly for the BBC. Main Wilson has been described by ''Screenonline'' as "arguably the ...
, this soon became ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
'' and the show remained on the air until 1960.
Secombe mainly played
Neddie Seagoon
Neddie Seagoon was a character in the 1950s British radio comedy show ''The Goon Show''. He was created and performed by Welsh comedian Harry Secombe. Seagoon was usually the central character of a ''Goon Show'' episode, with most plots involving ...
, around whom the show's absurd plots developed.
In 1955, whilst appearing on ''The Goon Show'', Secombe was approached by the BBC to step in at short notice to take the lead in the radio comedy ''
Hancock's Half Hour
''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, ...
''.
The star of the show,
Tony Hancock
Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor.
High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, ...
, had decided to take an unannounced break abroad, on the day before the live airing of the second season. Secombe appeared in the lead for the first three episodes and had a guest role in the fourth after Hancock's return. All four episodes are lost, but following the discovery of the original scripts, the episodes were rerecorded in 2017, with his son,
Andrew Secombe
Andrew James Secombe (born 26 April 1953), is a Welsh actor and author.
Early life, family and education
Born in Mumbles, in south Wales, Secombe is son of comedian/singer Harry Secombe (whom he later impersonated in a ''Goon Show'' special). ...
performing the role held by his late father.
With the success of ''The Goon Show'', Secombe developed a dual career as both a comedy actor and a singer. At the beginning of his career as an entertainer, his act would end with a joke version of the duet ''
Sweethearts,'' in which he sang both the
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
and
falsetto parts. Trained under Italian
maestro
Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiqu ...
Manlio di Veroli, he emerged as a ''
bel canto''
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
(characteristically, he insisted that in his case this meant "can belto") and had a long list of best-selling record albums to his credit.
In 1958 he appeared in the film ''
Jet Storm
''Jet Storm'' (also known as ''Jet Stream'' or ''Killing Urge'') is a 1959 British thriller film directed and co-written by Cy Endfield. Richard Attenborough stars with Stanley Baker, Hermione Baddeley and Diane Cilento. The film is a precurso ...
,'' which starred
Dame Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike, Lady Casson (24 October 18829 June 1976) was an English actress whose stage career lasted from 1904 to 1969.
Trained in her youth as a concert pianist, Thorndike turned to the stage when a medical problem with her ...
and
Richard Attenborough and in the same year Secombe starred in the title role in ''
Davy
Davy may refer to:
* Davy (given name)
* Davy (surname)
* Davy lamp, a type of safety lamp with its flame encased inside a mesh screen
* Davy, West Virginia, United States, a town
* Davy Sound, Greenland
* Davy (crater), a crater on the moon
...
'', one of
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...
' last films.
The power of his voice allowed Secombe to appear in many stage
musicals. This included 1963's ''
Pickwick,'' based on
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
's ''
The Pickwick Papers
''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to s ...
'', which gave him the no. 18 hit single "
If I Ruled the World
"If I Ruled the World" is a popular song, composed by Leslie Bricusse and Cyril Ornadel, which was originally from the 1963 West End musical '' Pickwick'' (based on Charles Dickens's ''The Pickwick Papers'').
Background
In the context of t ...
" – his later signature tune. In 1965 the show was produced on tour in the United States, where, on Broadway, he garnered a nomination for a
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
for Best Actor in a Musical.
Secombe scored his biggest hit single in 1967 with his version of "
This Is My Song", which peaked at no. 2 on the charts in March 1967 while a recording by
Petula Clark
Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades.
Clark's professional career began during the ...
, which had hit no. 1 in February, was still in the top ten. He also appeared in the musical ''
The Four Musketeers'' (1967) at Drury Lane,
as Mr. Bumble in
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for ''Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...
's film of ''
Oliver!'' (1968), and in the Envy segment of ''
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins'' (1971).
He went on to star in his own television show, ''The Harry Secombe Show'', which debuted on Christmas Day 1968 on
BBC 1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and ran for thirty-one episodes until 1973. A
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
show featuring
Julian Orchard
Julian Dean Chavasse Orchard (3 March 1930, in Wheatley, Oxfordshire – 21 June 1979, in Westminster, London)GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1979 15 1935 WESTMINSTER – Julian Dean C. Orchard, DoB = 3 March 1930 was an English comedy actor. He ...
as Secombe's regular
sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany.
Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...
, the series also featured guest appearances by fellow Goon Spike Milligan as well as leading performers such as
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as '' Porridge'', ''The Two Ronnies'', and ''Open All Hours''.
...
and
Arthur Lowe. Secombe later starred in similar vehicles such as ''Sing a Song of Secombe'' and
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's ''Secombe with Music'' during the 1970s.
Later career
Later in life, Secombe (whose brother
Fred Secombe was a priest in the
Church in Wales
The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.
The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishop ...
, part of the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
Communion) attracted new audiences as a presenter of religious programmes, such as the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''. He was also a special programming consultant to
programme in 1979 entitled ''Cross on the Donkey's Back''. In the latter half of the 1980s, Secombe personally sponsored a football team for boys aged 9–11 in the local West Sutton Little League, 'Secombes Knights'.
In 1990, he was one of a few to be honoured by a second appearance on ''
at a book signing in a London branch of WH Smith. Secombe had been a subject of the show previously in March 1958 when
surprised him at the BBC Television Theatre.
(CBE).
and jokingly referred to himself as Sir Cumference (in recognition of his rotund figure). The motto he chose for his
.
in 1980. Within two years, taking advice from doctors, he had lost five stone in weight. He had a stroke in 1997, from which he made a slow recovery. He was then diagnosed with
in September 1998. After suffering a second stroke in 1999, he was forced to abandon his television career, but made a documentary about his condition in the hope of giving encouragement to other sufferers.
in the latter part of his life.
Secombe died on 11 April 2001 at the age of 79, from prostate cancer, in hospital in
, Surrey. His ashes are interred at the parish church of
on 26 October 2001. As well as family members and friends, the service was also attended by
. On his tombstone is the inscription: "To know him was to love him."
Upon hearing of his old friend's death,
quipped, "I'm glad he died before me, because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." But Secombe had the last laugh: upon Milligan's own death the following year, a recording of Secombe singing was played at Milligan's memorial service.
The
, was named after him. He is also fondly remembered at the
, where he opened the bar on St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1971.
Secombe met Myra Joan Atherton at the Mumbles Dance Hall in 1946. The couple were married from 1948 until his death, and had four children:
* Jennifer Secombe (died 2019), widow of actor
. She was her father's agent in his later years.
*
, film actor and author
* David Secombe, a writer and photographer
* Katy Secombe, an actress
Myra, Lady Secombe died on 7 February 2017, aged 93.
* ''Sacred Songs'' (1962) UK #16
* ''Pickwick'' (Original Cast Album) (1965)
* ''Secombe's Personal Choice'' (1967) UK #6
* ''If I Ruled the World'' (1971) UK #17
* ''The Magnificent Voice of Harry Secombe'' (1972) AUS #14