Robert Mawdesley (c. 1900 – 30 September 1953) was an English actor, best remembered as the first voice of Walter Gabriel in the long-running radio programme ''

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 ...

'', which has been running as a daily serial on BBC Radio since 1 January 1951. Mawdesley was educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Day school, day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Bac ...

Holt, Norfolk Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to ...

, where he was a keen actor in school plays. Although he had a part in

Basil Dean Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, after organising unoff ...

's movie ''Loyalties'' (1933), almost all of his work was on stage until he joined ''

'' in 1951. Mawdesley's character in the programme, Walter Gabriel, was an Ambridge

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

who provided most of the comic relief with the catch-phrase "My old pal, my old beauty" and other comments.

Selected filmography

*'' Loyalties'' (1933)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mawdesley, Robert 1900s births 1953 deaths English male comedians English male radio actors People educated at Gresham's School 20th-century English male actors 20th-century English comedians