Windsor Davies 1930-2019
A Cockney Welshman walks into a BBC casting audition... “Could you read this please?” says a warm-faced man in thick-rimmed black spectacles. The tall cleanly shaven actor begins the lines in a thick Cockney accent. The man in the spectacles waves his hand in the air, stopping him. “Windsor, dear boy, why the Cockney accent?”, Windsor replies “Well, he’s a Sergeant Major, I thought you wanted the typical Cockney ‘cor blimey' Sergeant Major type?”. The spectacled man smiled warmly and stood up, placing his hand on Windsor’s shoulder. He leans forward and whispers into his ear “Give me the Welsh, Lovely Boy!”.
Windsor Davies was indeed born in East London on the 28th August 1930, but by the onset of the war in ’39 he had returned to Nant-y-Moel, a village in his father’s native Wales. Now this is something I never knew about Windsor; let's face it, he was the archetypal Welshman through and through in my eyes, but I now see him as that Londoner with a huge generous beating Welsh heart.
He taught in a school briefly after going to teacher training school and displayed a passion for education through entertaining. I can just imagine those warm Welsh tones enthralling his audience whilst he experiments with his material.
After ‘board treading’ at local rep he was whisked away for his National Service with the East Surrey Regiment, and this is where the genius of Windsor is formulated. He made a mental note of all the characters he met whilst carrying out his bit for Queen and Country and started to create characters in his head.
The fear of his first night on the small screen was painful and a very steep learning curve, he recalled in a BBC Radio Wales interview he gave in the early 2000s. Windsor admitted he was terrified of the TV Studio; the noise, the heat and the bright lights caused him to dry with nerves. That first foray into television came in the ITV series 'The Probation Officer' as a semi-regular character Bill Morgan who appeared for several episodes in Series 4 (1962). In his first nerve-wracking outing he was cast against James Bree and Brian Wilde.
So, no pressure then...
Windsor Davies is one of those gifted souls who can be quite accurately be used as a chronometer for TV fans of my generation. Whenever you recall something that he’s been in. you can be spot on with the year and what age you were, such is the impact and the clarity of his performance. However, that elusive full-time part seemed miles away, until 1974. He joined a series which today doesn’t get the appreciation that it so richly deserves, often glossed over as the modern day critics seem to want to seek out what is perceived by today’s standards to be wrong with a series.
‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ propelled several actors into ‘household name’ status. Seeking to use the subject matter of a Regimental Concert Party in the death throes of the Second World War in India (hence the name of the series). The part of Regiment Sergeant Major Williams was read by Windsor and it was his. To be fair, a lot of people thought it was based on him, but Windsor was a million miles away from the character in real life. Do you remember all those characters he met in National Service I mentioned earlier? Well you can see the result in Windsor’s carefully crafted creation of RSM Williams. From his bombastic Welsh voice, the RSM expectations that could never ever be met by him or his men (or ‘bunch of poofs’ as the RSM would have describes them) were all taken from real life experience.
Over 8 series he hand crafted the vulnerability of the Sergeant Major, the disappointment in himself, his relationship with his illegitimate son, the very sad nature of the character who is just as scared of the real world as facing the enemy in combat, as witnessed in the last episode. That’s where the amazing crafting of this character by the writers comes in, and I know it’s said a lot of times about characters but in this case it's true. In a lesser actor’s hands this part just wouldn’t have worked. You learn to love, laugh, hate and care and sometime despise the character Windsor portrays.
I can remember my excitement seeing the cameras of 'Multi-Coloured Swap Shop' and presenter Noel Edmonds walk onto the set live whilst they were carrying out a producer’s run. The great big beaming smile on Windsor’s face was so memorable and so was the hearty handshake of Noel. That was the true Windsor.
I could mention being in character on 'Top Of The Pops', but that just confuses the timelines, so I won’t.
During and after the series he was never out of work it seemed, appearing in several ‘Carry On' films, TV dramas and making personal appearances, even being a subject of ITV’s ‘This Is Your Life’.
Another hit series this time on Thames Television with Donald ("perhaps I’ll get an OBE for this?!?!") Sinden, ‘Never the Twain’. Two antique shop owners with a knack of winding up each other and getting themselves in sit-com related situations. It stormed up the ratings.
There’s a lifetime of rich memories in our heads of Windsor Davies, from uttering the immortal line about giving someone a bit of 'Mister Nod’ in 'The Evil of the Daleks' (the name his character had for his cosh) to playing Lloyd George in the ITV series ‘Mosley’.
So, as I finish this piece carried over the evening breeze, I can hear the distant strains of an out-of-tune ragtime piano hammering out a tune. Accompanying it a group of male voices in imperfect harmony;
Meet the gang cos the boys are here, the boys to entertain you!
With music and laughter to help you on your way
To raising the rafters with a Hey, Hey, Hey.
With songs and sketches and jokes old and new,
With us about you won’t feel blue.
So, meet the gang cos the boys are here.
The boys to entertain you!!
And I know you sang the last bit in your head, and I know you were smiling.
“You have been privileged to have been watching Windsor Davies”
Good night Lovely Boy
Windsor Davies 1930-2019
(Written by Warren Cummings)
