John Clegg | |
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 John Clegg in 2018 | |
| Born | John Walter Lawrence Clegg 9 July 1934 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Notable work | It Ain't Half Hot Mum |
| Spouse | |
John Walter Lawrence Clegg (born 9 July 1934) is an Indian-born English actor, best known for playing the part of Gunner 'Paderewski' Graham in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum .
Clegg was born on 9 July 1934 in Murree, British India (present-day Pakistan) to English parents. When he and his parents arrived back in England, Clegg became a student at RADA.[ citation needed ] After leaving RADA Clegg joined the Watford Palace Theatre Company, where he met Jimmy Perry, who would go on to cast Clegg in the role for which he is best known. It was there that he also met many of his future co-stars, including Michael Knowles, Donald Hewlett, and Mavis Pugh (whom he married in 1959). Pugh appeared in Croft and Perry sitcoms including Dad's Army , It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! , but she is best known for playing Lady Lavender Southwick in You Rang, M'Lord? . Due to the twenty year age gap between Clegg and Pugh many were sceptical as to whether the marriage would last, apart from Jimmy Perry and his wife Gillian. After the wedding there was a whip-round at the theatre which collected enough money to buy what Clegg described in an interview as ‘lots of practical things, like sponges and cloths - the most practical things you could imagine.’ [1]
During his time at Watford, Clegg appeared in many performances including farces such as Charley's Aunt and The Happiest Days of Your Life . He also appeared in thrillers such as Gas Light . [2]
Clegg's first television role was as D.C. Greaves in Dixon of Dock Green in 1961. Clegg’s first film appearance was as a minor role in the 1967 musical film Half a Sixpence , playing a shop assistant. He then went on to make many television appearances including the dramatised documentary The Gunpowder Plot in which he playing Francis Tresham, during the documentary he started alongside Martin Shaw which he later featured alongside in Death in Holy Order in 2003. In 1973 he was cast in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Gunner Graham, the concert party’s pianist. The show ran for eight series and Clegg appeared in all 56 episodes, however Clegg did not appear in the 1979 stage adaptation of the series. Instead, the role was taken up by David Rowley, who was able to play the piano live on stage. Since It Ain't Half Hot Mum he has made numerous television and film appearances including Dad's Army , Are You Being Served? and Bless This House . Between 2 August and 17 August 1978 Clegg appeared as Clifford Howes in the soap opera Crossroads . In 1979, he made an appearance in the television adaptation of the Shakespeare play Measure for Measure , in which he played Froth, the foolish gentleman. In 1981, he appeared with various other members of the It Ain't Half Hot Mum cast in game show Family Fortunes , which saw them go head to head with the hosts of the show Give Us a Clue . In 1995 he appeared as a guest on David Croft's appearance on This Is Your Life . Clegg had a recurring role in the sitcom You Rang, M'Lord? in which he played Mr Franklyn the Meldrum family physician; in the series he featured alongside many actors who he had previously worked with on It Ain't Half Hot Mum including Michael Knowles and Donald Hewlett.
In 1982, Clegg made a return to the theatre, co-producing with his wife a one-man show about Rudyard Kipling which achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[ citation needed ]
During the 1990s, Clegg had a bit part in Tom & Viv (1994) and played a vicar in the 1997 film Shooting Fish alongside Dan Futterman and Stuart Townsend. In the same year Clegg featured alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Richard E. Grant in the British romantic comedy Keep the Aspidistra Flying (released in the USA and New Zealand as A Merry War), which was based on the novel by George Orwell. He has most recently been in the 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary (playing an unnamed elderly man), the 2003 television film Death in Holy Orders , which was based on the book by P. D. James (with Clegg playing the role of Father John Betterton), and the 2006 short Tommy the Kid in which he played a police officer.
William Desmond Anthony Pertwee, was a British comedy actor. He played the role of the antagonist Chief ARP Warden Hodges in the sitcom Dad's Army.
Major David John Croft, was an English television comedy screenwriter, producer and director. He produced and wrote a string of BBC sitcoms with partners Jimmy Perry and Jeremy Lloyd, including Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi! and 'Allo 'Allo!
Don Estelle was an English actor and singer, best known as Gunner "Lofty" Sugden in It Ain't Half Hot Mum.
It Ain't Half Hot, Mum is a BBC television sitcom about a Royal Artillery concert party based in Deolali in British India and the fictional village of Tin Min in Burma, during the last months of the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had both served in similar roles in India during that war. Fifty-six episodes were broadcast across eight series on BBC1 between 1974 and 1981. Each episode ran for thirty minutes. The title comes from the first episode, in which young Gunner Parkin writes home to his mother in England. In 1975, a recording of "Whispering Grass" performed by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies in character as Gunner "Lofty" Sugden and Sergeant Major Williams, reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and remained there for three weeks.
You Rang, M'Lord? is a BBC television sitcom written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army. It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC. The show was set in the house of an aristocratic family in the 1920s, contrasting the upper-class family and their servants in a house in London, along the same lines as the drama Upstairs, Downstairs.
James Perry, was an English script writer and actor. He devised and co-wrote the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army (1968–77), It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–81), Hi-De-Hi (1980–88) and You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–93), all with David Croft. Perry co-wrote the theme tune of Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?" along with Derek Taverner, for which Perry received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1971.
Kenneth MacDonald was an English actor who was best known for the parts of Gunner Nobby Clark in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Mike Fisher in Only Fools and Horses.
Stuart McGugan is a Scottish actor.
Dino Shafeek was a Bangladeshi-British comedy actor. Born and raised in Dhaka, he moved to the United Kingdom from East Pakistan in 1958 and appeared in several sitcoms during the 1970s and early 1980s. He is best remembered for playing the part of Chai Wallah Muhammed in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum and the role of Ali Nadim in ITV sitcom Mind Your Language.
Donald Marland Hewlett was a British actor who was best known for his sitcom roles as Colonel Charles Reynolds in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Lord Meldrum in You Rang, M'Lord?, both written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. He also had other roles in British film and television productions.
Michael Sydney Knowles is a British actor and scriptwriter who is best known for his roles in BBC sitcoms written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
Frank John Williams was an English actor, best known for playing Reverend Timothy Farthing in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army (1969–1977). Often cast as a member of the clergy, Williams appeared in similar roles in You Rang, M'Lord?, Hi-de-Hi!, What’s Up Nurse, The Worker, and Vanity Fair. He reprised the role of Farthing in the 2016 film adaptation of Dad's Army.
The Gnomes of Dulwich is a United Kingdom television sitcom originally shown in six episodes from 12 May 1969 to 16 June 1969. Written by Jimmy Perry, the show starred Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd, John Clive, Leon Thau, Anne de Vigier and Lynn Dalby as garden gnomes living at 25 Telegraph Road, Dulwich, London, England. The title is a reference to the term "Gnomes of Zürich".
Jeffrey Holland is a British actor who is well known for roles in television sitcoms, playing comic Spike Dixon at the Maplin's holiday camp in Hi-de-Hi!, as well as BBC Radio comedy, including Week Ending. He also played leading roles in the sitcoms You Rang, M'Lord? and Oh, Doctor Beeching!.
John Christopher Dixon, billed as John D. Collins, is a British actor and narrator, perhaps best known for appearing in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! in which he played Flt. Lt. Fairfax, a stranded British airman in occupied France during World War II. He is the actor to have been cast most frequently in writer/producer David Croft's hit sitcoms: a total of six different series and ten characters.
Perry Benson is a British character actor best known for his regular roles in British television sitcoms You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993), Oh, Doctor Beeching! (1995–1997) and Operation Good Guys (1997–2000). His first television appearance was as "Boy on Stairs" in the second episode of the BBC Children's drama, Grange Hill, in 1978.
Mavis Gladys Fox Pugh was a British actress who made many appearances in several sitcoms including Dad's Army, Are You Being Served? and Fawlty Towers. Her best known role was as Lady Lavender Southwick in all four series of You Rang, M'Lord?. Before appearing on television, she had a long and successful career in repertory theatre, including with the Arthur Brough Players.
Dad's Army is a British television sitcom about the UK's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran for nine series and 80 episodes in total; a feature film released in 1971, a stage show and a radio version based on the television scripts were also produced. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still shown internationally.
Barbar Bhatti, also spelled Babar Bhatti is a British actor of Pakistani origin. He is best known for the part of punkah wallah Rumzan in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, his first role.
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