Bob Todd
Encyclopedia
Bob Todd was an English
comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill
and Spike Milligan
. For many years he lived in Tunbridge Wells
, Kent
.
. One of the great stooges of television comedy, Todd was best known for his lugubrious expression and talent for slapstick, and was known to fellow comedians by the nickname 'Silly Todd'.
Before working in television, Todd trained to be a dentist. The outbreak of the Second World War saw him enlist in the Royal Air Force
where he became a navigator stationed at RAF Goxhill
, Lincolnshire
. He had ambitions of becoming a farmer - making money from cattle breeding, whilst working as a manager at London Airport. The farming business, once began, failed and almost made him bankrupt, so at the age of 42 he found himself looking for a new career. Meeting scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in a pub, he bluffed them into believing that he was in fact an actor and ended up with the part of a policeman in the Sid James
comedy series Citizen James
in 1963. He appeared as several characters in Milligan and John Antrobus
' stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, which opened at the Mermaid Theatre
on 31 January 1963.
He consequently stooged in The Dick Emery Show and The Mike and Bernie Winters Show
amongst others, before joining The Benny Hill Show
in 1968. He stayed with the programme, on and off, until Thames Television
ended the show twenty one years later.
Todd gained a reputation for drunkenness
while working on The Benny Hill Show
. He once failed to turn up for a London Palladium
show after a 'drinking episode', and eventually found himself in a Dublin hospital five days later. After this was reported in the media, Hill had Todd dropped from the show. Producer Dennis Kirkland
persuaded Hill to rescind the decision, saying Todd brought much to the show and his drinking rarely affected his work.
Todd's only starring role was in his own 1972 series In for a Penny although he did appear in the Jimmy Jewel
series Funny Man
. He also appeared in Eric Sykes
' television series, in the episode "Sykes and A Bath", broadcast on 25 January 1961, in series three of Sykes and A...
, in which he played a sad-faced man with one hand stuck inside a vase. He also appeared in Sykes' film Rhubarb Rhubarb
in 1980, as well as making guest appearances on shows by Jim Davidson
and Allan Stewart and Spike Milligan's Q9
. He was also seen in cinema films, including Carry On Again Doctor
, The Return of the Musketeers
, and Mutiny on the Buses
. Todd also appeared in the 1980s series of The Sooty Show
playing the part of The Black Hand, in the adventure film The Case of the Black Hand.
Todd was referenced in the 1985 Half Man Half Biscuit
song "99% of Gargoyle
s Look Like Bob Todd" on the album Back in the DHSS
.
Todd and his wife, Monica, had one daughter and two sons. He died at the age of 70 in Sussex
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
and Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
. For many years he lived in Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Life and career
Todd was born in Faversham, KentFaversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
. One of the great stooges of television comedy, Todd was best known for his lugubrious expression and talent for slapstick, and was known to fellow comedians by the nickname 'Silly Todd'.
Before working in television, Todd trained to be a dentist. The outbreak of the Second World War saw him enlist in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
where he became a navigator stationed at RAF Goxhill
RAF Goxhill
RAF Goxhill is a former Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force station in England. It is located just to the east of the village of Goxhill, on the south bank of the Humber estuary, opposite the city of Kingston upon Hull, in north Lincolnshire....
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. He had ambitions of becoming a farmer - making money from cattle breeding, whilst working as a manager at London Airport. The farming business, once began, failed and almost made him bankrupt, so at the age of 42 he found himself looking for a new career. Meeting scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in a pub, he bluffed them into believing that he was in fact an actor and ended up with the part of a policeman in the Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
comedy series Citizen James
Citizen James
Citizen James was a BBC sitcom that ran for three series between 24 November 1960 and 1962. The show featured comedian and actor Sid James , Bill Kerr, Liz Fraser and Sydney Tafler...
in 1963. He appeared as several characters in Milligan and John Antrobus
John Antrobus
John Antrobus is an English playwright and script writer. He has written extensively for stage, screen, TV and radio, including the epic World War II play, Crete and Sergeant Pepper at the Royal Court...
' stage play The Bed-Sitting Room, which opened at the Mermaid Theatre
Mermaid Theatre
The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre at Puddle Dock, in Blackfriars, in the City of London and the first built there since the time of Shakespeare...
on 31 January 1963.
He consequently stooged in The Dick Emery Show and The Mike and Bernie Winters Show
Bernie Winters
Bernie Winters was an English comedian and the comic relief of the double act, Mike and Bernie Winters with his brother, Mike. He later performed solo, often with the aid of his St...
amongst others, before joining The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill.There were various incarnations of the show between 1951 and 1991, and it aired in over 140 countries. The show is generally sketch-based with heavy use of slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre...
in 1968. He stayed with the programme, on and off, until Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
ended the show twenty one years later.
Todd gained a reputation for drunkenness
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
while working on The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show
The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill.There were various incarnations of the show between 1951 and 1991, and it aired in over 140 countries. The show is generally sketch-based with heavy use of slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre...
. He once failed to turn up for a London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
show after a 'drinking episode', and eventually found himself in a Dublin hospital five days later. After this was reported in the media, Hill had Todd dropped from the show. Producer Dennis Kirkland
Dennis Kirkland
Dennis Kirkland was a British television producer and director who was best known for his long association with comedian Benny Hill....
persuaded Hill to rescind the decision, saying Todd brought much to the show and his drinking rarely affected his work.
Todd's only starring role was in his own 1972 series In for a Penny although he did appear in the Jimmy Jewel
Jimmy Jewel
James Arthur Thomas J. Marsh, known as Jimmy Jewel, was a British television and film actor.The son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the youngster made his stage debut in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, at the age of four, performed with his father...
series Funny Man
Funny Man
Funny Man is a compilation album released on American country music and novelty songwriter and singer Ray Stevens. It was released in 1989 by Mercury/Polygram Records and it features eight songs that Stevens recorded in the early 1960s for Mercury Records....
. He also appeared in Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
' television series, in the episode "Sykes and A Bath", broadcast on 25 January 1961, in series three of Sykes and A...
Sykes and A...
Sykes and a... is a black-and-white British sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques that aired on BBC1 from 1960 to 1965. It was written by Eric Sykes, Johnny Speight, John Antrobus and Spike Milligan...
, in which he played a sad-faced man with one hand stuck inside a vase. He also appeared in Sykes' film Rhubarb Rhubarb
Rhubarb Rhubarb
Rhubarb Rhubarb is a 30 minute television comedy special made by Thames TV and transmitted in 1980. The special is a re-make of Eric Sykes' 1969 film, Rhubarb.-Plot:...
in 1980, as well as making guest appearances on shows by Jim Davidson
Jim Davidson (comedian)
Jim Davidson OBE is a British comedian, actor and television presenter. He has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to entertainment, particularly of British service personnel in conflict zones.- Biography :The son of a Glaswegian father, Davidson was born in...
and Allan Stewart and Spike Milligan's Q9
Q (TV series)
Q... was a surreal television comedy sketch show from Spike Milligan which ran from 1969 to 1982 on BBC2. There were six series in all, the first five numbered from Q5 to Q9, and a final series titled There's a Lot of It About...
. He was also seen in cinema films, including Carry On Again Doctor
Carry On Again Doctor
Carry On Again Doctor is the eighteenth Carry On film. It was released in 1969 and was the third to feature a medical theme. The film features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Hattie Jacques...
, The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers
The Return of the Musketeers is a 1989 film adaptation loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third Musketeers film directed by Richard Lester, following 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers...
, and Mutiny on the Buses
Mutiny on the Buses
Mutiny on the Buses is a 1972 British comedy film directed by Harry Booth and starring Reg Varney and Doris Hare. The film is the second spin-off film from the TV sitcom On the Buses and succeeded On the Buses . It was followed by a third film Holiday on the Buses...
. Todd also appeared in the 1980s series of The Sooty Show
The Sooty Show
The Sooty Show is a British children's television series that aired on the BBC from 1955 to 1967 when the BBC eventually cancelled The Sooty Show after Paul Fox, the controller of BBC1 at the time, cleared out some of the long running shows. After it was cancelled from the BBC that year, The Sooty...
playing the part of The Black Hand, in the adventure film The Case of the Black Hand.
Todd was referenced in the 1985 Half Man Half Biscuit
Half Man Half Biscuit
Half Man Half Biscuit, often "HMHB", are an English rock band from Birkenhead, Merseyside, active since the mid-1980s, known for satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs. The group comprises Nigel Blackwell , Neil Crossley , Ken Hancock , and Carl Henry...
song "99% of Gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s Look Like Bob Todd" on the album Back in the DHSS
Back in the DHSS
-2003 Rerelease:# "Busy Little Market Town"# "God Gave Us Life"# "Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus"# "Sealclubbing"# "99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd"# "Time Flies By "# "I Hate Nerys Hughes "...
.
Todd and his wife, Monica, had one daughter and two sons. He died at the age of 70 in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
.
Selected filmography
- Raising the WindRaising the Wind (1961 film)Raising the Wind is a 1961 British comedy film written by Bruce Montgomery and directed by Gerald Thomas. It starred James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Liz Fraser, Eric Barker and Sid James...
(1961) - Postman's KnockPostman's Knock (film)Postman's Knock is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Robert Lynn and starring Spike Milligan, Barbara Shelley, John Wood and Warren Mitchell. A country postman is transferred to London, where he manages to foil a major robbery.-Cast:...
(1962) - The Intelligence MenThe Intelligence MenThe Intelligence Men is a 1965 comedy film starring the British comic duo Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.The film is subtitled "M.I.5 plus 2 equals 0"...
(1965) - Hot MillionsHot MillionsHot Millions is an 1968 crime comedy film made by MGM. It was directed by Eric Till and produced by Mildred Freed Alberg, from a collaborative screenplay by Ira Wallach and star Peter Ustinov. The music score was composed by Laurie Johnson, featuring the single "This Time" from Scottish singer Lulu...
(1968) - Carry on Again DoctorCarry On Again DoctorCarry On Again Doctor is the eighteenth Carry On film. It was released in 1969 and was the third to feature a medical theme. The film features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Hattie Jacques...
(1969) - Scars of DraculaScars of DraculaScars of Dracula is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Studios.It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, alongside Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn...
(1970) - She'll Follow You AnywhereShe'll Follow You AnywhereShe'll Follow You Anywhere is a 1971 British comedy film directed by David C. Rea and starring Kenneth Cope, Keith Barron and Richard Vernon. Two chemists working in a lab of a big corporation accidentally stumble across a love potion while working to create a new aftershave. The potion makes a man...
(1971) - Adolf Hitler - My Part in His DownfallAdolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (film)Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall is a film adaptation of the similarly titled first volume of Spike Milligan's autobiography. It starred Jim Dale as the young Terence "Spike" Milligan. Spike played the part of his father, Leo Milligan....
(1972) - Burke & HareBurke & Hare (film)Burk & Hare, sometimes called Burke and Hare or The Horrors of Burke and Hare, is a 1971 horror film, directed by Vernon Sewell, and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Vernon Sewell...
(1972) - Mutiny on the BusesMutiny on the BusesMutiny on the Buses is a 1972 British comedy film directed by Harry Booth and starring Reg Varney and Doris Hare. The film is the second spin-off film from the TV sitcom On the Buses and succeeded On the Buses . It was followed by a third film Holiday on the Buses...
(1972) - Go for a TakeGo for a TakeGo for a Take is a 1972 British comedy film directed by Harry Booth and featuring Dennis Price, Bob Todd, Reg Varney, Norman Rossington, Sue Lloyd, and Anouska Hempel.-Cast:* Johnny Briggs ... Assistant Director* John Clive ... Hotel Waiter...
(1972) - The Flying Sorcerer (1973)
- Just One More TimeJust One More TimeJust One More Time is a 1974 British comedy film directed by Maurice Hamblin and starring John Hamill, Sue Longhurst and Claire Russell. While his wife is at work, an artist has to fend off the advances of his neighbours. It is also known as The Over-Amorous Artist.-Cast:* John Hamill ... Alan...
(1974) - The Ups and Downs of a HandymanThe Ups and Downs of a HandymanThe Ups and Downs of a Handyman is a 1975 British comedy film directed by John Sealey and starring Barry Stokes, Sue Lloyd and Bob Todd. After his wife inherits a cottage in the countryside, her husband takes up a job as the local handyman but soon becomes entangled with the women of the...
(1975) - Confessions of a Pop PerformerConfessions of a Pop PerformerConfessions of a Pop Performer is a 1975 British sex-farce film. This second instalment continues the erotic adventures of Timothy Lea and is based on the novels written under the name by Christopher Wood. In this case, the original novel was called Confessions from the Pop Scene, but was later...
(1975) - The Sooty Show - The Case of The Black Hand - 9 Episodes (1980)
- Superman IIISuperman IIISuperman III is a 1983 superhero film and the third film in the Superman film series based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero. Christopher Reeve, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure and Margot Kidder are joined by new cast members Annette O'Toole, Annie Ross, Pamela Stephenson, Robert Vaughn and...
(1983) - The Return of the MusketeersThe Return of the MusketeersThe Return of the Musketeers is a 1989 film adaptation loosely based on the novel Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third Musketeers film directed by Richard Lester, following 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers...
(1989)