Michael Aldridge
Encyclopedia
Michael William ffolliott Aldridge (9 September 1920 – 10 January 1994) was an English
actor
. While it was his role as Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine
(1986 to 1990) which made him widely recognised, his long career as a successful character actor
on stage and screen dated back to the 1930s.
, Somerset
, England
, on 9 September 1920. He was educated at Gresham's School
, Holt, Norfolk
, where he acted in school plays. In his last year at school he played the title role in a production of Othello
, a report in The Times
noting "M. W. ff. Aldridge (aged 17½ years) was masterly and dignified as Othello and well worthy of the formal designation 'a noble Moor'".
appearing in Terence Rattigan
's play French Without Tears. A few days later, World War II
broke out. From 1939 to 1940, he was in rep at Bristol
, Blackpool
, Sunderland, Sheffield
, Bradford and Amersham
. In 1940, he joined the Royal Air Force
and served in Africa
, the United States
, the Middle East
and the Mediterranean, leaving the service in 1945 as a flight lieutenant
.
After the war, Aldridge returned to acting, and toured with the Arts Council Midland Theatre Company from 1946 to 1948, but it was not until 1954 that his career started to gain him recognition, when he took a role in Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre
, where he remained until 1957. He played many roles in musicals throughout his career, usually in supporting roles in which he was highly reliable and professional.
appearance was in This Way to the Tomb, playing the Prologue and the Mechanic, at the Garrick Theatre
, 1946; toured with the Arts Council Midland Theatre Company from November 1946 to July, 1948; appeared in Nottingham Theatre Trust productions from November 1948 to March 1949, playing Othello in Othello
at Nottingham, 1948, and at the Embassy Theatre
, 1949; with Birmingham rep, 1949; Old Vic Company at New Theatre, 1949-1950: Love's Labour's Lost
, She Stoops to Conquer
, The Miser
, Hamlet
; returned to Arts Council Midland Theatre Company, 1950; Bristol Old Vic
, 1951-1952: played Macbeth in Macbeth
, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Of Mice and Men
; Escapade, at St James's Theatre
, Strand, London, 1953–1954; Salad Days, Vaudeville Theatre
, 1954; Free as Air
, Savoy Theatre
, 1957; Moon for the Misbegotten, Arts Theatre, 1960; Vanity Fair, Queen's Theatre, 1962; The Fighting Cock, Duke of York's Theatre
, 1966; at Chichester Festival, 1966–1969, and 1971-1972. Heartbreak House
, Lyric Theatre
, 1967; The Cocktail Party
, Wyndham's Theatre
, Haymarket, 1968; The Magistrate
, Cambridge
, 1969; A Bequest to the Nation
, Haymarket, 1970; Reunion in Vienna
, Piccadilly, 1972; Absurd Person Singular
, Criterion Theatre
, 1973; The Tempest
, Royal Shakespeare Company
at The Other Place
, 1974; Jeeves, Her Majesty's Theatre
, 1975; Lies, Albery Theatre, 1975; The Bed before Yesterday, Lyric Theatre
, 1976; Rosmersholm
, Haymarket, 1977;The Old Country, Queen's Theatre, 1978; Bedroom Farce
, National Theatre
at The Prince of Wales, 1978; The Last of Mrs Cheyney, Cambridge, 1980; Noises Off
, Lyric, Hammersmith and Savoy, 1982; The Biko Inquest, Riverside, 1984; Relatively Speaking
, Greenwich
, 1986.
On television, an early significant role was as criminologist Ian Dimmock in the Granada TV
series The Man in Room 17 and its sequel The Fellows (1965–67). His screen work included playing Pistol in Orson Welles
' movie Chimes at Midnight in 1967.
In 1975 Aldridge appeared in the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber
and Alan Ayckbourn
's musical Jeeves, based on the stories by P. G. Wodehouse
. Unfortunately the show was a rare flop for Webber, and the negative critical reaction led to Aldridge giving up his stage career to concentrate on television and film roles.
He played the part of Rollo in the 1977 serial Love for Lydia#TV adaptations, produced by London Weekend Television
.
He played Percy Alleline in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
on BBC TV in 1979, and appeared in the sitcom Yes, Prime Minister
amongst numerous other appearances.
Between 1985 and 1990, he starred as Seymour Utterthwaite in Last of the Summer Wine
. The character was an ex-headmaster and inventor, designed to replace the Foggy Dewhurst character played by Brian Wilde
, who had left the series. However, Aldridge wanted to retire to nurse his sick wife, and this coincided with Wilde deciding to return to the show, so Aldridge's character was dropped.
One of his most memorable later roles was as the elderly professor Digory Kirke
in the television version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1988).
When Aldridge died in 1994, his obituary in The Times
said of him:
and playing tennis
, and also liked to make his own bread and jam.
At the time of his death, he was living in Greenwich
, London.
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...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. While it was his role as Seymour in the television series Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
(1986 to 1990) which made him widely recognised, his long career as a successful character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
on stage and screen dated back to the 1930s.
Early life
The son of Dr Frederick James Aldridge and his wife Kathleen Michaela Marietta White, Aldridge was born in GlastonburyGlastonbury
Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England
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...
, on 9 September 1920. He was educated at Gresham's School
Gresham's School
Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...
, Holt, Norfolk
Holt, Norfolk
Holt is a market town and civil parish 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 is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the...
, where he acted in school plays. In his last year at school he played the title role in a production of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, a report in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noting "M. W. ff. Aldridge (aged 17½ years) was masterly and dignified as Othello and well worthy of the formal designation 'a noble Moor'".
Career
He started his acting career in August 1939 at the Palace Theatre, WatfordWatford Palace Theatre
Watford Palace Theatre, opened in 1908, is an Edwardian Grade II listed building on Clarendon Road, Watford.- Refurbishment :In September 2004 the theatre re-opened after a two year £8.8million Lottery funded refurbishment, which included more public space, two bars, a daytime café, air cooling and...
appearing in Terence Rattigan
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan CBE was one of England's most popular 20th-century dramatists. His plays are generally set in an upper-middle-class background...
's play French Without Tears. A few days later, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out. From 1939 to 1940, he was in rep at Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, Sunderland, Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Bradford and Amersham
Amersham
Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....
. In 1940, he joined 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...
and served in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and the Mediterranean, leaving the service in 1945 as a flight lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
.
After the war, Aldridge returned to acting, and toured with the Arts Council Midland Theatre Company from 1946 to 1948, but it was not until 1954 that his career started to gain him recognition, when he took a role in Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...
, where he remained until 1957. He played many roles in musicals throughout his career, usually in supporting roles in which he was highly reliable and professional.
Theatre
Aldridge's first professional appearance was in the part of Kenneth in French without Tears, at the Palace Theatre, Watford, in August 1939. He was in rep until 1940. His first West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
appearance was in This Way to the Tomb, playing the Prologue and the Mechanic, at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
, 1946; toured with the Arts Council Midland Theatre Company from November 1946 to July, 1948; appeared in Nottingham Theatre Trust productions from November 1948 to March 1949, playing Othello in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
at Nottingham, 1948, and at the Embassy Theatre
Embassy Theatre (London)
The Embassy Theatre is a theatre at 64, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London.- Early years :The Embassy Theatre was opened as a repertory company in September 1928 on the initiative of Sybil Arundale and Herbert Jay., when the premises of Hampstead Conservatoire of Music were adapted by architect...
, 1949; with Birmingham rep, 1949; Old Vic Company at New Theatre, 1949-1950: Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.-Title:...
, She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
, The Miser
The Miser
L'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy by French playwright Molière. Its title is usually translated as The Miser when the play is performed in English....
, Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
; returned to Arts Council Midland Theatre Company, 1950; Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic
The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
, 1951-1952: played Macbeth in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA....
; Escapade, at St James's Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
, Strand, London, 1953–1954; Salad Days, Vaudeville Theatre
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...
, 1954; Free as Air
Free as Air
Free as Air is a musical with lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade and music by Julian Slade. They are the same team responsible for the much better known musical Salad Days, although Free as Air is said to be "more slick and professional by some critics"...
, Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, 1957; Moon for the Misbegotten, Arts Theatre, 1960; Vanity Fair, Queen's Theatre, 1962; The Fighting Cock, Duke of York's Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre
The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935. It opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, with Wedding...
, 1966; at Chichester Festival, 1966–1969, and 1971-1972. Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety...
, Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, 1967; The Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on Alcestis, by the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven plays in his lifetime, although his 1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better remembered today.The Cocktail Party...
, Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
, Haymarket, 1968; The Magistrate
The Magistrate (play)
The Magistrate is a farce by the English playwright Arthur Wing Pinero. The plot concerns a respectable magistrate who finds himself caught up in a series of scandalous events that almost cause his disgrace....
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, 1969; A Bequest to the Nation
A Bequest to the Nation
A Bequest to the Nation is a 1970 play by Terence Rattigan, based on his 1966 television play Nelson . It recounts the events surrounding Horatio Nelson, his mistress Emma Hamilton, and his wife Frances Nisbet in the events immediately before, during and after the Battle of Trafalgar...
, Haymarket, 1970; Reunion in Vienna
Reunion in Vienna
Reunion in Vienna is a 1933 romantic drama produced and distributed by MGM. Sidney Franklin served as director. The film stars John Barrymore in a story taken from a stage play, Reunion in Vienna, by Robert Emmet Sherwood. -Cast:...
, Piccadilly, 1972; Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular
Absurd Person Singular is a 1972 play by Alan Ayckbourn. Divided into three acts, it documents the changing fortunes of three married couples...
, Criterion Theatre
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
, 1973; The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
at The Other Place
The Other Place (theatre)
The Other Place was a black box theatre on Southern Lane, near to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It was owned and operated by the Royal Shakespeare Company....
, 1974; Jeeves, Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, 1975; Lies, Albery Theatre, 1975; The Bed before Yesterday, Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
, 1976; Rosmersholm
Rosmersholm
Rosmersholm is a play written in 1886 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In the estimation of many critics the piece is Ibsen's masterwork, only equalled by The Wild Duck of 1884...
, Haymarket, 1977;The Old Country, Queen's Theatre, 1978; Bedroom Farce
Bedroom farce
A bedroom farce or sex farce is a type of light comedy, centered on the sexual pairings and recombinations of characters as they move through improbable plots and slamming doors...
, National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
at The Prince of Wales, 1978; The Last of Mrs Cheyney, Cambridge, 1980; Noises Off
Noises Off
Noises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
, Lyric, Hammersmith and Savoy, 1982; The Biko Inquest, Riverside, 1984; Relatively Speaking
Relatively Speaking (play)
Relatively Speaking is a 1965 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, originally titled Meet My Father. The London production of Relatively Speaking in 1967 at the Duke of York's Theatre helped to launch Richard Briers' career, and it also featured Michael Hordern and Celia Johnson.-Setting:The...
, Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, 1986.
On television, an early significant role was as criminologist Ian Dimmock in the Granada TV
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
series The Man in Room 17 and its sequel The Fellows (1965–67). His screen work included playing Pistol in Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
' movie Chimes at Midnight in 1967.
In 1975 Aldridge appeared in the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
and Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
's musical Jeeves, based on the stories by P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. Unfortunately the show was a rare flop for Webber, and the negative critical reaction led to Aldridge giving up his stage career to concentrate on television and film roles.
He played the part of Rollo in the 1977 serial Love for Lydia#TV adaptations, produced by London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
.
He played Percy Alleline in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, featuring George Smiley. Smiley is a middle-aged, taciturn, perspicacious intelligence expert in forced retirement. He is recalled to hunt down a Soviet mole in the "Circus", the highest echelon of the Secret Intelligence...
on BBC TV in 1979, and appeared in the sitcom Yes, Prime Minister
Yes Minister
Yes Minister is a satirical British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC Television between 1980–1982 and 1984, split over three seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to 1988. In total there were 38 episodes—of which all but...
amongst numerous other appearances.
Between 1985 and 1990, he starred as Seymour Utterthwaite in Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
. The character was an ex-headmaster and inventor, designed to replace the Foggy Dewhurst character played by Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, including Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine...
, who had left the series. However, Aldridge wanted to retire to nurse his sick wife, and this coincided with Wilde deciding to return to the show, so Aldridge's character was dropped.
One of his most memorable later roles was as the elderly professor Digory Kirke
Digory Kirke
Digory Kirke is a fictional character from C. S. Lewis' fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. He is in three of the seven books: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle, and is mentioned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.In the 2005 film The Chronicles...
in the television version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1988).
When Aldridge died in 1994, his obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said of him:
Private life
Aldridge married Kirsteen Rowntree, and they had three daughters. He stated his main interests as sailing, market gardening, watching cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and playing tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, and also liked to make his own bread and jam.
At the time of his death, he was living in Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, London.
Selected filmography
- Nothing Venture
- Bank Holiday Luck
- The North Sea Bus
- Murder in the CathedralMurder in the CathedralMurder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935...
(1952) - Life for RuthLife for RuthLife for Ruth is a 1962 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan and Janet Munro.-Plot:John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood...
(1962) - Chimes at MidnightChimes at MidnightChimes at Midnight, also known as Falstaff and Campanadas a medianoche , is a 1965 film directed by and starring Orson Welles. Focused on William Shakespeare's recurring character Sir John Falstaff, the film stars Welles himself as Falstaff, Keith Baxter plays Prince Hal , and John Gielgud plays...
(1965) - Mussolini
- A Voyage Round My FatherA Voyage Round My FatherA Voyage Round My Father is an autobiographical play by John Mortimer, later adapted for television.The first version of the play appeared as a series of three half-hour sketches for BBC radio in 1963. It then became a television play with Ian Richardson playing Mortimer, Tim Good as the young...
(1982) (TV) - BullshotBullshot (film)Bullshot is a 1983 film, based on the stage play "Bullshot Crummond". The name comes from a parody of the 1929 film, on which it is loosely based, Bulldog Drummond....
(1983) - Hallelujah!Hallelujah! (TV series)Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984.The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1...
(1983–1984) (TV) - Turtle DiaryTurtle DiaryTurtle Diary is a 1985 British drama about "people rediscovering the joys of life and love," based on a screenplay adapted by Harold Pinter from Russell Hoban's novel Turtle Diary, directed by John Irvin, and starring Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsley, and Michael Gambon.-Synopsis:Two lonely Londoners -...
(1985) - Murder by the Book (1986)
- Yes, Prime Minister(1986) (TV)
- ClockwiseClockwise (film)Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese. It was directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film was co-produced by Moment Films and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment...
(1986) - Prior - Shanghai SurpriseShanghai SurpriseShanghai Surprise is a 1986 British adventure comedy film starring then-newlyweds Madonna and Sean Penn, produced by George Harrison's HandMade Films and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
(1986) - The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe (1988)
- Last of the Summer WineLast of the Summer WineLast of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
(1986–1990) (TV) - The Public EyeThe Public Eye (film)The Public Eye is a 1992 American neo-noir film written and directed by Howard Franklin, and produced by Robert Zemeckis and Sue Baden-Powell. The drama features Joe Pesci, Barbara Hershey, Stanley Tucci, and Richard Schiff....
(1992)