Roy Hudd

Roy Hudd, OBE (16 May 1936 – 15 March 2020) was an English comedian, actor, presenter, radio host, author and authority on the history of music hall entertainment. Early life Hudd was born in Croydon on 16 May 1936 to Evalina "Evie" (née Barham) and Harry Hudd. His father was a carpenter who left the family shortly after the Second World War, and his mother, who had a history of mental health problems, committed suicide by gas when Hudd was nine years old. Hudd was primarily brought up by his grandmother, and attended Tavistock Secondary Modern School in Croydon and Croydon Secondary Technical School. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he studied commercial art at the Regent Street Polytechnic. He then worked as a messenger for an advertising agency, as a window dresser, and as a commercial artist, working under Harry Beck. He made his professional debut as a comedian at the Streatham Hill Theatre on 27 October 1957, in a show in aid of the Sir Philip Game Boys' Club, of which he had been a member. Initially he worked with Eddie Kay, a friend from Croydon who had also been a member of the boys' club, the two billing themselves as "the peculiar pair". In 1958, they joined Butlin's Clacton as Redcoats, working alongside Cliff Richard and Dave Allen. Radio Although Hudd and Kay had made a brief appearance as 'discoveries' on the BBC's In Town Tonight in 1958, Hudd made his solo debut on radio in 1959 on Workers' Playtime. His BBC Radio 2 satirical series The News Huddlines ran from 1975 to 2001. His other radio credits include playing Max Quordlepleen, the host at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, in the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), Crowned Hudds (1994–95), The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1999–2000) and Like They've Never Been Gone (1999–2002).