# Ballard Berkeley

Ballard Blascheck (6 August 1904 – 16 January 1988), known professionally as Ballard Berkeley, was an English actor of stage and screen. He is best remembered for playing Major Gowen in the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers.

## Life and career

The son of Joseph and Beatrice Blascheck, he was born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He married Dorothy Long in Liverpool in January 1929. During the 1930s, he performed regularly in the so-called "quota quickies". One of his earliest roles was as the heroic lead in the 1937 film The Last Adventurers.
He served as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police during the Second World War, witnessing the Blitz at first hand, including the bombing of the Café de Paris nightclub. For his service, he received the Defence Medal and the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal.
He appeared in the film In Which We Serve (1942) and in the Hitchcock film Stage Fright (1950). He featured as Detective Inspector Berkeley in two episodes of Edgar Lustgarten's drama series, Scotland Yard: "Person Unknown" (1956), and "Bullet from the Past" (1957).
Berkeley is best known for the role of bumbling Major Gowen in the BBC TV comedy Fawlty Towers, and a similar role in the legal drama The Main Chance (1969). He portrayed another retired military man (Colonel Freddie Danby) in BBC Radio 4's The Archers, taking over the role from Norman Shelley.
He played a starring role in Fresh Fields as main character Hester's father Guy, was Hartley in To the Manor Born and played Colonel Culpepper in Terry and June. He had small roles in an episode of Citizen Smith (1977), an adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980), and appeared once in Bless This House as a Royal Air Force Group Captain in the episode "Strangers in the Night" (1972), and in The New Avengers as Colonel Foster in the episode "Dirtier by the Dozen". He also had small roles in the BBC sitcoms Hi-de-Hi! ("Empty Saddles," 1983) and Are You Being Served? ("Memories Are Made of This," 1983).
He made a brief appearance in the 1985 film National Lampoon's European Vacation which starred American actor Chevy Chase. In this film, Berkeley played a British man who is involved in a minor road accident with the Griswalds.
Berkeley later performed the role of Winston—a similar character to "The Major"—in the radio comedy Wrinkles by Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. He played Badedas the Blue, a wizard in the radio comedy series Hordes of the Things. His last on-screen role was as the Head of the Army in the animated film version of Roald Dahl's The BFG. Berkeley died in London on 16 January 1988, aged 83, and the film was released on 25 December 1989. Berkeley had been playing the character of Colonel Brace-Cartwright, owner of Felchester Rovers FC, in the Radio 4 sitcom Lenin of the Rovers starring Alexei Sayle, but he died after recording the first two episodes of the series and was replaced by Donald Hewlett.
He rose to prominence posthumously in the 2020s as an icon of Hampshire Cricket Club, thanks to a scene in Fawlty Towers in which he joyfully announces, 'Hampshire won!' which the club would tweet to celebrate every victory.

## Selected filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1930 | The Chinese Bungalow | Richard Marquess | |
| 1930 | London Melody | Jan Moor | |
| 1933 | Trouble | | Uncredited |
| 1934 | White Ensign | Cortez | |
| 1936 | East Meets West | Nazim | |
| 1937 | The Last Adventurers | Fred Devlin | |
| 1937 | Jennifer Hale | Richard Severn | |
| 1939 | The Outsider | | Uncredited |
| 1939 | Dead Men are Dangerous | Franklin's publisher's partner | Uncredited |
| 1939 | The Gang's All Here | Detective in Nightclub | Uncredited |
| 1939 | Black Eyes | Diner | |
| 1939 | The Saint in London | Sir Richard Blake | |
| 1940 | The Flying Squad | Smuggler in Aeroplane | Uncredited |
| 1942 | In Which We Serve | Engineer Commander | |
| 1946 | Quiet Weekend | Jim Brent | |
| 1947 | They Made Me a Fugitive | Rockliffe | |
| 1949 | Third Time Lucky | Bertram | |
| 1950 | Stage Fright | Sergeant Mellish | |
| 1951 | Blackmailed | Dr. McCormick | |
| 1951 | The Long Dark Hall | Police Supt. Maxey | |
| 1951 | Mister Drake's Duck | Maj. Deans | |
| 1952 | The Frightened Man | Inspector Bligh | |
| 1952 | The Lost Hours | Doctor | |
| 1952 | The Night Won't Talk | Inspector West | |
| 1952 | Circumstantial Evidence | Det. Insp. Hall | |
| 1953 | Three Steps to the Gallows | Insp. Haley | |
| 1953 | The Blue Parrot | Supt. Chester | |
| 1953 | Operation Diplomat | Inspector Austin | |
| 1954 | The Weak and the Wicked | Police Detective | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Dangerous Cargo | Security Officer Findley | |
| 1954 | Forbidden Cargo | Cooper | Uncredited |
| 1954 | Delayed Action | Insp. Crane | |
| 1954 | Child's Play | Dr. Nightingale | |
| 1954 | The Men of Sherwood Forest | Walter | |
| 1955 | See How They Run | Col. Warrington | |
| 1955 | The Stolen Airliner | Mr. Head | |
| 1955 | Passport to Treason | Inspector Thredgold | |
| 1956 | My Teenage Daughter | Magistrate | |
| 1957 | The Betrayal | Lawson | |
| 1957 | Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst | Lt. Col. Dewar-Durie | |
| 1957 | After the Ball | Andrews | |
| 1957 | Just My Luck | Starter at Goodwood | Uncredited |
| 1957 | Night of the Demon | 1st Reporter | Uncredited |
| 1958 | The Man Who Wouldn't Talk | Court Clerk | Uncredited |
| 1958 | Chain of Events | | |
| 1958 | Further Up the Creek | Whacker Payne | |
| 1960 | Life Is a Circus | | |
| 1960 | Cone of Silence | Commissioner | |
| 1963 | Impact | Bill MacKenzie | |
| 1963 | A Matter of Choice | Charles Grant | |
| 1965 | The Murder Game | Sir Colin Chalmers | |
| 1965 | Night Caller from Outer Space | Cmdr. Savage | |
| 1968 | Hostile Witness | Clerk of Court | |
| 1970 | The Weekend Murders | Peter, the butler | |
| 1972 | Bless This House | RAF officer on train | |
| 1976 | Confessions of a Driving Instructor | Lord Snodley | |
| 1978 | The Playbirds | Trainer | |
| 1979 | Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair | Judge | |
| 1979 | Queen of the Blues | Uncle Fred | |
| 1980 | The Wildcats of St Trinian's | Humphry Wills | |
| 1980 | Little Lord Fauntleroy | Sir Harry | |
| 1983 | Bullshot | Hotel Guest | |
| 1985 | National Lampoon's European Vacation | Second English Motorist | |
| 1989 | The BFG | Head of the Army | Voice; posthumous release |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1958 | Leave It to Todhunter | Det. Chief Insp. Moresby | |
| 1959 | The Invisible Man | Manton | episode: " Play to Kill" |
| 1961 | Deadline Midnight | Desmond | 7 episodes |
| 1963 | Maigret | Dr Pardon | episode: " A Man Condemned" |
| 1964 | Swizzlewick | Major Lamb | |
| 1966 | United! | Dr Newkes | |
| 1967–1968 | The Newcomers | Colonel Renshaw | |
| 1971 | Coronation Street | Colonel Cantrill | episode: 1055 |
| 1972 | The Shadow of the Tower | Sir Thomas Tyrrel | episode: " A Fly in the Ointment" |
| 1972–1980 | The Dick Emery Show | Various characters | 6 episodes |
| 1975–1979 | Fawlty Towers | Major Gowen | 12 episodes |
| 1977 | Mr. Big | Hotel Manager | episode: "Going Straight |
| 1981 | To the Manor Born | Greville Hartley | episode: "Connections in High Places" |
| 1982–1987 | Terry and June | Sir Arthur Forster-Carter / Colonel Culpepper | episodes: "Swingtime" / "They Also Serve" |
| 1983 | Are You Being Served? | Angler | episode: "Memories Are Made of This" |
| 1984–1986 | Fresh Fields | Guy Penrose | 10 episodes |