Windsor Davies

Windsor Davies (28 August 1930 – 17 January 2019) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981) over its entire run. The show's popularity resulted in Davies and his co-star Don Estelle achieving a UK number-one hit with a version of "Whispering Grass" in 1975. He later starred with Donald Sinden in Never the Twain (1981–1991), and his deep Welsh-accented voice was heard extensively in advertising voice-overs.
Early life
Davies was born on 28 August 1930 in Canning Town, East London, to Welsh parents. In 1940 they returned to their native village of Nant-y-moel, Bridgend. Davies studied at Ogmore Grammar School and worked as a coal miner. He performed his National Service in Libya and Egypt, with the East Surrey Regiment, between 1950 and 1952. Following teacher training at Bangor Teacher Training College, he taught English and Maths at Leek in Staffordshire, and at a school in Elephant and Castle, south London.
Davies had become active in amateur dramatics, including the Bromley Little Theatre, and took a short drama course with a Kew theatre company. He became a professional actor at the age of 31 and began working at the Cheltenham repertory theatre in 1961.
Career
Television
Davies' best known role was as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981), who was modelled on similar individuals Davies had met as a soldier during his national service. "Bastards, real bastards some of them were. They knew it, too, and took pride in it," he once said. Among his character's catchphrases was "Shut Up!!", delivered as an eardrum-shattering military scream. Another phrase was "Oh dear, how sad, never mind", delivered in a dry, ironic manner, and used when others around him had problems. Davies and co-star Don Estelle had a number-one hit in the UK with a semicomic version of "Whispering Grass" in 1975. Journalist Neil Clark, contributing to The Times in 2005, described his performance as the "definitive portrayal of a bullying and uneducated sergeant-major" and reported Spike Milligan was of the opinion that Davies' role was "the funniest comic performance he had ever" watched.
His other television roles included the sailor Taffy in the first of the BBC series The Onedin Line (1971), a boat captain in an episode of Special Branch, a special branch detective in Callan (1972), and the antique dealer Oliver Smallbridge in Never the Twain (1981–1991), with Donald Sinden. In the field of science fiction television, Davies appeared in the 1967 Doctor Who story "The Evil of the Daleks" as Toby; and was the voice of Sergeant Major Zero (a spherical robotic soldier in charge of 100 other spherical robotic soldiers) in the 1983 Gerry Anderson-Christopher Burr production Terrahawks.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.
In September–October 1985, Davies played the lead role of George Vance, a museum custodian elevated to the peerage, in the six-part BBC Two comedy series The New Statesman. This was based on the play by Douglas Watkinson and is not to be confused with the later sitcom of the same name. (Colin Blakely played the role of Vance in a pilot episode transmitted on BBC2 in December 1984.)
Davies also featured in the BBC comedy sitcom Oh, Doctor Beeching!, written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove, as the Lord Mayor in an episode broadcast in 1997.
Films
In the cinema, Davies played major roles in two Carry On films, Behind (1975) and England (1976), in the latter again as a sergeant major. He played Mog in the Welsh rugby film Grand Slam (1978), and was a sergeant in the Highland Regiment in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1973) with Jim Dale and Spike Milligan. In 1989, he revived the role of Sergeant Major Williams in a 30-minute Royal Air Force training film, Hazardous Ops.
Pantomime
Davies appeared as Baron Hardup in the pantomime Cinderella in Bournemouth, UK, from 10 December 1992 to 17 January 1993.
Voice work
Davies' distinctive voice was heard in commercials for New Zealand's Pink Batts house insulations and confectionery ads for Cadbury's Wispa and for Heinz Curried (Baked) Beans. He also appeared alongside New Zealand rugby union coach Alex Wyllie in New Zealand advertisements for Mitre 10 hardware stores in the early 1990s. Davies and Wyllie had worked together previously on the rugby-themed film Old Scores in 1991.
In the 1970s, he read an edition of BBC Radio 4's Morning Story programme, and also narrated the audiobook for the Ladybird children's classic Treasure Island. He sang and voiced many characters in the Paul McCartney film Rupert and the Frog Song in 1984, and appeared in that year's children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman as three different characters (the Ringmaster, the Black Knight, and an Ugly Sister). In 1984, he auditioned to be the voice of the UK's speaking clock.
Personal life and death
In 1957, he married Eluned Lynne Evans; the couple had four daughters and a son. Eluned died in September 2018. Davies lived in the south of France, and was a keen birdwatcher.
Davies was an amateur organist and occasionally played at Capel Y Cymru London.
He died on 17 January 2019, aged 88, four months following the death of his wife. His estate was valued at £883,000.
Filmography
The Pot Carriers (1962) - Police Constable
Murder Most Foul (1964) - Sergeant Brick
The Alphabet Murders (1965) - Dragbot
Arabesque (1965) - Policeman in Car Crash (uncredited)
The Family Way (1966) - Man in Crowd (uncredited)
Drop Dead Darling (1966) - Radio Engineer
Assignment K (1968) - Bill (uncredited)
Hammerhead (1968) - Police Sergeant
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - Police Sergeant
The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder (1969–1971) - Chief Inspector Pyne
Clinic Exclusive (1971) - Geoffrey Carter
Endless Night (1972) - Sgt. Keene
Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1973) - Sgt. MacKay
Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) - Bisset (uncredited)
Mister Quilp (1975) - George
Carry On Behind (1975) - Fred Ramsden
Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976) - Mr. Truscott
Carry On England (1976) - Sergeant-Major 'Tiger' Bloomer
Not Now, Comrade (1976) - Constable Pulford
Grand Slam (1978, TV Movie) - Mog Jones
The Playbirds (1978) - Assistant Police Commissioner
Gabrielle and the Doodleman (1984) - Ringmaster / Black Knight / Ugly Sister
Rupert and the Frog Song (1985, Short) - Rupert's Father / Father Frog (voice)
Old Scores (1991) - Evan Price
The Thief and the Cobbler (1993) - Chief Roofless (voice)
The Willows in Winter (1996, TV Movie) - Commissioner of Police (voice)
References
External links
1930 births
2019 deaths
20th-century British male actors
21st-century British male actors
British expatriates in France
British male comedy actors
British male film actors
British male television actors
British male voice actors
East Surrey Regiment soldiers
Male actors from Essex
Male actors from London
People from Canning Town
Military personnel from Essex
20th-century British Army personnel