Willie Rushton

**William George “Willie” Rushton** (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was a British actor, comedian and writer. Rushton was known for his writing work on *The Trap Door*. He had provided the voices for each speaking character in the television series, and for later narrating audiobooks of the franchise.

## Early life

Rushton was born in London in 1937, and was the only child of John Atherton Rushton (1908-1958) and Veronica Rushton (born Veronica James; 1910-1977). He was educated at Shrewsbury School, and served in the British Army for two years, before having a professional career as a journalist by the 1960s.

## Film, TV and radio career

Rushton began performing in film and theatre by the early 1960s. Since 1963, he provided minor character acting performances in several obscure British films. However, it was his comedy that made him renowned. Rushton was perhaps best-known as one of the co-founders of *Private Eye*, a satirical British magazine series, which he developed with a few other colleagues that he knew from school. Rushton was also well-known for being one of the original presenters on *I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue*, a long-running comedy panel programme on BBC Radio 4, which he continued to host until his passing in 1996.

As well as *The Trap Door*, Rushton also contributed his vocal talents to a lot of other media for children. During the 1970s, Rushton provided readings of some of A. A. Milne’s *Winnie the Pooh* stories for BBC’s *Jackanory*. He recorded an audiobook of Lewis Caroll’s *Alice in Wonderland*, recordings for most of the *Asterix* comics, and provided vocals for some of the *Muzzy* programmes. Rushton also produced recordings of the final 18 volumes of the Rev. W. Awdry’s children’s stories, *The Railway Series*, not long before most of the stories were adapted for television in the form of *Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends*. Rushton made a guest voice appearance in an episode of *Dennis and Gnasher*, named “*Unidentified Funny Object*”, in May 1996. Some Posthumous recordings by Rushton were used for the eponymous character in *Dr. Xargle*, a short-lived television series, based on the books by Jeanne Willis.

## Personal life

Rushton met his future wife, Arlene Rushton (born Arlene Dorgan), on a variety entertainment show in 1965. They were married later in 1968. Rushton died of a sudden heart attack at Cornwell Hospital in Kensington, London, aged 59 years old.

## Trivia

* Rushton had used his birth name, “William Rushton”, for some of his credits. He was known otherwise as “Willie Rushton”.
* On some VHS releases of the television series, the inlays have been shown to misname Rushton’s name as “Willie Rushden”.
* A blue plaque, honouring Rushton and his legacy, was fixed at the “*Mornington Crescent*” underground station in London. The plaque’s placement there denotes to Rushton’s involvement on *I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue*, and it is also because Rushton named one of the games from that show after that station.
* The theme music of *I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue* is an instrumental piece, named “*The Schickel Shamble*”, from *Monte Carlo or Bust!* (1965). Incidentally, Rushton appeared in that film.