Derek Fowlds


Derek James Fowlds was an English actor, known for his appearances in popular TV series including The Basil Brush Show, Yes Minister and Heartbeat.

Early life

Fowlds was born in Wandsworth, London, the son of Ketha Muriel and James Witney Fowlds, a salesman. Fowlds attended Ashlyns School, a former Secondary Modern School in the historic town of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.

Career

After amateur acting, Fowlds trained at RADA and made his debut on the West End stage in The Miracle Worker. He appeared in various film roles, including Tamahine, East of Sudan, Hotel Paradiso, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Smashing Bird I Used to Know, Tower of Evil and Mistress Pamela, prior to becoming familiar to British television child viewers as “Mr. Derek” in the children's series The Basil Brush Show, replacing Rodney Bewes as presenter.
He played the role of Lord Randolph Churchill in the ATV series Edward the Seventh. In Yes Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister he played the naïve and callow Bernard Woolley alongside Paul Eddington's Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne's Sir Humphrey Appleby.
From 1983 to 1985, Fowlds played the lead role in the sitcom Affairs of the Heart. He featured in a more sinister role in the 1990 political thriller Die Kinder. Fowlds then played old and curmudgeonly Oscar Blaketon in the long-running Yorkshire Television police drama nostalgia series Heartbeat set in the sixties for its entire eighteen-year run beginning in 1992. The character first appeared as the local police sergeant, then retired from the force and ran the post office before becoming a publican.

Personal life and death

Fowlds married, and later divorced, Wendy Tory and secondly the Blue Peter presenter and dancer Lesley Judd. His partner of 36 years, Jo Lindsay, died in 2012. He was the father of two sons including the actor Jeremy Fowlds. His autobiography A Part Worth Playing was published in 2015.
He died at Royal United Hospital in Bath on 17 January 2020 at age 82, from complications of heart failure and sepsis, which had followed pneumonia. His funeral took place at St Katharine's Church in Holt, Wiltshire on 17 February 2020; Basil Brush was among the mourners and recited a self-written poem during the service.
Fowlds was a lifelong supporter of Chelsea FC.

Filmography