Roy Hudd - the fastest eyebrows in comedy

It was sad to hear about Roy Hudd’s death the other day. As well as being the owner of the most rapidly mobile eyebrows in human history, he was one of the earliest what we now call ‘stand-up’ comics I remember seeing on the telly. Roy was also one of the last vital links with the music hall, not only with regard to his own brand of entertainment but with his encyclopaedic knowledge and understanding of the genre. He was in his element doing a turn on The Good Old Days, which I hated, but in my youth I did enjoy his pure comedy routines.

I don’t suppose he was in the slightest risqué on screen in the 1960s, about which he gave a charming interview in 1965, nor would I have appreciated all his jokes. However, I vividly recall his slightly bulging eyes, goofy teeth and those eyebrows which seemed to operate in impudent independence of his other facial features.

As well as his eponymous show Roy Hudd was a frequent guest on BBC weekend variety programmes starring Lulu or Cilla Black. His ‘dance’ with Cilla in ’76 was probably not his finest moment and perhaps hastened the demise of variety but examples of his better work on YouTube are sadly lacking. Around the same time, he was an ideal choice to get the audience laughing on Seaside Special, another unlamented Saturday night summer staple.

He seemed to disappear from our screens during the Eighties although I occasionally sought him out on Radio 2’s long-running topical series The News Huddlines. I preferred the more satirical Week Ending on Radio 4 but the enthusiasm of Hudd and June Whitfield was undoubtedly infectious. Perhaps his style had become passé but I really wasn’t expecting his reinvention in the Nineties as a serious actor.

If I hadn’t still been living with the parents there’s no way I’d have countenanced watching a Dennis Potter serial. The writer’s penchant for kinky sex scenes and lip-synched old songs had mostly left me cold in Pennies From Heaven and more of the same was duly served up in 1993’s Lipstick On Your Collar, featuring young whippersnappers Ewan McGregor and Douglas Henshall. And, blow me, there was Roy Hudd as a rather sad middle-aged lech lusting, like every other male character, over Louise Germaine. Here he is at breaking point, 11 minutes into what I think was the concluding episode.

A year later he was in another BBC series, the somewhat lighter Common as Muck. Star Edward Woodward looked more Hudd-like than Roy himself but the comedian held his own in an excellent cast. Ever since, he has popped up in a range of series, from Last of the Summer Wine to Corrie, playing an assortment of Arthurs, Georges, Charlies and Franks. One of the few I personally experienced was his cameo towards the end of One Foot in the Grave in 2000. If only for five minutes, he fitted in to the surreal world of Victor Meldrew like a snug pair of furry slippers.

In 2017 he played Olivia Colman’s elderly dad in the third run of Broadchurch. It wasn’t a major part but it was notable for the character being one of the few in the series not actually suspected of murder. Only last year, into his eighties, Roy was inevitably hospitalised in Casualty, a fate shared with so many veteran actors.

But for all his critical acclaim as a thesp, Roy Hudd remains a witty and engaging gagsmith and raconteur, as seen in this chat show. Now, I wouldn’t have watched an Alan Titchmarsh chat show if you’d paid me, but it illustrates what made Roy such a wonder to watch. The Dawsons, Mannings and Howerds may have enjoyed greater fame and familiarity but Hudd rarely left you with anything but a stupid smile on your face.