Windsor Davies was a British actor who performed in films and television shows between 1964 and 2004. Between 1974 and 1981 he played Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum. His deep Welsh-accented voice was heard extensively in advertising voice-overs.
Early life
Davies was born in Canning Town, East London, to Welsh parents, who returned to their native village of Nant-y-Moel in 1940. Davies studied at Ogmore Grammar School He also worked as a coal miner and performed his National Service in Libya and Egypt with the East Surrey Regiment, between 1950 and 1952. Following teacher training at BangorTeacher Training College, he taught English and Maths at Leek in Staffordshire, and at a school in the Elephant and Castle, south London. In 1957, he married Eluned Lynne Evans; she died in September 2018. The couple had five children, four daughters and a son. Davies had become active in amateur dramatics and took a short drama course at a Kew theatre company. He became a professional actor at the age of 31 and began working at the Cheltenham Rep in 1961.
Television roles
Davies' best known role was as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcomIt Ain't Half Hot Mum. 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 semi-comic 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. Other television roles included the sailor Taffy in the first of the BBC-series The Onedin Line, a special branch detective in Callan and the antique dealer Oliver Smallbridge in Never the Twain, 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 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 BBC2 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. Davies also played 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 and England – in the latter again as a sergeant major. He played Mog in the Welsh rugby film Grand Slam. He played a sergeant in the Highland Regiment in 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.
Voice work
A voice-over artist for advertisements, Davies' was heard in commercials for New Zealand's Pink Batts house insulations and confectionery ads for Cadbury's Wispa and for Heinz Curried 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 that year in the children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman as three different characters. Also in 1984 he auditioned to be the voice of the UK's speaking clock.
