STINKER MURDOCH – AND GOODBYE, FOR NOW

To start at the end this is my 600 th Tilting at Windmills blog. Hence it seems a good place as any to say goodbye, for now. I have enjoyed my time tilting at the numerous windmills out there but for the next couple of months I have to tilt at others in real life.


My Gibraltar Viewpoint column will still appear on a weekly basis and Looking to the Left updated as and when my features appear in The Morning Star. You will find the links on the right hand of this page.

For now I leave you with Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch. He was born in 1907 and died in 1990 during which period he became a household name as a radio comedian as well as a film and TV actor.

He went to Charterhouse School, where a ‘Stinker’ almost certainly existed in the dorm. Whilst at Pembroke College, Cambridge he joined the Footlights. His big radio break came with the BBC comedy programme Band Wagon that ran from 1938 to 1940. He was part of a double act with Arthur Askey and it is from there he acquired his ‘Stinker’ handle. During World War II he served in the RAF.

Amongst his many roles he appeared with Kenneth Horne in BBC Radio’s Much Binding In The Marsh (1944-54), The Men from the Ministry (1962 – 77) and even appeared in the first TV series of Blackadder. His final TV appearance came a few months after his death in an episode of Rumpole of the Bailey where he played Uncle Tom, the senior briefless barrister in chambers.

When I rejoin you the name “Stinker” may have been added to two other members of that clan. Richard would have been appalled, like the rest of us, by the antics of Rupert and James but whilst he was a loveable, much admired character they certainly are not.

See you soon!