Shoes

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Gender

Male

Birthday

1907-04-06

Place of Birth

Keston, Kent, England, UK

Richard Murdoch

Biography

Richard Bernard Murdoch was educated at Charterhouse School in Surrey, and Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Whilst at university he participated in the Footlights Dramatic Club's performances. Murdoch's first appearance in cinema was as an uncredited dancing extra in 1932 film Looking on the Bright Side. In 1937 he was listed among the cast of the "Television Follies", an early BBC Television programme. He received his big professional break in the British Broadcasting Corporation's comedy radio programme Band Waggon in 1938 as part of a double act with the then rising star Arthur Askey, acquiring the nickname "Stinker" in mocking reference to his superior formal education. As Askey moved from radio performing into cinema at the end of the 1930s Murdoch went with him and they appeared in a number of Askey star vehicle films together, Murdoch's tall athletic physique, good looks and upper middle class English Home Counties demeanor contrasting comedically with Askey's short stature, homely appearance, Lancashire provincial accent and working class performance persona. Their working partnership broke up during World War 2 when Murdoch joined the Armed Forces, but they briefly reprised it in the late 1950s for the television series Living It Up. Murdoch was conscripted into the Royal Air Force in 1941, serving as a junior intelligence officer with Bomber Command, before being posted to the Department of Allied Air Force and Foreign Liaison as a Flight Lieutenant. In 1943 he joined the Directorate of Administrative Plans at the Air Ministry, where he shared an office with Wing Commander Kenneth Horne, being responsible for the supply of aircraft and air equipment to Russia. He finished the war with the rank of Squadron Leader.

Known for

The Professionals

The Professionals

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

Blackadder

Blackadder

Blackadder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of The Great War.

Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

The New Avengers

The New Avengers

The New Avengers is a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series broadcast during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. A joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the show picks up the adventures of John Steed and his team of Avengers fighting evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit, a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey, a former trainee with The Royal Ballet who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's previous female partners.

Never the Twain

Never the Twain

Simon Peel and Oliver Smallbridge are former business partners turned bitter rival antique dealers whose shops and homes are right next door to each other. Their rivalry stems partly from Oliver having an affair with Simon's wife, but now tensions are escalating as Oliver's daughter, Lyn, has fallen in love with Simon's son, David, and plan to marry.

Hazell

Hazell

Hazell is a British television drama based on the novel series by Terry Venables and Gordon Williams (collectively known as P.B. Yuill), and starring Nicholas Bell as James Hazell, a 'smart parody' of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. The program ran for 2 series, from January 1978 to July 1979.

The Moomins (UK Release)

The Moomins (UK Release)

The Moomins is a stop motion animated children's television series. It is based on the Moomin series of books by Finnish writer Tove Jansson. The original broadcast in Poland premiered on November 19, 1978. The series was later sold to other countries including the UK. The British version was adapted by Anne Wood at FilmFair for ITV Central and broadcast in the UK.

Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt

Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt

Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch as Oxford 'scholars'. The film is one of many to be made based on the farce Charley's Aunt. Taking inspiration from a well-known Victorian play, a modern-day prankster poses as a wealthy woman in a ploy to prevent him and his friends from being expelled from college.

Mr. Majeika

Mr. Majeika

Mr Majeika is a wizard, sent to "Britland" from the planet Walpurgis because he failed his O-level sorcery exam for the seventeenth time. He drops into the sleepy village of Much Barty, finding a post at St Barty's School in sleepy UK.

It Happened in Soho

It Happened in Soho

Murder drama set in Soho involving a police inspector, a newspaper reporter and a country girl.

Living It Up

Living It Up

Comedian Arthur Askey and his buddy Stinker reside in a flat on top of Associated-Rediffusion's Television House in Aldwych, getting into all sorts of comedic situations. The series was based on the BBC radio comedy Band Waggon. Produced for the ITV network by Associated-Rediffusion, all nine episodes survive in the archives.

I Thank You

I Thank You

Classic comedy starring Arthur Askey. The perils, humiliations and humour of trying to run a second-rate theatrical company are further compounded when financial aid, given by the former famous music-hall star Lady Randall (Lily Morris), is withdrawn. Not to be defeated, the stars decide the show must go on and devise a plan to persuade her to reinvest

The Magic Box

The Magic Box

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

Whoops Apocalypse

Whoops Apocalypse

When a small British owned island in the Caribbean is invaded and the world's most dangerous terrorist kidnaps a member of the Royal family, the countdown to World War 3 begins. If anyone can prevent the oncoming apocalypse it's the American President, but her closest ally the British Prime Minister appears to have gone stark raving mad.

Not a Hope in Hell

Not a Hope in Hell

The efforts of a female Customs Officer to challenge smugglers who hide illicit liquor in a steam roller.