Roy Castle (31 August 1932[GRO Register of Births: DEC 1932 9a 303 HUDDERSFIELD – Roy Castle, mmn = Swallow] – 2 September 1994)[GRO Register of Deaths: "SEP 1994 B13A 237 CHILTERN & SOUTH BUCKS – Roy Castle, DoB = 31 Aug 1932" aged 62] was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. An accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could also play many other instruments. In a career as a versatile performer on stage, television and film, he became best known to British television viewers as long-running presenter of the children's series Record Breakers.
Early career
Castle was born in Scholes, near
Holmfirth, West Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a railwayman, he was a
tap dancer from an early age and trained at Nora Bray's school of dance with Audrey Spencer, who later ran a big dance school,
and after leaving Holme Valley Grammar School (now Honley High School) he started his career as an entertainer in an amateur concert party. As a young performer in the 1950s, he lived in
Cleveleys near
Blackpool and appeared there at the local Queen's Theatre, turning professional in 1953 as a stooge for
Jimmy Clitheroe and Jimmy James. By 1958, he was appearing at the Royal Variety Show where he was invited to appear on the Royal Command Performance (1958) and received wide acclaim, being hailed as the hit of the show. This was also where he met lifelong friend,
Harry Secombe, with whom he went on to work on numerous occasions
As a singer, he released one charting single in 1960, the Christmas song "Little White Berry".
Television and film career
Castle guest-starred in an episode of the Morecambe and Wise series
Two of a Kind, which aired on 3 August 1963. He received billing twice for his guest appearances in both halves of the show. In 1965, Castle starred with
Peter Cushing in the film
Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first of two cinematic spin-offs from the
BBC television series. He played the role of Dr. Who's first male assistant, Ian Chesterton, and was cast to perform the role more comedically than it had been played by William Russell in the equivalent serial. He appeared in
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors as a jazz musician.
Castle also appeared in Carry On Up the Khyber in 1968 and in the TV musical Pickwick for the BBC in 1969. In the 1990s, he appeared again in Pickwick, touring the country, starring alongside Sir Harry Secombe, and the show was recorded again. (Secombe had starred in the original West End production in 1963.) In 1973, Castle teamed up with the comedy actor Ronnie Barker in an original one-off called "Another Fine Mess" (an episode from Barker's series Seven of One). Barker was one of Castle's best friends, and paid tribute to their work together shortly after Castle's death.
In 1967 and 1968, Castle co-starred with Jimmy Edwards in the London West End run of the comedy farce show Big Bad Mouse when Eric Sykes had to withdraw because of illness. The show was resident at the Shaftesbury Theatre and, being loosely scripted, it offered both Edwards and Castle the chance to freely Ad lib and generally break the fourth wall with the audience, Castle breaking into trumpet performances while Edwards walked into a front stall seat to read a newspaper, tap dancing and firing Table tennis balls into the stalls.
Record Breakers
In 1972, he first presented
Record Breakers, a children's show, and he remained host for over 20 years. He recorded the
theme song "Dedication" for the show himself, and usually performed it live over the closing credits. While presenting the show he broke nine world records himself, including:
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Fastest tap-dance 1,440 taps per minute – 24 taps per second, set on 14 January 1973.
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Longest Wing walking – 3 hours, 23 minutes.
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Playing the same tune on 43 different instruments in four minutes.
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On 2 November 1985, the Daily Mirror reported that "Twinkle-toed Roy Castle has the world at his feet...the millionth time in 24 hours. This was the moment when he tap-danced his way to a new record and raised £1 million for charity. The comedian, host of TV's Record Breakers, averaged nearly twelve steps a second during the sponsored feat in London. Roy, 53, had already qualified as the world's fastest tap-dancer."
[ Daily Mirror, 2 November 1985, p. 7]
He was a host of the show until a few months before his death in 1994, alongside Norris McWhirter and (until his murder
Singing career
Between 1958 and 1969, Castle recorded three
LP album. One of these,
Songs for a Rainy Day was recorded in 1966 for the Columbia label and was reissued in the UK on CD by
EMI Gold, re-titled
Isn't This a Lovely Day in 2005. The record features twelve songs with rain as the theme. British
jazz players of the day
Gordon Beck (piano),
Jeff Clyne (bass),
Leon Calvert (flugelhorn), Ike Isaacs (guitar), Ray Swinfield (flute) and
Al Newman (saxophone) played on the record and it features jazz arrangements by Victor Graham covering a variety of styles such as
big band, ("Pennies From Heaven", "Stormy Weather"), ballads ("February Brings The Rain", "Here's That Rainy Day", "Soon It's Gonna Rain") and
("Everytime It Rains", "The Gentle Rain").
Castle's recording career also included the spoken word. In 1978, for the Scripture Union Label, he recorded eight Bible parables, released on side 1 of the LP Castle on Luke Street, (SU0806), from the 'Luke Street' books, by David Lewis. Side 2 was spoken by Kenneth Williams, Dora Bryan, Derek Nimmo, and Thora Hird, who narrated one story each.
Personal life
Castle married dancer
Fiona Dickson on 29 July 1963 with Harry Secombe acting as best man.
[Aberdeen Press and Journal – 30 July 1993][GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1963 6a 1063 ETON – Roy Castle = Joan F. Dickson] They had been introduced to each other by
Eric Morecambe.
Both Castle and his wife were committed
Christians and they regularly attended the
Baptist church near their home. They had four children. Their youngest son,
Ben Castle (born 1973), is a jazz saxophonist who has played with a wide range of artists, including
Jamie Cullum,
Carleen Anderson,
Beth Rowley,
Marillion and
Radiohead, and performed on film soundtracks.
Castle was a football fan and supported Liverpool. Fewer than six months before his death he attended the Liverpool–Everton Local derby at Anfield on 13 March 1994 and stood on the Spion Kop terrace. He had also been in the crowd at Liverpool's FA Cup final victory over Sunderland in May 1992, shortly after he was first found to have cancer. At that time Ronnie Barker paid tribute to him, referring to their portrayal of characters that bore a strong resemblance to Laurel and Hardy in "Another Fine Mess".
On 31 December 1992 Castle was awarded the OBE in the 1993 New Year Honours.
Illness and death
Castle was diagnosed with
lung cancer in early 1992, and was told that his chances of recovery were slim and that it was unlikely that he would live for more than six months. He underwent
chemotherapy and
radiotherapy and went into remission later that year. A non-smoker, he blamed his illness on
passive smoking during his years of playing the trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.
On 26 November 1993, Castle announced that his illness had returned, and underwent a second round of treatment. Over the spring and summer of 1994, in spite of his deteriorating health, he carried out the high-profile
Tour of Hope to raise funds for the erection of the building that would become the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, which is the only British charity dedicated solely to defeating lung cancer.
During and shortly after Castle's illness, many smoke-free restaurants and cafes were awarded the Roy Castle Clean Air Award to denote their adherence to a smoke-free regime (which at that time was voluntary).
His final contribution to Record Breakers was aired at the conclusion of the 1993 series, although the programme continued until 2001.
He died at his home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, on the morning of 2 September 1994, two days after his 62nd birthday. A week before his death he was made a freeman of the City of Liverpool.
His funeral service took place on 8 September 1994 in Amersham. Present at the funeral service along with his family were Sir Harry Secombe, Bruce Forsyth, Sir Cliff Richard, and Sir John Mills. A memorial service at Liverpool Cathedral was held on 20 October 1994.
Legacy
His widow Fiona worked with the charity after her husband's death, and campaigned for the British
smoking ban, which came into effect in
Northern Ireland in 2004,
Scotland in 2006, and
England and
Wales in 2007, banning smoking in virtually all enclosed
Public space.
Works
| +
!Year
!Title
!Publisher
!ISBN |
| 1986 | Roy Castle on Tap: His Unique Tap Dancing Course | Newton Abbot, UK / North Pomfret, VT: David & Charles | 9780715388693 |
| 1988 | Jogging the Memories: Confessions of a Fitness Freak | London: W.H. Allen | 9780491031677 |
| 1994 | Roy Castle | London: BBC Enterprises | 9780563390121 |
| 1995 | Now and Then: An Autobiography | London: Pan | 9780330341936 |
Filmography
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| Uncredited |
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| (segment "Voodoo") |
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External links
