Derek Fowlds

Derek James Fowlds (2 September 1937 – 17 January 2020) was an English actor born in Wandsworth, London, the son of James Witney Fowlds, a salesman, and Ketha Muriel Fowlds (née Treacher). Following his parents' separation, he relocated with his mother and sister to Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where he lived at his maternal grandmother's home and attended Ashlyns School. He left school at fifteen and took up an apprenticeship at a printer's firm before completing two years of National Service in the RAF as a wireless operator.

Fowlds discovered acting through amateur productions, and a teacher's encouragement led him to pursue it professionally. He was awarded a scholarship to RADA in 1958, and his West End debut came in The Miracle Worker. In 1963 he appeared on Broadway in Chips With Everything, representing one of his early major stage credits. That same year he began accumulating film roles, appearing in Tamahine (1963), followed by East of Sudan (1964), Hotel Paradiso (1966), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969), Tower of Evil (1972), and Mistress Pamela (1974).

British television audiences first came to know Fowlds widely through The Basil Brush Show (1969–1973), a children's series in which he played the character known as Mr. Derek, succeeding Rodney Bewes as the show's presenter across four series. He subsequently portrayed Lord Randolph Churchill in the ATV drama Edward the Seventh in 1975, and from 1983 to 1985 took the lead role in the sitcom Affairs of the Heart. In 1990 he appeared in the political thriller Die Kinder.

Fowlds achieved particular recognition for his role as Bernard Woolley, the civil service private secretary described as naïve and callow, in the BBC sitcom Yes Minister (1980–1984) and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988), appearing alongside Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker and Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby. He later took on the role of Oscar Blaketon in the Yorkshire Television drama Heartbeat, which ran from 1992 to 2010. The character began as a local police sergeant, then retired from the force due to ill health, subsequently ran a post office, and eventually became a publican, with Fowlds remaining with the series for its entire eighteen-year run.

In his personal life, Fowlds was married to and later divorced from Wendy Tory. He subsequently married Blue Peter presenter and dancer Lesley Judd, and that marriage ended in divorce in 1978. His partner of thirty-six years, Jo Lindsay, died in 2012. He was the father of two sons, one of whom is the actor Jeremy Fowlds. His autobiography, A Part Worth Playing, written with Michael Sellers, was published in 2015 by Fantom Publishing.

Fowlds died on 17 January 2020 at the Royal United Hospital in Bath at the age of eighty-two. The cause of death was complications of heart failure and sepsis following pneumonia. His funeral took place on 17 February 2020 at St Katharine's Church in Holt, Wiltshire.