Brian Wilde

Published Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 12:05 by Patrick Newley

Brian Wilde gained national TV fame playing Foggy in Last of the Summer Wine and he was also the wimpish warder Barrowclough in the prison sitcom Porridge, alongside Ronnie Barker.

He joined Last of the Summer Wine in 1976. After leaving in 1985, he rejoined the show in 1990 and remained until 1997, appearing in more than 100 episodes. He starred in Porridge from 1973-1977.

Summer Wine producer Alan J W Bell said: “Brian was perhaps the best of the show’s ‘third men’ - he was the most loved of all the characters. He was a fine actor to work with, very professional. He was an old school actor - you turned up, knew your lines and played them in the very best way you could.

“He had an enormous warmth to the public when off the set. He didn’t like to hobnob with the other actors - when there was a break, he preferred to go to a pub around the corner to meet the real people.”

Brian Wilde was born in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire on June 13 1927. He studied acting at RADA and on leaving worked in various repertory companies around the country. In the West End he appeared in Peter Ustinov’s The Moment of Truth (1951) after which he broke into television and began acting in small roles.

Early TV credits included The Love of Mike (1960), Room at the Bottom (1967) with Bob Monkhouse and character roles in series such as Z Cars, The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green and Softly Softly. He also starred in the classic horror film Night of the Demon (1957) and Carry on Doctor (1967).

Wilde suffered a fall seven years ago and never fully recovered. He died in a nursing home in Ware, Hertfordshire on March 20, 2008. He was married to Eva Stuart and they had one son and a daughter.

Roy Clarke, creator of Last of the Summer Wine, said: “Brian was a wonderful actor - one of my favourites. He was absolutely impeccable with every line. You could give him all sorts of convoluted speech and he never made a fluff. A wonderful actor and a very nice man.”