Tony Melody

Published Friday 11 July 2008 at 16:30 by Patrick Newley

Tony Melody was one of Britain’s busiest character actors and appeared in nearly 100 television shows. With his hangdog facial looks he was ideal casting for comedy roles, but he was equally at home in serious drama. In 2002 he achieved cult status with children after appearing in a series of tongue-in-cheek commercials for McDonald’s.

Born in Lancashire in 1923, the actor began his career in variety as a child singing in local pubs and later became a lead singer with the Northern Dance Orchestra. He broke into television in the early fifties as a stooge to comics such as Jimmy Clitheroe and Hylda Baker. Throughout the sixties and seventies he was much in demand as a singer and variety performer in summer shows, mainly in northern seaside resorts such as Blackpool and Skegness, often working for managements such as Duggie Chapman. He starred in summer shows and annual pantomimes where he was often cast as Buttons of Simple Simon.

Early television credits included ITV’s Saturday Night Theatre, Hadleigh, Barlow at Large and Play for Today. He starred in Steptoe and Son - in one episode notably teaching a young Harold Steptoe to dance - and he was also in early episodes of Emmerdale Farm (as it was originally known).

He had meatier roles in series such as Where the Heart Is, where he played Hughie Burridge and he was Harold Lapping in Dalziel and Pasco. He was the police chief in three series of the crime series Bergerac and he also had roles in Rumpole of the Bailey, All Creatures Great and Small and Coronation Street. More recently, he played the landlord in Last of the Summer Wine.

He starred in several films including Little Lord Fauntleroy opposite Alec Guinness, but his best role was as Mr Moreton in John Schlesinger’s wartime drama Yanks, with Richard Gere.

Melody died on June 26, aged 85, in a Bispham nursing home after a short battle with cancer. His widow Maggie, a former dancer, was at her husband’s bedside when he died. She said: “Tony had a peaceful ending. He died after a short illness. I was so glad I was with him at the end. I was able to hold his hand and kiss him goodbye. He was always there for me and what was lovely was that he kept his sense of humour to the very end.”

A devout Roman Catholic for most of his life, Melody once commented on his looks, saying: “Don’t be fooled by this long face - for I am a joyful man.”