Editing Richard Murdoch (section)

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Murdoch was born on 6 April 1907 at his family's home in [[Keston]], Kent, the only son of Bernard Murdoch, a tea merchant, and his wife, Amy Florence, daughter of the [[The Venerable#Anglican|Ven]] [[Avison Scott]], [[archdeacon]] of [[Tonbridge]]. He was educated at [[Charterhouse School]] in Surrey, and [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]], which he left without taking a degree. His biographer [[Barry Took]] comments that Murdoch's appetite for a career in show business was "whetted by success with the [[Cambridge Footlights]]".<ref name=odnb/>

Murdoch made his professional stage debut in March 1927 at the [[Kings Theatre, Southsea]], in the chorus of ''The Blue Train'', a [[Edwardian musical comedy|musical comedy]] starring [[Lily Elsie]] and directed by [[Jack Hulbert]].<ref>Ashley, Audrey. "Shades of Much Binding", ''The Ottawa Citizen'', 29 September 1973, p. 33</ref> He remained in the show when it opened in the [[West End theatre|West End]] in May of that year.<ref>Gaye, p. 1000</ref> He graduated from the chorus to a supporting role in a tour of ''Oh! Letty'', a "musical farce" in which he was praised by [[Neville Cardus]] for "a stretch of distinguished dancing".<ref>Cardus, Neville. "Oh, Letty!", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 27 December 1928, p. 11</ref> In 1932 he married Peggy, daughter of William Rawlings, solicitor. They had one son and two daughters.<ref name=odnb/> During the 1930s he gained increasingly prominent roles in musicals and [[revue]]s, including the secondary romantic lead to [[Jack Buchanan]]'s star, in ''Stand up and Sing'' (1932),<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b979634140b444e18cb05457bdb4c156 "Stand up and Sing"], ''Radio Times'', 1 April 1932, p. 48</ref> and the lead in a 1936 tour of ''[[Gay Divorce]]'' in the part played in New York and London by [[Fred Astaire]].<ref name=g1>Gaye, p. 1001</ref>

The [[BBC]] transmitted a live radio relay of ''Stand up and Sing'' in April 1932, and Murdoch was in another such relay in 1934 in an entertainment called ''Bubbles''. His first studio work for the corporation was in 1936 in a radio show called ''Tunes of the Town'', and during 1937 and early 1938 he took part in five broadcasts by the fledgling [[BBC Television]] service, including an adaptation of [[Noël Coward]]'s one-act comedy with music, ''[[Red Peppers]]'' in which he played the Coward role.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=1&order=asc&q=Richard+Murdoch#search "Richard Murdoch"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 17 June 2020</ref>

===''Band Waggon'' and ''Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh''===

In 1938 the BBC teamed Murdoch with Arthur Askey in the radio series ''[[Band Waggon]]'', where they were soon billed as "Richard ('Stinker') Murdoch and "'Big-hearted' Arthur Askey". The smooth West End style of Murdoch contrasted with the down-to-earth humour of Askey, whose background was in seaside concert parties. Their main slot in the weekly show took up only about ten minutes, but caught the public imagination. They were depicted as occupying a flat on top of [[Broadcasting House]]. Took comments that their humour was a forerunner of much radio comedy to come:
{{blockquote|… the fantasy of their living in Broadcasting House, and the creation of such mythical characters as Mrs Bagwash the charlady and her daughter Nausea and their pet animals, a goat called Lewis, and two pigeons Basil and Lucy, preceded ''[[ITMA]]'' and ''[[Hancock's Half Hour]]'' and was a strong influence on many nascent comedy scriptwriters.<ref name=odnb/>|}}

Towards the end of 1938, after two series on the BBC, ''Band Waggon'' became a stage show. The impresario [[Jack Hylton]] presented the two stars and a supporting cast in a show that toured the provincial music-halls and finished with a run at the [[London Palladium]] in 1939.<ref name=odnb/> ''[[The Observer]]'' commented that they worked so well together because "they find the same things funny. Each has a special line of humour that sets the other going".<ref>"From 'The Band Waggon' to the Films", ''The Observer'', 4 December 1938, p. 11</ref> The stars featured in a film adaptation in 1940.<ref>Lejeune, C. A. "In the Cinemas", ''The Observer'', 28 January 1940, p. 11</ref>

Murdoch was conscripted into the [[Royal Air Force]] in 1941, serving as a [[pilot officer]] in the intelligence section of [[RAF Bomber Command|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 (rank)|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]].<ref>Johnston, pp. 58–61</ref> Horne and Murdoch quickly became friends and as both were regular broadcasters they invented a fictitious RAF station [[Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh]] for a programme of the same name. It went on air in January 1944, and when peace came in 1945 it became a civilian airport and the show continued successfully; the last programme was in March 1954.<ref name=odnb>Took, Barry. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39942 "Murdoch, Richard Bernard (1907–1990), actor and comedian"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 18 June 2020 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

===Later years===

Murdoch's later career is described by Took as "varied and interesting". In 1954 the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] presented a series of variety programmes called ''Much Murdoch'', in which, during the run, he worked again with Horne, who took advantage of a three-week holiday to join him.<ref>"Australian Reunion for Murdoch and Horne", ''South Coast Times'', 28 June 1954, p. 6</ref> Murdoch worked again with Askey in 1958 in the television series ''[[Living It Up (UK TV series)|Living It Up]]'', running a pirate TV station from the roof of Television House.<ref name=w5>Wagg, pp. 5–6</ref> His next major broadcasting success was the BBC radio series ''[[The Men from the Ministry]]'' (1962–1977). His character, Richard Lamb, was a well-meaning but not conspicuously bright civil servant, who, together with his equally disaster-prone superior, Roland Hamilton-Jones ([[Wilfrid Hyde-White]]) and later Deryck Lennox-Brown ([[Deryck Guyler]]), continually found the wrong answers to the pressing problems of government.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=t160>Took, pp. 160–162</ref> Murdoch's last long running radio show was ''[[Many a Slip (radio series)|Many a Slip]]'', a panel game that combined humour and erudition,<ref>Price, R. G. G. "Auditor's Report", ''Punch'', 3 September 1969, p. 34</ref> in which he appeared from 1964 to 1973.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=asc&q=%22Many+A+Slip%22+Murdoch#search "Many a Slip: Murdoch"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 18 June 2020</ref>

Murdoch appeared in two seasons at the [[Shaw Festival]] and on tour in North America, playing Aubrey in ''[[Tons of Money (play)|Tons of Money]]'' (1968) and William the waiter in ''[[You Never Can Tell (play)|You Never Can Tell]]'' (1973); he toured South Africa in a comedy called ''[[Not in the Book]]'' (1974), and toured Britain as Sir William Boothroyd, the role created by [[Ralph Richardson]], in [[William Douglas-Home]]'s ''[[Lloyd George Knew My Father (play)|Lloyd George Knew My Father]]''.<ref>Herbert, pp. 962 and 1063</ref> From 1978 to 1990, Murdoch had a long-running regular role as "Uncle Tom", the briefless senior barrister of chambers, in ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]''.<ref name=odnb/> In 1981 he played the headmaster in [[Alan Bennett]]'s ''[[Forty Years On (play)|Forty Years On]]''. In 1989 he played Lord Caversham in [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[An Ideal Husband]]'' on tour and at the [[Westminster Theatre]]; ''The Times'' commented that he managed to make "Caversham's ghastly mixture of the sanctimonious, the roguish and the bluff" seem human.<ref>Patrick, Tony. "An Ideal Husband", ''The Times'' 26 April 1989, p. 21</ref>