Editing Richard Murdoch (section)

===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>