Bill Maynard

Actor and comedian fondly remembered as the curmudgeonly reprobate Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the long-running nostalgic police drama Heartbeat (1992). Greengrass had been written as a minor background character, but -- given a fair amount of latitude for interpreting his part -- Maynard was able to infuse the old rascal with outsize personality and humour which resulted into his becoming a popular mainstay. The son of a gardener and a laundry worker, Maynard (born Walter Frederick George Williams, he later adopted his nom de plume from Charles Gordon Maynard, creator of 'Maynard's Wine Gums') came from relatively humble beginnings. Displaying an early aptitude for music, he learned to sing and dance, play ukulele, mandolin and guitar. By the age of nine he began performing in local clubs and music halls. From there, he progressed to repertory theatre, touring army camps with Jon Pertwee, making a few recordings for Decca and EMI, even managing a gig as a stand-up comic -- in between a strip show -- at The Windmill in London. In the 50s Maynard emerged as a proper TV star (sharing top billing with Terry Scott) in Great Scott, It's Maynard (1955). Having suddenly become a household name, he was now earning £ 1000 a week. Ironically, his ambition of becoming 'a serious actor' backfired and a return to repertory led to much reduced circumstances and a hiatus in his career. Though he eventually appeared in more than 30 films, he regarded none of them as particularly worthwhile and declared in a 2013 interview: "I enjoyed doing them. It was a laugh, but they weren't great. They damaged my reputation". In the mid-70s, having very wisely returned to his forte with consecutive hits in TV sitcoms: as a roving-eyed widower in The Life of Riley (1975), as the hapless, klutzy protagonist of Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt (1974), and as grouchy, relentlessly misanthropic Fred Moffatt, forever evading and outwitting his creditors in The Gaffer (1981). In between, he also had diverse guest roles, including in, among others, Worzel Gummidge (1979), Minder (1979) and Dalziel and Pascoe (1996). Between 2003 and 2008, he also hosted his own -- sometimes controversial -- radio chat show on BBC Leicester, Maynard's Bill of Fare. Having suffered a stroke in 2000 and forced to leave Heartbeat after season ten, Maynard eventually resurfaced in occasional guest appearances for the 2003 spin-off, The Royal (2003). Subsequently confined to wheelchairs and mobility scooters he latterly gave lectures at universities on humour and acting. Bill Maynard passed away in a Leicestershire hospital on 30 March 2018 at the age of 89.