Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940 – 12 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of The Goodies.
Brooke-Taylor became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president of the Footlights, touring internationally with its revue in 1964. Becoming more widely known to the public for his work on BBC Radio with I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, he moved into television with At Last the 1948 Show, working together with old Cambridge friends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. With Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, he starred in The Goodies (1970–1982), picking up international recognition in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He appeared as an actor in various sitcoms and was a panellist on BBC Radio's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for almost 50 years.
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Early life and education
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor was born on 17 July 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, son of Edward Brooke-Taylor, a solicitor, and games teacher and international lacrosse player Rachel, daughter of Francis Pawson, a parson who played centre forward for the English football team in the 1880s. He was expelled from primary school at the early age of five and a half. Brooke-Taylor was then schooled at Thorn Leigh Pre-Preparatory School, Holm Leigh Preparatory School (where he won a cup for his prowess as a bowler in the school cricket team) and Winchester College which he left with seven O-levels and two A-levels in English and history.
After teaching for a year at Lockers Park School, a preparatory school in Hemel Hempstead and a term back at Holm Leigh School as a teacher, he studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge. There he read economics and politics before changing to read law and mixed with other budding comedians, including John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Jonathan Lynn in the Cambridge University Footlights Club (of which Brooke-Taylor became president in 1963).
The Footlights Club revue, A Clump of Plinths, was so successful during its Edinburgh Festival Fringe run that the show was renamed as Cambridge Circus and transferred to the West End in London before being taken to both New Zealand and Broadway in the United States in September 1964. Brooke-Taylor was also active in the Pembroke College drama society, the Pembroke Players.
Career
Brooke-Taylor moved into BBC Radio with the comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again which he performed in and co-wrote. As the eccentric Lady Constance de Coverlet, he could be relied upon to generate an audience response of many programmes in this long-running series merely with her catchphrase "Did somebody call?" uttered after a transparent feed-line, as their adventure story reached its climax or cliffhanger ending. Other members of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again were John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, David Hatch and Jo Kendall.
In the mid-1960s, Brooke-Taylor performed in the television series On the Braden Beat with Canadian Bernard Braden, taking over the slot recently vacated by Peter Cook in his guise as E. L. Wisty. Brooke-Taylor played a reactionary City gent who believed he was the soul of tolerance.
In 1967, Brooke-Taylor became a writer/performer on the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show, with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman. The "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was co-written by the four writers and performers of the series. The sketch appears on the DVD of At Last the 1948 Show. Footage of Brooke-Taylor and Cleese from At Last the 1948 Show was shown on the documentary special Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyers Cut). The sketch has since become known for its satirical depiction of Britain's class system and North-South divide.
Brooke-Taylor took part in David Frost's pilot programme How to Irritate People in 1968, designed to sell what would later be recognised as the Monty Python style of comedy to the American market. Many of the sketches were later revived in the Monty Python TV series, such as the job interview sketch in which Brooke-Taylor played a nervous interviewee tormented by interviewer John Cleese. The programme was the first collaboration between Cleese and Michael Palin. One of the sketches referred to Cleese's character dating a promiscuous woman named "Christine Wheadon", which was the name of Brooke-Taylor's wife.
Also in 1968, Brooke-Taylor made an unexpected and uninvited guest appearance in an episode of Do Not Adjust Your Set, filling in for Michael Palin who was ill that week. The episode he was in still survives and has been included in DVD compilation sets.
Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews
Brooke-Taylor was elected Lord Rector by the students of the University of St Andrews and held office between 1979 and 1982. In this role he represented the students, chaired the University Court and presided over the General Council in the absence of the Chancellor. At his installation he arrived by helicopter, rode a motorbike and was hauled in an open carriage as part of The Drag. His installation speech included a mother-in-law joke in Latin and a suggestion his successor should be a woman; he was succeeded by Katherine Whitehorn who was elected unopposed as the university's first female rector in 1982. Brooke-Taylor is remembered as an effective Rector who visited the town frequently, took the role seriously, wore a Saltire waistcoat while there and is said to have remarked that St Andrews was "the happiest university" he had been to.
Personal life and death
Brooke-Taylor married Christine Wheadon in 1968 and they had two sons. He lived in Cookham Dean, Berkshire and was involved in local events. A keen golfer, he was a member of Temple Golf Club. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to light entertainment.
Brooke-Taylor died of complications from COVID-19 on 12 April 2020, aged 79, in Cookham, Berkshire. In tribute to Brooke-Taylor, the flag of his alma mater, Pembroke College, Cambridge, was lowered to half-mast the following day.
