Richard Murdoch

Born: 1907-04-06

Richard Bernard Murdoch was educated at Charterhouse School in Surrey, and Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Whilst at university he participated in the Footlights Dramatic Club's performances. Murdoch's first appearance in cinema was as an uncredited dancing extra in 1932 film Looking on the Bright Side. In 1937 he was listed among the cast of the "Television Follies", an early BBC Television programme. He received his big professional break in the British Broadcasting Corporation's comedy radio programme Band Waggon in 1938 as part of a double act with the then rising star Arthur Askey, acquiring the nickname "Stinker" in mocking reference to his superior formal education. As Askey moved from radio performing into cinema at the end of the 1930s Murdoch went with him and they appeared in a number of Askey star vehicle films together, Murdoch's tall athletic physique, good looks and upper middle class English Home Counties demeanor contrasting comedically with Askey's short stature, homely appearance, Lancashire provincial accent and working class performance persona. Their working partnership broke up during World War 2 when Murdoch joined the Armed Forces, but they briefly reprised it in the late 1950s for the television series Living It Up. Murdoch was conscripted into the Royal Air Force in 1941, serving as a junior intelligence officer with 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 Kenneth Horne, being responsible for the supply of aircraft and air equipment to Russia. He finished the war with the rank of Squadron Leader.


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Band Waggon

as Stinker Murdoch
Released: 1940-03-23

A gang of spies held up in a haunted castle gives this team of celebrated British wireless...

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The Magic Box

as Sitter in Bath Studio
Released: 1952-01-01

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As...

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The Ghost Train

as Teddy Deakin
Released: 1941-05-05

Mismatched travellers are stranded overnight at a lonely rural railway station. They soon learn...

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Lilli Marlene

as Flight Lieutenant Murdoch / Capt. Wimpole
Released: 1950-12-08

Lilli Marlene, a French girl working as a bar maid in her uncle's café in Benghazi, Libya, turns...

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Whoops Apocalypse

as Cabinet Minister
Released: 1986-05-06

When a small British owned island in the Caribbean is invaded and the world's most dangerous...

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The Terror

as Detective Lewis
Released: 1938-05-02

For ten years, The Terror has laughed at both police and public. And for ten years, two of his...

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Golden Arrow

as David Felton
Released: 1949-12-31

On a journey from Paris to London, a Briton, a Frenchman and an American bond with each other...

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Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt

as 'Stinker' Burton
Released: 1940-08-31

Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde starring...

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Over She Goes

as Sergeant Oliver
Released: 1937-08-16

Plot and counter-plot jostle each other in this romantic comedy about a music-hall star who...

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I Thank You

as Stinker
Released: 1941-10-20

Classic comedy starring Arthur Askey. The perils, humiliations and humour of trying to run a...

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One Exciting Night

as Illusionist
Released: 1944-12-04

A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be...

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Under the Table You Must Go

as Self
Released: 1970-01-02

A trip around the clubs, pubs and discotheques in London, England.

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Looking on the Bright Side

as Dancer (uncredited)
Released: 1932-03-14

Gracie Fields' second film Looking on the Bright Side was a smash hit film of 1932. It contains...

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The Professionals

as Sir Alan Sternfield
First aired: 1977-12-30

The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their...

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Rumpole of the Bailey

as uncredited
First aired: 1975-12-17

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer...

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The New Avengers

as uncredited
First aired: 1976-10-22

The New Avengers is a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series broadcast during...

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Blackadder

as Ross, a Lord
First aired: 1983-06-15

Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders...

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The Moomins

as Narrator
First aired: 1978-11-19

A stop motion animated children's television series based on Tove Jansson's book series.

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