‘Thanks for all the laughs’ – actor and teacher dies

IT Ain’t Half Hot Mum actor Windsor Davies – who taught at a Moorlands School in the 1950s – has died at the age of 88.

His daughter Jane said that the comedy star, who topped the pop charts with Whispering Grass, alongside Don Estelle in 1975, died peacefully on January 17.

She said in a statement: “His wife of 62 years, Eluned, passed away in September.

“They leave a large and very close family who will all remember them with love, laughter and gratitude.”

In the 1950s he taught at Mountside School for Boys in Leek – now Leek High School.

He played Battery Sergeant-major ‘Shut Up’ Williams from 1974 to 1981 in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

In 1975 he had a surprise number one hit with his sitcom co-star, which was one of the biggest selling duets of all time on the UK charts.

He also appeared in Ring Out An Alibi, The New Statesman, Terrahawks and Never The Twain, as well as in the films Carry On England and Carry On Behind.

His most recent credited appearance was in an episode of My Family in 2004.

Producer Jonathan Sothcott wrote: “RIP that wonderful comedy actor Windsor Davies: unforgettable in 70s sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and the lead in two of the later Carry Ons.

“Impeccable comic timing. Just his voice made me smile. Thanks for all the laughs.”