Welsh actor Philip Madoc dies, aged 77

Welsh actor Philip Madoc dies, aged 77
Welsh actor Philip Madoc dies, aged 77 (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Welsh actor Philip Madoc has died aged 77, his agent said. Philip, who played the title role in BBC drama The Life And Times Of David Lloyd George, also appeared in shows including Doctor Who and The Last Of The Mohicans. His agent Michael Hallet said: "He passed away in hospital in Hertfordshire this morning after a short illness with his family around him. "He will be hugely missed by everybody." Philip played a captured U-boat captain in an episode of Dad's Army in which he asked the names of his captors, prompting a furious Captain Mainwaring to shout the famous line "Don't tell him Pike!" The Merthyr Tydfil-born actor gained a reputation for playing villains, but insisted he did not mind. He said in one interview: "Certainly initially I rarely played heroes because there was still this tradition that heroes were six foot tall. Certainly if you had a voice that wasn't high and dark eyes then there was a feeling that you were set out to play the villains of this world. "I didn't ever argue with that, because they were more or less the best parts." The actor, who was divorced from Hi-de-Hi star Ruth Madoc, leaves two children and several grandchildren.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.