Philip Madoc, who has died aged 77, was a fine Welsh actor and played a Mohican warrior, Trotsky, King Lear and Lloyd George, but will be best remembered for appearing in 1973 as a U-boat captain in a celebrated episode of Dad’s Army.
The episode features the men under the command of Captain Mainwaring guarding a captured U-boat crew led by Madoc, who proceeds to make detailed notes of their treatment.
U-Boat Captain: “I am making notes, captain, and your name will go on ze list. And when we win the war, you will be brought to account.”
Mainwaring: “Write what you like, you’re not going to win the war.”
U-Boat Captain: “Oh yes we are.”
Mainwaring: “Oh no you’re not.”
U-Boat Captain: Oh yes we are.”
Pike (sings): “Whistle while you work, Hitler is a twerp, He’s half barmy, so’s his army, whistle while you ...”
U-Boat Captain: “Your name will also go on ze list. What is it?”
Mainwaring: “Don’t tell him, Pike!”
The reason for this particular scene being enshrined as a classic of British comedy remained a mystery to Madoc , but decades later it was still coming back to haunt him. A keen traveller, he was on holiday in the middle of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia 25 years after the first broadcast when a man tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he was Philip Madoc. “When I answered 'Yes’, he looked delighted and said 'I knew it was you. I loved you in that Dad’s Army episode.’ I never thought it would come up in Mongolia.”
Madoc’s range as an actor was far more extensive than this incident would suggest. When once asked by a journalist why he had entered the profession, Madoc’s eyes misted over : “Prospero’s final speech in The Tempest and the chance of doing it properly is the reason I became an actor. You put up with all the hassle which accompanies this business – the disappointments, the insecurity, the frustrations – for speeches and roles like that.”
Philip Madoc was born at Merthyr Tydfil on July 5 1934 and was intensely proud of his name, explaining: “It comes from Madog, meaning 'man of bravery.’” He showed an early aptitude as a linguist at Cyfarthfa High School, Merthyr Tydfil, and went on to study Languages at the University of Wales before enrolling at the University of Vienna, where he became the first foreigner to win the Diploma of the Interpreters Institute. He ended up speaking seven languages, including Russian and Swedish, and had a working knowledge of Huron Indian, Hindi and Mandarin.
Having embarked on a career as an interpreter, he found the work soul-destroying: “I did dry-as-dust jobs like a sewing machine conference and political interpreting. You get to despise politicians when you have to translate the rubbish they spout.”
He was offered a job lecturing at Gothenburg University, but decided on a change of course and applied successfully for a scholarship at Rada.
Madoc went on to take many leading stage roles, among them as Iago in Othello; Antony in Antony and Cleopatra; George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; the Duke in Measure for Measure; Macbeth; Shylock; and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
On television he played Magua in the BBC series The Last of the Mohicans, and won particular acclaim in the title role of the BBC drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. “I really wanted to play Lloyd George,” he said. “I didn’t grow up thinking of him as a hero, but since I have done research for the part I understand how his sexual prowess over women gave him the confidence to hold power. I read everything ever written about him. I’ve become a Lloyd George authority.”
In the 1990s he starred as DCI Noel Bain in four series of A Mind to Kill, which was particularly successful in the United States, where it was favourably compared to Morse. Each scene of the series was filmed first in Welsh, then in English, prompting Madoc to muse that identical lines and characters were often transformed by the different languages.
His many other television appearances included The Avengers; The Saint; Poldark; Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased); The Goodies; Dr Who; Porridge; and Fortunes of War.
On the big screen, Madoc featured in, among others, Zina; The Quiller Memorandum; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; and Operation Daybreak.
With his sonorous voice, Madoc was particularly prolific in audio, recording the works of Dylan Thomas; Morte d’Arthur; Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Canterbury Tales; and many others. For BBC Radio he played King Lear, and Prospero in The Tempest; recently he had portrayed Stalin in Life and Fate.
For recreation, Madoc enjoyed wind surfing, squash and ballroom dancing. He was a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Philip Madoc’s first wife, with whom he had a son and a daughter, was the actress Ruth Madoc, famous for her starring role in the television series Hi-de-Hi!. The marriage was dissolved, and he was also divorced from his second wife, Diane. He is survived by his two children.
Philip Madoc, born July 5 1934, died March 5 2012
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