Tim Brooke-Taylor

Brooke-Taylor is the grandson of a parson who played centre-forward for England's football team in the 1890s. His mother was an international lacrosse player and his father a solicitor. Despite an expulsion from school at the early age of five and a half years, Tim studied at Winchester School and Cambridge University. There he read Economics and Law and mixed with other budding comedians in the famous Footlights Club. He served that drama club as President in 1963 moving swiftly into BBC Radio with the fast-paced comedy show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read that Again" in which he performed and co-wrote. As the screeching eccentric Lady Constance de Coverlet, he could be relied upon to generate the loudest audience response of many programmes in this long-running series merely with her unlikely catchphrase "did somebody call?" uttered after a comic and transparent feed-line, as their adventure story reached its climax or cliffhanger ending.

Other BBC radio programmes in which Tim played a part include On the Braden Beat with Canadian Bernard Braden[?], and the continuing bizarre parody panel "game" I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Television shows included At Last the 1948 Show with John Cleese, Marty with Marty Feldman and Broaden Your Mind with Graeme Garden. He remains a well-spoken, instantly recognisable, radio and stage actor and has appeared on stage in Australia and England, usually as a middle-class Englishman. Around 1982, he branched-out into pantomime as the Dame in Dick Whittington. He has also written some books.

He has served Saint Andrew's University[?] as Rector and is an honorary Vice-President of Derby City Football Club.