Derek Fowlds | Mastermind

The other night I was trying to decide who to write about for this week's article. There are so many fine British TV personalities to choose from it gets a bit daunting at times. Being a first class procrastinator I decided to postpone my decision for ninety minutes or so until after I'd watched the cheesy '70's horror flick that I'd rented earlier in the day. Without further ado I popped "Tower of Evil" (AKA The Horror of Snape Island, an equally daft title) into my trusty, and increasingly indispensable, DVD player and prepared for the worst. I was, however, pleasantly surprised not once but twice.

First off "Tower of Evil", a very low budget British horror film from 1972, despite suffering from shoddy sets, wooden acting, an almost silly amount of gratuitous nudity and universally bad reviews, I actually kind of liked it. Of course I am a die hard Brit-Horror fan (all praises to Hammer and Amicus!) so your mileage may vary. The second pleasant surprise, and the subject of this week's brief biographical sketch, was finding Derek Fowlds was one of the film's stars, playing one of a team of archeologists who are stranded on desolate Snape Island and being stalked by a mad murderous beast. His performance is actually slightly less wooden then that of most of his co-stars and fortunately for all involved he never has to get his kit off.

Derek Fowlds was born in London in 1937, and as was, and still often is, typical his path to the large and small screen was through the stage. Fowds studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and appeared in  a number of  films throughout the '60's including "Doctor In Distress" and "Frankenstein Created Woman" as well as 1968's cult telly favorite "The Year of the Sex Olympics". Derek's big break came when he teamed up with children's television icon Basil Brush (a fox puppet for those not in the know). For many playing straight man to a rambunctious puppet might be the height, if not end, of a career but not so for Fowlds, soon he would rise high above his escapades on Snape Island and on kid's telly when, in 1980,  Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay cast him in there new political sit-com "Yes Minister." Virtually overnight Fowlds and his co-stars; Paul Eddington (Good Life, Let There be Love) and Nigel Hawthorne (Madness of King George, Barchester Chronicles) , became household names, or at least their characters names did. Fowlds was officially the number three man in the series behind Eddington's Jim Hacker and Hawthorn's Sir. Humphrey Appleby, but

Go To Page: 1 2