30 Facts About Tim Brooke-Taylor

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE was an English actor and comedian.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was best known as a member of The Goodies.

Tim Brooke-Taylor became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president of the Footlights, touring internationally with its revue in 1964.

Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared as an actor in various sitcoms and was a panellist on BBC Radio's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for almost 50 years.

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor was born on 17 July 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, son of Edward Brooke-Taylor, a solicitor and games teacher and international lacrosse player and Rachel, daughter of Francis Pawson, a parson who played centre forward for the English football team in the 1880s.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was expelled from primary school at the early age of five and a half.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was active in the Pembroke College drama society, the Pembroke Players.

Tim Brooke-Taylor moved swiftly into BBC Radio with the fast-paced comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again which he performed in and co-wrote.

Tim Brooke-Taylor played a reactionary City gent who believed he was the soul of tolerance.

Tim Brooke-Taylor took part in David Frost's pilot programme How to Irritate People in 1968, designed to sell what would later be recognised as the Monty Python style of comedy to the American market.

Many of the sketches were later revived in the Monty Python TV series, such as the job interview sketch in which Tim Brooke-Taylor played a nervous interviewee tormented by interviewer John Cleese.

Also in 1968, Tim Brooke-Taylor made an unexpected and uninvited guest appearance in an episode of Do Not Adjust Your Set, filling in for Michael Palin who was ill that week.

At around the same time, Brooke-Taylor made two series of Broaden Your Mind with Garden.

Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared on television in British sitcoms, including You Must Be the Husband with Diane Keen, His and Hers with Madeline Smith and Me and My Girl with Richard O'Sullivan.

Tim Brooke-Taylor starred in the Radio 4 comedy series Tell Me Where It Hurts in 1979.

Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared regularly in advertisements, including the Christmas commercials for the Brentford Nylons chain of fabric stores and in a public information film for the now-defunct E111 form, since replaced by the European Health Insurance Card.

Tim Brooke-Taylor lent his voice to the children's TV series Gideon.

On 18 February 1981, Tim Brooke-Taylor, was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life.

In 1998, Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared as a guest in one episode of the political satire game show If I Ruled the World.

Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared on stage in Australia and England, usually as a middle class Englishman.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was the author of several humorous books, based mainly on his radio and television work, and the sports of golf and cricket.

In 2008, Tim Brooke-Taylor was heard in the Doctor Who audio story The Zygon Who Fell To Earth, made by Big Finish Productions.

Paul McGann played the Eighth Doctor and Tim Brooke-Taylor played the part of Mims, a Zygon taking the shape of a human.

Tim Brooke-Taylor made his final public appearance when he attended the Bristol slapstick festival in January 2020,3 months before his death.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was elected Lord Rector by the students of the University of St Andrews and held office between 1979 and 1982.

Tim Brooke-Taylor is remembered as an effective Rector who visited the town frequently, took the role seriously, wore a Saltire waistcoat while there and is said to have remarked that St Andrews was "the happiest university" he had been to.

Tim Brooke-Taylor married Christine Wheadon in 1968 and they had two sons, Benjamin and Edward.

Tim Brooke-Taylor lived in Cookham Dean, Berkshire and was involved in local events.

Tim Brooke-Taylor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to light entertainment.

Tim Brooke-Taylor died of complications from COVID-19 on 12 April 2020, aged 79, in Cookham, Berkshire.