Bill Maynard

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Walter Frederick George Williams (born 8 October 1928), more commonly known as Bill Maynard is a British comedian and actor who played Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the television series Heartbeat and its spin-off series The Royal, and earlier Fred Moffatt in the underrated The Gaffer. Before that he was best known for his role as Selwyn Froggitt in the sitcom Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!. Prior to that he was teamed with Terry Scott in the series Great Scott, It's Maynard!. He took his professional surname from an advertising board (also known as a bill board) for Maynard's Fruit Gums, a popular British confectionery product.

In the 1980s Maynard stood against Anthony Wedgewood-Benn in a by-election at Chesterfield as an Independent Labour candidate. It was his only foray into politics and was purely to try to prevent Benn winning the seat and thus re-entering Parliament as an MP. Benn won the seat.

Having retired from acting in 2000, following a series of strokes, Maynard made a return to radio presenting in March 2003 for BBC Radio Leicester, where he had last worked in 1968.

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