Bill Wallis

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Bill Wallis

Born	1937 Farnham

Bill Wallis (born 1937 in Farnham, Surrey, England) is a British actor and comedian who has appeared in numerous radio and television roles, as well as the theatre.

Born at Farnham in Surrey, he attended Farnham Grammar School from 1948 to 1955. He gained a State Scholarship and went to Cambridge University where he met Peter Cook and the Beyond the Fringe team. When Cook and the team took the show to Broadway, he took over the roles played by Alan Bennett.

Some of his most frequent appearances have been on BBC Radio 4 for The Afternoon Play and the Classic Serial, but he was also in the cast of the long-running sketch show Week Ending, and in the first episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, originating the roles of Mr. Prosser and Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. He reprised the latter in the second episode and in one episode of the second series.

Wallis has appeared in a number of television programmes including Chelmsford 123, ITV's production of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, the first series of Blackadder (drunken knight), Blackadder II (Ploppy (the gaoler) son of Ploppy (the slopper), Blackadder Goes Forth (Agent Brigadier Smith) and Yes, Prime Minister. He also appeared briefly in the first episode of ITV's Midsommer Murders, apparently driving a Morgan sports car. In fact this was pushed by other cast members, as he does not hold a driving licence. He appeared in Not Only, But Also with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, alongside comedy stalwarts John Wells and Joe Melia, singing the comic song "Alan a' Dale," which students of the absurdist strand of British humour such as Monty Python will recognize.